We Asked, You Said, We Did

What is your view on the proposed TAC level for Clyde herring in 2025?

A range of responses were received, as can be found in the outcome report

Having considered the best available scientific information, the wider obligations and analysed all responses submitted through the consultation process, the TAC for 2025 has been recommended to the UK Secretary of State at 583 tonnes. This is a rollover of the 2024 TAC and retains the existing management measures.

We held a public consultation seeking views on the Scottish Government's proposals to mitigate the two-child limit in Universal Credit in Scotland. The consultation opened on 21 February 2025 and closed on 18 April 2025. 

We asked four questions about:

• whether Social Security Scotland should deliver payments to mitigate the two-child cap in Scotland;
• whether the powers at s79 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 to top-up Universal Credit should be used to mitigate the two-child cap;
• whether payments to mitigate the two-child cap should be disregarded as income by the UK Government; and
• any potential impacts of the proposed approach outlined in the consultation on different groups of people, communities and businesses.

We also held a workshop with people who have lived experience of the two-child limit on Universal Credit to supplement the online consultation.

A total of 267 responses were received. Most consultation responses were from individuals, with 42 responses from organisations. A range of organisations responded including third sector organisations, local authorities and representative bodies. 

During the workshop event attendees shared their answers to the consultation questions. Their insights were considered alongside the formal consultation responses.

We commissioned an independent research company, Wellside Research, to conduct the analysis of the consultation responses and their analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website. The analysis report is also available in easy read format. We have published the consultation responses, where permission has been given to do this, on Citizen Space.

The Scottish Government is committed to effectively scrapping the impact of the two-child cap in 2026. We are working at pace to begin payments as soon as possible.

In response to requests to consider a general power of competence for local authorities in Scotland, we launched a consultation to seek views on:

• The perceived barriers, risks and limitations of existing legislative powers.
• What functions, beyond those already conferred by statute, local authorities in Scotland wish to pursue and whether new legislation or amendments to existing legislation would best deliver those additional functions. 
• The continuing reluctance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to rely on a General Power of Competence and how best to ensure the effective framing of similar legislative powers in Scotland to provide clarity and confidence to local authorities in the use of such powers.
• How best to ensure that legislation contains the right balance of flexibility and control to mitigate risks arising from greater financial freedoms.

The consultation proposed various approaches for consideration, which reflected the possibility of:

1. retaining the existing statutory framework without change,
2. amendments to widen the scope of existing legislative powers whilst retaining appropriate controls to mitigate risk,
3. introducing a General Power of Competence.

The consultation elicited a wide range of divergent views. A clear preference was expressed for a general power of competence by some, whilst others felt that specific rather than general powers would best serve the public interest whilst providing the flexibility and greater certainty sought by local authorities to pursue innovation without fear of legal challenge. Some felt that a general power of competence or amendments to existing legislation could deliver the greater freedoms sought by local authorities. Some respondents did not support the introduction of a general power of competence or amendments to existing legislation, and highlighted the risks of removing existing safeguards designed to protect public funds and the provision of public services.

We have carefully reviewed the range of views expressed. Options will now be explored to deliver an appropriate balance between the aspirations of Local Government for greater local empowerment and confidence in innovation whilst providing public assurance that appropriate safeguards are in place to mitigate financial risk and ensure continued prioritisation and delivery of core public services.

We sought views on the proposed administration regulations for the Scottish Aggregates Tax (SAT). Views were also sought on a range of issues to inform relevant impact assessments and ensure that these are fully considered. The consultation opened on 24 January and closed on 21 March 2025. 

Five responses to the consultation were received from various stakeholder groups. Two of those responses were received from the SAT expert advisory group members prior to the launch of the consultation. For the purposes of the analysis, the two responses from SAT advisory group members have been included, and respondents have been broadly categorised. One response was received from a primary aggregates industry body, one response was received from a waste and resource management body, and three responses were received from tax/accountancy/legal bodies. 

Most respondents agreed with the majority of the provisions in the draft administration regulations and impact assessments. However, it was noted that there will be an additional administrative burden on taxpayers due to the level of information being requested in the aggregates invoice and tax return. A key theme in the responses was that the definition of an aggregates invoice (as stipulated in the draft secondary legislation) would cause problems for the primary aggregates industry, and that this should be amended. 

Respondents also sought further clarity on the following provisions: 

• Penalties for failure to use a weighbridge/specified method  

• Group registration 

• 30-day tax return period  

• Time-limit for claims 

Stakeholder feedback on the partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) proposed:  

• Greater reference to the research being undertaken via ClimateXChange, a centre for expertise on climate change, to better understand the evidence base on the role of recycled aggregates. 

• Further detail on the compliance costs to affected businesses.  

• An update on the assessment of cross-border complexities. 

• Information on the number of visits undertaken and the methodology used to select which operators were approached / visited. 

• Post-implementation review: further information is needed on what intervals the reviews will take place, how these will be carried out, and the level of detail to assess effectiveness of SAT. 

The material and views gathered through the consultation activities have informed the development of SAT policy in advance of the proposed introduction date of 1 April 2026. 

The Scottish Government has carefully considered the responses to the consultation and amendments have been made to regulation 2 on the definition of an aggregates invoice. Other amendments were made to correct minor spelling mistakes and referencing errors within the regulations. 

Further clarity has been provided in the consultation analysis report to answer stakeholder queries on a number of issues highlighted. 

The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment has also been revised to include further information, as highlighted by respondents, and to answer queries raised. 

The Scottish Government consulted on a draft Scottish Seabird Conservation Action Plan (Seabird CAP) from 11 December 2024 to 5 March 2025. Covering 22 seabird species, the draft plan outlines a vision with aims and objectives for supporting thriving seabird populations in Scotland. It focuses on three core action themes:

• Ensuring plentiful food supplies
• Restoring and improving habitats
• Maximising resilience and survival

The consultation asked four questions covering support for the implementation of the action plan, the key pressures acting on seabird populations, and questions relating to identification of the key actions required to address the vision, aims and objectives and monitoring success of the plan.

