Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has had a range of discussions with a number of stakeholders regarding implementing the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024, including on alternative models.

Across Scotland, there is a high-level estimate that more than 164,000 homes have planning permission but have not yet been built. This has set the context for the 23 actions set out in the Planning and Housing Emergency Delivery Plan that we published last November. We are making good progress delivering across all of these actions, which relate to policy, delivery, capacity and efficiency.

As an example, we have been identifying and removing barriers on stalled housing sites. Everyone involved in planning has a role to play in accelerating delivery, so we have established a Short Life Working Group, involving industry partners, to address challenges such as flexibility on affordable housing provision, flooding, market viability, education and transport (road and rail). We are also working more intensively to broker solutions for individual sites where progress has stalled. This work is informing the priorities for the National Planning Hub, which is offering practical help for planning authorities to access specialist expertise, build professional skills and capacity, and support efficiency.

We have committed to continuing action on stalled housing sites and the Hub in the 2025-26 Programme for Government. We will also consult this year on mechanisms to accelerate house building and stimulate access to land with planning permission where building has not started. These are examples of the delivery focus and practical intervention we are taking to help build more of the homes Scotland needs sooner.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit that is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research relating to skin conditions such as topical steroid withdrawal. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees. No projects for topical steroid withdrawal are currently being funded. CSO also invests in NHS Research Scotland to support NHS Boards host and participate in public, charity, and industry sector funded clinical studies and trials. This includes a Dermatology Research Network to support the delivery of clinical research on skin conditions. While a number of clinical studies of treatments for skin conditions are being supported, none relate specifically to topical steroid withdrawal.

We welcome this report from the Just Transition Commission. I set out the Scottish Government response to this report in my ministerial statement on Tuesday 3 June, confirming that we accept the headline recommendations in principle. Ahead of further just transition planning, we need clarity on the UK Government’s intentions in a range of key reserved areas, including the future regulatory and fiscal regimes for North Sea oil and gas and support for the Acorn CCUS project.

We continue to provide support to the region, including through the new £8.5 million round of the Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray, our £125 million investment in the Aberdeen City Region Deal as well as up to £26.3m for the Energy Transition Zone through the Energy Transition Fund.

The judgements and issues in the Scottish Government’s Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan are informed and influenced by ongoing developments in the UK Government’s energy policy and recent court decisions. We are taking sufficient time to analyse and reflect on those developments and their impact on Scotland.

Scotland’s valued and highly skilled offshore oil and gas workforce must be at the heart of a just transition, therefore the Scottish Government is not awaiting a final policy position from the UK Government to take action. We have been supporting workers with the powers available to us, and will continue to do so. We are working with industry partners on an Energy Skills Passport, and with UK Government to develop a Regional Skills Pilot scheme for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Through our Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray we have invested £9.7 million on skills interventions, including the Skills Passport, a Digital Innovation Lab, and an Energy Skills Transition Hub which will open later this year.

The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) is currently working to document and address these gaps as part of the genomic medicine strategy, with the aim of improving alignment and equity of provision across the UK.

Our Tobacco and Vaping Framework: Roadmap to 2034 committed to tracking and reporting progress towards our 2034 target. This included work to develop further indicators, building on existing baseline data (taken from the Scottish Health Survey and the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study) as part of the first two-year implementation plan.

As part of our ongoing analytical work on the Framework, we identified a need for more regular and more detailed data on children due to the rapidly changing landscape.

Since 2024 the Scottish Government has purchased a booster sample in the ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey. This is an annual survey of 11-18 years olds in Great Britain that has been running since 2013. This has allowed us to achieve representativeness by age and gender for young people age 11 – 17 years living in Scotland.

Data from the Scotland booster sample provides robust and valuable information annually on patterns of use of cigarettes, vapes and novel nicotine products (including nicotine pouches).

The operation of Police Scotland, including the deployment of officers, is for the Chief Constable. The latest official statistics show there were 16,553 FTE police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2025. The Scottish Government supports the Chief Constable in having the flexibility to develop and utilise her workforce in a way that responds to the challenges she faces by ensuring she has the right workforce in place. In 2025-26, we are increasing investment in policing by £90 million to a record £1.64 billion to support police capacity and capability.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The selection of countries and sites for global clinical trials for new cancer treatments is dependent on a complex range of factors, including the wider regulatory environment.

The Scottish Government and the Chief Scientist Office work closely with NHS Research Scotland and with the UK National Institute for Health and Social Care Research to ensure that Scotland continues to offer the best environment for clinical research and cancer clinical trials.

The Scottish Government will take forward discussions with the UK Government on the matter of quota distribution following the recent agreement with the EU. Those discussions will include how sea fish quotas are apportioned. The majority of quota is currently apportioned by the UK Government on the basis of each Administration's share of Fixed Quota Allocation (FQA) units.