Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is taking action to create jobs and boost employability in our coalfields communities. We are investing over £900 million in Growth Deals for Ayrshire, Glasgow (including North and South Lanarkshire), and Edinburgh and South East Scotland which includes Fife. This funding is creating thousands of new jobs and maintaining existing jobs across these areas. The UK Government is providing match funding.

No One Left Behind is a Scotland-wide strategy delivering employability support to those eligible and furthest from the labour market. It is a collaboration between the Scottish Government and local authorities, and aligns and integrates services in each local area to offer an all-round, holistic approach.

Regeneration programmes such as Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, Investing in Communities Fund and Strengthening Communities Programme are supporting job creation, training, and employability skills. In addition we have provided over £29 million in funding to CRT since 1999 to invest in improving outcomes for former coalfield communities.

There is a requirement for Health Boards to maintain accurate and up to date information on PACS Tier Two requests. The Scottish Government does not hold validated data on the number of PACS applications that Health Boards have received from clinicians. This information would need to be requested from Health Boards directly.

Health Boards are required to capture and share data as retrospective “in confidence” summary reports with the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis. The data received by Scottish Government is retained for internal management purposes only and is not formally validated.

Notably, the majority of collated PACS Tier Two requests are for fewer than five medicines; and data for numbers fewer than five are deemed to be patient identifiable and cannot be published.

The Scottish Government is working with industry through the ministerially-led Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) to support the green energy transition, embracing the opportunities to grow Scotland’s economy, and as part of this work to explore natural material use. In addition, Scottish Government fund Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), who have undertaken extensive research into innovative construction materials.

Construction Leadership Forum

In 2023, the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) published a report commissioned by construction innovation centre, Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), which identified and analysed the five highest value and highest growth low carbon energy supply chains in Scotland, and included natural construction materials. The report can be found online.

The CLF’s Transformation Action Plan was launched on 25 Jan 2024. Actions on key areas such as skills, net zero, and supply chains are now being implemented by eleven CLF working groups, overseen by a Transformation Board.

The CLF Net Zero working group, chaired by Stephen Good, CEO of BE-ST, and Gordon Nelson, Federation of Master Builders, has been meeting regularly and work is currently progressing. The group is focussed on driving a just transition to being net zero in embodied carbon, industry operations, and over asset life cycles, which was a commitment in the Construction Accord.

Built Environment – Smarter Transformation

The Scottish Government provide funding to Scotland’s construction innovation centre, BE-ST, who have undertaken extensive research into innovative construction materials.

BE-ST and Zero Waste Scotland asked the University of Edinburgh to prepare a report looking into the availability, performance, manufacturing supply chains, and market analysis of Natural Fibre and Circular Insulation options. Published in 2023, the report can be accessed online.

BE-ST have undertaken a number of other projects supporting and expanding the supply chains for natural construction materials, including:

• Sylvan Stuart Integra House: funded by BE-ST (then CSIC) with academic support from Robert Gordon University, exploring the application of (imported) blown wood fibre insulation. In order to consider this type of insulation as a valid method for Integra House, a series of blowing trials were undertaken at BE-ST to understand the potential of incorporating blown wood fibre insulation into the manufacturing process.
• MDF-R: blown-in recycled MDF (product now fully commercialised and available). Settlement testing was carried out at BE-ST to determine the optimum density with no settlement in accordance with British Standards. Testing also investigated the settlement of the installed product under vibration and the optimum density to remove the chance of settlement.
• Sisaltech: Developing Sisalwool product (product now fully commercialised and available). Product prototyping support – Sisal fibre and textile waste material blending on BE-ST’s Spike Former and Thermobonding line, with further prototype development on BE-ST’s Stonemaker casting press. BE-ST also provided consultancy on type testing, product certification and route to market.
• IndiNature: Developing the IndiTherm product (now fully commercialised and available). Product prototyping support – Hemp fibre blending on BE-ST’s Spike Former. BE-ST also provided consultancy on type testing, product certification, and route to market, and supported the certification process with an equipment loan to IndiNature, who have been supported financially through Zero Waste Scotland and the Scottish National Investment Bank.

Since the November 2023 publication of the Scottish Government’s position paper, Taking a Feminist Approach to International Relations, officials have taken forward a range of activities as part of our commitment to mainstream a feminist approach across key policy areas, including international development, climate justice, trade, and peace & security.

This includes working to embed gender equality throughout our international development work as well as developing specific gender equality programmes. In seeking to equalise power in our international development activities, we work directly with organisations in our partner countries of Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia and have established a Global South Advisory Panel. On trade, the Scottish Government is committed to addressing the gender export gap in Scotland, confirmed by the findings in the recent Gender Export Gap research report. We will be working with our delivery agencies and stakeholders in implementing the report’s recommendations, providing tailored advice, assistance, and international market access opportunities to help women-led businesses succeed on the global stage.

Scottish Government ministers regularly discuss human rights issues with international partners, including individual cases. We do not keep statistics on how often these issues are raised.

Through its International Development Fund, the Scottish Government has over the last year, following work with our partner countries, launched new programmes with a heavier focus on investment in health, education, equalities, and renewables, underpinned by and guided by our core Principles. We also launched two new major Climate Justice Fund programmes in 2023.

The Scottish Government separately provides funding to support Human Rights Defenders. The Scottish Government established the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship in 2018 as a temporary relocation programme to support international human rights defenders at risk as a direct result of their work. The Fellowship – and Scotland – has welcomed 19 human rights defenders from 16 different countries, two of whom have been from our partner countries Malawi and Zambia.

We have received a reply from the Secretary of State for Scotland. This reply gives in-principle agreement to the proposed section 104 Order.

Scotland Office has asked for further information on what the Order could cover. The Scottish Government will write to Scotland Office accordingly and will also work with them to agree a timetable.

It may still take some time for the work on the Order to be completed. Scottish Government officials will keep people who have expressed an interest updated on developments.

Local Government funding allocations are routinely published in Local Government Finance Circulars. The allocations in question are available at:

2013-14 - Circular 2/2013

2014-15 - Circular 2/2014

2015-16 - Circular 2/2015

2016-17 - Circular 1/2016

2017-18 - Circular 1/2017

2018-19 - Circular 4/2018

2019-20 - Circular 2/2019

2020-21 - Circular 4/2020

2021-22 - Circular 5/2021

2022-23 - Circular 1/2022

2023-24 - Circular 3/2023

2024-25 - Circular 2/2024

2025-26 - Circular 1/2025

Public bodies and organisations operating in Scotland can be affected by a wide range of law in both devolved and reserved areas, with differing statutory mechanisms for enforcement. The Scottish Ministers may, in some cases, be subject to statutory duties to issue guidance to affected organisations and groups. However, other public bodies will have a statutory roles in regulating enforcement and issuing guidance about areas of law, including those reserved to the UK Parliament.

For payments made by the Scottish Government to public bodies and publicly funded organisations in Scotland, the Scottish Government expects those bodies to comply with the full range of legal obligations imposed on them by all relevant legislation. This includes duties under the Equality Act 2010, where key provisions on matters such as discrimination and the various protected characteristics, including sex, are reserved, or under health and safety workplace regulations, which are also reserved.

Comparing the figures published in Local Government Finance Circular 2/2013 with those in Local Government Finance Circular 1/2025, the total Local Government finance settlement has increased by over £5 billion or 49.7% since 2013-14, that’s a real terms increase of 8.4%.