Chamber and committees

The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan was published by the UK Government. The National Energy System Operator, in its advice to the UK Government on the Clean Power 2030 ambition, noted that whilst the ambition is achievable, several elements must deliver at the limit of what is feasible. The Scottish Government has been clear that the UK Government’s work to support clean power must respect devolved powers, ambitions and policies, and ensure investor and industry confidence.

The Scottish Government is continuing to take action to drive progress towards our renewable energy ambitions, which play a key role in the UK government's Clean Power 2030 ambition. For example, in our budget for 2025-26 we are almost tripling our capital funding in offshore wind development to £150 million, to invest in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the sector.

Scotland’s strong pipeline of renewables projects and growing supply chain will be vital to achieving a secure, affordable and clean power system. Our focus is on seizing the economic opportunities of Scotland's green energy potential in a way that secures clear benefits for communities and reduced costs for energy consumers. We are working closely with the UK government to ensure that the delivery of the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan supports these aims.

The Scottish Government works with the SCTS in line with the Framework Document agreed between the SCTS and the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) is a non-ministerial office established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008. Scottish Ministers do not oversee the performance of the SCTS. The SCTS is accountable to the Scottish Parliament .

As part of the Scottish Administration, the SCTS is subject to the accountability and audit provisions of Part 2 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 and adherence to the guidance contained within the Scottish Public Finance manual .

As required by the 2008 Act, the SCTS prepares a draft corporate plan every 3 years for approval by Scottish Ministers. The corporate plan informs the development of a separate annual business plan with key targets and milestones, a copy of which is sent to Scottish Ministers.

In addition, the SCTS publishes an annual report of its activities together with its audited accounts after the end of each financial year. The annual report and accounts are laid before the Scottish Parliament and cover the main activities and performance against agreed objectives and targets for the previous financial year.

The total cost of operating the Scottish Government Resilience Room as calculated below includes salary costs for the teams responsible for developing and maintaining the SGORR function including co-ordination of resilience communications; on call allowances for 24/7, 365 days a year on call cover to monitor and where required respond to incidents; overtime pay for evening and weekend working in response to incidents; and travel and subsistence payments relating to incident response. This amounts to the following for each of the past five financial years: 2020-2021: £834,819; 2021-2022: £738,458; 2022-2023: £817,262; 2023-2024: £829,416; 2024-2025 (as of 5 February 2025): £574,682.

During the response to a civil contingencies emergency, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) will usually engage with resilience partnerships formed by relevant categorised responder agencies (e.g. local authorities and other public bodies relevant to the response). SGORR engages with these resilience partnerships via liaison officers and/or through direct engagement with responders. Members of the Civil Contingencies Division Civil Contingencies Liaison Team and/or SGORR may deploy as Scottish Government Liaison Officers (SGLOs) to the partnerships, supporting the two-way flow of information and situational awareness so that emerging issues and trends are quickly identified and handled as appropriate.

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) provides Scottish Ministers and senior officials with situational awareness, enabling them to make informed strategic decisions on the Scottish Government’s response to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR provides this situational awareness, using relevant facilities, by supplying written and verbal briefings, organising meetings at official or ministerial level and making connections across and outside the Scottish Government, with SGORR working closely with responders at all levels in Scotland and with the UK Government where relevant to the response.

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.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) provides an annual training programme for Local Authority Food Enforcement Officers. This includes the following courses listed:

REHIS Advanced HACCP

Enforcement Sanctions

Training on the Scottish National database and Food Law Rating System

HACCP in Speciality cheesemaking

Shellfish Depuration

Food Microbiology

Predictive modelling and shelf life challenge testing

Official Control Verification methodology and practice

IFSP Counterfeit Spirits

TACCP (Threat Assessment and Critical Control Point,focuses on threats and aims to prevent malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion, or terrorism.)

In addition FSS provides an annual training session for student Environmental Health officers.

Local Authorities regulate food labelling standards. The data FSS holds on food standards interventions indicates that there have been 1209 contravention letters, detention and seizure notices, advice letters and Compliance notices relating to food standards law from 2018 to end of January 2025. FSS does not hold breakdown data on the nature of these breaches.