Chamber and committees

Recent global events have highlighted the need for robust and effective consumer protections, better regulation, price transparency and targeted financial assistance for those reliant on heating oil.

Scottish Government is actively considering the recommendations made by the Competition and Markets Authority in its report on the home heating oil market. We are also working with UK and other devolved governments, along with regulators and industry stakeholders, to explore the feasibility and potential value of a Scottish heating oil price checker tool.

Working together will help avoid duplication while ensuring that any price checker tool meets the needs of consumers in all parts of the UK.

Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021, cat breeders must be licensed and comply with conditions that prohibit breeding where a cat’s genotype or conformation could have a detrimental effect on its welfare or that of its offspring.

These provisions already restrict the breeding of cats with known welfare concerns, including Scottish Folds, and can be applied to other breeds with extreme characteristics. The Scottish Government is committed to high standards of animal welfare and we will continue to keep the licensing framework under review, including consideration of recommendations from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and the UK Animal Welfare Committee.

The Scottish Government will in due course publish a breakdown of the appointments & procedures which will be delivered as a result of the additional £90m announced to tackle long waits.

The Scottish Government will in due course publish a breakdown of the appointments & procedures which will be delivered as a result of the additional £90m announced to tackle long waits.

The Scottish Government will set out in due course how we will deliver the commitments set out in the manifesto.

In NHS Scotland we have two cancer waiting times standards. These are:

• A 31-day standard from decision to treat until first treatment regardless of the route of referral.
• A 62-day standard from urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, including referrals from national cancer screening programmes, until first treatment.

For people with cancer, focussing on the cancer waiting times standards of 62 days from urgent referral to first treatment and 31 days from decision-to-treat to first treatment is supporting NHS Boards to consider how they best speed up the diagnostic pathway and reduce the period of uncertainty that can exist whilst trying to establish a diagnosis. The first treatment standards also provide assurance that any appropriate immediate measures are being started as soon as possible.

Our Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 includes a commitment to carry out a clinically led review of cancer waiting times. This will determine whether there is merit in additional or alternative standards.

This review, being led by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, has been initiated with evidence reviews being commissioned through key partners such as Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and Cancer Research UK.

In 2025, the Scottish Government and Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) announced a pilot to give communities priority access to renewable energy assets on public land due for repowering.

The pilot provides a protected window for local groups to make an asset transfer request to lease FLS sites due for repowering and gives advance notification of upcoming lease opportunities so communities have time to prepare asset transfer requests before sites go to market.

These measures will apply to projects with a maximum generation capacity of 50MW, and ten FLS sites have been identified to be part of the pilot. Communities can access support to enable them to take up these opportunities through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES).

There is no single nationally agreed Scottish definition of ‘rapidly progressing cancer’ or ‘aggressive cancer’. Whilst clinicians may use terms such as these on occasion to support patients understand their diagnosis, they are not recognised as clinical descriptors.

Public Health Scotland reports cancer stage using standard stage groups one to four, with Stage One and Two typically classified as early-stage disease and Stage Three and Four as late-stage disease. Cases where stage cannot be assigned are reported as unknown stage.

Our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Pathways, operational in six health boards across Scotland, provide primary care clinicians with access to a fast-track diagnostic pathway for people with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, such as weight loss and fatigue.

For all other individuals with symptoms of cancer, the Scottish Government would expect primary care clinicians to refer to the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer (SRGs). A clinical review of SRGs has been completed with updated guidance published on 6 August 2025

The Scottish Government expects primary care clinicians to refer to the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer (SRGs) when reviewing an individual with any suspected cancer symptom.