Chamber and committees

Both Ministers and officials engage regularly with faith groups, Muslim community organisations and third sector partners across Scotland, including in Edinburgh and the Lothians, to understand local concerns and strengthen community safety and resilience.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage regularly with faith communities through established mechanisms, including the Faith and Belief Representatives Group, alongside targeted roundtables and stakeholder engagement, ensuring that their views inform policy development and responses to emerging issues.

Work is currently progressing on the next phase of Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy, and we are taking steps to ensure that the experiences and priorities of those most affected by hate crime, including faith communities, help to shape its development.

The Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism Delivery Plan 2026–2030 sets out a cross-government approach to tackling structural and systemic racism, with the aim of creating a Scotland where equity, justice, dignity and respect are upheld for all. The Plan responds to calls for practical action, long-term systemic change and stronger accountability, embedding anti-racism across government through clear governance and lived experience leadership. Establishment of the Anti-Racism Observatory further supports this, and works closely with affected communities and uses evidence to inform priorities and action.

The Scottish Government has not prepared its own analysis to assess the proportion of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions attributable to rail transport. However that information is available publicly.

ScotRail Spirit of Scotland pass is aimed at leisure travellers, with morning timing restrictions in place to encourage travel at quieter times out with busy commuting times.

For those who wish to travel earlier, we’ve reduced the cost of rail travel by removing ScotRail peak fares for good, saving 17% on average on previously peak fares. We’ve also frozen rail fares this year. Given these significant savings already in place for rail passengers before 9:15 am, we have no plans to review the conditions of the Spirit of Scotland pass.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01261 on 9 July 2026. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01261 on 9 July 2026. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01245 on 9 July 2026. 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.

The Scottish Government condemns all forms of religiously motivated violence and is clear that communities affected by reported attacks targeting Muslims should feel safe, supported and resilient.

We have established strong working relationships with Muslim communities across Scotland, and we continue to engage with communities to ensure appropriate support and reassurance is in place.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that engagement reflects the diversity within affected communities. We continue to strengthen and build on these relationships and our networks to ensure these voices are heard.

Work is progressing on the next phase of Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy, and we are taking steps to ensure that this is informed by these stakeholders. Alongside this, we will continue to consider how our engagement and resilience work can best support communities and respond to emerging issues.

We will continue to work closely with partners at both local and national level to ensure that our approach remains cohesive.

The Scottish Government is clear that racism, Islamophobia and all forms of hatred and prejudice have no place in Scotland, including when expressed online. Social media companies have a fundamental responsibility to enforce their own rules, prevent harmful content from being amplified and protect users from harm. That responsibility must be backed by robust regulation.

It is essential that Ofcom is able to use its full regulatory powers to hold platforms to account when they fail in their responsibilities. We recognise concerns about the role that algorithmic systems can play in promoting and amplifying harmful content, and support effective regulatory oversight that ensures platforms are transparent about risks and take appropriate mitigating action. The Scottish Government recently attended the Ofcom Scotland Advisory Council meeting in Aberdeen where officials presented on the work of our Online Safety Taskforce and Action Plan, our main mechanism to coordinate work in this area.

We welcome that Ofcom has taken up the issue of regulation of spikes in illegal content during periods of public disorder by strengthening their codes of practice on Illegal Content and the Protection of Children. The amendments ask service providers to prepare and apply a crisis protocol to mitigate and manage the risks arising from a significant increase in relevant illegal content and/or content harmful to children on their services. This is a priority for the Scottish Government and we are keen to remain informed on the effectiveness of these measures.

While regulation of the internet remains reserved, we have consistent and robust engagement with UK Ministers and Ofcom to strengthen a range of online protections, including as part of the Online Safety Act 2023.

The Scottish Government unequivocally condemns all forms of hatred and prejudice, including hate speech and the incitement of racial or religious hatred online. We are clear that behaviour which targets individuals or communities on the basis of their protected characteristics is unacceptable, whether it takes place offline or online. We would encourage the reporting of such behaviour to Police Scotland.

There are already a range of offences that can be used to prosecute threatening behaviour online. These include the offence of ‘threatening or abusive behaviour’ which has been in force since 2010 and criminalises behaving in a threatening or abusive manner that would be likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm. Other offences include breach of the peace, the common law offence of threats and the offence of ‘improper use of a public electronic communications network’ at section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. Additionally, the offences of stirring up racial or religious hatred and racially aggravated harassment in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 are enforceable.

Scottish Ministers are committed to reforming our public sector to ensure the delivery of excellent public services in a fiscally sustainable manner. Delivering such services is core to the government’s mission. The role of Public Service Reform is to deliver that mission, building confidence that the government is on Scotland’s side and can be trusted to take the next step in our constitutional journey.

Any reform of ferry services will be taken forward as part of this and will involve engagement with stakeholders. Parliament will be updated on any decisions in the normal fashion.