A total of 5,371 responses, comprising of 107 substantive responses and 5,264 responses to a RSPB campaign. Of the substantive responses, 81% were submitted by individuals and 19% by organisations.

The responses covered a range of issues, including comments on the pressures facing seabirds and the need to take action on these, with a focus on climate change; offshore wind energy; and fishing. Recurring comments raised included the need for stronger action with clearer commitments; greater collaboration between stakeholders; the importance of monitoring the progress and success of the action plan; and the addition of black-headed gull and common gull.

Overall, the analysis demonstrated that there was overwhelming support (94%) for implementation of the action plan.

An independent analysis of the consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website. Submitted responses have also been published where permission has been given.

Following consideration of all the responses and representations received, the Scottish Government has updated and published the Seabird Conservation Action Plan. In doing so, this recognises that the urgency for action to support seabird recovery and resilience to our changing world has never been greater, and acknowledges our commitments in relation to the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the UK Marine Strategy.

Following a review of existing data and the revised conservation status of black-headed gull and common gull, both species have been added to the action plan.

We have acknowledged concerns regarding the areas for action and the evidence used to identify pressures and have made some changes to the action plan to reflect these views. We have also more clearly emphasised the significant progress already being made across pressures, working collaboratively with sectoral and conservation interests.

We will establish a Delivery Partnership to oversee timely delivery, monitoring and reporting on progress and ongoing review of the plan, and which will operate within the governance framework of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

We sought expertise in our call for evidence to inform the development of a new inshore fisheries management framework for Scotland. Views were sought to inform the objectives of the framework and how it should be structured, who should be involved in fisheries management and how they should be involved, and what the framework should seek to deliver.

In total 100 responses were received from 52 individuals and 48 organisations. They represented views from around Scotland as well as from national respondents.

A number of key points came through during the course of analysing responses to this Call for Evidence:

• The majority of respondents supported a regional approach to inshore fisheries management in Scotland.
• The most common preferred delineation to be used for managing Scotland’s inshore fisheries was the Scottish Marine Region.
• There was significant support for an improved model of co-management in Scotland, however views on what this should look like differed significantly between respondents.
• A range of views were received about our existing Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) network; these mirrored responses already received during our recent review of the RIFG network which have subsequently been considered and acted upon.
• A number of respondents repeatedly outlined the value in best available data to inform decision making, the need for greater transparency, and the need for appropriate resource to support delivery of an improved inshore fisheries management model.
• The theme of creel limits, and a need for them in the future, was prevalent in responses to a number of the questions.
• Views were often polarised depending on the background of the respondent.

We published the responses to the call for evidence on Citizen Space, where permission has been given to do this. We also published a call for evidence analysis report on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this call for evidence. The responses will be considered further by officials and will inform the development of a new inshore fisheries management framework. We will engage with stakeholders through our existing networks to develop proposals ahead of consultation in early 2026.

We asked for your views on a range of proposals, relating to a licensing and regulation scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, including the role of local authorities and Healthcare Improvement Scotland in inspection and enforcement. The consultation also proposed the allocation of specific procedures to three groups to differentiate in what setting procedures should be carried out and by who, standards for hygiene, training and insurance, and age restrictions.

We received a total of 2,207 responses to the consultation; 2,075 responses were from individuals and 132 were from organisations.

The responses showed broad support for action to make the sector safer. This included support for a licensing scheme for some procedures (which we called group 1 procedures), and the restriction of some procedures only to appropriate healthcare professionals (which we called group 3 procedures). We also proposed a middle group of procedures (which we called Group 2) that we proposed should be restricted to HIS regulated or clinical settings, but could be carried our by non-healthcare professionals. Views on Group 2 were split. Most respondents believed that the majority of the procedures in the proposed group should either be restricted to healthcare professionals (with Group 3), or be available in licensed premises (with Group 1).

There was strong support for many of the practical aspects of proposals made. This included the requirement for a dual licensing system (for premises and practitioners) for procedures taking place outwith a HIS regulated setting, and for local authorities and HIS to have appropriate powers to enforce their proposals. There was also strong agreement that non-surgical cosmetic procedures should only be carried out on people aged 18 and over.

We have published responses to the consultation from all respondents who gave permission. We have also published the Scottish Government response to, and updated proposals following, the consultation. The response can be found here.

As a result of the consultation responses received, and feedback from other engagement with a range of stakeholders, we have reclassified the groupings of procedures based on the most appropriate mitigation for the risks of a procedure, rather than the procedure itself. As a result of this we have made some changes to the groups that some procedures sit in. We have also made changes to our proposed regulation of procedures in each group.

As set out in the 2025-26 Programme for Government, a Non-Surgical Cosmetic Procedures Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament. The Bill will regulate the delivery of certain non-surgical cosmetic procedures to support client safety. It will ensure that certain procedures are required to be delivered from suitable premises, and will make provision to support the enforcement of appropriate standards for service providers

In addition, we will pursue secondary legislation under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 to establish a licensing regime for less invasive (group 1) procedures.

We sought your views on the proposal for the Scottish Government to seek the Parliament’s approval to extend the duration of Part 2 Order Making Powers in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 for a further five year period from June 2025 to June 2030.  The consultation opened on 16 December 2024 and closed on 10 February 2025.

You provided us with 21 responses to the questions in our consultation. The responses came in from 15 organisations and six individuals.

With regards to the proposal to seek Parliament's approval to extend the Part 2 Order Making Powers for a further five years, our analysis of the responses found that 16 were in agreement, four opposed and one was neutral with no response given.

