Chamber and committees

While a diagnosis can be important for some people and their wellbeing, in line with GIRFEC, GIRFE and our National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People, the Scottish Government’s priority is ensuring people receive the right support, at the right time, based on their needs - and not be required to wait for a diagnosis to access help.

In 2025-26, we provided over £2.9 million additional funding to a number of organisations and projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people. We also continue to invest in community support through our £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund.

Knife dealer licensing is a licensing scheme which allows for the sale of relevant weapons whilst helping minimise risks to public safety. It is a criminal offence for a person to sell the types of weapons covered by the licensing scheme without a licence.

Knife dealer licensing applies to any retailer including any online retailer based in Scotland. The licensing scheme requires a licence to sell certain weapons. These weapons are:

• All knives other than folding pocket knives whose blades do not exceed 3.5 inches (8.91 centimetres) in length and knives designed for domestic use;
• All daggers other than kirpans or skean dhus whose blades do not exceed 3.5 inches (8.91 centimetres) in length;
• All knife blades other than those designed for domestic use;
• All swords
• Any other article which has a blade or which is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person.

Knife dealer licensing is operated by local authorities in Scotland. The issuing of a licence includes background checks on the person seeking the licence. Conditions will attach to a licence including keeping written records of transactions for three years, records kept can be at any reasonable time looked at by the police on request and – for physical retail locations - no display of articles visible from the street or public entrance and signage indicating age laws that apply. These requirements apply in addition to other more general offensive weapon laws that apply such as restrictions on the age of purchasers.

The membership list for the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce was published on gov.scot website in February 2026 and can be found here Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot.

There are already extensive permitted development rights for mobile telecommunications infrastructure. These facilitate the deployment of such infrastructure across Scotland without the need for a planning application. The permitted development rights were significantly extended in 2020 following public consultation.

There are no specific plans to further amend the existing permitted development rights at the current time. However, the Scottish Government is engaging with stakeholders to explore how the planning system can act as an enabler of economic growth and investment. This engagement will inform the scope of this Government’s planning reform programme

The Scottish Government welcomes the Scottish Land Commission’s report Learning from international cadastral systems for transparency, tax, and valuation, which provides a comparative analysis of cadastral and land information systems for land taxation purposes in Scotland, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia and Belgium.

The Scottish Government will continue to consider relevant evidence, including the findings of this report, as part of its ongoing consideration of tax policy

The Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce considered miscarriage services at its meetings on 26 February and 25 March. The minutes of the Taskforce have been published on the Scottish Government website (Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot)

Ministers are currently considering the role and remit of the Taskforce and how it works alongside the independent review of maternity services which commences in September 2026.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting high standards of animal health and welfare and to ensuring that regulatory systems operate in a transparent and proportionate manner. Any decisions on the routine publication of inspection reports must balance transparency with legal obligations, including the protection of personal data and commercially sensitive information.

Scottish Government officials engage regularly with APHA on animal health and welfare matters. However, The Scottish Government has no plans to request that the Animal and Plant Health Agency or the UK Government routinely publish fish welfare inspection reports.

CAMHS is a specialist service for children and young people with acute mental health needs, and referrals are based on clinical judgement.

Our CAMHS Service specification, published in 2020, highlights that all children and young people should receive support that is appropriate to their individual needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible.

Sustained improvements in CAMHS performance mean that the national 18-week standard has been met for over a year. 91% of children and young people start treatment within 18 weeks of referral, with one in two beginning treatment within six weeks.

We are working with Health Boards to ensure that there is compliance with the specification and that they are delivering timely access to appropriate support for children, young people and their families.

Under the Marriage (Scotland)Act 1977 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004, there are a number of different systems for religious or belief celebrants to be approved to solemnise marriage or register civil partnership. At the moment, Independent Humanist Ceremonies(IHC) nominate persons to the Registrar General to be registered as celebrants under section 9 of the 1977 Act.

Scotland’s wool industry is an important part of our wider agricultural sector. I know that Scotland benefits from the work of the British Wool Board which works to maximise the value of wool on behalf of its members. Given British Wool works in Scotland, managing the collection, grading, promotion and sale of fleece wool to the global textile industry, I expect that they would lead on any wool strategy.

The recently introduced Scottish Wool Certification Logo gives brands and consumers a clear way to identify products made entirely from Scottish-sourced wool and is an example of where British Wool can take the lead.