Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to make progress in delivering its legislative programme in this parliamentary session with 38 Government Bills already passed since 2021. I have set out below the 14 Government Bills which parliament is currently scrutinising and we will set out the Bills which will be included in our Year 5 programme as part of the next Programme for Government. There are two Scottish Government Bills from the Year 4 programme which will be introduced before summer recess which are the Building Safety Levy Bill and the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill.

In addition, the Government remains committed to taking action in a number of policy areas but will not be in a position to bring forward three Bills in this parliamentary session. The reasons for that are set out below.

The Scottish Government consulted between July and October 2024 on proposed changes to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, with more than 160 responses received. During that engagement, risks relating to European Convention on Human Rights non-compliance in relation to deprivation of liberty cases emerged. As a result, there is the need for a more detailed approach to be developed to ensure we can bring forward a solution consistent with ECHR legislation.

We will therefore establish an Adults with Incapacity Expert Working Group to work with government on the additional policy and operational development required. The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport will also chair an Adults with Incapacity Ministerial Oversight Group to ensure that pace and progress is maintained, with a view to bringing forward a future Bill early in the next parliamentary term. I expect invites for both groups to be issued in June 2025, with initial meetings to take place in September 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring people are protected from misogynistic abuse and we had previously committed to the introduction of a Misogyny Bill. This is a complex area of policy and law, and it would be necessary that any Bill which brought misogyny into criminal law contained clear and unambiguous provisions in regard to the circumstances in which they apply. This would include the implications of the recent Supreme Court Judgment. Given the short time left in this parliamentary session, there is insufficient time for a Bill to be finalised and introduced in this session, therefore the Scottish Government has decided not to proceed with this Bill in this parliamentary session.

To ensure there are protections for women and girls in law, we will therefore lay an SSI by September to add the protected characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 so that they have the same protections as other groups protected by that Act. This SSI is subject to super affirmative process and will therefore be subject to consultation.

We recognise the gendered nature of the harm caused to women and girls and will also take forward further work and engagement on the harms caused by misogyny including what more could be done to tackle the underlying attitudes that lead to misogyny and gender based abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ending conversion practices. We will continue to develop our draft legislation and policy towards ending these harmful practices in Scotland. Engagement will continue with the UK government for a Bill covering England, Wales and Scotland. However, if this approach cannot be agreed, then we commit to publishing our own Bill in Year 1 of the next Parliamentary session.

Scottish Government Bills currently in Parliament

• Care Reform
• Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty)
• Community Wealth Building
• Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews
• Education
• Housing
• Land Reform
• Leases (Automatic Continuation etc.)
• Natural Environment
• Regulation of Legal Services
• Scottish Languages
• Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance)
• UEFA European Championship
• Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform

Scottish Government Bills passed this session

• Aggregates Tax and Devolved Taxes Administration
• Agricultural and Rural Communities
• Bail and Release from Custody
• Bankruptcy and Diligence
• Budget
• Budget (No.2)
• Budget (No.3)
• Budget (No.4)
• Carer’s Allowance Supplement
• Charities (Regulation and Administration)
• Children (Care and Justice)
• Circular Economy
• Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets)
• Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation)
• Coronavirus (Extension and Expiry)
• Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform)
• Cost of Living (Tenant Protection)
• Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles
• Gender Recognition Reform
• Gender Representation on Public Boards (Amendment)
• Good Food Nation
• Housing (Cladding Remediation)
• Hunting with Dogs
• Judicial Factors
• Miners' Strike (Pardons)
• Moveable Transactions
• Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus)
• Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland
• Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny)
• Post Office (Horizon System) Offences
• Prisoners (Early Release)
• Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform)
• Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Foreign Nationals)
• Social Security (Amendment)
• Transvaginal Mesh Removal Cost Reimbursement
• Trusts and Succession
• Visitor Levy
• Wildlife Management and Muirburn

NHS Boards have exceeded the commitment to deliver 64,000 appointments and procedures in 2024-25, funded through our additional investment of £30 million to drive action to address the longest waits.

In 2024-25, Boards were required to provide regular management information to the Scottish Government on activity being delivered as a result of additional funding provided. Boards have reported delivery of 105,500 appointments and procedures, as follows:

Over 15,800 new outpatient appointments;

almost 10,700 surgeries; and

almost 79,000 diagnostic procedures delivered.

This total is around 30,000 more than reported to the end of January in the answer to question S6W-35115 on 20 February 2025.

Funding was targeted in specialties including Diagnostics, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Urology, and Cancer. Since April 2024, Scottish Government has been closely monitoring progress and impact. The volume of diagnostic procedures is almost double those originally planned for.

Across Scotland, the latest published data in the PHS Stage of Treatment Statistics show that, between October 2024 and December 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, there has been an 2.0% increase in activity for inpatient/daycase procedures and 1.6% increase for new outpatients appointments. Additionally, in relation to diagnostics, at the end of December 2024, the diagnostic waiting list had reduced by over 18,000 compared to end of April 2024. Since December 2022 the diagnostic waiting list has reduced by over 14,870. While changes to overall activity and waiting times cannot be solely attributed to the £30 million additional investment, we are confident that it has supported increased throughput.

At Board level, we have seen reductions in waiting times across a number of specialities where funding has been targeted, as set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a just transition to net zero in the region. That is why we are launching a new 2025-26 open bidding round of £8.5 million for projects for the North East and Moray Just Transition Fund. Applications will open on 6 May 2025.

