Chamber and committees

It is the Scottish Ministers who determine applications made under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989. The Energy Consents Unit administers these applications on their behalf.

Following consent, developers are typically required to commence development within either three or five years of the decision date, depending on the terms of the consent. However, information on whether or how many approved developments have been commenced s not systematically recorded.

The Scottish Government’s Strategic Action Plan on Wildfires sets out a coordinated approach to preventing, preparing for and responding to wildfires, including through national initiatives to strengthen resilience to all climate-related hazards as outlined in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan, such as peatland restoration.

Through our world leading Peatland ACTION programme, we have carried out restoration on over 59,000 hectares of peatland since 2020, including a record 15,448 hectares in 2025-26. This work will continue in 2026-27, investing a further £28 million to deliver at least another 10,000 ha of peatland restoration, towards our aim of restoring more than 400,000 ha of peatland by 2040. In the immediate aftermath of wildfire, however, time is required to allow natural revegetation processes to take place before significant restoration interventions can be implemented.

Over time, this will ensure that healthy peatlands will continue to play their significant part in the multi-faceted approach we are taking to managing the increasing risk of these devastating events, with healthy restored peatland providing significant protection against the spread of wildfire.

Social Security Scotland uses data from its translation services provider to identify the languages most requested by clients. Proactive translations of factsheets are made based on this information.

The Government will bring forward such social security legislation as is necessary to continue to ensure the effective operation of delivery and improved outcomes for clients. That will include in due course the regulations required to introduce Scottish Child Payment for children under 1, which will increase the total payment amount to £40 per week during 2027-28, benefitting an estimated 12,000 children, to implement measures in the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025, and to uprate social security benefits on an annual basis.

The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 despite the complex operational challenges that have been identified.

In March 2025 the former Minister for Victims and Community Safety outlined to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee the proposed next steps. These included establishing a working group with stakeholders including justice agencies and victims’ organisations to consider possible legislative changes to the 2021 Act to enable the protection notice and order scheme to be implemented in a way that is sustainable, deliverable and affordable.

The working group was subsequently established and met five times in total. The working group has developed a number of potential changes to the legislation, with the intention of these informing a consultation in early 2026. However, on further reflection it was considered right that it should be for a new Government, following the election, to determine whether it wished to adopt this approach. In light of the detailed considerations of the working group, we will now look to refine the potential legislative changes further, with a view to a targeted consultation later in 2026. Following any such consultation and analysis of responses I will be able to provide a more detailed update on timelines for bringing forward the necessary legislative changes to enable the domestic abuse protection notice and order scheme to be operationalised.

Our Portfolio Efficiency and Reform Plans published alongside the Scottish Spending Review, set out savings by portfolio, by year.

These plans incorporate savings arising from efficiency and reform activity, aligned with our savings targets as set out in the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan and the Public Service Reform strategy. While these targets are not broken down annually, the recurring savings set out in these plans for 2026-27 are around £563 million.

The plans will be updated and published as further progress is made and will be subject to scrutiny from Audit Scotland, the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission, and also receive external scrutiny from stakeholders such as the Fraser of Allander Institute and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Scottish Ministers are committed to reforming our public sector to ensure the delivery of excellent public services in a fiscally sustainable manner. Delivering such services is core to the government’s mission. The role of Public Service Reform is to deliver that mission, building confidence that the government is on Scotland’s side and can be trusted to take the next step in our constitutional journey.

The current transport system does many things well but it has evolved incrementally into a complex landscape of national bodies, agencies and local actors, with blurred accountabilities, mixed levels of integration and strategic coherence. And it has not been reviewed for almost twenty years. Further incremental change will not deliver the transformation needed or the outcomes the communities and businesses of Scotland expect. The time is now right to review the entire system of how transport is delivered across Scotland and deliver bold reform with a clear focus on ensuring Scotland’s publicly owned transport bodies support better integration of services and maximise the impact of public investment.

Changes to Transport Scotland and other national transport bodies are part of this reform agenda as set out in our manifesto. I will work with senior officials to take forward this commitment while maintaining a strong focus on excellent delivery of public transport services. Preparation is at an early stage and it will be essential to engage trade unions and ensure staff are involved at all levels as this work progresses.

Under existing social security legislation, Social Security Scotland already have the power to recover social security benefits that have been overpaid.

The Private Jet Tax will be implemented as higher rates of Air Departure Tax (ADT)which will apply to the carriage of passengers by air on private jet flights from Scottish airports.

Developing evidence-based and effective fisheries management measures for more than 160 sites and areas within the inshore region has been a challenging process.