We published the responses to the consultation on Citizen Space, where permission has been given to do this.

We also published a consultation analysis report on the Scottish Government website.

As the responses received clearly support the proposal to seek Parliament’s approval to extend the order making powers for a further five year period, we took the necessary action to allow Parliament to consider and scrutinise the request to extend the powers. The Minister for Public Finance gave evidence in relation to this at the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 11 March 2025, where the committee approved the motion to extend these powers. Parliament approved them on 26 March 2025. The Minister for Public Finance signed the SSI (Scottish Statutory Instrument) on 27 March 2025 and this will take effect from June 2025. 

The public consultation sought views on proposed changes to clarify the status of digital assets as objects of property in Scots private law.

21 written responses to the consultation were received. We had a mixture of responses from individual respondents and respondents on behalf of representative bodies and organisations, mainly from the legal and financial services/fintech sectors.

Stakeholders overwhelmingly supported that primary legislation is the most effective way to resolve uncertainty regarding the status of digital assets in Scots private law. 

There was some divergence in responses regarding the scope of potential future legislation, particularly in terms of the recommended legal classification and defining characteristics of digital assets.

There was broad agreement that digital assets should be classified as incorporeal moveable things. On ownership and the transfer of ownership, most respondents agreed that control over a digital asset should generally be the basis for establishing ownership.

View the consultation analysis report

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are now available to view online.

After carefully considering all responses, Scottish Ministers have decided to introduce a Digital Assets Bill as outlined in the Programme for Government 2025 to 26.  The consultation demonstrated strong support for clarifying the legal status of digital assets in Scots law by primary legislation.

For views on the need for a universal definition of ‘care experience’ and what the potential impacts of this could be. We also asked for views and insight into the language of care.

The consultation was launched on 9 October 2024 and ran for a period of 16 weeks. The consultation included two sections. The first section asked for views on the need for a universal definition of ‘care experience’, the potential scope of a definition and who this could include, and what the potential impacts of a universal definition could be.

The second sought views on the wider language of care, and how to build on existing local good practice to set a national direction for language that is used relating to care to address stigmatising assumptions, attitudes and behaviours that can impact on all areas of a child or young person’s life, now and into the future.

142 written responses to the consultation were received. Of these, 71 responses were from individuals and 71 responses were from organisations. Organisational respondents included local authorities, health boards and post-16 education bodies for further and higher education. The consultation was supported by a series of online and in person engagement events between October and January.

Respondents were broadly supportive of creating a universal definition of ‘care experience’, with 80% of all respondents agreeing to some extent that this is needed.

Respondents indicated that people felt that existing language relating to care can be unclear or inconsistent, stigmatising and create barriers. Along with defining ‘care experience’, respondents highlighted the need for public education to assist in shifting cultural views around care.

A range of language initiatives focused on changing professional practice or raising awareness were mentioned by several respondents in the consultation.

The independent analysis report Consultation on Developing a Universal Definition of 'Care Experience' Analysis of Consultation Responses - gov.scot has been published, as well as the consultation responses where permission was granted.

Responses to the consultation have informed policy development in the form of two new key provisions included in the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill:

• Advocacy provisions for children, young people and adults with care experience.
• Provisions requiring Scottish Ministers to publish guidance in relation to the language of care, which will include a universal definition of ‘care experience’.

For your views on proposed changes to section 9 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (“the 1980 Act”), with the aim of supporting the alignment of legislation with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by requiring that children and young people’s views are taken into account in relation to their participation in religious observance (“RO”) and religious and moral education (“RME” also known as "Religious Education" or "RE") in schools.

The consultation was launched on 14 November 2024, given the questions around current legislation on RO and RME and the Scottish Government’s UNCRC obligations, with the Scottish Government proposing to amend the legislation to ensure clarity and put the position in relation to UNCRC compliance beyond doubt as soon as possible.

The consultation asked 6 questions around views on the positive and/or negative implications of these changes, as well as insights into how the right to withdraw currently works in practice, including how schools implement the current guidance.

The consultation closed on 26 January 2025. A total of 530 validated responses were received from a broad range of stakeholders and individuals. You provided views on the wide range of issues presented including those we asked about as well as around the themes more generally.

The independent analysis of the consultation responses has been published as well as the consultation responses (where permission was granted).

The responses to this consultation have informed policy development in the form of:

• The religious observance and religious education provisions of the Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill and its accompanying documents.
• Work on developing updated guidance to accompany the implementation of any legislative changes in this area.

We asked for your views on a set of draft regulations to transfer the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT) into the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. The consultation asked ten questions around various proposals regarding the transfer of the PAT. The questions asked were a mix of open and closed questions. The consultation opened on 30 October 2024 and ran until 22 January 2025.

There were seven responses to the consultation. Six (86%) came from organisations and one (14%) came from an individual. There was strong support for some of the proposals such as the procedure for the notice of appeal to be submitted followed by a reply from the respondent and for the routes of onward appeal from the PAT. There was broad support offered for proposals around the potential payment of expenses and the publication of decisions. Respondents to these questions agreed with these proposals but suggested that matters such as the circumstances of each case and data privacy concerns should be important considerations.

There was mixed support for the proposed membership of the PAT. Three responses were in favour of maintaining the current membership arrangements of three legal members while three responses felt there should be members with policing and lay experience.

The response to the open questions gave helpful feedback on some of the technical provisions within the draft regulations or made more general suggestions around clarifying certain procedure rules and the effect of recent primary legislation. There was also support for some of the general practices of the First-tier Tribunal, for example, the role of supporters, being included in the Procedure Rules.

The views given on the proposed draft regulations will be used to inform the process of finalising the set of draft regulations regarding the transfer of the PAT. We will consider carefully all of the points raised when finalising the draft regulations.

