Chamber and committees

I refer the member to our recently published Climate Change Plan Update Monitoring Report for 2025, which shows our progress against the individual policies in the agriculture and land use sectors.

The most recent Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics from 2022 show that, compared to the 1990 baseline, emissions in land use are down 96.3% and agriculture is down 11.9%. The Climate Change Committee’s recent carbon budget advice to the Scottish Government projects that agriculture will form a part of our residual emissions to 2045, to be offset by land use sinks and engineered removals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37886 on 4 June 2025. 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

Cross-Party Groups provide an opportunity for MSPs to engage with external stakeholders on a particular subject or issue and many MSPs then raise those in Parliament or with the Government.

I refer the member to the question and response to S6W-37656 on 10 June 2025.

As acknowledged, individuals have an opportunity to rate their cancer experiences through the Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES). The 2024 survey results highlight that 95% of people are positive about their overall experience.

Whilst this indicates that we are progressing towards our aim and ambition of putting people with cancer at the heart of all decisions and actions involving them, Scottish Government understands that there are still areas in which we can improve further, including for people with gynaecological cancer.

Our Framework for Effective Cancer Management has recently been refreshed to include Patient Voice and User Experience as a key element of the framework ensuring that patient feedback to improve cancer pathways is continuously reviewed.

We continue to invest in initiatives that support earlier and faster diagnosis and drive person-centred and holistic care to improve patient experience. NHS Boards are responsible for the delivery of their services, and we engage on an ongoing basis with them to identify and develop new actions or approaches that will improve the experiences of those diagnosed with cancer.

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

Transport Scotland is responsible for Blue Badge legislation. However, local authorities are wholly responsible for the scheme from application, administration through to enforcement.

While Transport Scotland does not explicitly define the way in which local authorities must publicise these services, Transport Scotland continues to work closely with local Blue Badge teams and reiterates the need for paper application forms, and for local authorities to raise the awareness of help offered locally to those who may need additional support during the application process.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of vacancies in local authority planning services. The resourcing and staffing of planning services is a matter for individual local authorities.

Recognising the financial and capacity pressures on the planning system, the National Planning Hub is offering support to authorities including capacity and access to expertise to help them determine applications for renewable energy and housing projects.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing support and guidance to the agricultural sector to adopt low-carbon farming practices, while meeting the changing needs of farmers and crofters. This includes financial support for carbon audits, soil testing, and animal health and welfare measures through the Preparing for Sustainable Farming initiative.

Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service, The Monitor Farm Programme, Agri-Environment Climate Scheme, and Integrating Trees Network offer financial support, provide practical advice, guidance, and skill development opportunities while showcasing the positive impacts of taking action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Our small and tenant farmers are also able to access this.

Skills, knowledge, training, and Continuing Professional Development for our agricultural sector will be a key component of the Tier 4 complementary support in the Vision of Agriculture support package beyond 2025, which will come into effect on 1 April 2027 and work continues to develop this.

NHS Scotland will introduce a new vaccination programme which offers protection against gonorrhoea from August 2025. This targeted opportunistic programme is specifically aimed at Gay, Bisexual and other Men who have Sex with Men (GBMSM) who are at increased risk of gonorrhoea. Clinicians may also offer vaccination to a small number of individuals at equivalent risk outside of the primary GBMSM cohort who they identify as being at on-going risk.

There are a range of ways in which the Scottish Government provides an enabling framework for land use change to align with biodiversity and water quality goals, the key ones being the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), the Strategic Framework for Biodiversity, the Land Use Strategy (LUS) and River Basin Management Planning (RBMP).

NPF 4 is explicit in putting tackling the twin climate and nature crises at the heart of the Land Use Planning System. The requirement to consider the impacts on biodiversity of proposals going through the planning process is enshrined not only in Policy 3 Biodiversity and Policy 4 Natural Places, but across several other policies, including Policy 5 Soils, Policy 9 Brownfield sites and Policy 20 Blue and Green Infrastructure. NPF4 also highlights the importance of improvements to the water environment to support community resilience to flooding, and highlights the importance of high-quality blue infrastructure to support a range of ecosystem services across several policy areas.

The Scottish Government’s Land Use Strategy supports our ambition to achieve sustainable land use in Scotland. The third Strategy was published in March 2021 and resets our focus on the integrated nature of land use by showcasing the range benefits we get from our land, including biodiversity and water quality. The initial development of Scotland’s fourth Land Use Strategy began in late 2024, with the final strategy due for publication by the end of March 2026.

Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity sets out our ambition and plans to halt the loss of nature by 2030 and make significant progress to restoring nature by 2045. This Strategic Frameworks sets out how the actions required to halt biodiversity loss and promote nature recovery are being embedded across a wide range of land use and wider policies, for example, the Agricultural Reform Programme which seeks to support our farming and food production sectors to become a world leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. The focus of support will be to deliver high quality food production, climate mitigation and adaptation, and nature restoration.

Scotland’s third River Basin Management Plans, which are covered in the Land Use strategy, set out objectives and actions to protect and improve our Water Environment and aim to ensure that 92% of the water environment has a good or better classification for water quality by 2027.

Preventing deterioration in the quality of the water environment is a key part of River Basin Management Planning. SEPA supports RBMP objectives, including by regulating sectors and activities that can affect the water environment through The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Anyone intending to carry out any activity that may affect Scotland’s water environment must abide by regulations and, if necessary, obtain an authorisation to proceed.

Latest statistics published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) in March 2025, includes data on cervical and ovarian cancer waiting times, between 1st October and 31st December 2024.

This data shows that 96.6% of women with cervical cancer and 98.4% of women with ovarian cancer are receiving their first treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat. This compares with 94.7% for all other cancer types. This is a median wait of 14 and 13 days respectively, with 4 days being the median for all other cancer types.

51.7% of women with cervical cancer and 73.3% of women with ovarian cancer are receiving their first treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral of cancer. This compares to 73.5% for all other cancer types. This is a median wait of 62 and 50 days respectively, with 49 days being the median for all other cancer types.

Scottish Government is continuing to take action to improve waiting times, with £14.23 million of the £106 million planned care funding made available in 2025-26 across NHS Scotland, directed towards Cancer Waiting Times.