Chamber and committees

The current procedure for applications for exhumation has been in place for many years. It involves the engagement of a solicitor who will apply to the sheriff court for a warrant to disinter. The process can be lengthy, complex and incur significant cost.

The Scottish Government is developing regulations on exhumation which will remove applications from the sheriff court, making the process more straightforward and less expensive for applicants.

The Scottish Government regularly discusses a wide range of fire safety topics with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) including battery energy storage systems (BESS). A dedicated working group within SFRS continues to monitor the number of BESS applications and their development, alongside the Service’s role in the planning, consultation, and progression of these sites.

The cause behind the reported increase in homes falling below the tolerable standard since 2018 is due to the introduction of the fire and smoke alarm, and carbon monoxide criteria in 2022.

The legal duty to take action on houses that do not meet the tolerable standard rests with the local authority. No homeowner will be criminalised if they need more time, and there are no penalties for non-compliance.

Of the 700,000 reported homes that failed the tolerable standard in 2023, 244,000 were social homes. This means that 8% of social homes failed the tolerable standard.

Social landlords are required, under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, to keep houses they let fit for human habitation and ensure that any repairs are carried out when they are needed.

We work closely with social landlords in our shared ambition to provide quality, affordable social homes and continue to have constructive engagement with them on a range of matters.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35647 on 21 March 2025. 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.

A significant amount of work has been undertaken to date, to progress the implementation of the 55 recommendations made as part of the Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland, involving a wide range of stakeholders across the public and third sector. We continue to work with the NHS, Third Sector and private providers to identify and cost an appropriate model of community care for any future service reform and ensure that the voices of those with lived experience inform this work.

A report outlining how each of the 55 recommendations set out in the Independent Review have been closed or transitioned, and the rationale for that, will be provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee imminently and will be made available on both the Committee website and https://www.all-ears.nhs.scot/

Scottish Government officials remain actively engaged with Public Health Scotland (PHS), who are responsible for the implementation of the Fracture Liaison Service audit. Progress against the business case requirements to develop and then implement the new audit is reviewed on a regular basis.

I also refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-35534 21 March 2025. 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 UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP) was published on 21 March 2025.

The NAP is a UK-wide document which sets out the shared ambition of the Scottish Government, Defra, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. It aims to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring that our land managers in the agriculture, horticulture and amenity sector have effective tools to manage pests and pesticide resistance.

Supporting uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is central to the actions set out in the NAP. This includes targeting use of conventional chemical pesticides to when environmentally and economically justified. It also includes equipping pesticide users with the knowledge and support needed to adopt a range of sustainable crop protection practices, including innovative precision application technologies, to continue to reduce the use of conventional chemical pesticides whilst retaining the ability to address the crop protection challenges arising from climate change. The NAP also commits to improving and supporting compliance with regulations to ensure that pesticides are used safely.

Measuring progress is a key commitment of the NAP and as such sets the first domestic reduction target for pesticides in the UK, with an aim of reducing a suite of representative pesticide load indicators by 10% by 2030. The target is designed to measure progress against reducing environmental pressure from pesticides, rather than representing a simple usage reduction target. This reduces the potential for unintended consequences, which could risk the removal of important tools for farmers, growers and other land managers. The NAP sets a target for the arable sector, using data from the existing pesticide usage surveys, but also acknowledges that we want to improve our understanding of the nature of pesticide use in the amenity and amateur sectors in future.

We welcome publication of this plan, which commits us to measuring our progress over the next five years, and we look forward to working with stakeholders during the implementation of these actions.

The plan can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pesticides-national-action-plan-2025.

The abundance of fish in Scottish waters means that a varied industry has developed over time, with many different types of fishing vessels operating as part of a mixed fishery. There are different target fish species, depending on the type of fishing vessel and where it operates, and different issues around unwanted catch. Discarding in the nephrops trawl fishery does occur as whitefish it is typically in very small amounts and for very specific reasons. Historically, very small amounts of whitefish may be caught alongside nephrops. Since the introduction of the landing obligation, this unwanted catch can amount to a disproportionate cost for fisherman who have to land and then dispose of it. As such, the Scottish Government have utilised lawful exemptions to the landing obligation for these fish, in order to lessen the financial burden on these small nephrops vessels. These exempted fish are fully accounted for in quota calculations and factored into stock assessments.

Going forward, as part of the policy development of Scotland’s our Future Catching Policy, we have been working with industry to explore pragmatic technical and spatial measures to support fishers to reduce discarding. We also know there are improvements we can make to the implementation of the landing obligation that will make the rules around discarding more effective and will work with industry and others to develop this across Scotland’s diverse fleets in order to minimise instances of unwanted catch in the first place.

This is being supported by the rollout of remote electronic monitoring and vessel tracking technology to enable us to better monitor fishing operations, effort and catch with the aim of ensuring fishing activity remains sustainable, responsible and accountable across all of our waters.

While the management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency, the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government and other devolved administrations through the delivery of the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI) which is a joint plan for tackling bycatch across the UK to minimise, and where possible eliminate, bycatch of sensitive marine species.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licences, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules. This includes a mandatory requirement for all vessels (including EU vessels) operating in UK waters to report all incidences of marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation.

Designation as a statutory consultee places certain statutory obligations on the relevant body to provide comments on any application notified to them within a set time period. These obligations have to be met and funded by the organisation in question. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has not requested to become a statutory consultee at this time and we do not have plans at this stage to take this forward however we will of course continue discussions with SFRS on this matter as and when appropriate.