Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) takes part in a number of exercises every year to test its response protocols and overall effectiveness, train its staff and ensure a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities with partners. These exercises range from Tier 1 exercises (organised by UK Government and simulating a UK-level response) to SGORR-internal training exercises. The number of exercises SGORR participates in varies from year to year. To date in 2025, SGORR has completed six SGORR training exercises, and is currently planning to participate in a Tier 1 exercise later this year.

SGORR’s information security is guided, like information security in all other parts of Scottish Government, by three key principles: confidentiality (information is classified correctly following government guidance), integrity (information is verified and comes from a reputable source), and availability (it is stored securely on Government systems, can only be accessed by those who have the right to see it, and is only shared where appropriate).

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) is the Scottish Government’s central co-ordination mechanism for responding to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR activates when and for as long as the severity and complexity of an emergency is such that urgent co-ordination, support or strategic direction from or within the Scottish Government is required and cannot be provided effectively through business-as-usual structures or other Scottish Government response mechanisms. Incidents which may meet this threshold include but are not restricted to severe weather events; terrorist attacks; pandemics; significant disruption to the supply of essential services/utilities or large-scale public disorder.

Scottish Ministers are concerned about the use of novel nicotine products such as nicotine pouches and, in particular, their appeal to children and young people.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will introduce a range of restrictions – for example around age of sale and advertising- applicable to these products, taking on board concerns raised by members previously about novel products becoming more prevalent on the market and their appeal to children and young people.

The purchase of vaping products is already age restricted and it is illegal to sell to, or buy them for, anyone under the age of 18. Trading Officers are using every tool at their disposal - including fixed penalty notices - to ensure retailers are not selling vaping products to under 18s. Border Force and HMRC also have an important role to control the illicit vape trade and we continue to work with them on this.

We are currently the only nation in the UK with a functioning Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Register. The Tobacco and Vaping Framework set out our intention to consider how the register could be improved. A refreshed digital product went live in January 2025. This will ensure that the register is a more effective and efficient tool for enforcement as well as for engagement with retailers on compliance with current and future legislation.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.

The purchase of vaping and tobacco products is age restricted. It is illegal to sell to, or buy them for, anyone under the age of 18.

Our Tobacco and Vaping Framework, launched in 2023, is our roadmap to 2034 and a tobacco free Scotland.

Our Framework is underpinned by a wide range of legislation including legislation to support the Register of Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Retailers. We recently launched a new digital Register platform which will help to ensure accurate data and help Trading Standards with enforcement of current and future regulations.

A key strand of the first implementation plan of the Framework is the work that has taken place across the four nations on creating a smoke free generation and tackling youth vaping, which has led to the introduction of the UK-wide Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Measures within the Bill include the introduction of a wide definition of a nicotine product, which is designed to cover products currently on the market such as nicotine pouches, as well as any future nicotine products. If passed with the consent of the Scottish Parliament the Bill will make it an offence to sell all nicotine products to under 18’s, stopping the next generation from becoming addicted.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will also expand both the register and enforcement powers to cover herbal smoking products and nicotine products.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is working with Health Boards and Health and Social Care partnerships to drive improvements in sustainability, and the capability of remote, rural and island primary and community care services, avoiding a one size fits all approach.

Their work includes programmes to enhance the education and training for multi-disciplinary teams working in rural and island areas, as well as evaluation of new ways of delivering improved primary and community care health services in partnership with practitioners, citizens and partner agencies.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care has developed a new training programme and supervisory training hub for Rural Advanced Practitioners and is developing a community training hub pilot to increase the amount of training taking place in remote, rural and island primary and community healthcare settings.

Further details on the work of the National Centre can be found here: National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub | Turas | Learn

The Fairer Funding pilot consists of grants to the third sector in Scotland totalling £61.7 million in 2025-26 and £63.2 million in 2026-27. The challenging financial position means that the total volume of multi-year funding agreements is balanced against other priorities and our ability to take a measured financial risk within each portfolio area. However, the sums involved are substantial and have been welcomed by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and by the third sector organisations involved. The Pilot is an important first step to move forward with multi-year funding.

Work is underway to improve our visibility of grants issued by the Scottish Government to the third sector. The previous electronic accounting system did not reliably classify whether or not grant spend is allocated to the third sector. This therefore means that collating grant information remains a manual exercise across all portfolios whilst the reporting framework associated with the new system (Oracle Cloud) is fully developed. Oracle Cloud was adopted in October 2024 and is being used to make payments made to grant recipients. However, for effective analysis, a data set of an entire financial year or more is likely to be required to produce meaningful insights.

We are aware of the UK Government’s planned secondary legislation following its Genetic Technologies (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 and are looking carefully at the implications of their proposals. As our closest trading partner, any changes in England may have implications for Scottish businesses.

Regulation of genetic modification is an area of devolved responsibility, and the Scottish Government expects full cooperation from the UK Government in matters where any related legislation will impact upon the interests of Scottish businesses and consumers.

The views of stakeholders in Scotland – scientists, farmers, food producers, but especially, consumers and the public as a whole – will inform any future changes in relation to the regulation of genetic technologies in Scotland. On 27 March we will hold a roundtable event to better understand the views and concerns of stakeholders.

There were no prosecutions under section 40(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (where main crime) since 1 January 2014.

Please note: The latest available data is for 2022-23.