Chamber and committees

The 2024-25 Programme for Government confirmed the intention to introduce Community Wealth Building legislation in this parliamentary year.

Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise a Bill following introduction, and I look forward to engaging with colleagues on how we can ensure the legislation has the maximum, beneficial impact for the people and communities we serve.

We have undertaken detailed analysis of respondents’ feedback to our public consultation, which has informed the development of Community Wealth Building legislation and our overall approach to Community Wealth Building as an economic policy with strong relevance to other policy areas.

From 1 April 2025, all ScotRail fares will increase by 3.8%, including season tickets and flexipasses.

We want more people to choose to travel by public transport for work, study and leisure but we know that people are still struggling with cost-of-living pressures and don’t always see public transport as affordable or attractive. That is why we have kept the rise this year as low as possible, while also supporting the generation of sufficient revenue to help maintain existing services, and contribute towards investment in infrastructure and fleets.

We are also continuing our 20% discounts on season tickets until September 2025 as planned.

Flexipass will also continue to offer 12 single (6 return) journeys and has recently been expanded to include the following stations: Exhibition Centre (Glasgow), Anderston, Motherwell, High Street (Glasgow), Charing Cross (Glasgow), Perth, Stirling, and Bathgate.

Everyone has the right to be, and feel, safe in their community. Passengers and staff must feel safe when travelling or working on our public transport networks, including bus stations. We have established an Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour in November 2023. The Group reported its findings and recommendations in late December and the report will be published shortly.

Bus stations are owned and operated by local authorities, bus operators or local transport authorities. The Scottish Government has no locus to intervene on decisions relating to the management of bus stations.

Local authorities, in conjunction with Police Scotland, lead on preventing and tackling antisocial behaviour within the geographical areas they cover. Those working on the ground are best placed to understand the issues that local communities are facing, and work with them to resolve these issues.

Transport Scotland is working closely with the Confederation for Passenger Transport (Scotland) to make progress on the issue of antisocial behaviour on the bus network, including sharing of best practice between operators, developing options for on the ground support to bus operators and work to develop a process for temporary suspension or withdrawal of concessionary travel entitlement.

Ministers regularly meet with their counterparts in the UK Government, other devolved governments, and the Government of Ireland on a bilateral and multilateral basis to discuss matters of common interest.

The focus of our engagement is to work together to deliver on the First Minister’s four priorities as announced when he came into office in May: Eradicating Child Poverty; Growing the Economy; Tackling the Climate Emergency; and Ensuring High Quality and Sustainable Public Services.

A list of ministerial engagements, including meetings, are published on a regular basis on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/#2024

The Scottish Government, Scotland Development International and the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership’s activities focus on three markets: Scotland, Rest of UK, and International. Small and independent distilleries are represented in all these activities, including support to attend trade fairs in these markets. Additionally, the Scottish Government’s Vision for Trade and Scotland: a Trading Nation export strategy set out our ambitions to increase market access and reduce trade barriers which is central to an improved trading environment. Domestically, funding provided by the Scottish Government to the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership’s “Sustaining Scotland. Supplying the World” food and drink strategy can help businesses to leverage these opportunities.

The Scottish Government, as well as the whisky industry itself, takes the protection of Scotch Whisky seriously. Scotch Whisky is defined in UK law through the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 which provide comprehensive protection covering the making, bottling, labelling and promotion of Scotch Whisky. Scotch Whisky also benefits from Geographical Indication and is protected by such under UK and EU law, and in other markets across the world. The Geographical Indication scheme is verified by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and any breaches are enforced by the relevant food authorities across the UK.

The use of traditional methods is what makes Scotch Whisky unique and the methods that must be used, including the types of stills and ageing requirements, are set out in law. In addition to this the Scottish Government provides funding to support delivery of Scotland’s food and drink strategy “Sustaining Scotland Supplying the World” which aims to safeguard and grow Scotland’s food and drink industry. The strategy is led by the Scotland Food & Drink partnership and contains activity to help businesses develop and retain skills as well as driving innovation capacity and capability.

The sector provides employment opportunities in some of the most rural communities and can bring visitors from Scotland and around the world, to these areas. The Deputy First Minister recently opened the Cabrach distillery which is focused on community development and regeneration which the government was proud to support through Just Transition funding. We will continue to work with the sector on projects that deliver community benefits, and support our climate ambitions and the economic prosperity of Scotland.

Our commitment to Scotland’s seafood sector was reflected in the publication of the Strategy for Seafood in October 2022. While there are no current plans to update this document, Scottish Government will continue to work with industry to realise our ambitions for the sector. This includes continuing to work with the sector on trade barriers arising from EU Exit, which has impaired the competitiveness of Scottish seafood.

The Scottish Government has since 2021 awarded £8.25m to Seafood Scotland as Scotland’s national trade and marketing organisation for the seafood industry. Seafood Scotland projects have included those:

• supporting domestic and export market development;
• promoting wide awareness of Scottish seafood as a sustainable food source and the opportunities it offers as a career destination; and
• co-hosting, in October 2024, the Responsible Seafood Summit in St Andrews which attracted 350 delegates from around the world to further develop a healthy, responsible global seafood community.

Seafood Scotland is currently leading on the development of a Scottish Ocean Cluster alongside other key stakeholders including Zero Waste Scotland, Ibioic, Opportunity North East and Aberdeenshire Council. This project is part of a concerted and integrated movement to increase the utilisation of processing and catching by-products, and to increase their value by converting them for example to food and biomedical products.