Chamber and committees

Mutual aid arrangements between forces are a longstanding feature of policing, which help to ensure that all forces are able to respond effectively to major incidents, significant operational pressures and events requiring additional policing capacity.

The management of the court estate is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the prompt payment of freelance creative workers and all other suppliers, and to promoting fair payment practices throughout public sector supply chains.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies with an estimated annual regulated procurement spend of £5 million or more to set out in their procurement strategies how they will ensure payment of valid invoices within 30 days throughout their supply chains. Public bodies must also report annually on the effectiveness of these arrangements.

In addition, Scottish Procurement Policy Note (SPPN) 02/2022 sets out how contracting authorities should assess bidders' previous payment performance and seek commitments from suppliers to pay sub-contractors within 30 days as part of the procurement process.

The Scottish Government continues to lead by example, with a target of paying valid invoices within 10 days of receipt. During 2025-2026, 86.6% of valid invoices were paid within 10 days and 96.1% within 30 days.

Together, these measures support prompt payment for suppliers across all sectors, whether they contract directly with a Scottish public body or as part of the supply chain for a public contract, including provision for valid invoices to be paid within 30 days.

The Scottish Government has committed to providing financial support to allow an extension of pay protection from April 2028 to support Glasgow City Council employees. The council is fully funding pay protection until the end of March 2028.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the council to confirm costs and will make necessary provision in future budgets.

The planning system has limited scope to control what specific goods are sold within shops. In addition, creating a discrete use class for the sale of vapes, lithium-ion batteries and/or highly combustible materials, would not automatically mean that planning permission was required in all cases where such goods are sold.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Information relating to standby generators is operational information held by individual NHS Scotland health boards.

The Scottish Government has not made a specific assessment of the sector’s future role in skills development.

We recognise that apprenticeships play a vital role in giving young people a pathway into a rewarding career and providing a way for employers to invest in their workforce and we are committed to expanding our modern and graduate apprenticeship offer.

Engineering and energy-related frameworks accounted for 7.5% of new apprenticeship starts and 15.7% of all Modern Apprenticeships in training during 2025–26.

The Scottish Government provided around £198 million to support around 25,500 new Modern Apprenticeships (MA), 5,000 new Foundation Apprenticeships and 1,500 new Graduate Apprenticeships in 2024-25. We have also committed to supporting more than 150,000 apprenticeship opportunities over the course of this Parliament and to introducing an Apprenticeship Accelerator Grant.

It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on contractual arrangements between two businesses. We remain firmly committed to supporting the yard in securing a long-term sustainable future while maintaining shipbuilding capability on the Clyde.

Scottish Ministers are clear as a matter of stated policy that preventing the creation of new nuclear reactors, and their associated waste, is of national importance.

As such Ministers would have powers to intervene in such determinations under the Town and Country planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

The Scottish Government does not support the construction of new nuclear fission power stations under current technologies. We have therefore made no assessment of the potential employment effects of new nuclear development at Torness.