Chamber and committees

Scotland’s food system is resilient but faces growing risks from global and domestic shocks. While Scotland benefits from diverse supply chains and strong domestic production, recent events in the Middle East have highlighted vulnerabilities to disruption.

Food resilience is a shared responsibility, and collaboration is essential. The Scottish Government monitors food security, including fertiliser, fuel and food supply, working with industry through our Food Sector Resilience Group to share intelligence, identify risks and support coordinated responses.

These arrangements are underpinned by established resilience structures, including the Scottish Government Resilience Room, which can be adapted to respond to specific disruptions, including those affecting food supply. In addition, we liaise with Local and Regional Resilience Partnerships to plan, prepare for and respond to emergencies in ways that reflect Scotland’s unique geography and supply chain challenges.

As the member will be aware, the Rail Enforcement Powers Working Group published its final report and recommendations on 11 February 2026. This contained an output which recommended that the Scottish Government explore whether primary or secondary legislation can be used to create greater protections for rail workers. Since the report was published, Transport Scotland officials have been conducting a feasibility assessment of each of the Working Group’s recommendations.

As part of this, the feasibility work regarding the proposals for specific legal protections against assaults and abuse towards rail workers has now been widened to include all public transport workers, following the manifesto commitment.

This work will inform any potential future approaches towards implementation.

The Scottish Government understands the importance of sport and physical activity to support positive mental, physical and social health outcomes. We believe that sport and physical activity should be accessible to everyone, with no barriers.

The £40 million uplift for sport in the 2026-27 Budget will support opportunities for people across Scotland to be more active including for disabled people and those with additional support needs.

The Budget included £20 million for the delivery of a Summer of Sport. The programme, administered by sportscotland, aims to remove barriers and increase participation by offering free or low-cost activities for children and young people in every local authority across Scotland. Scottish Disability Sport was a key member of the working group to develop the principles of the Summer of Sport funding, ensuring that the programme is inclusive by design. In addition, inclusive training will be available to the delivery workforce across Scotland from organisations such as Enable.

Our national agency for sport, sportscotland, will invest up to £590,372 in Moray Council for 2026–27, including support for Summer of Sport activities.

Transport Scotland officials engage regularly with Network Rail Scotland to ensure that Scottish Minister’s requirements as specified here: Scottish Ministers’ High Level Output Specification (HLOS) - Control Period 7 - 2024 – 2029 | Transport Scotland are met by Network Rail.

Transport Scotland works with Network Rail to review and revise its programme of works against priorities in the context of available funding. This ensures Transport Scotland can deliver the right projects at the right time as it seeks to progress its rolling programme of decarbonisation, whilst also delivering rail passenger and freight services that meet user expectations.

The railway delivery partners will continue to review and assess suitability of railway infrastructure to ensure it continues to meet the current and future passenger demand, as much as possible and in the context of the available funding.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor and consider a range of evidence in relation to the energy sector.

As part of this approach, we commissioned and published in 2023 a package of independent analysis on Scotland’s Energy System and Just Transition. This analysis considers the economic impact of Scotland’s oil and gas industry, including in terms of employment, during the transition to net zero. A partial update of the baseline data underpinning the analysis was published in 2025.

Decisions on licensing, consenting and the associated fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas are all matters currently reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government will continue to support the energy workforce with the powers available to us.

Barnett consequentials are not expected to arise from the support provided to the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe. HM Treasury has confirmed that the Department for Business and Trade’s intervention is classified as a UK-wide measure; as such, it does not generate additional funding for the Scottish Government.

We recognise that diabetic foot screening is a proven way to determine the chance of an individual with diabetes has of developing a future foot ulcer that may lead to amputation. Foot screening is also one of the key processes for good diabetes care.

Clinical guidance recommends that people who are deemed to be at low risk from diabetic foot complications are reviewed every two years whereas those who are deemed to be at medium or high risk should be referred immediately to podiatry services for assessment. Our expectation is that clinicians and GPs consult all relevant clinical guidelines when assessing someone with diabetes and refer for most appropriate treatment.

The Scottish Government remains intensely focussed on reducing waiting times. In 2025-26, we allocated more than £150 million additional funding to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for planned care. This funding delivered thousands more appointments, operations and procedures in 2025-26 compared to 2024-25. We are working with Health Boards to support the continuation of this progress in 2026-27.

The wellbeing of our health and social care professionals, including nurses, is vitally important to this government, and is fundamental to ensuring they can deliver high-quality, compassionate care to individuals and communities.

Scottish Government continues to engage with NHS boards, professional bodies and wider stakeholders on issues affecting the health and wellbeing of the nursing workforce, including burnout, stress and retention.

Following publication of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce (NMT) recommended actions in February 2025, the Scottish Government are working with health and social care staff, staff-side organisations, health boards and higher education institutions to deliver lasting positive change for our nurses in Scotland.

There are 44 recommended actions to deliver, with consistent and widespread consistent engagement across health and social care to support their delivery. This collective effort is focused on improving retention of our nurses and welcoming more people into this rewarding profession.

We recognise that throughout their career, employees, including nurses, will face differing demands on their time and energies at home as well as at work. That is why we developed the national Supporting Work Life Balance workforce policies. These are designed to provide staff with a range of flexible working options, to help them to balance their daily life, whilst maintaining and promoting the best possible service to our patients and service users.

Trading standards officers are appointed by local authorities in order to deliver their statutory obligations. Scottish Government does not centrally record workforce data.

Whilst it is up to each local authority to manage its own day-to-day business, including decisions in relation to the delivery of statutory services locally, the Scottish Government has a strategic interest in the effective delivery of trading standards services across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local government to meet their statutory obligations in relation to trading standards. Scottish Ministers have asked Consumer Scotland to develop recommendations that will inform the Scottish Government’s approach to supporting local authorities to deliver effective, well resourced, services.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to undertake an independent scalability assessment of our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service Pilots. This project will explore what our options are to expand access to non-specific symptom pathways for cancer in the most efficient and effective way, ensuring we reach population level coverage.

This initial phase of work is due to be complete by Spring 2027 after which point the we will work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Centre for Sustainability and NHS Boards to develop an appropriate plan for service expansion.