We are grateful for the detailed responses to many of the questions and would like to thank everyone who responded. We have published the nonconfidential responses to the consultation (see links below).

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

The full government consultation response has been published on the gov.scot website: Police Appeals Tribunal - transfer to First-tier Tribunal for Scotland: consultation analysis and response.

We asked for views on the proposed introduction of fixed penalty notices for offences under; 

•  The Environmental Protection (Single-Use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, 

• The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021,  

• The Environmental Protection (Cotton Buds) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 and, 

• The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) Regulations 2018. 

We sought your views on the levels at which we propose these penalties should be set, and asked for any comments in relation to other provisions in the Regulations.  

We received 25 responses to this consultation. Of these, 11 responded as individuals and 14 on behalf of an organisation. Responses were primarily provided by Local Authority Trading Standards.  

An overwhelming majority of responses were supportive of the introduction of fixed penalty notices. Key points raised included extending the payment deadlines for fixed penalty notices, the introduction of an appeal mechanism for retailers if they believe an FPN was issued in error without an impact of the discount for early payment, raising the level of penalties set for fixed penalty notices, the importance of alignment with other UK nations, and the introduction of forfeiture and destruction provisions for single-use vapes supplied in contravention of the Vapes Regulations.  

In response to feedback provided, we made the following changes to the Regulations: 

• Amended the wording to remove the reference to online payments, to enable local authorities to utilise the most appropriate payment method in their area, as not all local authorities have an online payment system. 

• Extended the payment deadlines to 14 days for discounted payments and 28 days for full payments for FPNs under the Vapes Regulations. This brings the deadlines in line with those in the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 (TMPS), which Trading Standards officers (who are also responsible for enforcing these Regulations) are experienced at enforcing and under which FPNs are regularly issued. 

• Included provision for a direction-making power in the Vapes Regulations which will enable the Scottish Ministers to direct that single-use vapes supplied in contravention of the regulations are to be treated as waste and disposed of or treated as appropriate. This brings the Scottish Regulations in line with similar provisions in the other UK vapes regulations. 

We agreed with the importance of alignment across the UK nations with regards to enforcement, and therefore opted to keep the proposed level of penalties as are set out in the draft Regulations. 

The full government consultation response has been published on the gov.scot website: Environmental Protection (Single-Use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 - fixed penalty notice amendment consultation: response  

We asked for views on a minor amendment to road works legislation. We sought views on the proposal to revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument which accounts for the target cost of operating the Scottish Road Works Register and replace it with a new Regulation to account for the overall running cost in the 2025/26 financial year. The projected running cost for 2025/26 will increase to £1,008,819 from £901,314.

In total, nineteen responses to the consultation were received, primarily from roads authorities.  Seven responses were from individuals, three from statutory undertakers. Brief analysis of these responses is detailed below.

There was strong support for the proposal; sixteen of the nineteen responses gave support for the proposal. Two statutory undertakers and one individual were not content with the agreed cost sharing matrix developed by the Roads Authority and Utility Committee (Scotland).

Of the two undertaker responses in opposition to the proposal, one made no alternate suggestions but commented that road authority activities have largely increased. Whilst there has been increase in noticing of work carried out by road authorities, there was still a continuation of increase in utility works and at present utilities carry out 73% of the works. Another undertaker suggested a new splitting model for future years in addition to opposing the current one. 

The consultation responses have been carefully considered, most of the respondents supported the proposal to replace the 2024 Scottish Statutory Instrument. As a result, we will now revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument, “The “Scottish Road Works Register (Prescribed Fees) Regulations 2024”, and replace it with a new Regulation as proposed. 

The public consultation sought views on proposals to extend marine planning zone boundaries to resolve an existing gap in aquaculture planning regulations.

53 responses were received from a wide range of stakeholders, of which 29 were from groups or organisations and 27 were from individual members of the public.

A number of respondents who agreed with the proposals commented that they would close a regulatory gap, ensure developments were appropriately assessed under existing regulations and allow farms to be located further from the shore in line with developments in aquaculture equipment technology.

A number of issues were raised both by respondents who disagreed with the proposals and those who agreed. The points raised were wide ranging, but some key themes emerged including concerns regarding regulators capacity,  the assessment of proposed developments and impacts on other marine users.

View the consultation analysis report

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are now available to view online.

Following careful consideration of all the responses received, Scottish Ministers brought forward The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2025 to extend marine planning zone boundaries as proposed in the consultation paper.

We consulted on the investigative powers for the Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator under the Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021, suggesting criteria for investigation, enforcement and financial penalties. 

Feedback included the formality of the investigation process, the costs of the process and their potential impact on the sector, ensuring fair treatment between businesses of different sizes in the sector, and the initial and upper limits for financial penalties.

We will consider this feedback in developing and publishing an investigation policy in advance of the commencement of the investigation and enforcement provisions in the Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021. 

We sought your views on the introduction of a Scottish Building Safety Levy (SBSL) to provide funding for the Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme. The consultation opened on 23 September 2024 for a period of eight weeks, closing on 18 November 2024. The consultation invited responses to a range of open and closed questions on aspects relating to the SBSL, including the strategic context for the tax, scope, calculation, operational considerations, and impacts. 

The consultation received a total of 78 responses, mostly from property developer organisations and other housing/property stakeholders. The consultation was accompanied by a programme of engagement with industry stakeholders and prospective taxpayers, and through an Expert Advisory Group. 

Most responses were from those operating within the residential property development sector who were opposed to the introduction of the SBSL, with concerns raised that this would place a further cost burden on the housebuilding industry which is already contributing towards the cost of cladding remediation. Responses emphasised the need to consider the impact of the SBSL on housebuilding within a wider context of cumulative impacts and regulation on the sector, and of the housing emergency and the importance of building new homes.  

