Chamber and committees

Scotland has a growing marine restoration sector which places a significant focus on native oysters and seagrass. The Scottish Government is supporting restoration projects through policy delivery and financial support. In December 2025 we published Scotland's first Marine and Coastal Restoration Plan which includes actions to further support and accelerate active restoration of species and habitats in our waters. Scottish Government officials are now implementing actions from the plan. This work will support the achievement of our goals set out in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

Scottish Government has provided financial support to the Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF) since it launched in 2022, increasing our donations for 2026-27 to £116,000. Since launching in 2022, SMEEF has raised and distributed nearly £8m from public and private sources to support marine restoration and enhancement projects across Scotland. This includes a number of projects supporting native oyster and seagrass restoration. In 2025 SMEEF launched an ambitious new seagrass planting programme that will see £2.4 million distributed to projects, with an aim to plant 14 hectares of seagrass by 2028.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) is the main source for Labour Market Indicators for more detailed characteristics. The ONS state there are concerns with the quality of the APS estimates for smaller groups of the population. Therefore, it is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training who also report having a work-limiting health condition from this source.

Scotland’s Census 2022 results show that, excluding full-time students, there were around 23,600 people aged 16 to 24 in Scotland who were unemployed or economically inactive and had a disability or health problem that limited their day-to-day activities a lot or a little.

The Annual Participation Measure published by Skills Development Scotland provides estimates for 16 to 19 year olds not participating in education, employment or training by disability status. In 2025, the SDS Annual Participation Measure estimates that 8,910 people aged 16 to 19 years old in Scotland were not participating in education, employment, or training (3.9% of 16 to 19 year olds). Of those who were not participating in education, employment or training, 11.1% (985 people) were identified as being disabled.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS Scotland Innovation Hubs to develop diagnostic pilot proposals aligned with the National Islands Plan commitment.

The North of Scotland Innovation Hub – in partnership with NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney and the Scottish Ambulance Service – proposed Project SOUND, which seeks to evaluate the use of point-of-care diagnostics in emergency response vehicles, assessing their impact on urgent clinical decision-making and reducing hospital admissions through treatment closer to home.

This was assessed by the Scottish Government through internal governance processes and with relevant clinical input to assess viability. The project has been approved and will launch in August 2026.

Information on progress against this commitment will be included in the National Islands Plan Annual Report to the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s education system is designed to be inclusive for all children and young people, with or without additional support needs(ASNs).

Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 education authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional needs of their pupils including those with a Pathological Demand Avoidance profile.

All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Education authorities are under a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and to review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs, including those who are deaf. They also have duties to employ teachers of deaf children and young people where support for a pupil is required.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the school workforce and the provision of additional support for learning. The 2026-27 Budget provides £186.5 million of additional resource to councils. This includes £28 million investment in the ASL workforce and builds on the £15 million each year for pupil support assistants. Councils have the flexibility to use this funding to increase the number of teachers of deaf children and young people in their area and provide other specialist support such as BSL Tutors and Communication Support Workers. Councils have also continued their record investment in additional support for learning, with almost £1.1 billion spent in 2024-25.

In addition to postgraduate qualifications in deaf education, professional learning opportunities in supporting children and young people with sensory needs are available via the Scottish Sensory Centre, Education Scotland and CALL Scotland.

Notwithstanding the support that the Scottish Government already provides to schools we recognise the need to go further and we have already committed to expanding the provision of BSL training for teachers and to ensuring that a pool of specialist teachers to support those children who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or deafblind. I will update Parliament on these plans in due course.

The Education (Scotland) Act 2025 ensures that the Qualifications Scotland and HMIE will have due regard to the specific needs and interests of those receiving BSL learner education or BSL medium education.

Due to clear recommendations by the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, and the fact that the last relevant consultation was undertaken 10 years ago, the Scottish Government is committed to a consultation on a proposal to ban remote controlled training collars.

In October 2018 we published advisory guidance on dog training aids, including remote controlled training devices using a static pulse, commonly known as shock collars. The Guidance on Dog Training Aids was developed in discussion with animal welfare organisations including the Scottish SPCA, Dogs Trust, Kennel Club and BVA. It provides important advice on aversive training techniques, including electric shock collars, for both dog owners and those enforcing the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The Scottish Government recognises how vital childcare and family support services are in rural and island areas, both in relation to giving children the best start in life and supporting families to work. We also understand that childcare and wider wraparound provision can look different in rural and island communities, where geography, population density and travel distances can create particular delivery challenges.

The Scottish Government worked with key partners to convene a roundtable event on 25 March 2026, that sought to gather learning from across communities, sectors, regulators and government to identify practical actions to help increase the accessibility and sustainability of childcare provision across rural areas. This roundtable event helped enhance the learning we continue to gather through our Early Adopter Communities, Access to Childcare Fund projects, and Extra Time Programme on identifying models of delivery that support access to childcare in our rural and island communities.

Recently, the Scottish Government has also committed to introducing a universally accessible breakfast club offer in primary schools across Scotland by August 2027, and announced investment of a further £2.5 million to expand free after-school activity clubs. This funding will help us understand how activities and regulated childcare services can work together to improve access to after-school childcare, including in rural and island areas.

The Scottish Government has committed to expanding childcare support to children from nine months through to the end of primary school over the course of this Parliament. As this work progresses, we will take into account the needs of families across Scotland, and decisions will be informed by learning gathered through the delivery of our projects and programmes, and direct engagement with rural and island stakeholders.

Water bodies may be monitored for different purposes, such as public health or assessing the status of the water environment.

Areas where large number of bathers are expected to use the water are designated as Bathing Waters for the protection of public health. Designated Bathing Waters are monitored during the bathing water season for bacteria that indicate the potential presence of pathogens that may be harmful to human health.

SEPA also undertakes wider, routine monitoring for the protection of Scotland’s water environment for a range of parameters, including some chemicals. The EU recently made changes to its list of Priority Substances, including the addition of 25 new substances and the Scottish Government is currently reviewing these changes and considering any action which Scotland might take.

Scottish Ministers remain fully committed to transparency regarding which (a) individuals, (b) organisations and (c) other entities receive public subsidies for (i) forestry, (ii) farming, (iii) nature restoration and (iv) other land use and the quality of the outputs generated by these subsidies.

The management, collection, evaluation, monitoring and publication of data has already been identified as a critical and vital element of the current Agricultural Reform Programme that will implement the Vision of Agriculture and ensure that successful outcomes are achieved all in terms of the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 ( the ARC Act) as approved and passed by Parliament.

The ARC Act does provide discretionary powers for Scottish Ministers to address transparency. For example, where there are complex ownership structures such as holding companies or trusts or where a person has significant control over a beneficiary of support under the ARC Act, Scottish Ministers may be able to publish the details of any person who owns or controls the recipient of that support. But that would need consultation with the Information Commissioner, satisfactory conclusion of data protection and other impact assessment work and such consultation as is required in terms of the ARC Act.

The ARC Act powers will enable Scottish Ministers to consider those improvements that should be addressed to provide new improved schemes under the ARC Act.