Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has long called for an effective Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary agreement to achieve some level of return to smoother, pre-Brexit, agri-food trade arrangements.

The Scottish Government welcomed the 19 May 2025 announcements (where the SPS outline agreement was described as part of the wider UK-EU reset summit and in a Common Understanding Document) – with the detail of the agreement yet to be finalized. Scottish Government officials have engaged with UK Government counterparts throughout the process on a range of issues, including animal welfare related matters.

The negotiations had been expected to conclude in advance of the UK-EU Summit, originally scheduled for the end of the month. However, following the resignation of the UK Prime Minister, the Summit has been postponed. Consequently, no further formal rounds of negotiation are expected to take place before September.

The Scottish Government remains committed to this work and the recent roundtable table discussion with industry, animal welfare organisations and academic representatives was the first steps in finding ways to ensure producer’s viability and improving sow welfare.

The Scottish Government will continue to listen and work with the industry and stakeholders to find ways for producers to transition towards implementing improved animal welfare methods and practices.

The aim of consolidation legislation is to bring together, restate and simplify existing legislation, not to review or change the underlying policy framework or levels of protection afforded to particular species.

The Scottish Government has therefore not asked the Scottish Law Commission to consider strengthening or harmonising protections for different species as part of their consolidation of nature legislation project.

The Summer of Sport programme is designed to give children and young people opportunities to get active within their local communities through events and activities delivered by schools, clubs, sporting bodies and local authorities. At this stage, no specific portion of the £20 million funding has been earmarked for bowls and local partners are currently finalising their plans for submission to sportscotland at the end of June.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government has committed £1 million to support a live site at Kelvingrove Park during the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, where families will be able to take part in a wide range of free and accessible activities, including opportunities to try sports such as lawn bowls.

Funding has been provided to bowling clubs through the Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund, to create more opportunities for young people to access and take part in bowling. This fund is helping celebrate sport, culture and community in the lead-up to and during the Games.

We recognise the immense contribution unpaid carers make to communities across Scotland, and we are continuing to work closely with local authorities and partners to ensure carers are supported, recognised and involved in decisions that affect them.

Through the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016, local authorities and integration authorities have clear duties to provide support for unpaid carers, including access to personalised support planning, information and advice services, and local carer strategies. Authorities must publish key documents so that carers can understand what support is available locally and what they are entitled to – a local carer strategy, local eligibility criteria and a short breaks service statement. We are investing £88.4 million each year through the local government settlement to support implementation of the Act.

We are also supporting local carer centres and organisations that help carers stay connected to their communities. In 2026-27, we are providing £600,000 to local carer centres, alongside £13 million for voluntary sector short breaks funding, including £6.5 million delivered through local carer centres.

Through the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, we will establish a right to breaks from caring to support people to protect their wellbeing and sustain caring relationships. These changes place new duties on Local Authorities to determine, through a carer’s personalised plan, whether a carer can take sufficient breaks from their caring role; and if not, to provide support to enable this.

In addition, we continue to engage directly with carers and representative organisations through forums such as the annual Carers Parliament and Young Carers Festival, ensuring carers’ voices help shape national and local policy development.

We are also working with local authorities and health and social care partnerships to strengthen carer involvement in hospital discharge processes, supported by workforce training and resources to improve identification, inclusion and support for unpaid carers across services.

Our National Carers Strategy has driven cross-government action to improve recognition and valuing of unpaid carers, including strengthening carer involvement, improving awareness of carers’ rights, and promoting carers as equal partners in care across public services and communities.

Together, these actions ensure that unpaid carers can access breaks, peer support, wellbeing activities and community-based support.

The Scottish Government invests over £88 million per year in local carer support through the Carers (Scotland) Act, enabling local authorities and their partners to deliver local carer strategies, information and advice services, and community-based support that helps raise awareness of carers and their rights at a local level.

We support a national network of local carer centres, including funding of £600,000 in 2026-27, which play a key role in community outreach, helping people to identify themselves as carers, increasing local understanding of caring roles and building more carer-friendly communities. In addition, we fund the Shared Care Respitality programme, which helps local carer centres build relationships with hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and leisure providers to offer donated breaks and experiences for unpaid carers within their communities.

To improve understanding and access to support, the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland have launched a dedicated package of online and printed resources, including 'Help if you're a carer' and Social Security Scotland - Helping hand for carers - stakeholder resources to support wider awareness and signposting within communities.

Our National Carers Strategy has driven cross-government action to improve recognition and valuing of unpaid carers, including strengthening carer involvement, improving awareness of carers’ rights, and promoting carers as equal partners in care across public services and communities.

We also fund national engagement and awareness-raising activity, including the annual Carers Parliament and the Scottish Young Carers Festival, which give carers a platform to share their experiences with decision-makers and help increase wider understanding of caring roles across society.

In addition, through the Carer Positive employer scheme, we continue to encourage more supportive and carer-aware workplaces, helping to embed understanding of unpaid carers within communities across Scotland, with more than half a million employees now working in Carer Positive organisations.

Looking ahead, provisions in the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 will further strengthen our approach. New duties will require relevant authorities to take steps to actively promote awareness and improve uptake of support for carers, helping ensure that carers are more visible, better understood, and able to access the support available to them. Alongside our work to establish a right to breaks for carers, this will help protect carers’ wellbeing and sustain caring relationships.

Together, these actions support greater recognition of unpaid carers and help encourage communities to become more understanding and carer friendly.

We continue to invest over £88 million a year in local carer support through the Carers (Scotland) Act, enabling local authorities and their partners to deliver local services and community-based support. In addition to this, we increased voluntary sector short breaks funding in 2025-26 to £13 million per year, which enables unpaid carers to benefit from easy-access short breaks.

We are working to establish a right to breaks for carers, introduced by the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, to help protect their wellbeing and sustain caring relationships. Preparation for implementation is being supported by the Right to Breaks Implementation Steering Group, involving unpaid carer representatives as well as statutory and third sector organisations.

Under section 13 of the 2025 Act, we will also implement new statutory duties requiring relevant authorities to take steps to promote awareness of, and improve uptake of, support for carers.

Carer Support Payment, which has replaced Carer’s Allowance in Scotland, is available to more carers in full-time education, provides earlier access to support during breaks from caring, and more support when a caring role ends due to bereavement. Our Scottish Carer Supplement is only available in Scotland and provides extra support worth over £600 per year for carers getting paid Carer Support Payment. It replaced Carer's Allowance Supplement and is paid more regularly. Carer Additional Person Payment is extra money for carers getting paid Carer Support Payment and caring for more than one person for 20 hours a week. It is worth over £500 per year for each additional person being cared for.

We also continue to offer targeted support to young carers, including £400,000 to Young Scot in 2026-27 to deliver the Young Carers Package – an exclusive platform of tailored discounts, e-vouchers, subscriptions and other opportunities which recognise young carers and allow them to take a break from their caring role.

Young Carer Grant is the only payment of its kind in the UK and is currently worth £405.10, which can be applied for annually. It is now available to carers aged 19, allowing young carers to get up to four payments from the age of 16.

We also continue to fund the Carer Positive initiative, which is working to improve awareness and flexibility of unpaid carers in the workplace. There are more than half a million employees working in 296 Carer Positive organisations across Scotland (March 2026).