There was strong support from respondents to mitigate impacts of the SBSL on affordable housing, on smaller developers, and on island and rural communities. 

The Scottish Government is grateful to everyone who engaged with and provided a response to this consultation. Responses have been analysed in a report which has been published following the introduction of the Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill on 5 June 2025. Where permission has been given to do so, responses have been published on Citizen Space. 

We recognise the general opposition to the introduction of the SBSL but note that no immediate alternative solutions are being offered by respondents to address the funding challenge associated with cladding remediation. 

In lieu of the SBSL, the Scottish Government would be required to fund its Cladding Remediation Programme through its existing capital budget envelope or through changes to other devolved taxes. Neither of these options would meet Scottish Ministers’ objective of ensuring that there is parity in the funding arrangements between the Scottish and UK governments, and that the costs do not fall directly onto homeowners or disproportionately onto the general taxpayer.  Work on the SBSL has balanced the need to raise revenue for cladding remediation efforts with minimising any potential impact on the housebuilding sector, including providing exemptions for affordable housing and housing built on islands, and providing an annual levy-free allowance to protect smaller developers. 

The Scottish Government asked for your views on proposals to implement a minimum charge on single-use beverage proposals. Topics included:

• Charge level
• Scope of the charge
• Use of net proceeds
• Enforcement
• Implementation
• Impact assessment results

There were 1,068 unique respondents to the consultation. Over 800 responses were submitted by individuals with the remaining amount submitted by businesses.

Views on these initial proposals were mixed, with no clear agreement on how best to deliver the charge fairly and effectively.

We want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to the consultation.

The analysis of the consultation responses and responses to the consultation, where permission has been given, have been published.

We are now taking time to fully consider the issues raised to ensure the charge is effective, proportionate, and fair.

We will continue to work closely with stakeholders to develop an approach that is deliverable and allows businesses and consumers time to prepare, including through working with the Single-Use Disposable Cups Charge Advisory Group.

We will also continue to develop measures aimed at tackling the consumption of problematic single-use items and promoting uptake of reusable alternatives.

For your views on various parts of the Scottish Pubs Code. Topics covered within the consultation paper included: Market Rent Only leases, guest beer agreements, information for prospective tenants, rent assessment, flow monitoring devices and gaming machines.

The consultation was launched on 17 September 2024, and was a short, targeted consultation drawing upon concerns raised by stakeholders following the making of the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024. The proposals were informed by workshops that were carried out with tenant and pub-owning business representatives.

The consultation closed on 4 November 2024 and asked 20 questions. A total of 21 responses were received from stakeholders and individuals.  16 were from groups or organisations (eight Pub-owning businesses, six Representative bodies and two Campaign groups) and five from individual members of the public.

The Scottish Government’s analysis of the consultation has been published as well as the consultation responses (where permission was granted).

The responses to this consultation will inform proposed Ministerial changes to the Scottish Pubs Code.

The intention is for an amending Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) to be laid in the Scottish Parliament in January 2025 and, subject to the parliamentary process, for it to come into effect on 31 March 2025. The code will be subject to statutory review, with the first review period ending on 31 March 2026 and further reviews due every 3 years thereafter.

We asked for your views on proposals for children’s hearings redesign.  The consultation focussed on potential legislative changes required to redesign Scotland’s children’s hearings system to build on its strengths so that it can deliver the best possible experience to the children and families in need of its support.

The consultation opened on 26 July 2024 and closed on 28 October 2024.

105 responses were received across the 13 week consultation period.  Of those 105 responses, 56% were from organisations, and 44% were from individuals. The consultation was supported by a series of online and in person engagement events throughout August, September and October which reached over 500 people.

The wide ranging responses to the consultation and the lack of consensus between many respondents on several of the areas in the consultation reflects the fine balance and interaction between the various sensitive issues at play and the complexity of redesigning the children’s hearings system. 

The Scottish Government commissioned The Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ) to undertake an independent, impartial analysis of the responses to the consultation.  This analysis was published in early 2025, the responses themselves will also be published (where permission to publish was given).

We are carefully considering what we have heard during the consultation process to help inform development of future legislation and practice and will continue to engage with key stakeholders along with representatives of those with lived and living experience of the children’s hearings system in Scotland. 

We consulted on our initial proposals for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard between July and October 2024.

We asked for your views on a range of key topics relating to determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent:

• Identifying the components of an equivalent standard.
• Proposals to improve the setting of energy performance and ventilation standards for new buildings, leading to lower energy demand (and reduced running costs) and a healthy indoor environment.
• Proposals to improve assurance that the design intent for energy performance and ventilation standards for new buildings is achieved in practice.
• General topics which are material to the ongoing development of energy and environmental standards set by building regulations.
• The proposed updated programme to deliver the current energy standards review and the commitment on a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard.
• Notes on the proposed amendments of regulations.

Consultation activity ran from 31 July 2024 to 23 October 2024 and received a total of 350 responses. 186 were from organisations and 164 were from individuals. Of the responses received, 64 respondents instructed that their responses should not be published. Of these 64 responses, 25 were from individuals and 39 from organisations.

Accordingly, following final QA checks, 290 consultation responses were published on the consultation page.

Responses represented a range of views and offered useful insight into many aspects of the proposals. The consultation analysis report is now published.

• Determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard - Analysis of Consultation Responses - gov.scot

Following review and consideration of responses to the consultation and focussing on items that may require modifications to the Building Regulations to satisfy Mr Rowley’s final Bill proposal, it is our position that only limited changes to regulations are needed to support an outcome, up to and including that delivered through the voluntary Passivhaus Standard.

In respect of how we set performance requirements, the Scottish Government is content that the current regulations and schedule of mandatory standards within The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 already provide the necessary legislative provisions to give effect to the final proposal for a proposed Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill. The outcome being ‘to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new-build housing to meet a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard, in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance’.

