Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressures on housebuilding and the importance of building more homes. We are aware of opposition from industry to the Scottish Building Safety Levy (SBSL). However, no immediate alternative solutions are being offered to address the scale of the funding challenge associated with cladding remediation. With developers contributing to cladding remediation in England through a Building Safety Levy, the Scottish Government considers it fair and proportionate that they are asked to do the same in Scotland.

We do not have plans at this stage to ask SFRS to become a statutory consultee in planning processes for these sites however, we will of course continue discussions with SFRS on this matter as and when appropriate.

SFRS have outlined they continually review and develop their operational response to any new and emerging technology to keep communities safe and are committed to work in collaboration with key partners to ensure the highest level of preparedness for potential incidents involving lithium-ion batteries or similar storage facilities.

The Scottish Government welcomes the findings from Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) report on chimeric antibody receptor therapies (CAR-T) for haematological malignancies. The report, which is a collaboration between PHS and the Cancer Medicines Outcomes Programme (CMOP), describes the impact and clinical outcomes of cancer medicines in the real world and can be used to both analyse the outcomes from CAR-T therapies across Scotland and assist with planning future treatment pathways.

The report demonstrates that by developing, and refining, a robust and reliable process cancer medicines intelligence may be routinely generated to support informed decision making at individual, local, and national levels. The data assists healthcare professionals to understand the real-life impact of cancer medicines, supports clinical decision making by enabling a more individualised approach to the provision of cancer care using CAR-T therapies and helps ensure the safe and effective use of these complex medicines.

The Annual Participation Measure is published by Skills Development Scotland. This publication began in 2016. The Scottish Borders local authority data is available in supplementary table 1.7a – https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/statistics/annual-participation-measure.

Protecting children from harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government. Child sexual abuse and exploitation are abhorrent crimes and have a devastating impact on victims and their families. In Scotland, we are working closely with partners to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation in all its forms. We are committed to ensuring that robust measures are in place across Scotland to make sure our services can identify and support victims of online harm, including children and young people.

We are taking forward a range of work with our partners to both prevent abuse and intervene early to ensure that risk and harm to children and young people is recognised and acted on quickly and effectively. This includes the establishment of a new National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group, comprising of operational partners, including Police Scotland, and other expert stakeholders, to review current action and agree where additional focus is needed to better protect children from abuse and exploitation, including online-enabled harm. This group’s overarching priority is prevention. Members are working together to identify priorities and actions to more effectively prevent, disrupt and provide support to victims of child sexual abuse and their families, including those facing online harms.

The Scottish Government is also a member of Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Group on Preventing Online Child Sexual Abuse which monitors emerging online threats to develop a shared approach to using technological advancements to tackle abuse, improve data-gathering, improve support for victims and survivors and promote key activities delivered by our partners.

While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people. The Scottish Government is also working closely with the UK Government on extending relevant Crime and Policing Bill provisions to Scotland, including offences relating to the possession, creation and distribution of Artificial Intelligence tools designed to create child sexual abuse material.

It is also important to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms in protecting children and young people. This is why I met Ofcom in August and again last week alongside the Minister for Community Safety to ensure pressure is put on tech companies to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, including the need for more prescriptive guidance to providers. The First Minister wrote directly to tech firms last year to remind them of their responsibilities and, alongside the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, I recently wrote to social media companies to invite them to meet to discuss the protection of children and young people from online harm.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on implementation of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service meet on a regular basis to discuss the data that SCTS publish monthly in terms of court business. The current publication is showing the number of outstanding scheduled trials at the end of May 2025 is 18,355.

The Scottish Government has made available record funding of £15.1 billion for Local Government in 2025-26. The vast majority of funding allocated to councils is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including meeting the requirements set out in the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (CoPLAR). No additional direct funding has been provided to local councils for the implementation of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. However, we have funded Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver targeted interventions with councils and communities, and SEPA is working in partnership with councils on flytipping prevention and enforcement.

This approach aims to trial scalable solutions and share good practice across local authorities as the Strategy progresses.

The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, published in 2023, recognises the importance of supporting behaviour change so that individuals, communities, and organisations are more aware of the problems caused by litter, understand their responsibilities and are motivated to act responsibly.

Behaviour change is being promoted through a range of ongoing actions, including the Community Litter Hub, community-led interventions, and localised communication activities delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular impact of flytipping on rural and remote areas and is taking steps to address this through National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. The Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) is represented on the Strategy’s Delivery Group to ensure rural issues are considered and reflected in implementation plans.

Relevant actions include the Private Landowners Grant Fund, administered by Zero Waste Scotland, which ran for two years and supported a number of applicants with measures such as fencing, surveillance cameras and signage to help prevent repeat flytipping incidents. Support is also provided to rural local authorities and communities through enforcement collaboration, data-sharing and best practice exchange coordinated by the Strategy delivery partners.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has been provided with grants of £620,000 from Zero Waste Scotland and Scottish Government in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to deliver aspects of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy focused on litter prevention, data improvement and supporting community engagement, In relation to community engagement, this supports the Community Litter Hub, provides training and engagement opportunities, and delivers community-led interventions to tackle litter arising from food and drink ‘on-the-go' and roadside litter.

In addition, the Private Landowners Grant Fund, administered by Zero Waste Scotland, provided targeted support to prevent flytipping on private land in 2023–24 and 2024-25. In 2023-24 has supported some community-based interventions. For example, Govanhill Housing Association received £19,960 to undertake improvements to 5 local flytipping hotspots by repurposing the areas affected and promoting this to residents, installing motion sensitive lighting and signage as well as working with residents to encourage appropriate behaviour.