Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government routinely works with partners to support the manufacturing sector in Scotland. In addition, our investment strategies are designed with the goal of maximising the impact of our interventions, allowing us to maintain our position as the top performing region or nation of the UK for inward investment projects outside of London for the ninth year running as per the 2024 EY Attractiveness Survey.

Under section 2 of the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, the Lord President as head of the Scottish judiciary is responsible for "making and maintaining appropriate arrangements for the welfare, training and guidance of judicial office holders". Training is delivered through the Judicial Institute, under the direction of the Lord President.

It is for a court to reach a view about the appropriate terms of an order in a particular case based on the existing law and the facts and evidence before them.

There are protection measures available to a person at risk of future abuse by application to a civil court. These include an exclusion order to suspend the legal right of a spouse or civil partner and in some cases, a cohabitant, to live in the family home, for the duration the order is in place. Other conditions can be requested, including preventing a spouse or civil partner from coming within a certain distance of the home, or preventing the removal of any items from the home.

An exclusion order is temporary. It will end, for example, when a married couple divorce or when a civil partnership ends. An exclusion order does not affect who owns or tenants the home, nor prohibits future transactions with the property. Before applying to the court for an exclusion order, the person at risk must have the legal right to live in the family home, either as an owner or tenant or because they have occupancy rights as the spouse or civil partner of person who is so entitled. A non-entitled cohabitant can apply to the civil court for occupancy rights and seek an exclusion order.

The Scottish Law Commission are working on a project at the moment on civil remedies against domestic abuse: Scottish Law Commission :: Aspects of family law

The Scottish Government along with Scottish Development International and Enterprise Agencies are actively engaged with business and international firms operating in Scotland to expand the domestic supply chains. For instance, Scottish Enterprise works with more than 350 foreign owned businesses to support their growth which includes encouraging the benefits of engaging with local supply chain companies.

This is achieved by building on the strength of Scotland’s innovation ecosystem, which supports technology development and skills across a wide range of manufacturing sectors, leveraging the knowledge and expertise of industry bodies, partners and Scotland’s academic institutions. This approach will enable our manufacturing sector to take advantage of emerging market opportunities, such as offshore wind, hydrogen and future industries in which Scotland has the potential to excel.

The Scottish Government thanks the Marine Conservation Society and all the many volunteers for their excellent work in monitoring beach litter and cleaning our shores. Citizen science is valued, and in combination with data from our scientists and our wider international monitoring programme, it is useful in helping us prioritise policy development to effectively reduce marine litter.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36086 on 24 April 2025. 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 routinely engages with Welsh Government officials on a range of animal welfare issues, however, there has been no specific engagement on the commitment made to phase out greyhound racing in Wales.

The answer to S6W-32194 referred to a Scottish Government and COSLA funding working group set up to consider both the affordability of the 2015 flood protection scheme programme and use lessons learned to inform the future funding and governance model for flooding. This group is not attended by Ministers but by Scottish Government officials.

The majority of these minutes have previously been released by Scottish Government in response to an Environmental Information Regulations request - Flood Risk Management Working Group meeting minutes: EIR release - gov.scot.

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

Flood risk management implementation reports are available on the Scottish Government's website. Some reports have been completed for single years and some for multiple years.

Relevant links are provided below:

• Report for years 2015-2018: Implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009: report to the Scottish Parliament - gov.scot
• Report for 2019: Implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009: report to the Scottish Parliament - 2019 - gov.scot
• Report for 2020: Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 implementation: report to the Scottish Parliament - 2020 - gov.scot

A report covering the period 2021 to 2024 is under development.

Local authorities also produce regular mid cycle and end of cycle reports on the delivery of actions in the Flood Risk Management Plans.

As outlined in the answer to question S6W-30798 on 7 November, since 2016, the Scottish Government has allocated £570 million to local authorities for flood protection schemes and flood resilience. In this period, the estimated costs of cycle one schemes eligible for funding has risen.

A joint Scottish Government/ COSLA Funding Working Group was established to make recommendations to Ministers and COSLA Leaders on how to improve the affordability of the remaining cycle one schemes. This has resulted in the removal of 6 schemes that failed to meet key progress deadlines from the funding programme.

The Funding Working Group are considering whether further recommendations are required to ensure the programme remains affordable.

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

This information is not published, however is available on request from SEPA.