Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening consistent enforcement of flytipping across Scotland. We continue to engage with local authorities and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to understand barriers and share good practice. In 2023, we published an independent review of enforcement powers for litter and flytipping, which made a series of recommendations to improve coordination and effectiveness.

SEPA is piloting partnership models with councils and Police Scotland to address serious incidents. Since 2016, SEPA has issued 132 monetary penalties, totalling over £109,900, including recent Variable Monetary Penalties of more than £2,600 for repeat offenders.

We discuss the Scottish Government’s commitment to improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heating systems in Scotland’s buildings with a range of stakeholders on a regular basis to support improvements in fuel poverty and to help meet our climate target to reach net zero by 2045.

As the new Cabinet Secretary for Housing I will also meet with stakeholders on the issue in my new capacity in the coming months. Additionally, officials have, so far, met with the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance, Sustainable Scotland Network, Scottish Land and Estates, UK Finance, and the UK, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments on the proposals. We will use the feedback we gain throughout written and verbal engagement to develop regulations that are fair, proportionate and achievable across the PRS housing stock.

In April, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, former Minister for Climate Action, made a statement to Parliament that set out the Scottish Government’s plans to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill later this session, and that it would be accompanied by the introduction of a minimum energy efficiency standard (MEES) in the private rented sector (PRS).

We have since launched our consultation on proposed MEES regulations for the domestic PRS to which all stakeholders are encouraged to respond. We recognise the individual challenges that some properties, particularly traditionally built homes and listed buildings, may face in meeting the standard and this is reflected in the inclusion of exemptions in our proposals. These will provide flexibility to individual circumstances where needed, such as preserving special characteristics of traditional buildings.

In April, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, former Minister for Climate Action, made a statement to Parliament that set out the Scottish Government’s plans to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill later this session. He outlined that the Bill would include provisions for all buildings to end their use of polluting heat by 2045 (where reasonable / practicable), provisions designed to boost the growth of heat networks and powers to make regulations introducing minimum energy efficiency standards across owner-occupied and non-domestic buildings.

We recognise it may be more challenging for some homes and buildings to decarbonise, especially those in a rural or island setting. We will work with stakeholders to develop approaches and solutions that allow homes in Scotland to transition to greater energy efficiency and cleaner heating systems. Any legislation will be accompanied by the required impact assessments and designed in a way that is fair, proportionate and considers the requirements of buildings in rural and island areas.

The Scottish Government does not support the manufacture of munitions - nor do our public agencies. The support provided is focused on helping firms to diversify and develop civilian applications for their technology and ensure Scotland continues to benefit from the thousands of jobs in the defence, aerospace and shipbuilding sectors.

The licencing of exports of military technology, including for Scottish-based companies, is a reserved matter over which the Scottish Government has no control. We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to place an immediate ban on licenced arms exports from the United Kingdom to Israel. The UK Government’s decision, announced on 2 September 2024, to suspend 30 export licences to Israel for arms used in military operations in Gaza, was therefore welcome, but should go much further

Our Guidance on Due Diligence: Human Rights sets out recommendations on how the Scottish Government, our executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake appropriate due diligence on companies, including their human rights record, before entering into an investment relationship with them. In operationalising our guidance, Scottish Enterprise’s Customer Due Diligence Procedure sets out the process that it follows to undertake human rights due diligence checks on companies it works with.

Scottish Government officials have engaged with analytical specialists and key stakeholders, such as Historic Environment Scotland, to ensure that any proposals for retrofitting traditional buildings or listed buildings in rural and island areas are flexible and protect the characteristics of our buildings, as well as considering the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people.

We have recently published a final report of the Short Life Tenement Short Life Working Group on energy efficiency and zero emissions heating as well as The suitability of clean heating options for challenging dwelling types, which are available on the Scottish Government website. Officials have also attended Hopetoun House and Holyrood Lodge to hear about the challenges of retrofit and what Historic Environment Scotland had done to improve these buildings.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders alongside the Private Renter Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) consultation workshops on the proposals. This engagement will be vital in helping us develop and shape cost-effective and feasible solutions to improve the energy efficiency of privately rented traditional and listed buildings in rural and island areas.

The position outlined in the answer to S6W-37289 on 13 May 2025 remains that the revised policy statement for the protection of natural features on Ramsar sites will be published at the earliest opportunity.

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 Scottish Government has not identified any funds returned from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) for penalties. The member may wish to contact the SFC for further details.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.

That is why later this summer we will publish our new palliative care strategy, Palliative Care Matters for All. The strategy will set out a series of aims and outcomes designed to help to improve palliative care services across Scotland.

The strategy will be accompanied by a delivery plan which will set out how the actions will be delivered through collaboration with a variety of service providers such as Integration Joint Boards, Health Boards, third sector organisations (including independent hospices) and other independent service providers such as care homes.

The definition of “backlog” in this context is referred to by the Auditor General report as the increase in criminal court cases waiting to be heard during the Covid 19 pandemic. At its peak, this reached 43,606 cases in January 2022.

The number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types has now returned to below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.

The Annual Participation Measure is published by Skills Development Scotland and uses the following classifications: