Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is still in the process of developing its position on the keeping of exotic animals as pets. To ensure our position is balanced and informed by evidence, we continue to engage with relevant stakeholders and review available research, reports, and data, including reports produced by the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and Scotland's Rural College.

The use of antibiotics as growth promoters was banned in 1991 across the whole of the European Union. That ban has been in force continually since then, including in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Operational security concerns, including data breaches are a matter for the Chief Constable and the Information Commissioner, who are operationally independent of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre continues to monitor the incident and will engage with Police Scotland and any other Scottish Public Sector Body that may be affected if there are any developments.

S7W–02015, answered on 7 August 2026, sets the Scottish Government’s position on the regulation of fireworks.

The Scottish Government has engaged with the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission on mitigating against the impact of fireworks, including how the noise affects animals.

The Scottish Government will consider the UK government’s consultation on fireworks and pyrotechnics in the UK which covers reserved matters relating to fireworks and pyrotechnics regulation, including the noise of fireworks.

The statutory guidance for Local Authorities that supports Firework Control Zones, Firework control zones: guidance for local authorities - gov.scot incorporates a section relating to animal welfare matters, which should be considered. This includes evidence as to how animals are impacted by fireworks and references are provided within this guidance.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Heat in Buildings is allocated £302.5m capital in the 2026-27 Scottish Budget, which includes funding for Scotland’s Heat Network Fund. This budget provides flexibility across schemes, and spending via Scotland’s Heat Network Fund is dependent on there being demand from projects that meet essential criteria and represent good value for money.

Onshore wind is Scotland’s largest source of renewable electricity and will remain central to delivering net zero by 2045.

Building on our ambition for a minimum of 20GW by 2030, deployment beyond that point will be shaped by range of factors, many reserved to the UK Government. These factors including future route to market arrangements, network planning and connections reform, and the co-commissioned Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP).

The Scottish Government will continue to press the UK Government to take all steps necessary for Scotland’s onshore wind resource to be used to its full potential.

The use of stop and search is an operational matter for Police Scotland. Officers do an outstanding job to keep communities safe, as shown by the decrease in recorded crime of almost half since 1991 and by the significant progress that has been made in reducing violent crime over the long term.

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 provides the wider statutory framework for sustainable marine planning and management in Scotland. The allocation of fishing opportunities is, however, governed more specifically by section 25 of the Fisheries Act 2020 and by the Joint Fisheries Statement.

The Joint Fisheries Statement requires UK fisheries policy authorities to keep policies on the distribution of fishing opportunities under review. The Scottish Government has done so, including through the Future Fisheries Management programme and subsequent work on the allocation of Scotland’s share of Additional Quota.

That work has considered the role of the Fixed Quota Allocation system and how Scotland’s fishing opportunities can support environmental, social and economic outcomes, including for coastal and island communities. Following consultation, the Scottish Government introduced revised arrangements for Additional Quota, including allocations based on historic track record, targeted support for the non-sector fleet, and a pilot application-based approach for West of Scotland cod.

Separately, the Scottish Government also uses the Economic Link licence condition to help ensure that the benefits from access to Scottish fishing opportunities are realised in Scotland’s coastal and island communities, including through landings into Scotland.

The Scottish Government is considering the timing and scope of further consultation on the allocation of Additional Quota.

We will continue to keep quota management arrangements under review, including longer-term options such as community quota initiatives, to support sustainable fisheries management and the continued contribution of fishing to Scotland’s coastal and island communities.

Registers of Scotland maintains the Land Register, which, together with the older Sasines Register, record who owns land and property in Scotland. The Land Register is map-based and includes the statutory cadastral map. Further information on the cadastral map is available on the Registers of Scotland Knowledge Base.

Scotland’s Land Information Service (ScotLIS), maintained by Registers of Scotland, provides online public access to information on land and property in an accessible map-based format combining information from the Land, Sasines, Crofting and Judicial Registers.

The Scottish Government has not announced any policy to change the Land Register or introduce a different land information system.

An eight-week investigation by the Mining Remediation Authority has now confirmed that the cause of recent ground movement affecting housing in Coalsnaughton is linked to historic coal mining. This means that remediation and compensation is a statutory responsibility of the Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) as the relevant UK regulator.