Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has established arrangements to respond to and manage confirmed cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), working with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and other relevant partners. These arrangements include epidemiological investigation, movement restrictions where required, tracing of offspring and cohort animals, and the implementation of statutory disease control measures.

These arrangements are activated following confirmation of a BSE case through the statutory surveillance and testing regime. Following confirmation of the recent case in Dumfries and Galloway, established control protocols were implemented and APHA commenced epidemiological investigations.

The Scottish Government remains in regular contact with the UK Government, APHA, FSS and industry representatives on animal health preparedness and disease response matters. Following confirmation of the recent case, officials engaged with relevant partners through established channels to support the implementation of the multi-agency response arrangements and to keep stakeholders informed as investigations progressed.

The affected animal did not enter the human food chain and FSS has confirmed that there is no risk to human health arising from this isolated case. The owners of the affected animals are continuing to work with the relevant authorities as epidemiological investigations progress and any necessary follow-up actions are taken.

The Retail Crime Taskforce was established following the launch of Police Scotland's action plan to tackle retail crime in March 2025. Operating under four key objectives – Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – the Taskforce focuses on stopping people from becoming offenders, bringing perpetrators to justice, strengthening protections for retailers, and developing direct reporting systems.

The Taskforce works alongside the Scottish Government in the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE), a Police Scotland-led initiative that brings together retail groups and partners to tackle a range of acquisitive crimes including theft and housebreaking. Scottish Government has committed funding of £3 million in 2026-27 and in each of the following two years to support this work.

The Scottish Government and industry partners receive updates on the progress of the retail crime taskforce. The most recent update in July 2026 provided a summary of the results delivered in the first year of the taskforce.

In total the RCTF recorded over 16,044 results across all KPI recorded activities in its first year of operation. This includes:

• 5,760 Shoplifting Charges/Detections
• 1,542 Intelligence Logs Submitted
• 648 Retail Worker Offence Charges
• 1,330 Arrests Made
• 3,151 Suspects Identified by RCTF
• 41 Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) Identified
• 268 Electronic Briefings Disseminated
• 128 Disruptions Against OCGs

Maree Todd: The Scottish Government published data on alcohol, tobacco and vape use among young people under the age of 18 in 2023 through the Health and Wellbeing Census 2021-22 and this can be found at:https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-and-wellbeing-census-scotland-2021-22/.

Since 2024, the Scottish Government has also funded an annual boost to the Scottish sample in the ASH Smokefree GB Youth Survey to support understanding of young people’s behaviours and attitudes towards smoking, vaping and other nicotine products. The latest report was published in August 2026 and can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/vaping-smoking-scottish-adolescents-results-ash-smokefree-gb-youth-survey-2026/pages/3/. The next wave of data collection is expected to take place in March 2027.

Separately Public Health Scotland commissions the 4-yearly Health Behaviours in School Age Children (HBSC) survey. The survey covers alcohol, tobacco and vape use among 11, 13 and 15-year-olds in Scotland. The latest published report, from 2022, can be found at:https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/healthwellbeing/research/mentalhealth/projects/healthbehaviourinschool-agedchildrenhbscscotlandstudy/. The next report, based on 2026 data, is expected to be published in 2027. The study has also produced a dedicated report on trends in young people’s substance use in Scotland, which can be found at:https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_1070957_smxx.pdf.

Every effort is made to ensure that young people and staff in schools are not over-burdened by research. This is achieved through a combination of national level surveys and locally driven data collection. There are no current plans to commission any additional data collection on these topics.

The Scottish Government does not conduct ghost gear retrieval activities and has no record of gear recovered by other organisations.

We fund KIMO’s Fishing for Litter initiative through our Marine Fund Scotland which supports fishers in bringing ashore and disposing of marine litter they catch at sea while conducting normal fishing activities. The waste brought in is mixed and includes old ghost gear.

Fishing for Litter waste since 2021

2021 – 195 tonnes

2022 – 139 tonnes

2023 – 185 tonnes

2024 – 214 tonnes

2025 – 176 tonnes

2026 – until 9 September 2026 – 79 tonnes

Decisions on the scheduling of individual criminal cases are a matter for the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. It is important that delays in the criminal justice system are minimised insofar as possible and statutory time limits exist to prevent unnecessary delays in criminal cases coming to trial and help the judiciary to effectively manage the progress of cases. This is particularly important in trials for offences of rape, serious sexual assault and domestic abuse where delays can impact on complainers.

Different time limits apply depending on whether an accused is in custody or in the community and prioritise cases where an accused person has been remanded in custody prior to trial, recognising the particularly importance of minimising the length of time which an accused person who has not been convicted of a criminal offence spends in custody prior to their trial.

