Chamber and committees

The report on the operation of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024 will be laid before the Scottish Parliament in the coming months.

The Scottish Government believes that it is crucially important that young people have access to accurate education on British and Scottish history, including on the British Empire and the UK's involvement in slavery. Scotland’s history curriculum, including the senior phase courses “The Trade in Enslaved African People 1770–1807” and “Migration and Empire 1830–1939”, present a range of opportunities for young people to learn about these significant histories.

The Breaking the Mould anti-racism curriculum principles include a principle on 'understanding and enquiring into Scotland’s role in historical world events, including trans-Atlantic enslavement and colonial histories, and their continuing impact today'. There are a range of further national actions underway including the following:

• The Scottish Government has supported academic-led programmes with the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling for teachers on Teaching Slavery in Scotland and on the Impact of Scots Settlers in Migration and Empire, with resources developed published on the Scottish Association of Teachers of History website.
• Education Scotland has published teaching resources on the Transatlantic Slave Trade supported by the University of Glasgow, and a publication on Sugar Histories aimed at Primary 7 learners in transition to S1 in both expressive arts and social studies.
• The Scottish Government is currently working in partnership with the SQA and Education Scotland to consider appropriate updates to the history qualifications to embed an anti-racist and decolonised approach. The Curriculum Improvement Cycle will consider further relevant updates to the social studies curriculum.
• Museums Galleries Scotland is working with museums who are decolonising their collections and learning resources to reflect the recommendations of the Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums report. National Museums Scotland has developed a specific resource associated with the National 5 qualification on the Trade in Enslaved African People.

The Scottish Government understands the importance of Scotland’s hills and mountains and provides investment to help Scots and visitors to Scotland to enjoy them safely.

In addition to the Scottish Government’s annual grant of £300,000 to Scottish Mountain Rescue, sportscotland annually invests around £2million of Scottish Government and National Lottery funding to help ensure the safety of mountain users. This includes investment into Glenmore Lodge, sportscotland’s Avalanche Information Service (SAIS), and the Mountain Weather Information Service.

In 2025-26, sportscotland is investing up to £274,446 into Mountaineering Scotland, the sport’s governing body, which helps to support work on mountain safety. Mountaineering Scotland offer training and information to mountain users to promote safety, self-reliance, and the enjoyment of our mountain environment. They also chair the Mountain Safety Group, which was established to monitor and review mountain safety strategy, collaborate with partners, and provide leadership across mountain safety.

Sportscotland investment in Mountaineering Scotland over the previous five years is as follows:

2020 – 2021- £268,850

2021 – 2022 - £226,260

2022 – 2023 - £244,300

2023 – 2024 - £254,260

2024 – 2025 - £252,050

Electric scooters are covered by the same UK-wide laws and regulations that apply to all motor vehicles. As such, e-scooters need to meet the legal requirements of the 1988 Act – including valid motor insurance; technical standards; payment of vehicle tax; licensing and registration and the use of relevant safety equipment – to use public roads lawfully. In Scotland it is illegal to ride an electric scooter on a public road, pavement, cycle paths, shared paths or any public place.

For electric scooters to be used legally, we await the necessary changes to be made to reserved legislation. Amendments would also be needed to devolved legislation such as the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, with Local Authorities required to amend their Traffic Regulation Orders that apply to cycle lanes. In anticipation, the Scottish Government is engaging with the Department of Transport and closely monitoring the outcomes of their shared e-scooter trials. While investigating the necessary devolved legislative changes, we are preparing a programme of consultation and engagement to enable Scottish Local Authorities to participate in future shared e-scooter trials.

Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine will be introduced into Scotland’s routine childhood immunisation programme from January 2026.

Introduction of this vaccine offer in Scotland is in alignment with the rest of the UK, ensuring a consistent approach to protecting children from chickenpox.

Bus stop bypasses are a specific type of layout which divert the protected cycle track around the back of the bus stop waiting area, ensuring that bus passengers are not affected by cycle traffic as they board and alight the bus. The Scottish Government is not aware of any intention of the UK Government to pause the installation of such types of bus stops, and does not intend to pause their installation in Scotland.

The Scottish Government understands that the UK Department for Transport intends to write to local authorities in England to request a voluntary pause in new installations where passengers board and alight directly into a cycle track. The Scottish Government does not currently intend to pause the roll-out of these facilities and already provide guidance on their use through the ‘Cycling by Design’ document. Their provision should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis by the Transport Authority.

The current guidance for Scotland in ‘Cycling by Design’ emphasises the importance of physically separated cycling infrastructure, to avoid or minimise interaction with live motor traffic and with pedestrians at bus stops. Transport Scotland, commissioned independent research in 2021, which was jointly funded by Department for Transport, to investigate issues of inclusion where bus stop bypasses have been introduced. Forthcoming updated guidance following this published research and ongoing engagement on accessibility, including with disabled people, will emphasise this message and further highlight that it can be beneficial to provide cycle routes and bus routes on separate corridors, to reduce interactions.

Future demand for care home places will be influenced by a multitude of factors, including population demographics and residents' needs, future balance of care across care home and community settings, and technological change.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s recent Fiscal Sustainability Report – April 2025 included long term projections of social care spending (including but not limited to care home expenditure). The SFC projected, based on current levels of provision, that social care spending in Scotland would increase in real terms from £5 billion in 2029-30 to £11 billion in 2074-75.

Under the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 the Scottish Government will, before the end of 2026, prepare and make publicly available a report on projected social care needs in Scotland over the ten-year period from 2027. Work is underway to plan the and deliver evidential work for this reporting requirement. Further, the recently published Service Renewal Framework Foreword - Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework - gov.scot sets out commitments to develop population level strategic needs assessments for health and social care. It is expected that these areas of work will add to the current evidence - such as the SFC's long term projections - and give a fuller picture of the demands for social care services in the coming years.

The following tables presents the total number of personal injury collisions on the A84 and A85 between 1 January 2023 and 13 August 2025 (latest date for which data is available for serious and slight collisions and 31 August 2025 for fatal collisions), broken down by month and severity. The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).

Personal Injury Accident Statistics: A84

Up to £4.9 billion will be delivered through a mixture of public and privately leveraged investment. More detail will be set out in the upcoming Scottish Budget and Scottish Spending Review.