Chamber and committees

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

"The cost of providing an overflow monitor varies between £7,000 and £11,000 for the majority of locations. However, some sites with complex access arrangements or traffic management etc can result in significantly higher costs, up to some £20,000."

The Scottish Government is investing £1.03bn to support Scottish Water's £6bn investment programme for the period 2021-27. The Strategic Review of Charges process is underway to establish the maximum level of charges for the period 2027-33. As part of that process, the Scottish Government will confirm the amount it will lend to Scottish Water during that period.

Being able to use the native app to prove your age is on the roadmap for delivery after we are able to offer transactional and location based alerts and notification services.

There is no defined data for this yet as the focus is being about to offer transactional and location based alerts, however once these are delivered proof of age will be the priority.

Currently work is underway with organisations who would like to use this service.

The Directorate recognises the importance of providing clarity on the app's planned launch date. At present a specific launch date in 2026 has not yet been confirmed.

Final timelines depend on ongoing development, testing and regulatory requirements to ensure the app meets all required standards.

The Directorate will provide a confirmed timeline once the current development and testing phase is completed.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling retail crime was reaffirmed in our Programme for Government and through the additional £3 million in the 2025-26 budget, to assist Police Scotland’s work on this.

This makes clear our strong support for Police Scotland’s robust approach in addressing this issue, and I can confirm that the Retail Crime Taskforce has been working hard in recent months to assist retailers and to catch those responsible.

We are working closely with SPA and Police Scotland to understand their 2026-27 budget requirements, but clearly there is a process to go through and decisions to be made before we can finalise the budget for 2026-27. This will be published on 13 January 2026.

There is no requirement for proof of age to use the app. There will be the opportunity for citizens to use the app with the digital wallet to prove their age if they wish to.

Further functionality will be determined by user need coming from both the citizens and the services that use it.

Following its introduction, use of the app by citizens will be optional.

Impact assessments for the digital public services app are currently in progress.

No, people who do not install or use the planned digital public services app will still be able to access all relevant public services through alternative channels.