- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2026, which companies have been excluded from a public procurement exercise on the basis of their involvement in the procurement of assets from illegal settlements.
Answer
Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2026 sets out the options available to public sector buyers in relation to bidders which may be engaged in grave professional misconduct, including human rights violations. Companies cannot be pre-emptively excluded from procurement exercises, this can only occur when a company has requested to participate or has submitted a tender.
Procurement legislation is intended to ensure not only that contracting authorities are able to exclude unsuitable bidders, but that such companies are discouraged from bidding in the first place.
The Scottish Government has not excluded any companies on the basis of their involvement in the exploitation of assets from illegal settlements.
We do not hold information on whether other contracting authorities have excluded bidders on this basis. It is for each autonomous contracting authority to ensure that it complies with its own procurement policies and associated legal obligations. Decisions about whether to exclude a bidder from any given procurement process must be made on a case-by-case basis, and it is for the contracting authority concerned to carry out this process.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2026, how many times legal advice has been sought to determine the legality of excluding a bidder from a procurement process on the basis that the goods or produce supplied by that bidder were produced in illegal settlements.
Answer
The Scottish Government receives legal advice on many different matters on an ongoing basis, as appropriate. All legal advice is confidential and it is a very long-established convention that legal advice provided to the Scottish Government is not disclosed.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2026, how many contracts have been awarded via public procurement to companies listed in the UN database of companies engaged in listed activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), since October 2024.
Answer
Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) is Scotland’s national procurement portal for public sector contracting opportunities. All regulated contracts must be advertised on PCS and award notices must be recorded on the site. It also holds data on contracts voluntarily recorded by contracting authorities across Scotland.
A search of PCS data indicates that, since October 2024, no public procurement contracts recorded on PCS have been awarded to a company listed in the UN database of companies engaged in listed activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The search was based on matching the company names recorded on PCS with those appearing exactly as listed in the UN database.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Stephen Gethins on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the closure of the Emergency Heating Oil scheme on 30 September 2026, what support it will make available to households that currently rely on heating oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to retrofit their homes and transition to low-carbon and renewable heating systems.
Answer
All households in Scotland can access free, bespoke and impartial advice on energy efficiency and clean heating systems for their homes through the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland advice service, administered by Energy Saving Trust. Through this service, owner-occupiers in Scotland can apply to the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme for funding support to install renewable heating systems, including a grant of up to £7,500 and an optional interest-free loan. Households in remote rural and island communities can receive an enhanced grant of up to £9,000. In addition, for those who meet the eligibility criteria, households can benefit from retrofit measures, including heating, installed through Warmer Homes Scotland, the Scottish Government’s national fuel poverty scheme; our local council led Area Based Schemes and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will establish a public portal for the nomination of potential opportunities to unlock and accelerate affordable housing delivery on vacant and derelict land and in empty town and city centre buildings.
Answer
There are no plans to establish a public portal for the nomination of potential opportunities to unlock and accelerate affordable housing delivery on vacant and derelict land and in empty town and city centre buildings.
The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local authorities and communities to tackle persistent vacant and derelict land and empty town and city centre buildings.
This is supported through our regeneration investment programmes which are providing up to £52 million in resource and capital programmes for community-led regeneration across Scotland in 2026/27. This may be used to transform vacant and derelict land and empty buildings into homes. Local authorities may also choose to use Affordable Housing Supply Programme grant to convert empty properties into housing.
Additionally as part of ongoing work to support the establishment of More Homes Scotland, we are undertaking an exercise alongside local authorities to understand potential opportunities to unlock and accelerate affordable housing delivery on vacant and derelict land and in empty town and city centre buildings.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to repurposing vacant listed buildings into housing.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local authorities and communities to tackle persistent vacant and empty town and city centre buildings.
Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local housing development and local regeneration. They are best placed to develop the right partnerships to deliver regeneration and to identify suitable sites and funding for regeneration activity.
This is supported through our regeneration investment programmes which are providing up to £52 million in resource and capital programmes for community-led regeneration across Scotland in 2026-27. This may be used to transform vacant empty buildings into homes. For example, previous investment is supporting the reuse of the B-listed Tureen Street School in Glasgow. This is a derelict, B-listed building will be repurposed, retaining the façade and renovating the site to build 42 new homes for social rent.
Local authorities may also choose to use Affordable Housing Supply Programme grant to convert empty properties into housing.
Additionally as part of ongoing work to support the establishment of More Homes Scotland, we are undertaking an exercise alongside local authorities to understand potential opportunities to unlock and accelerate affordable housing delivery on vacant and derelict land and in empty town and city centre buildings.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to empower communities to engage in basic flood protection and flood preparedness activities.
Answer
The National Flood Resilience Strategy focuses on building community flood resilience and resilient placemaking, by putting people at the heart of the process and supporting an increase in the range and rate of delivery of actions both to manage our flood exposure and reduce the impacts of flooding when it does occur.
The Scottish Government supports the Scottish Flood Forum to deliver practical action for individuals and communities at risk of flooding across Scotland. It helps people understand their flood risk and prepare for flood events, which includes supporting new local flood resilience groups to form, and then provide training and build capacity. We also fund SEPA's Scottish Flood Forecasting and Warning Service, which provides vital warning information to communities at risk of flooding. Following research we commissioned to design a Household Flood plan, we are working with stakeholders to develop and roll that out to raise awareness of flood risk and promote improved preparedness.
In addition to the £42m of the local government General Capital Grant allocated to flood resilience activity in communities, we have also committed £15m to improve the resilience of communities across Scotland most at risk from flooding.
- Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 August 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the “ask and act” homelessness prevention pilot programme.
Answer
The ask and act homelessness prevention pilot programme, which awarded funding in November 2025 to fifteen consortia made up of a range of named relevant bodies across sectors including health and justice, runs until end December 2026. We have commissioned external research on the outcomes of the pilots, which will report in the summer next year. Advice Direct Scotland, the organisation that manages the pilots, publishes quarterly progress reports on its website: Advice Direct Scotland - User Portal - Quarterly Reports. The latest report, published on 1 September, notes that most pilots are now routinely embedding prevention approaches in their work.
- Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work with partners regarding the delivery of the Capercaillie Emergency Plan 2025-2030.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2026
- Asked by: Julie MacDougall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Reform UK
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will assess the potential economic impact on Scotland's labour market of recent updates to the UK Register of licensed sponsors.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2026
