Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently working with local government and Police Scotland to assess the closure powers regime under Part 4 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 and identify any changes that may be required. This includes considering comparable regimes elsewhere in the UK and recommendations from bodies such as the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. We are also considering whether the current banning order regime could be strengthened as part of the development of the next Tobacco and Vaping Framework Implementation Plan, which is due to be published later this year.

Scotland's National Parks include board members representing all local authorities currently within their respective areas. The Government’s Proposal for Reform of Local Governance is a starting point for discussion. It is intended to facilitate debate and discussion with the objective of establishing a measure of shared agreement about the scale and the broad shape that reform could take.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that Scotland’s civil nuclear workforce has made and continues to make. The figure cited is published by the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) and the Scottish Government has not made a separate assessment of it.

Decommissioning at former sites, including Hunterston, is expected to continue for decades to come. This work will continue to require a highly skilled workforce.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-03549 on 6 October 2026. 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 Ending Destitution Together strategy Phase 2 delivery plan was published on 24 August 2026. It includes an objective to maximise access to financial support for people with NRPF, where possible, within devolved competencies.

This work builds on the existing project with FairWay Scotland which provided casework support to 890 people and emergency cash support to over 200 people during 2025-26. The casework element helps people to exercise their rights to public funds, including housing, while the emergency cash payments help to tackle food insecurity and enable access to culturally appropriate food. This project has demonstrated that cash payments can reduce hunger, material deprivation and destitution rates.

In 2026-27, Scottish Government has invested £560,000 in Fair Way Scotland to continue this work but also to test a new model of enhanced support that local authorities can lawfully provide to people subject to NRPF. Over the course of the delivery plan, learning from this will be shared with local authorities across Scotland. A new Short Life Working Group on financial inclusion will also consider new approaches to providing essential support.

On 29 September 2026, we published the final evaluation of our Cash-First Programme, which aimed to improve urgent access to emergency income and reduce the need for food banks. We are currently considering the findings to help inform future policy decisions.

The Scottish Government will continue to do everything we can within devolved competence to support people subject to NRPF which includes continuing to call on the UK Government to remove NRPF for the most vulnerable and ensuring that harmful UK Government policies do not force people into destitution.

Taxis and Private Hire Cars (PHCs) are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (“the 1982 Act”).

Section 22 of the 1982 Act currently provides that Taxi/ PHC licensing does not apply to any vehicle while it is being used for carrying passengers for its exclusive hire for a period of not less than 24 hours. This is commonly referred to as the ‘contract exemption’ and allows drivers and vehicles being used exclusively for contract work to fall out with the Taxi/ PHC licensing regime.

The Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 made provisions that can be used for the removal of the contract exemption. When brought into force this will bring vehicles being used in such a manner into the Taxi/ PHC licensing regime as set out in the 1982 Act. However, the contract exemption remains in place at present.

There have been discussions with stakeholders in relation to the contract exemption over a period of time and these discussions have raised a number of practical issues to assess before the contract exemption is removed.

Further information is available in Chapter 5 of the Taxi and PHC licensing best practice guidance document published by the Scottish Government in 2023.

In 2025, the Scottish Government convened a Task Force on Civic Licensing to review a range of existing licensing provisions of the 1982 Act. One of the licensing policy areas being looked at is the legislation in relation to Taxi and PHC Licensing, and this includes the contract exemption issue.

It is expected that a report setting out any proposed reform, recommendations and potential changes to the 1982 Act, including in relation to the current Taxi/PHC licensing regime, will be presented to the Scottish Ministers for consideration in the next few months.

The report will be considered carefully by the Scottish Government before any next steps are taken.

The innovation active rate of an area is influenced by the industrial composition of the businesses headquartered there. Innovation rates can vary markedly by industrial sector, for example, 12.7% of Scottish ‘Accommodation & Food Services’ businesses were innovation active in 2022-24, compared to 73.9% of Scottish ‘Scientific research & development’ businesses.

The 2022-24 headline innovation active rates of 29.4% for Scotland, and 34.0% for the UK, are based on a wide range of sectors covered by the UK Innovation Survey. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports on a smaller group of industrial sectors, excluding sectors like ‘Construction’, ‘Retail’ and ‘Accommodation & Food Services’. When these sectors are removed, the results for Scotland and the UK are more similar. In the latest survey (2022-2024), 50.6% of businesses based in Scotland were ‘innovation active’ under the OECD definition and methodology; the same share as the UK.

More detail is available from the Scottish Government statistical release UK innovation survey 2025: results for Scotland - gov.scot, which was published on the 16th of September 2026.

Workforce planning and recruitment for local services are operational matters for individual NHS boards. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the recruitment of staff to NHS Highland's Post-Infection Recovery Service, including the number of posts that have been filled and those which remain vacant.

The member may therefore wish to contact NHS Highland directly for this information, as responsibility for staffing and the delivery of local services rests with the board.

On 1 September 2026, as part of the Programme for Government, the First Minister announced the Scottish Government’s intention to simplify the NHS by replacing the current 14 territorial Health Boards with two Strategic Health Boards and build on planned reforms to further reduce the number of special Health Boards.

We will set out a transparent approach to fair and equitable recruitment in due course, in line with existing NHS Scotland policies which have been agreed in partnership with trade unions.

The Scottish Government has no plans to amend the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 as part of its proposed local government reforms. We will be required to amend both National Parks Designation Orders to reflect any changes to the local authorities within the boundaries of both National Parks.