Chamber and committees

The deployment of resources is a matter for the Chief Constable based on operational priorities. This is also very clearly set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

The consideration to use data acquired by Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology in combination with facial recognition and other biometric technologies would be an operational matter for Police Scotland, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government is continuing to consider the issues raised in the last session of the Parliament about the offence introduced by section 40 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and related matters.

The Scottish Government has received clear and unambiguous assurance that the voluntary run parental group, Queer Milk, is not training men to lactate and feed infants. Any claim to the contrary is untrue.

Queer Milk is a small, volunteer-led peer-support group for LGBTQ+ parents and carers. The group forms part of LGBT Health and Wellbeing's wider community wellbeing programme, which aims to reduce social isolation, support mental wellbeing, and provide opportunities for peer connection. The Scottish Government does not directly fund Queer Milk.

It is important to be clear that Queer Milk is not a clinical service. The group does not prescribe medication, induce lactation, provide medical treatment, offer clinical advice on infant feeding, train individuals to breastfeed or replace professional healthcare services.

Any media reports, organisations or individuals claiming the contrary is false.

The Scottish Government’s land LiDAR programme is currently in progress and will provide the first full national land LiDAR dataset for Scotland. A number of research projects have been commissioned and are currently in progress that are making use of the new LiDAR data for the purposes of vegetation mapping and wildfire risk assessment.

A project funded via the Scottish Government’s Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) research programme and led by Forest Research is developing methodologies to map vegetation structure and biomass in forests, hedgerows and trees outside woodlands using LiDAR data. A fellowship is also underway with the University of Edinburgh that is exploring how LiDAR data can be used to estimate fuel loads to better inform wildfire risk assessment.

The procurement route will be considered as part of the finalised Outline Business Case.

On 17 March, the Scottish Government published the guidance for Local Services Franchises on the Transport Scotland website, which is intended to provide technical support to all local authorities, including Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in developing their franchising proposals. On 12 June 2026, the SPT Strategy and Programmes Committee approved an award of contract for services to undertake a Franchising Assessment.

We recognise that SPT is the only local transport authority in Scotland who has officially announced its intentions to pursue bus franchising, following the publication of its Regional Bus Strategy in September 2025. To support local transport authorities financially we are committed to investing £4 million in 2026-27 to support Local Transport Authorities to build business cases for local bus improvement through franchising.

The Scottish Government also provides revenue grant funding to support RTPs’ core operating costs and statutory functions, alongside contributions from constituent councils. In 2026/27, we awarded £3.468 million in revenue funding across all 7 RTPs, which included £617,025 to SPT. Decisions on the allocations of Scottish Government funding in future years is subject to the annual Budget Bill process.

The future of the Mackintosh building is of great importance to the Scottish Government and to me as Culture Secretary.

Following conclusion of a long running insurance matter, I met with the Glasgow School of Art to discuss their plans to invest in a significant enabling project, funded by an insurance settlement, and provide a platform for future rebuilding.

The clear preference of the Scottish Government is for the building to be faithfully reinstated, and we have welcomed the Glasgow School of Art’s commitment to exploring every opportunity with the support of partners for a faithful reinstatement. While the Glasgow School of Art are owners and custodians of the building, the Scottish Government will continue to engage closely with them on their plans. No request for public funding has been made, however we will work with the Glasgow School of Art and other partners to secure a prosperous future for the Mackintosh building.

The Scottish Government does not intend to commission research to compare vegetation and fuel loads across Scotland during the drought and wildfires of 2026 with those recorded during the drought of 1976, including through the use of LiDAR data, satellite imagery and historic land-management records.

It is unlikely that there are sufficient detailed datasets available for either year to support meaningful comparisons. Consequently, it would not possible to undertake a robust assessment or draw reliable conclusions based on the data available.

The water and sewerage charges exemption scheme is funded by the general non-household customer base through an uplift in their water and sewerage charges. To ensure that the scheme does not result in unfair competition with the small businesses who are part of funding the scheme, charities operating a retail outlet, such as a café or charity shop, are not eligible.

The Principles which apply to charges, including the terms of the exemption scheme, have been set for the 2021-27 period and there is no ability to deviate from the criteria within this period. Following a public consultation in January 2026, the terms of the exemption scheme for 2027-33 will be confirmed when Ministers publish the Principles of Charging this Autumn.

Launched in 2022, the Just Transition Fund (JTF) is a 10-year commitment focused on creating new jobs and economic opportunities as the North East and Moray transitions away from carbon-intensive industries.

Scottish Government has an established reporting process which is used to monitor progress on each project during delivery. We also undertake regular independent impact evaluation to ensure that impacts of the Fund are well understood, and that the projects deliver as much impact as possible.

A fresh independent impact evaluation of the first four years of delivery of the JTF is being commissioned currently, and we intend to publish findings in early 2027. This will provide a comprehensive view of the jobs created, investment leveraged and wider impacts of the Fund. Importantly, it will also estimate the forward impact of these projects as they mature and continue to deliver and provide an estimate of the impact of the newly announced projects for 26/27. Some projects have their own independent evaluation, such as the ETZ Supply Chain Pathway and Challenge Fund Programme which has recently reported that their project alone directly led to the creation of 267 FTE jobs between 2022 – 2026, with the report estimating it would create 786 FTE jobs over a 10 year period. See here.