Chamber and committees

Section 7 of the Act was brought into force on 26 June 2024 but only insofar as for the purpose of section 8 (removal of certain trustees by court: unfitness). The Scottish Government’s preferred approach is to allow the remaining provisions of the Act to be brought into force at the same time as a Scotland Act Order extends relevant provisions to pensions trusts and officials are working closely with UK Government colleagues to progress this work.

The NDAs are currently updating their 5 year strategy to cover the period 2026 to 2031. This is a routine exercise and so we do not intend to propose a parliamentary debate on this issue.

We will consider the requirement for a parliamentary debate on any proposals to transfer major nuclear defence liabilities, including the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) if and when any such formal proposal is received.

The link below shows the number of ongoing waits for Cardiology for Inpatient/Daycase Admission and New Outpatient Appointments at 30 June 2025 (latest) latest published statistics – this can be found under the 'data files' heading.

The first table is the waiting list size at month end for Cardiology Inpatient/Day case Admission and New Outpatient Appointments along with the median waiting time (days) at 30 June 2025 (latest). This information can be found at latest published statistics.

The second table shows the whole time equivalent and headcount of cardiologists at 30 June 2025 (latest). This information is available at NHS Education for Scotland NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any formal risk assessment regarding Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) civil defence co-operation and the proposal to transfer any defence liabilities to the civil sector as no formal proposal to transfer any such liabilities has been presented to us.

We are aware of technical work being conducted by NDA and MOD to evaluate the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, to the NDA when the site reaches the end of its operational life, not expected to be before April 2027, and we will consider the results of this in due course. Under the terms of the Energy Act 2004 any proposal to give the NDA additional responsibilities, including defence liabilities, in Scotland requires agreement from Scottish Ministers and a Designation Direction under the Energy Act 2004 would require to be to be laid in the Scottish Parliament.

Any transfer of Vulcan to the NDA would also require the relevant authorisation under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 issued by SEPA and so would be subject to robust independent scrutiny.

Local authorities are entirely separate entities from the Scottish Government and their powers are set out in statute. It is up to each local authority to manage its own day to day business. The Scottish Government does not have a role in the operations of councils, including decisions to instruct external legal counsel. The Scottish Government expects all councils to have robust internal procedures in place to manage conflicts of interest and to ensure decisions are taken in a transparent and accountable manner.

The Scottish Government is aware of the ongoing concerns regarding unresolved equal pay cases within the Scottish public sector. We recognise that transparency and accountability are essential to ensuring equal pay for equal work for everyone across all public bodies in Scotland.

As part of our phased approach to improving the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland (PSED), we continue to review the operation of the Scottish Specific Duties. This includes considering reforms to the equal pay statement duty, where necessary and proportionate, and seeking to ensure that regulations are used to reinforce each other for maximum effect in enabling better performance of the general duty.

In line with Scottish Ministers’ statutory duty under Regulation 12 of the Scottish Specific Duties, the Scottish Government will publish our new proposals to enable better performance of the PSED in Scotland for 2025-29 in December 2025. These proposals and the accompanying report will set out our considerations and next steps to improve the effectiveness of PSED in Scotland. We are carefully considering a wide range of evidence including the effectiveness of equal pay regulations as we develop these proposals.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has been working closely with partners, including Fife Council, to address a previous rise in fire-related antisocial behaviour. SFRS believes prevention and education to be the best method of dealing with fire-related antisocial behaviour and has confirmed that this partnership approach has contributed to a recent decline in such behaviour locally.

SFRS staff work year-round to share key fire safety guidance and to engage communities on the dangers and consequences of deliberate fire-setting. The Service’s Youth Volunteer Scheme operates in areas across Scotland, including in Methil, and is open to all 12 to 18 year-olds.

This is a matter for the operation company and the Scottish Government is unable to disclose this information as it is considered commercially sensitive.

The funding decisions taken by the UK Government flow into UK Spending Reviews and budgets, which also set out the Scottish Government’s overall capital funding. The capital budget as laid out in the UK spending review on 11 June 2025 delivers a real terms cut to the SG CDEL budget by the end of period covered. In financial year 2029-30 the SG CDEL budget is 1.1% lower in 2025-26 terms. While the front-loaded nature of the capital budgets as well as the sizable increase in financial transactions are welcomed they do not offset the loss of spending power from this real terms reduction. It is widely accepted that the recent inflationary environment has had a greater effect on capital budgets particularly construction related projects. Therefore, the loss of spending power on infrastructure could be even greater than the numbers show. This has been compounded by historic real terms cuts to our Capital settlement by previous governments leading to a backlog in maintenance.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing equality and tackling the structural barriers that contribute to the gender pay gap. We recognise the concerns raised in Close the Gap’s From Data to Action briefing, particularly the need to improve the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) to ensure meaningful action on gender pay gaps in Scotland.

We remain committed to taking a phased approach to improving the effectiveness of the PSED in Scotland. This includes consideration of regulatory changes to strengthen pay gap reporting. We are considering the points raised in this briefing carefully, alongside a range of other pieces of evidence on the operation of the Scottish Specific Duties, as we develop our PSED improvement proposals for the 2025-29 cycle. A report on these proposals is due to be published in December 2025, in line with Scottish Ministers’ statutory duty under Regulation 12 of the Scottish Specific Duties.

In the meantime, my officials are meeting regularly with Close the Gap to discuss their briefing and other related issues.