Changes that are necessary to legislation have been identified and these relate to building standards processes. In particular, the mandating of information needed to demonstrate to verifiers that compliance in both the design and the construction of buildings is being taken forward correctly. We can confirm that regulations amending The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 were laid on 12 December 2024. These introduce a requirement for developers to provide an “energy and environmental design statement” with building warrant applications and an “energy and environmental construction statement” with each completion certificate. These statements will describe how the design and construction of the building complies with paragraphs 3.13, 3.14, 3.28, 6.1 to 6.7, 6.10, 7.1 and 7.2 of schedule 5 of the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. These are the mandatory standards relevant to the delivery of energy and environmental performance.

Part 1 of the Scottish Government response to the consultation, which covers regulatory amendments, is now published.

• Determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard - Scottish Government Response Part 1 - Regulatory Changes - gov.scot

Part 2 of the Scottish Government response to the consultation will follow in early 2025.

Next Steps

The July 2024 consultation proposed an implementation date of 2028 for the new standards and there was widespread support for this. To enable the construction sector to prepare for the changes an implementation date of 31 March 2028 was set out in the regulatory amendments.

We will continue to work with the Working Group and wider industry stakeholders through 2025, informed by response to this consultation, to agree and develop the detail of changes to how we set energy and environmental standards for new buildings with the aim to publish revised standards in early 2026.

Regulatory amendments

Amendment to regulations are published here: The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024

The consultation aimed to gather views on modernising the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, with a particular focus on:

• Improving access to justice for adults affected by the AWI Act
• Shifting the focus of the AWI Act to one that truly centres on the adult
• Enabling adults to access rights more easily
• Ensuring adults are supported to make and act upon their own decisions for as long as possible
• Ensuring that when an adult cannot make their own decisions despite support, that their will and preferences are followed unless doing so would be to the overall detriment of the adult
• Setting out proposals for reform concerning authority for research

Whilst it was clear from the consultation responses that there is strong support to modernise the AWI legislation, risks relating to European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) non-compliance in relation to deprivation of liberty cases emerged.

Specific concerns were also raised in relation to resourcing AWI practice, the need for greater awareness and access to independent advocacy and a need for a more granular level of detailed to be provided to allow fuller consideration of reform proposals.

We concluded that there is the need for a more detailed approach to be developed to ensure we can bring forward solutions consistent with ECHR legislation and that further work must be prioritised ahead of bringing forward a Bill in this area. 

Between 19 August and 14 October 2024, the Scottish Government consulted on proposed fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). In total, management measures for 20 MPAs were consulted on, with 15 of these sites having two options proposed (either zonal or full site closure) and the other five only having one option proposed (full site closure). Views were also sought on a proposed amendment to the boundary of the West of Scotland MPA. 

Additionally, the consultation asked for views on a range of supporting documents, including Sustainability Appraisal (SA), draft Fisheries Assessments, Strategic Environmental Report (SEA), Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA), partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessments (BRIAs) and partial Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA). 

The consultation included a mix of closed and open-ended questions. 

In total, the consultation received 3,881 valid responses, with 97% submitted by individuals and 3% by organisations. Campaign responses accounted for 95% of submissions. 

Responses to the consultation revealed a fundamental divide between advocates of conservation and industry stakeholders when it came to proposals for zonal or full site measures. 

Respondents preferring zonal measures argued that these approaches were informed by extensive stakeholder collaboration and designed to balance environmental objectives with the continuation of fishing activities. This approach was also viewed as vital for maintaining economic resilience and food security.  

However, critics of zonal measures warned of potential fragmentation in protection, arguing that leaving certain ecological features unprotected could compromise conservation goals and fail to adequately address the pressures on sensitive habitats and species. 

Advocates for full site measures stressed the necessity of comprehensive protection to restore ecosystems to favourable conservation status. These respondents argued that full site approaches better align with international conservation obligations and enhance resilience to climate change by preserving biodiversity. 

Regarding the proposed boundary amendment to the West of Scotland MPA, half of respondents (50%) were in favour with only 10% expressing opposition. The remaining 40% of respondents expressed neutrality. 

In relation to the supporting documents many respondents urged for a more balanced set of assessments, incorporating comprehensive cost-benefit analyses and long term ecosystem considerations. They wanted more emphasis on economic benefits of measures and a greater consideration given to potential displacement impacts of fishing activity. In relation to the SEA, some respondents expressed approval that it provided a good summary and, due to the current lack of benchmark evidence, it is useful for future reference as a point of comparison. 

The Scottish Government is grateful to everyone who engaged with and provided a response to this consultation. Responses have been collated and analysed to produce the consultation analysis report which was published on 31 January 2025. The report is available to read online: Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): consultation analysis. 

The key findings from this report will be taken into account when decisions on management measures and the West of Scotland MPA boundary are made later this year. The intention is for relevant Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs) to be laid in the Scottish Parliament and, subject to the parliamentary process, for these to come into effect in 2025. 

We asked for views on the use of ‘apparatus plans’ and held a public consultation which was open for 12 weeks from 11 July 2024. There was also an additional three questions on the ‘Street Works Qualification’ regime.

In total 53 responses to the consultation were received: twenty-four came from current managerial/supervisory staff working within the industry. In terms of operatives, individuals working for both utility firms, roads authorities and their supply chain provided responses. There were also three responses from organisations responsible for setting best practice, the direct provision of plans (“others”), or informing policy making, including Scotland’s regulator of road works, the Scottish Road Works Commissioner. One response was received after the deadline but has been included in the analysis in the interests of representing as wide a set of views as possible.

We are grateful to everyone who took time to share their views and provide a response to this consultation. The consultation analysis report can be found here.

All responses have been fully considered. We will now use the responses to inform a proposed supporting SSI that prescribes the data set that should be supplied to Vault.

