Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government publishes details of contingent liabilities and commercial transactions in its consolidated accounts, which are available on the Scottish Government website. An annual update is provided to the Scottish Parliament as well.

Financial reports and accounts - Government finance - gov.scot

Support provided by the enterprise agencies is published in their accounts.

The Scottish Government has robust contingency planning in place to ensure that we are ready to act if necessary.

The evacuation of people from their homes in the event of a fire is an operational matter for SFRS. SFRS have appropriate training and equipment in place to evacuate anyone who requires it.

Scottish Ministers have long argued for a comprehensive Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal with the EU, and have therefore welcomed the commitment made at the UK - EU summit of 19 May 2025 that the UK Government and European Commission should work towards establishing a Common SPS Area by way of an SPS Agreement. It is vital that the details of the SPS Agreement to be developed should benefit all parts of the UK and reflect the interests of Scottish producers and consumers.

The UK Government has argued that there are some areas in which it will need to retain its own rules, rather than align with EU regulation. Scottish Government policy is to seek dynamic alignment with the EU where it benefits Scotland to do so – including on gene editing, where neither the EU nor Scotland currently recognise a legal distinction between gene editing and genetic modification, and Scots and EU law remain aligned. We are engaging proactively with the UK Government on the exceptions they are seeking to the SPS agreement which overlap with devolved competencies.

The Scottish Government’s position on the introduction of a potential traffic congestion charge by the City of Edinburgh Council remains the same as the one referenced in my response to S6W-38195. Local authorities have existing discretionary powers to introduce local road user charging schemes under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which was brought into statute by a previous Parliament. Once the necessary regulations and guidance are in place, it will be a decision for local authorities, including City of Edinburgh council whether and how to implement schemes.

The Supreme Court judgment in the References on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill on section 28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 resulted in adjustments to the compatibility duty in the UNCRC Act so that it does not apply to statutory provisions in an Act of the Westminster Parliament, even in devolved areas.

Scottish Government teams working on legislation have guidelines which ensure that, when they are developing new legislation, consideration is given to whether to draft new provisions in a way that means they fall within the scope of the compatibility duty in the UNCRC Act. Ensuring provisions are in scope for the compatibility duty would mean avoiding making amendments to UK Acts and instead making provisions in standalone Acts of the Scottish Parliament.

However, it is important to point out that application of the compatibility duty is only one of a number of factors to be considered in developing legislation which is effective, workable and clear. Given that existing statutory frameworks in some key policy areas are contained within pre-devolution UK Acts, in some instances avoiding amendment to existing UK Acts would prove complex, as it would be challenging to provide for a coherent change to the law in light of the existing provision. Each new legislative proposal therefore needs to be considered on its own merits.

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

CSO funds research projects via its Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee CSO also funds capacity building research via its Fellowship Funding programmes.

Research funding is not allocated to any particular condition and CSO funds research across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through a process of independent expert review to allow funding decisions to be made. Applications on all cancer types are welcomed and CSO's role is well known across the Health and Care research community in Scotland

In addition, CSO provides infrastructure funding to support the delivery of clinical studies in the NHS in Scotland. This includes funding for the NHS Research Scotland Cancer Research Network and the CSO component of funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow (co-funded 50:50 with Cancer Research UK). The purpose of this funding is to support the delivery of early and later phase cancer clinical studies, including those which are less survivable cancers.

Through UK-wide funding arrangements, the majority of funding programmes administered by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) are open to applications led by researchers based in Scotland

Scottish Researchers to be able to access further NIHR research funding – Chief Scientist Office

Section 49 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 provides for a custodial sentence of up to 5 years for the offence of having an article with a blade or point in a public place. In any given case, sentencing is a matter for the independent court. They take into account all the facts and circumstances of a case before imposing a sentence within the legal framework. It is not possible to disaggregate these figures by the specific type of weapon involved (e.g. knife).

Over the last four financial years, for which data is available, there was only one custodial sentence of 5 years or more under this section of the Act, in 2019-20.

This sentence exceeds the statutory maximum and may reflect either additional charges being dealt with concurrently or an aggravation, rather than a sentence based solely on the possession offence alone. This represented approximately 0.09% of all (1,141) convictions under this section of the Act in that financial year. Please note that the latest criminal proceedings data is for 2022-23.

Sections 13 and 19 of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 set out requirements for local authorities to consult prior to introducing a visitor levy scheme, and to use the net proceeds of any scheme to support facilities and services substantially for or used by visitors. Local authorities are required to publish details of their schemes and report annually on their operation, including how funds have been used.

Scotland's Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 confirms the Scottish Government’s commitment to develop further measures to tackle consumption of problematic single-use items and promote uptake of reusable alternatives , prioritising action on single-use drinks cups, as part of wider work to promote responsible consumption, production and reuse.

The Scottish Government has consulted on proposals to introduce a minimum 25p charge on single-use drinks cups, to tackle their significant environmental impact. The findings from the independent analysis of the consultation, published in June 2025, indicated there was support amongst the public for a charge. We are now working closely with stakeholders to develop an approach that is deliverable, taking on board the views of businesses and consumers and giving them ample time to prepare. We are taking time to fully consider the issues raised in the consultation to ensure the charge is effective, proportionate, and fair.

The Scottish Government is also committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Directive on single-use plastics where we are able to do so and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards, and is committed to building on the work done to ban on some of the most problematic single-use plastic products through the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.

For example, on 1 June 2025, the Scottish Government introduced a ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland.

Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging is also being implemented this year on a four nations basis across the UK. It will incentivise businesses to reduce excess packaging, to design and use packaging that is easily recyclable, and encourage use of reusable and refillable packaging.

The cost of repair work on the A90 between St Ann’s and Keithock junctions near Brechin is not available. This is because expenditure is not recorded for specific sections of the trunk road. Instead, costs are collated and reported as a total spend for the A90 as a whole. The following table shows the expenditure breakdown for the A90 as a whole for the years 2015-2025.