Chamber and committees

The Directorate recognises the importance of providing clarity on the app's planned launch date. At present a specific launch date in 2026 has not yet been confirmed.

Final timelines depend on ongoing development, testing and regulatory requirements to ensure the app meets all required standards.

The Directorate will provide a confirmed timeline once the current development and testing phase is completed.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling retail crime was reaffirmed in our Programme for Government and through the additional £3 million in the 2025-26 budget, to assist Police Scotland’s work on this.

This makes clear our strong support for Police Scotland’s robust approach in addressing this issue, and I can confirm that the Retail Crime Taskforce has been working hard in recent months to assist retailers and to catch those responsible.

We are working closely with SPA and Police Scotland to understand their 2026-27 budget requirements, but clearly there is a process to go through and decisions to be made before we can finalise the budget for 2026-27. This will be published on 13 January 2026.

The ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) is a crucial part of delivering Scotland’s net zero ambitions and in line with Committee for Climate Change advice. It will come into force on 31 December this year.

While significant efforts and investment have been made by local authorities and commercial waste operators to prepare for the ban, due to a temporary shortfall of energy from waste capacity in Scotland, some parts of the waste sector identified challenges in fully complying with the upcoming ban.

Taking account of these challenges, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency published a Regulatory Position Statement on 29 October outlining its approach to enforcing the ban.

The Scottish Government recognises the findings of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, including its determination that in the short-term incineration will have a role to play in managing our waste as we transition to a circular economy.

The Scottish Government is committed to limiting EfW capacity, as part of our transition to a circular economy. Our National Planning Framework 4 makes it clear that development proposals for new EfW facilities will not be supported except under limited circumstances, and there have been no planning applications for new EfW developments since 2023.

Impact assessments for the digital public services app are currently in progress.

Following its introduction, use of the app by citizens will be optional.

Further functionality will be determined by user need coming from both the citizens and the services that use it.

There is no requirement for proof of age to use the app. There will be the opportunity for citizens to use the app with the digital wallet to prove their age if they wish to.

No, people who do not install or use the planned digital public services app will still be able to access all relevant public services through alternative channels.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-42039 and S6W-42047 on 1 December 2025.

We are analysing the output from the consultation on the next NIFS contract and will publish this in due course, including the responses in relation to fares, which will help inform future fares policy.