This is a capital Fund and forms part of our ongoing delivery of a 10-year programme of support. Since 2022, the Just Transition Fund has allocated over £75 million to create jobs, support innovation, empower communities, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. We have recently undertaken an independent evaluation of the Fund that is nearing completion and will be published shortly. Its findings point to the real impact of the Fund in providing momentum to just transition in the region during its first two years of operation, especially in leveraging additional investment.

For the Fund’s second open bidding round, we will focus on projects that particularly support jobs, skills, and economic opportunities. This reflects our mission to ensure the Fund is responsive to the identified needs of the region and continues to maximise the impact of our investment for business and communities.

We will also be continuing delivery of projects currently supported through the Fund. This includes our annual commitment to £1 million for community projects through Just Transition Participatory Budgeting, giving communities a direct say on where money is spent in their area. It will also include the continuation of the Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund delivered through ETZ Ltd, which is primarily aimed at SMEs and awards grant funding to accelerate innovation and market entry, support business growth, create new jobs, and increase turnover.

In total £15.9 million will be delivered through the Fund over the next year, sending a clear signal of our ongoing commitment to a just transition for both the North East and Moray.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a just transition to net zero in the region. That is why we are launching a new 2025-26 open bidding round of
£8.5 million for projects for the North East and Moray Just Transition Fund. Applications will open on 6 May 2025.

This is a capital Fund and forms part of our ongoing delivery of a 10-year programme of support. Since 2022, the Just Transition Fund has allocated over £75 million to create jobs, support innovation, empower communities, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. We have recently undertaken an independent evaluation of the Fund that is nearing completion and will be published shortly. Its findings point to the real impact of the Fund in providing momentum to just transition in the region during its first two years of operation, especially in leveraging additional investment.

For the Fund’s second open bidding round, we will focus on projects that particularly support jobs, skills, and economic opportunities. This reflects our mission to ensure the Fund is responsive to the identified needs of the region and continues to maximise the impact of our investment for business and communities.

We will also be continuing delivery of projects currently supported through the Fund. This includes our annual commitment to £1 million for community projects through Just Transition Participatory Budgeting, giving communities a direct say on where money is spent in their area. It will also include the continuation of the Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund delivered through ETZ Ltd, which is primarily aimed at SMEs and awards grant funding to accelerate innovation and market entry, support business growth, create new jobs, and increase turnover.

In total £15.9 million will be delivered through the Fund over the next year, sending a clear signal of our ongoing commitment to a just transition for both the North East and Moray.

We are working at pace to develop the systems needed to effectively mitigate the two-child cap in 2026. We recently carried out an online consultation to inform policy development and are engaging with the Department for Work and Pensions to develop the necessary systems and data sharing arrangements needed to deliver the payments effectively. Impact assessments will be published in due course to inform Parliament’s consideration of the required legislation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that finances remain on a sustainable trajectory and that we continue to reach a balanced position each year. We will continue to take forward our strategy for doing this, which will be updated in the next Medium Term Financial Strategy due to be published later this year, alongside the fiscal sustainability delivery plan.

Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is expected to leverage additional private investment of up to £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the offshore wind sector.

We are almost tripling our capital funding in offshore wind to £150 million in 2025-26. This strategic investment is being delivered through the Scottish National Investment Bank and our enterprise agencies, with public funds leveraging additional investment.

We welcome the commitment of developers to invest an average projection of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project across the 20 ScotWind offshore wind projects through the Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) process. We expect developers to honour their SCDS commitments, which were a condition of their being awarded Option Agreements.

Over the past five years, there have been four fires at a battery recycling centre, six at electronic recycling centres, and thirty nine at conventional recycling centres for a total of forty three fires overall.

The following table breaks down these incidents by centre type and year:

Zero Waste Scotland is currently conducting research on soft plastic recycling to understand collection and processing opportunities. The outputs of this research are expected to be available in the summer of 2025.

As head of the system of prosecutions in Scotland, I have primary responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences in Scotland.

I have, along with Procurators Fiscal, who hold commissions on my behalf, legal authority to instruct the police in their investigation and reporting of crime and all suspicious, sudden and unexplained deaths, both under the common law and on a statutory basis.

Instruction of the police can take the form of Lord Advocate Guidelines to the Chief Constable to inform of approaches to be taken by the police in specified circumstances. Equally, instruction and direction may be issued in relation to specific matters in the context of ongoing liaison between the police and Procurators Fiscal who can instruct the police during the course of investigations and when further investigation is required in a case. Instruction of the police is a continuous process in the discharge of the Lord Advocate’s duties as regards the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences in Scotland.

In general, if the police consider that there is insufficient evidence of a crime being committed, they will not make a report to the Procurator Fiscal. In some instances, particularly in more serious cases, where police are not sure there is sufficient evidence that a crime had been committed, they may report the matter to the Procurator Fiscal for advice and direction. This structure recognises the expertise of the police in investigating crime, the responsibility of prosecutors in respect of the investigation of crime, and the independence of prosecutorial decision-making.

As is referenced in the answer to S6W-36157 on 2 May 2025, instruction and direction may be issued in relation to specific matters in the context of ongoing liaison between the police and Procurators Fiscal who can instruct the police during the course of investigations and when further investigation is required in a case. Instruction of the police is a continuous process in the discharge of the Lord Advocate’s duties as regards the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences in Scotland.

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

I would refer to the answer provided in respect of S6W-36157 on 2 May 2025 as regards my role as head of the system of prosecutions in Scotland and direction of the police.

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