This consultation was about learning more on the right scaffolding of support that young people leaving care and moving into adulthood should have available to allow them to thrive in their futures.

In February 2020, Scotland's Independent Care Review published a series of reports, including The Promise. The Promise spoke about a vision and told Scotland what it must do to make sure that all children and young people are loved, safe and respected so that they can reach their full potential.

We are committed to keeping The Promise by 2030, by making sure that all children and young people with care experience are given the support they need to thrive as they move into adulthood and more independent living.

On 11 July 2024, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on ‘Moving on’ from care into adulthood, inviting views on a wide range of issues impacting young people as they transition from care. This 12 week public consultation closed on 3 October 2024, and 69 responses were received from young people, and those supporting them; including public, private and third sector organisations, and individuals.

Alongside the written consultation exercise, the Scottish Government undertook a series of engagement events to discuss the issues impacting young people as they transition from care with a range of stakeholders and young people. In total, over 100 people attended these events, including 29 young people.

The voices of children and young people were essential to the consultation, and through the Children and Young People Participation Framework, the Scottish Government commissioned Who Cares? Scotland and Barnardo’s Scotland to consult with children and young people with experience of care (up to age 26) on the transition from care into adulthood. Between November 2024 and January 2025, a further 34 care experienced young people (aged 9 to 25) from across Scotland shared their views and experiences.

We asked for your views on improving Scotland’s support services for young people transitioning from care to the next stage of their lives.

The consultation was launched in response to the Programme for Government 2023-24 commitment to hold a public consultation on the support available for young people with care experience when they become adults. 

The consultation asked 41 questions to find out how we can ensure that young people with experience of care can move into adulthood with the right level of financial and practical support in place at the right time to enable them to thrive.

The voice of young people with care experience was key to this process and views were sought on areas such as planning and preparation, Continuing Care, Aftercare, health and wellbeing support, education, employment and housing.

The Lines Between undertook a formal analysis of consultation responses, and this was published on 6 January 2025. Consultation responses were also published where permission was given.

The responses to this consultation and engagement events will help inform the development of guidance and policy, and the consideration of legislative change, which will support young people leaving care.

We are working across the Scottish Government to reflect upon, and respond to, the consultation feedback. We are also working with our partners and stakeholders, including people with experience of care, to develop our actions.

We have outlined below some of the relevant work ongoing throughout the Scottish Government. Where possible, we have grouped our intentions, developments and actions in line with the categories outlined in the consultation, for ease of reference.

1. Planning, preparation and accessing Information Services and Support – You said: Access to information helps young people, their families and those supporting them know the process clearly at all points, and to understand their rights. Respondents highlighted that gaps in staff knowledge, lack of engagement between children and their service providers, and challenges in multi-agency working were all barriers to people with experience of care being able to access information about their support. Respondents asked for more clarity through guidance, staff training, inclusive practices and information sharing with young people and their families or supporters in this process, and the need to improve the commencement of planning for this process at an early stage.             
2. Continuing Care and Aftercare - You said: Moving into adulthood can be challenging for all young people. Continuing Care and Aftercare services aim to support young people with experience of care through this period of their lives. Respondents spoke of practical and financial barriers to providing Continuing Care, and the extra considerations required in residential care and foster care when young children and older young people live in the same home. Several respondents expressed a view that Continuing Care and Aftercare eligibility should extend to include other groups of young people with care experience.        
3.  Support for specific groups leaving care – You said: Again, the need for improved planning, robust systems and multi-agency working was highlighted by many, and the need to ensure that clear person-centred pathways and adequate support are available to our young people, and those who support them. This was across all groups, but felt to be particularly significant where young people may have complex needs, for example Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, those with complex health needs, young parents or children and young people who are leaving Secure Care or Young Offender Institutions. A more joined-up approach, particularly between Children’s and adult services was called for. Trauma informed training, more effective multi-agency working and consistent practices implemented nationally were all reported to offer a solution. Guidance, toolkits and training were suggested as ways to achieve this, as well as upskilling staff with awareness of information on entitlements, processes and services.                                                          
4. Peer and lifelong suport - You said:  Maintaining relationships between those who have left care and the adults who supported them while they were in care was another common theme raised, as well as the benefit of peer support in helping young people as they leave care and their caregivers being able to establish support networks.                                   
5.  Health and wellbeing – You said: Respondents highlighted the importance of the development and signposting to comprehensive services that are consistent across the country for all that need to access them, with good transition links between Children’s and adult services, especially in mental health services and services for those with complex health needs. Better resourcing of mental health supports and a ‘joined up’ approach to services was called for, supported by family or carer involvement at an early stage.                                                                       
6.  Housing – You said: Some respondents called for changes to legislation and addressing the current housing crisis to ensure young people with care experience are not forced to declare themselves homeless in order to access housing. Inconsistency in the availability of suitable housing was also highlighted. A lack of support and multi-agency working, dedicated staff, information and signposting around housing was also highlighted.                                                                                    
7.  Education – You said: Views on funding for education were generally positive, however improvements suggested included making the grant application process more accessible for all people with care experience in terms of supporting evidence and providing a consistent funding package across a full period of study. There were also calls from young people to provide training in life skills to help them make the transition to adulthood, with a particular emphasis on money and budgeting.                
8. Employment – You said: Supported work experience and voluntary opportunities was suggested by some respondents, with calls for the Scottish Government to lead the way by providing priority places to those with experience of care. Careers advice, along with mentoring and interview preparation and support was also called for. Educating employers and the workforce on the needs of those with care experience was again highlighted.                                                                                 
9. Workforce training, trauma informed practice, consistency and transparency in service provisions - You said: The importance of ensuring all young people get equal access to the support and services they need to thrive during their transition, regardless of where they live in Scotland, was another common theme. Respondents noted the importance of clear care or pathway plans. Several respondents suggested clear guidance from the government would ensure multi-agency collaboration and learning, and information sharing across departments. Another common theme was the need to reduce stigma through raising awareness of care experience by fellow students or employers, including trauma-informed training sessions for staff working with people with care experience across public and private sectors. Trauma informed training and practices appeared across the consultation in respect of all groups who came into contact with those with care experience.

