Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not made specific assessments of fly-tipping levels in South Lanarkshire or Glasgow. Responsibility for dealing with fly-tipping depends on the location and nature of the incident. Under the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, local authorities are responsible for the clearance of fly-tipping from relevant public land, while private landowners are responsible for waste on their own land. SEPA may also have a role in regulating and enforcing against illegal waste activity, depending on the circumstance.

At the national level, the Scottish Government published a Fly-tipping Baseline Report in 2024 (National litter and flytipping strategy: baseline report - gov.scot), which provides an overview of the scale and nature of fly-tipping across Scotland, including some local authority data.

Since the Parliament’s agreement to the Financial Resolution for the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, there has been contact at official level between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency about the level of resources that would be needed should the Bill be enacted. There has been no contact on this issue with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service during this period.

Local authorities are responsible for addressing litter and fly-tipping on public land and other land for which they have responsibility, in line with the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse. Communities should contact their local council in the first instance to report concerns or request action. The Scottish Government continues to work with councils and delivery partners to drive national action through the National Litter and Fly-tipping Strategy.

Communities in South Lanarkshire can also access support from the Scottish Government’s delivery partner, Keep Scotland Beautiful. Through its Community Litter Hub, local groups can access practical resources, guidance and campaign materials to organise litter picks, promote behaviour change and take action to tackle litter. As part of the Strategy’s Year 3 action plan, the Hub is being expanded to include practical information and guidance on tackling fly-tipping.

The expert Review carried out by Professional Education Advisor Janie McManus’ said that clearer expectations, stronger pathways to support across education, health and social care, and early interventions should underpin the next steps in delivering Additional Support Needs (ASN) provision in schools.

I welcomed publication of the review and accepted the six recommendations made.

Whilst work on delivering against these recommendations will require sustained partnership across government, local authorities and national bodies, it will be for the incoming government to consider how to take forward the specific approach.

The Scottish Government is continuing to consider the EU Environmental Crime Directive (2024/1203) against our alignment policy. We consider that the existing offence of causing significant environmental harm at section 40 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 is reasonably closely aligned with the Directive’s introduction of “qualified offences” for more serious environmental damage.

There have been official level discussions with the UK Government on the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill. The Scottish Government considers that the Bill, if appropriately amended at Stage 2, would not have raised issues under section 35 or section 40 of the Scotland Act 1998.

The expert Review carried out by Professional Education Advisor Janie McManus’ said that clearer expectations, stronger pathways to support across education, health and social care, and early interventions should underpin the next steps in delivering Additional Support Needs (ASN) provision in schools.

I welcomed publication of the review and accepted the six recommendations made.

Whilst work on delivering against these recommendations will require sustained partnership across government, local authorities and national bodies, it will be for the incoming government to consider how to take forward the specific approach.

The Scottish Government has not committed to a formal review of the offence at section 40 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The information that we hold shows that there have been no successful prosecutions under the section 40 offence of causing significant environmental harm. There are many possible explanations for this lack of prosecutions, including regulatory agencies and prosecutors using other, more specific offences in response to environmental crimes.

In 2025-26. the Scottish Government allocated £3m to deliver a Test of Change for those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in secondary 1 to 3. The Test of Change has been providing nutritious meals for up to 6100 newly eligible pupils across 60 schools in 8 local authorities since August 2025 and will run until the end of June 2026.

Following an open tender Ipsos have been appointed to carry out an independent evaluation of the Test of Change. This work involves researchers seeking the views on a variety of subjects linked to the creation and delivery of the Test of Change from stakeholders, including pupils, parents and staff across all 8 partner local authorities.

The research also considers the uptake of free school meals during the Test of Change, including any factors that may have encouraged or been a barrier to eligible pupils taking a meal.

A full report is expected to be published during autumn 2026. The research findings will help inform future phases of the Free School Meals Programme.

While the recruitment and deployment of teachers is the responsibility of local authorities, the Scottish government takes concerns about the recruitment and retention of teachers very seriously.

The Scottish Government conducts an annual teacher workforce planning exercise, at a national level, to forecast the need for newly registered teachers, consulting key stakeholders through the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG). TWPAG, which includes representatives from local authorities, universities, GTCS, teacher unions, COSLA and SFC, recommends intake targets to Ministers.

This process is informed by a statistical model incorporating factors such as pupil projections, teacher turnover, post-probation employment rates, and ITE retention, supplemented by stakeholder input.