Chamber and committees

Following the publication of pelagic TAC advice for 2026 a period of intensive engagement and consultation with key stakeholders across the pelagic supply chain was undertaken by Marine Directorate officials.

International negotiations between relevant Coastal states (including the UK) agreed specific significant quota reductions for key pelagic species on 16 December, which then allowed the Scottish Government to finalise the detail and scope of its planned emergency intervention for 2026.

In order to be effective the revised licence condition had to be implemented from 1 January 2026 given it is crucial to business planning for the January mackerel fishery.

Marine Directorate officials held 26 individual meetings with pelagic catching businesses, processors, and port authorities as well as other round table meetings with representative bodies.

Industry consultations were concluded by mid-December 2025.

NatureScot have adopted a range of rainforest-specific metrics for both the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) and other funding for rainforest restoration. These include: areas of existing rainforest under appropriate herbivore management; the number of jobs created; and the area cleared of Rhododendron ponticum.

An interim evaluation of the NRF (to March 2024) was published in August 2025. A number of important early actions to restore rainforest restoration were included in that evaluation, and these continue to be measured across the fund. There is also a suite of landscape scale rainforest restoration projects underway as part of the NRF including projects that have been ongoing for a number of years, such as the Arkaig Landscape Restoration project, the Saving Morvern Rainforest project and the Saving Argyll’s Rainforest projects.

Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is supporting supply chain and ports across Scotland including at Nigg, Lerwick, Stornoway, Montrose and Kishorn – and creating jobs in our offshore wind sector across the country. Due to commercially sensitive negotiations, the full pipeline of projects cannot be made public at this stage. We are working across public sector delivery partners to ensure that funding is delivered to projects as quickly as possible.

In 2024, there were seven meetings of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC). In 2025, there were a further seven meetings of SOWEC. I attended two SOWEC meetings in 2024 in my role at the time as Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work and subsequently as Minister for Climate Action and one meeting in 2025. From June 2024 – June 2025, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP was Acting Minister for Climate Action and acting SOWEC Co-Chair, and attended one meeting of SOWEC in 2024 and one in 2025.

All planning applications should be determined in accordance with the terms of the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, with each proposal being considered on its own merits. Where a proposed development would create a direct need for certain infrastructure or facilities, which could include housing, this need could be met by use of a planning condition or obligation. However, any condition or obligation to be imposed on a planning permission must fairly and reasonably relate to the development to be permitted and therefore cannot be a mandatory requirement.

The Scottish Government has published a consultation on increasing the current threshold of 50MW for applications for onshore electricity generating stations to be considered by local authorities. All responses received will be carefully considered before any decision is made.

Draft rateable values for the 2026 revaluation were published on 30 November 2025 but may be subject to change. The final valuation roll will come into effect on 1 April 2026 and the Scottish Government will publish its report on changes in rateable values once final valuations are available.

Draft rateable values for the 2026 revaluation were published on 30 November 2025 but may be subject to change. The final valuation roll will come into effect on 1 April 2026 and the Scottish Government will publish its report on changes in rateable values once final valuations are available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42536 on 22 December 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.