Chamber and committees

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

This process is continuing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

The Agenda for Change pay deal focuses on rewarding staff such as nurses, midwives, paramedics, porters and others for the dedication and effort they provide to NHS Scotland. Delivering a renewed and stronger NHS is a key commitment for the Scottish Government and at the heart of that are our hard-working healthcare staff who we want to ensure feel valued and rewarded.

The Scottish Government recognise that workforce and pay costs driven by a period of prolonged high inflation are now contributing to significant budget pressures across health and social care, the wider Scottish Government budget and the whole of the public sector. This Government has been clear that the extent of these challenges will not be addressed in a single year and we will continue to make the tough choices necessary to support sustainable public finances, whilst also seeking to minimise the impact on frontline services as far as possible.

Local authorities are public bodies and can only place certain people on their allocation schemes or waiting lists for housing, this is set out in legislation, and immigration status is a consideration. There is however no legislation requiring Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to consider immigration status when allocating social housing. RSLs are independent organisations regulated by the Scottish Housing Regulator who must make their decisions to allocate housing within the law and according to their own policies. However a RSL would discuss rent, affordability, income and benefit entitlement with any prospective tenant, before making an offer.

I am sorry that anyone has had to wait to receive their transcript due to delays in the pilot scheme for transcripts. We have been working closely with Scottish Court and Tribunal Service to address the issues that have been raised in a minority of these applications. SCTS have now written to applicants to provide them with an update on their application and to advise that they will provide regular updates every three weeks. Changes have also been made to their website to provide clearer information about expected timescales and the updates that will be provided.

The first meeting of the Glen Rosa review group was held on 10 April 2025.

The Scottish Government’s quota application initiative for West of Scotland cod has awarded quota to 35 Scottish vessels. These applications seek to incentivise the use of selective fishing gear and fishing techniques or vessels with a reduced impact on the environment.

Regarding the use of selective fishing gear: across 35 vessels there is a wide range of gear configurations, some examples of gear to be used by successful applicants include:

• Vessels greater than 12 metres in length operating with bottom trawls or nets with catches comprising more than 10% of haddock, cod and skates and rays combined using a cod end in excess of the 120mm minimum.
• Vessels with catches comprising more than 30% of Norway lobster using a mesh size between 100-119mm and a square mesh panel in excess of the 160mm minimum.
• Engaging in area-based selectivity, where if vessels encounter shoals of fish below the minimum conservation reference size, they alert other vessels and move on.
• Use of long-lines.

Regarding the use of fishing techniques or vessels with a reduced impact on the environment, successful applicants provided information covering these areas:

• Modern vessels or engine upgrades leading to improved fuel efficiency.
• The use of Tori lines, acoustic deterrents, brightly coloured nets or particular gear deployment strategies to minimise interactions with non-target species such as seabirds and cetaceans.
• Use of refrigerants with reduced Global Warming Potential.
• Use of smaller or semi-pelagic trawl doors.
• Use of shorter ground gear.
• Landing catches into West of Scotland ports.
• Litter and waste management and identifying circular economy destinations for waste products.

The commitments for peatland restoration and woodland creation have not reduced for 2025-26.

The 2025 Programme for Government commits to restoring 12,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands and creating at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands, including at least 4,000 hectares of native woodland.

The 2024 Programme for Government committed to restoring 10,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands. The woodland creation commitment in 2024-25 was the same as for 2025-26.

Improving public services and delivering a more efficient, effective and appropriately sized public sector workforce is a key priority for this government.

We published a detailed update to Finance and Public Administration Committee on 19 December 2023 setting out a public service reform plan. Further updates were provided on 23 September 2024 and 21 December 2024, and we are committed to providing the Committee with 6 monthly updates on the programme. We will shortly publish our Public Service Reform Strategy which will build upon our existing commitment and set out our priorities for reform. This will focus on how the Scottish Government will enable system change to drive the scale and pace of reform.

Changes to the shape and size of our public sector workforce will be done in partnership with employers and trade unions, based on our aims of providing high quality, sustainable public services for the people of Scotland.

All Civil Servants working for Scottish Government follow annual performance management procedures, including regular evaluation of performance and feedback wherever they work.

As part of a recent review of hybrid working, officials noted that there are few independent research empirical studies about hybrid working of a sufficient academic standing. Of those studies that were of a high standard and have been conducted recently, findings indicate that some form of hybrid working can lead to improved or the same performance levels compared to office working only.