Chamber and committees

Our fourth National Planning Framework (NEF) is a long-term plan looking to 2045 that guides spatial development, sets out national planning policies, designates national developments and highlights regional spatial priorities.

Planning authorities are preparing new local development plans, which will be to take forward NPF4 in a way which responds to local challenges and opportunities. NPF4 Policy 22, flood risk and water management, sets out the need to strengthen resilience to flood risk by promoting avoidance as a first principle and reducing the vulnerability of existing and future development to flooding. NPF4 Policy 22 exception iv states that redevelopment of previously used sites in built up areas will only be supported where the LDP has identified a need to bring these into positive use and where proposals demonstrate that long-term safety and resilience can be secured in accordance with relevant SEPA advice.

In 2019 the Scottish Government and COSLA agreed to adopt the Place Principle to help overcome organisational and sectoral boundaries, to encourage better collaboration and community involvement, and improve the impact of combined energy, resources and investment.

It promotes a shared understanding of place, and the need to take a more collaborative approach to a place’s services and assets to achieve better outcomes for people and communities. The principle encourages and enables local flexibility to respond to issues and circumstances in different places.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) embeds and promotes the Place Principle, to ensure all land-use planning decisions take account of place and local circumstances, including flooding. The NPF4 also encourages the use of the Place Standard tool in the early stages of planning, to ensure that the needs and priorities of local communities are incorporated, and for developers to demonstrate how the Place Principle has been incorporated into their proposals.

The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.

This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.

Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.

As I set out in answer to question S6W-31933 on 16 December 2024, the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group is comprised of the Chief Executives of most of the independent Scottish hospices and their key partners and is not a Scottish Government group. As such, we do not hold minutes of the group or have summaries of the discussions held.

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

We assume the question refers to the recent analytical report, Storm Overflows in Scotland, published by Environmental Standards Scotland.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) considers 87% of our water environment to be high or good quality - up from 82% in 2014.

Measures and regulations to protect and improve water quality are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain appropriate. This includes, for example, considering changes to European legislation and the introduction of new environmental standards. The Scottish Government is committed to alignment where it is in the interests of Scotland to do so and is considering the new rules (Directive 2024/3019) on the treatment of Urban Wastewater which came into force on 1 January 2025. This Directive seeks to further protect the environment by driving improvements to the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater. We also recently issued directions to SEPA that update the Environmental Quality Standards, which underpin our efforts to protect and where necessary improve the water environment.

In addition, Scotland’s River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) is our route map for protecting and improving the water environment. SEPA is responsible for developing the RBMP, which is reviewed and updated every six years. SEPA has published a statement which sets out the steps it will take to engage stakeholders in reviewing and updating the RBMP for Scotland over the next three years. SEPA’s statement is available here: SEPA | River Basin Management Planning in Scotland, Statement of Consultation Steps

As set out in our recently published National Flood Resilience Strategy, we are considering how farmers can be supported to make changes to handle extremes in water availability; for example, through improving soil management practices. We continue to work with stakeholders to make the most of existing financial support for farmers to adapt to a changing climate for the good of the farm itself, and the wider public good, as well as exploring opportunities offered by the Agricultural Reform Programme.

Existing financial support includes the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) which was launched in 2015 to promote land management practices which protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality, manage flood risk and mitigate and adapt to climate change. Last year alone £4 million of funding was made available through AECS to fund irrigation lagoons. As well as support for the restoration of natural riverbank profiles and intertidal habitats through the AECS, support to restore flood plains which can provide space for flood water to be stored was also included; helping to reduce flood risk downstream.

Agricultural businesses also have a range of support available to them on water management through the Farm Advisory Service. This includes: events, peer-to-peer groups, videos, podcasts, technical notes, advice line support and up to £5,860 funding for bespoke consultancy support.

The budget for the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund was set in the Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 at £11.5 million for financial year 2024-25. The settlement of £12.8 million, as published on 4 December in the Scottish Budget, relates to the next financial year 2025-26.

Over the course of 2024, we have continued to launch new programming following a series of competitive calls for proposals, as well as continuing to fund some existing long-term initiatives:

In Inclusive Education, we are funding: scholarships for women and girls in Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, and Pakistan; and a programme which aims to remove barriers to quality education for out-of-school children with disabilities and additional support needs in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. See our webpages for more detail: Inclusive education - International development - gov.scot

In Health, our projects focus on tackling non-communicable diseases – the world’s leading cause of death – by building stronger health systems in Malawi, Zambia, and Rwanda. See our webpages for more detail: Global health - International development - gov.scot,

In Equalities, in March we launched our Women and Girls Fund which will support the advancement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in our partner countries. We have additionally continued our support for the Police Scotland Peer-to-Peer Partnership Programme with the Police Services of Malawi and Zambia. See our webpages for more detail: Equalities - International development - gov.scot.

We continue to support the work of four networking organisations as part of our support for global citizenship in Scotland: the Malawi Scotland Partnership, and their sister organisation the Scotland Malawi Partnership, Scotland’s International Development Alliance, and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. See our webpages for more detail: Global solidarity and citizenship - International development - gov.scot.

Through the Humanitarian Emergency Fund, we have provided provide lifesaving assistance to vulnerable communities in the Middle East, Sudan and neighbouring countries, Kenya, Southern Africa, Libya, as well as in our partner countries of Malawi and Zambia. See our webpages for more detail: Humanitarian response - International development - gov.scot.

Finally, the Scottish Government’s Global Renewables Centre has continued to drive innovation in renewables across Scotland and our African partner countries. See our webpages for more detail: Renewable energy - International development - gov.scot.

Please also see the Scottish Government Contribution to international development 2021 to 2023, which provides a holistic look at a wide cross-section of our international development activity during calendar years 2021-23, as well as providing (c11) details of our future programmes from 2024 onwards.

The National Flood Resilience Strategy commits to seek new flood resilience partners across the public, private and third sector and seek to influence policy across sectors who can contribute to creating flood resilient places.

In developing the Strategy the Scottish Government undertook an extensive programme of engagement with a range of flood risk management stakeholders and communities over 2023 and 2024. This included engagement at the annual Flood Resilience Conference in February 2024 attended by a range of public and private sector organisations.

More widely in November 2024 Scottish Government launched Scotland’s Natural Capital Market Framework which outlines the steps we will take to attract greater responsible private investment into high-integrity natural capital projects – including those that improve flood resilience.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32614 on 14 January 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.

SEPA are responsible for flood forecasting and warning in Scotland and continually develop this service. They work in partnership with the Met Office to forecast for flooding and operate Floodline in Scotland to warn emergency responders, and the public, when flooding is likely.

The Scottish Government collaborates with and funds academics and research institutions through its Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Strategic Research Programme (SRP) 2022-2027. There are mechanisms within the programme used specifically for work on flood resilience. For example, the CREW Centre of Expertise for Waters provides the Scottish Government and its agencies access to water related (including flooding) expertise from Scottish Higher Education Institutes and Research Institutes. Recent CREW research commissions include work on is on improving flood forecasting in catchments influenced by reservoirs. The SRP also funds longer term strategic research including a five year research project on nature-based solutions at the James Hutton Institute.