Chamber and committees

Information on the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry’s (SCAI) trauma informed approach to taking evidence is available on its’s website - Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry | Investigating the abuse of children in care in Scotland. SCAI have adopted a Trauma-Informed Approach, guided by specialist input and the NHS Education for Scotland's Trauma-Informed Justice and Skills Framework for working with victims and witnesses.

In the year 2025/26 all procedures at National Treatment Centres (NTCs) will be cataract surgery. NTCs will not provide glaucoma such as trabecular bypasses. The treatment centres are focusing on delivering higher volume surgery in cataract only lists due to the volume of surgery required. If patients require cataract surgery and an additional procedure they will usually have that surgery undertaken in their Health Board of residence with an Ophthalmologist who specialises in the particular sub-specialty outwith cataracts i.e. Glaucoma.

Forestry in Scotland is guided by the principles of sustainable forestry management set out in the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) requirements and guidelines and must also operate within the legal requirements regarding biodiversity and wider environmental impacts. Scottish Forestry is the Scottish Government’s agency tasked with regulation and policy advice for forestry. Any felling must either comply with a felling permission granted by SF or be carried out as part of an approved long term management plan. Techniques, such as whole tree harvesting, are only suitable on certain sites and guidance is available to ensure that it is carried out in a sustainable manner. All new woodland creation projects are assessed against the evidence-based UKFS which represents the governments approach to sustainable forestry.

A number of stakeholders with an interest in the outcome of the court case were offered 15-minute meetings with myself immediately following the ruling. For Women Scotland declined a meeting at that time. They subsequently attended a meeting with myself on 22 May for a 45-minute meeting. For Women Scotland have also subsequently met with officials.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of skills provision to realising the potential of Project Willow, and to securing an industrial future for Grangemouth more widely. We are prioritising skills development through the Grangemouth Just Transition Plan which will be published shortly.

This complements the support the Scottish Government is providing to Grangemouth refinery workers to retrain into in-demand industries, including those associated with Project Willow.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), like all public inquiries, is independent of all organisations including the Scottish Government. Under s17 of the Inquiries Act, procedure and conduct of the inquiry is a matter for the Chair. The appointment of inquiry staff is a matter for the SCAI.

To the extent such systems are addressed under Scottish Building regulations, such provisions form part of the current review of energy standards.

This review will consult on detailed proposals for change later this year, with the intent of confirming changes in mid 2026 and implementing them in early 2028.

Any project developer will have to satisfy environmental and planning regulations throughout the project lifecycle.

The proposed national Good Food Nation Plan must be laid in Parliament on or before 29 June 2025. The date on which the expiry of the 60 day scrutiny period will fall will depend on the date on which the proposed national Good Food Nation Plan is laid before Parliament. A minimum of 30 of the 60 days must be days on which the Parliament is not in recess or dissolved.

The Scottish Government has no plans to publish a separate dedicated strategy for scaling up ecosystem-based approaches to climate mitigation, as these issues are addressed in our Biodiversity Strategy and Climate Change Plans.

Our Biodiversity Strategy and Climate Change Plans include policies to develop healthy and restored ecosystems with landscape scale nature-based initiatives, contributing to our nature and climate targets. This is an effective framework for policy, and we have recently announced that Scotland's Peatland ACTION partnership has put 14,860 hectares of degraded peatlands on the road to recovery last year, which represents a new record in one year.