Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 to extend statutory animal welfare protections to decapod crustaceans.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) is currently carrying out a review of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, with the report scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. The Scottish Government will give full consideration to SAWC's report in due course.

Our Long Term Conditions Advisory Group 1 focused on cardiometabolic and renal conditions, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. We are carefully considering the recommendations made by all six of the advisory groups, established under the previous government, to inform our way forward for long term conditions. Our Programme for Government for 2026-27 will be put to the Parliament in due course.

The Scottish Government notified key stakeholder organisations of the upcoming commencement of the ban on using, supplying or possessing rodent glue traps on 2 March 2026.

Follow-up correspondence was issued to Amazon, Ebay and the Post Office to confirm receipt of the notification. Further notification was sent to Scottish Wholesale on 20 May 2026 asking them to issue a reminder to Scotland’s wholesalers to ensure the removal of their stocks of rodent glue board traps, prior to the ban coming into force in Scotland on 1 July 2026.

At present, the Scottish Government has no plans to ask the Animal and Plant Health Agency or the UK Government to routinely publish fish welfare inspection reports.

However, the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate Fish Health Inspectorate publishes reports of its inspections and visits, including information on fish health cases, sea lice levels and fish farm mortalities. For convenience, I have included the link below: Fish Health Inspectorate: inspection and farm health data - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear we expect colleges to embed Fair Work principles, which includes ensuring there are effective mechanisms for staff and students to raise concerns, and for these to be considered and acted upon, without fear of detriment. Responsibility for putting appropriate arrangements in place rests with individual colleges.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC), through its ongoing engagement and assurance role, seeks to ensure that colleges are operating in line with these expectations, including fostering a culture of openness, respect and meaningful partnership working.

The British Council is set to become the National Agency for Erasmus+ in the UK.

The Erasmus+ Programme is the European Union’s flagship funding programme for education, training, youth and sport. With a budget of approximately 26 billion, it allows individuals of all ages and backgrounds to study, train, volunteer, or gain work experience abroad while providing organizations with grants to build international partnerships.

The Scottish Government will continue to collaborate closely with the British Council Scotland to ensure that Scotland’s learners, students, apprentices and education staff fully benefit from the opportunities arising from association with Erasmus+ from January 2027.

The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs announced the Pig Producers Scheme on Friday 10 July. This is a £2 million scheme for independent pig producers in Scotland to help with the significant market challenges facing the sector. The funding aims to support farms most at risk from a prolonged drop in pig prices, and those eligible will be able to claim the difference between the price they received for their pigs and 85% of the Standard Pig Price (SPP). The scheme will open to applications from 15 July, and the support will apply retrospectively to losses incurred since March, with provision for the scheme to continue until the end of August 2026.

Individual colleges in Scotland are responsible for their own operational decisions, such as ensuring systems are in place to assess and manage health and safety risks, and working with the relevant bodies to ensure they meet their legal responsibilities. The Scottish Government understands that City of Glasgow College has accepted the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) findings in full and are implementing all corrective actions identified, which has resulted in the HSE’s intervention being closed.

As part of its ongoing monitoring and assurance processes, the Scottish Funding Council will continue to monitor the college’s progress to ensure improvements are followed through and that staff concerns are addressed.

The cost of waking watch measures implemented in buildings affected by unsafe cladding are as follows:

1.The total cost to date has been circa £6.5m.

2.The total budgeted costs for the 2026-27 Financial year are £1.2m.

3.The average monthly cost is £166,948.

(Period covered in relation to total cost (1) and average cost (3) is from March 2023 to July 2026. Budgeted costs for 2026-27 (2) could be subject to change as part of the annual budget process).

Scottish Government has directly met all of these costs.

We know that the impact of climate change means that summers in Scotland are likely to get drier which may impact summer water scarcity. As a result, it is vital that we take action both to limit further climate change and to adapt to the challenges it is already creating.

Scotland’s National Adaptation Plan sets out the actions that the Scottish Government and partners are taking to respond to the impacts of climate change, and Scotland’s National Water Scarcity Plan sets out how water resources are managed during periods of scarcity - including for users in agriculture and food production.

The Scottish Government supports farmers in efficient water management and to adapt to a changing climate, for example through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme and through the Agricultural Reform Programme and monitors overall impacts on food production through the Food Security Unit.