Chamber and committees

Food businesses inspected by an Environmental Health Officer or Food Safety Officer.

2020 – 9,041

2021 – 9,674

2022 – 20,745

2023 – 20,409

2024 – 19,466

2025* – 6,722

*01-01-25 to 12-05-25

The following table represents the total budget allocated to Food Standards Scotland (FSS) for each financial year from 2020-21.

Financial year FSS baseline Total Fiscal Resource budget £m

2020-21 15.6

2021-22 19.0

2022-23 22.6

2023-24 22.6

2024-25 22.6

2025-26 22.6

There was an uplift in the financial years 21-22 of £3.4 million and in year 22-23 of £3.6 million totalling £7 million. These uplifts were to fund additional responsibilities FSS were required to take on following the EU Exit.

Due to the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the privacy policy agreed by applicants to the LEZ Support Fund, we are unable to disclose personal details of the funds recipients.

However, I can advise that in the Aberdeen area 197 households received grants with a total value of £464,688, 65 microbusinesses in the area received a further £140,000 for the disposal of a non-compliant vehicle and 2 microbusinesses received grants totalling £14,066 to retrofit vehicles to meet LEZ standards.

In the Dundee area 247 households received grants with a total value of £562,471 and 49 microbusinesses in the area received a total of £107,500 for the disposal of a non-compliant vehicle. No retrofit grants have been issued in the Dundee area.

In the Edinburgh area 794 households received grants with a total value of £1,879,604, 412 microbusinesses in the area received a total of £948,631 for the disposal of a non-compliant vehicle and 142 microbusinesses received grants totalling £1,118,852 to retrofit vehicles to meet LEZ standards.

In the Glasgow area 2048 households received grants with a total value of £4,777,931, 708 microbusinesses in the area received a further £1,597,350 for the disposal of a non-compliant vehicle and 411 microbusinesses received grants totalling £3,345,089 to retrofit vehicles to meet LEZ standards.

The Full time equivalent (FTE) annual employee count was:

2020-21 - 262

2021-22 - 314

2022-23 - 295

2023-24 - 281

2024-25 - 277

The increase to 314 FTE is associated with increased funding to deal with the consequence of EU Exit.

The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Support Fund has allocated £13,775,000 to households and businesses within 20km of any LEZ in Scotland since 2020. To date £7,684,695 has been paid out to households in Scotland.

There was no set allocation per city, to households or to businesses. This allowed flexibility to respond to demand dependant on applications received each year.

I can advise that £464,688 of this funding has been awarded to households within 20km of the Aberdeen LEZ.

The Scottish Government and the whole of the public sector faces a very challenging situation as we continue to manage our finances through the current financial year, in 2025-26 and beyond.

Operating within a fixed budget, we have had to manage Scottish public finances in the face of higher inflation and cost of living pressures, making tough decisions to protect the most vulnerable in society.

As part of the Scottish Government 25/26 budget, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) was given a flat budget. FSS have notified the Scottish Government of a pressure due to increased staffing and delivery costs and the Scottish Government will work with FSS to manage the pressure. This has included the set-up of the FSS policy forum with relevant policy teams across Scottish Government to provide a co-ordinated response to the issues FSS face and facilitates the exchange of soft intelligence and problem solving.

Scottish Government have also committed to review the allocated budget in year.

Consideration of introducing a judicial register of interests began during this parliamentary session. However, following the introduction of a revised statement on judicial ethics last year, which included more detailed declaration requirements for judicial office holders and a greater emphasis on judicial independence, the commitment was delayed to allow time for its impact to be assessed. Now that a year has passed since the revised statement was introduced, work has recently commenced on evaluating its effects. An update will be provided to Parliament at the appropriate time.

Following your topical question S6T-02471 on 22 April 2025 in relation to sex offender name change. I subsequently wrote to you about sex offender name change on 30 April 2025. In that response, I set out additional background, including that - as various names can be held in relation to the same individual: "instances of name change", is not necessarily the same as individuals who have changed their given name. I also highlighted to you that as the management of registration records of a Registered Sex Offender (RSO) is an operational matter for Police Scotland, they are therefore best placed to provide you with additional details on what their records do or do not show.

All answers to Topical Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

The research paper is currently with peer reviewers and is expected to be concluded by early June. We are committed to publishing the report and will do so once the peer review process and any further action needed has concluded. I expect to be able to do that no later than the end of 2025.

The Parole Board for Scotland and officials at Community Justice Division initiated the redrafting of the memorandum of understanding/agreement in summer 2022. Protracted discussions and negotiations on the nature and detail of the document; and resource intensive pressures on both parties meant that delivery of the document took longer than anticipated. Agreement on the document had neared finalisation by the end of 2024, however sign-off and clearance by interested parties allowed for publication of the MOA to proceed into early 2025.