Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government takes the quality of Scotland’s drinking water very seriously, with drinking water standards prescribed in the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014, as amended. These Regulations reflect the standards set out in the EU’s recast Drinking Water Directive which follows the public health advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As the WHO has concluded that there is no need to establish a health-based guideline value for asbestos in drinking water, there are no prescribed limits in the Regulations. Should that advice be amended, the Scottish Government will review its position.

The Scottish Government is committed that extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) should cover the full net costs of both binned and ground litter cleanup and disposal, and to its introduction in regulations as soon as practicable. However, binned and ground littered household packaging cleanup and disposal costs are not yet included in disposal cost fees producers are obligated to pay under the pEPR scheme.

The Scottish Government provides direct funding for Business Gateway but does not hold information on how that funding is spent within each hub. Please contact Business Gateway on [email protected] if you would like to address this question to them directly.

The Scottish Government supported the work of Water UK in developing and promoting the “Fine to Flush” certification while this scheme was in operation. The labelling of products, including that of sanitary items such as wet wipes, remains a reserved issue. We are considering future options in this area.

The Scottish Government supports the full range of businesses primarily through its enterprise agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. As such the allocation of this direct funding to the size of businesses is held by each agency along with the number of businesses supported outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please email Scottish Government Enterprise Sponsorship team on [email protected] if you would like to contact the agencies directly.

Regulations implementing international obligations in relation to public procurement permit bidders to be excluded from tender exercises in certain circumstances. This includes when the bidder can be shown to have engaged in grave professional misconduct. The Scottish Government's long-standing view is that the exploitation of assets in illegal settlements is likely to be regarded as constituting grave professional misconduct for this purpose. Any decision to exclude a bidder from a procurement process must, however, be taken on a case-by-case basis by the contracting authority awarding the contract, and must be grounded in evidence. To that end, the Minister for Business wrote to public bodies in October 2024 to inform them that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' (OHCHR) database of companies active in listed activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory had been updated, and that this should be considered as part of due diligence processes.

As I confirmed in response to S6O-04782 on 11 June 2025, I have asked officials to advise on what further work can be done to strengthen our approach here.

All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

In line with the Verity House Agreement, funding resulting from extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) will not be ring-fenced or directed, unless there is a clear joint understanding to do so. However, the purpose of the funding, to pay for the cost of managing household packaging waste - is clearly set out in legislation.

Payments under pEPR will support the costs of effective and efficient collection systems for household packaging waste. This includes the costs of incineration. Payments will be adjusted in future years to account for additional costs that local authorities may face, including those incurred under the proposed expansion of the emissions trading scheme.

The Scottish Government has had regular communication with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regarding Tarbolton Moss, and remains open to engaging with the local community.

Scotland’s economy remains one of the best performing parts of the UK with GDP per person in Scotland growing by 10.3%, compared to 6.1% in the UK and productivity has grown at an average rate of 1.1% per year compared to the UK average of 0.4% since 2007. Despite figures in Quarter 1 of 2025 showing GDP to be lower in Scotland compared to the UK, the pace of growth increased from 0.1% in the last quarter of 2024 to 0.4%.

The Scottish Government published its National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) in 2022, setting out a ten year transformation plan with the objective of creating a fair, green and growing economy and establishing Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation and ensuring that our businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services are more innovative and productive than they have ever been. This year’s Programme for Government sets out specific actions that we will take to grow the economy over the remainder of this parliamentary term.

However, reserved powers on crucial issues such as trade and migration, and the damage of Brexit, all impact Scotland’s economic growth and can create challenging conditions for Scottish businesses. With our limited powers, we are maximising opportunities for economic growth in Scotland.

This will be a hugely worrying time for the workforce at ADL, their families and the wider community. We have engaged extensively with Alexander Dennis and its parent company NFI to ensure that every possible avenue is explored to mitigate the need for redundancies. This has included discussions with myself, the First Minister, leadership within Scottish Enterprise, Transport Scotland, trade unions, and the UK Government.

The Scottish Government will continue to explore any and all options throughout the consultation period to allow the firm to retain their hard-working employees and manufacturing and production facilities at Falkirk and Larbert.