Section 65(1) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) provides that in any case where an indictment has been served on a person, the trial must commence within 12 months. A stricter time limit applies where the accused has been remanded in custody prior to trial. Section 65(4) of the 1995 Act provides that where an accused has been remanded in custody prior to trial, the trial must commence within 140 days failing which the accused shall be released on bail. These time limits can all be extended by the court on a case-by-case basis. These time-limits apply to all cases and are not specific to rape or sexual offence cases.

An analysis report of the Consultation on Support for Part-Time Study and Disabled Students was published online on 12 March 2026 - https://www.gov.scot/publications/analysis-consultation-support-part-time-study-disabled-students/

The consultation provided valuable insights and identified clear areas where support is working well and is helping learners to study towards their goals. However it also highlighted that challenges and barriers remain for many learners in accessing the support they need.

The Scottish Government is considering the findings in more detail to understand the complexities of issues facing students and the sector. This includes the challenges felt by some Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) practitioners who wish to access the PTFG to study.

A progress update will issue in the Autumn.

Since 2023-24, as part of work to deliver the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has identified at least 300 online profiles advertising potentially illegal waste services and secured the closure of 81 profiles. Through this digital disruption activity, SEPA has also undertaken 136 direct interventions with unlicensed operators, issued 13 Information Notices and 7 Fixed Monetary Penalties, published 164 public deterrence posts, and received 11 waste carrier registration applications.

Comparable data is not held for earlier years, as this specific activity commenced in 2023-24. Annual information on the activity is included in the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy updates, available on the Scottish Government’s website.

SEPA’s assessment is that social media and online advertising platforms can provide unauthorised waste operators with a means of accessing customers. Its interventions have disrupted this activity, although there is evidence that some operators have moved into closed or private social media groups, making investigation more difficult. SEPA has also engaged with platforms, including Gumtree, to support the removal of adverts placed by unauthorised operators.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken a Scotland-wide assessment of this kind. However, as part of the Scottish Government’s consultation on Fisheries management measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) management areas, displacement has been assessed.

For the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA), a displacement test was undertaken for each MPA and regionally for the proposed PMF management areas. This considered the scale and value of fishing activity affected, the availability of alternative fishing grounds, vessel and gear characteristics, stakeholder evidence on the likely destination of displaced effort, and whether displaced activity could be accommodated elsewhere without significant environmental, economic or social impacts. The assessment considered a range of outcomes, including circumstances where displaced fishing effort could move to alternative fishing grounds and continue operating, and circumstances where it could not.

In parallel, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) assessed the environmental implications of displacement through a dedicated impact pathway examining the potential adverse effects arising from the displacement of fishing activity and the consequent intensification of activity in locations where fishing already occurs. The SEA considered four pathways:

• potential benefits to habitats and species within protected sites;
• potential spill-over benefits beyond site boundaries;
• potential adverse effects resulting from the displacement of fishing activity and the likely intensification of activity elsewhere; and
• potential adverse effects from increased fishing effort by other gear types not restricted by the measures.

The SEA concluded that, for the majority of sites and areas assessed, adverse environmental effects from displacement were assessed as none or negligible and that, overall, the proposed measures were expected to result in a beneficial effect on the Scottish marine environment.

The SEIA and SEA will be published as part of the consultation documentation.

Our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme takes a whole-systems approach to early detection and encompasses primary care, diagnostics, public education, data, innovation and screening.

Detect Cancer Earlier’s Be The Early Bird campaign launched in March 2023 aiming to reduce fear of cancer and empower those with possible symptoms to act early.

Our Get Checked Early website includes an interactive symptom checker including for genealogical symptoms.

In parallel to campaign activity, a DCE roadshow visits communities across Scotland to reinforce key messages – this has resulted in over 28,000 engagements with the target audience to date.

This has been supported by partnership activities throughout January and February 2026, targeting customers and staff at Iceland and Home Bargains. Partnership content with the Open Goal podcast was also streamed to extend the reach of DCE messaging.

The Scottish Government has not identified evidence of a sustained increase in the use of community-based treatment arrangements for restricted patients discharged from secure psychiatric facilities and has therefore made no assessment of the impact of such an increase on public safety. Data shows that, as at July each year, 78 restricted patients were on conditional discharge in 2024, 88 in 2025 and 83 in 2026.

Public safety considerations relating to community-based treatment arrangements for restricted patients are assessed and managed on an individual and ongoing basis throughout each patient’s care and treatment. Proposals for conditional discharge are informed by multidisciplinary assessment of the patient’s needs and the risk of harm to others.

Risk assessment and management take account of changes in the patient’s mental health, behaviour, circumstances and response to treatment. Restricted patients can only be conditionally discharged if the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland finds that detention in hospital is no longer necessary, with conditions imposed to support the patient’s safe management and supervision in the community.