1. Planning, preparation and Accessing Information Services and Support – We did: We will continue to engage with colleagues across Scottish Government on the development and implementation of policies which help improve the transition between children’s and adult services. The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with stakeholders to better understand local challenges around the consistent, high-quality implementation of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), which promotes well-planned and supported transitions by providing a single, shared and strengths-based approach to planning. This will include working with local GIRFEC leads to identify where GIRFEC practice guidance requires further promotion across services, and building an understanding of how the workforce can be further supported to engage consistently in multi-agency working. We will also work in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland to further promote, review and evaluate two new GIRFEC e-learning modules which were launched in December 2024 to support knowledge and understanding across the workforce of the GIRFEC approach and its application in everyday practice.

   We are currently exploring an online information platform which is intended to improve knowledge of available services for young people with care experience. We are working with our stakeholders in an effort to improve multi-agency working. 

2. Continuing Care and Aftercare – We did: Clear and concise guidance helps young people, their families and those supporting them understand their rights. We have committed to reviewing and refreshing our guidance on Continuing Care and Aftercare, and are working closely with Scottish Government colleagues, including those in foster care, residential care and kinship care to ensure support is consistent for all across our guidance. Working groups are being established with practitioners in the sector to ensure changes are impactful and equip the workforce to better meet the needs of our young people. In response to your feedback, our commitment to keeping The Promise includes the consideration of legislative change, where required.

3.  Support for specific groups leaving care – We did: We are working with colleagues across Scottish Government in key areas to ensure that young people with additional needs get the tailored support they need to thrive. It is important to emphasise that Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children have the same entitlement to Continuing Care and Aftercare supports as other eligible young people who are looked after in Scotland and we will ensure this is made clear in our guidance refresh.

   Examples of some of the work going on across the Scottish Government in these areas are noted below:

   The increasing number of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children in Scotland led to the Scottish Government increasing funding for the Guardianship Scotland service in 2024-25, to support those who may have been a victim of, or may be vulnerable to becoming a victim of, human trafficking. This increased funding has been continued in the new contract for the service from April 2025.

   The Scottish Government invest in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support disabled young people between the ages of 16 and 25 through their transition to adulthood.  Over 11,300 awards from the Fund have been made to young people since it opnened at the end of 2017, totalling nearly £22 million, making a positive difference to the lives of thousands of young people.  

   Respondents on Secure Care called for clear pathway plans with a consistent set of rules and clear guidance in place. This information is already in place through the Scottish Government’s Secure Care Pathways and Standards. This sets out the support children should expect from professionals when in secure care, and what is required from local authorities. We will continue to work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and other partners to understand and address any barriers that prevent these pathways and standards being followed.

   Being a parent can bring challenges for anyone who cares for a child. For young parents with experience of care, the Family Nurse Partnership programme has been delivered in Scotland for 15 years. This programme acknowledges the additional support that is needed for young parents with experience of care, who may also experience stigma which can be a barrier to accessing and receiving services. Since 2022, the Family Nurse Partnership programme has extended support for first-time mothers who are care experienced up to age 25, and all first-time mothers up to age 21, where there is capacity. The programme delivers intensive tailored support to young first time mothers and their children in their own homes by specially trained nurses. It works to build pathways into community supports which address social and economic factors, such as welfare, education, employment and money advice.

4.  Peer and lifelong support – We did: The importance of peer support and maintaining lifelong links will be promoted and encouraged as we work closely with other policy areas in Scottish Government and with our stakeholders.                                                                                                 

5. Health and wellbeing – We did: We are working with colleagues across the Scottish Government and with our stakeholders to support improvements in these areas. The Transition Care Plan guidance describes the standards required in the planning of good transitions for young people moving from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services for 18-26 year olds with care experience. This approach allows flexibility to continue care and treatment with CAMHS where this is in the young person’s best interests rather than any automatic transfer to adult services, including using a staged approach to transitions. The National Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Specification requires a robust Transition Care Plan for those children and young people who are more at risk of adversity too.

   The Child and Family Mental Health Joint Strategic Board, led by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, is taking a whole-system approach to improving children and young people’s mental health. This includes focusing on four early priorities, improving support for children and young people in distress and crisis. This includes those in the most at risk groups, such as those who have care experience.

   The 18-week CAMHS national performance standard has been met, with 90.6 per cent of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral. That progress has been made due to an increase in CAMHS staffing levels by 63%. We are making progress on the achievement of the CAMHS performance standard through a combination of early intervention and enabling the service to focus on those children with the most acute needs.

   The Scottish Government understands the importance of early intervention and prevention in supporting children and young people’s mental health. Since 2020, the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with over £65 million to develop and deliver these supports and services. Where appropriate, the services offer an alternative to CAMHS by providing support in a community setting.

   The Joint Strategic Board for Child and Family Mental Health is co-chaired by Scottish government and CoSLA. The Board have agreed 4 priority areas of crisis supports, prevention, children, young people and families in vulnerable situations (including the impact of care experience), and perinatal and early years mental health supports. The Board has two implementation groups focused on awareness raising and promotion, and barriers and access to support and services. Ensuring that children, young people, their families and practitioners are all central to policy development and decisions is a priority. This includes those in the most at risk groups, such as those who have care experience.

6. Housing – We did: Respondents noted the inclusion of housing considerations in their care plan. Social Work Scotland noted that the framework for inclusion of individual views on housing exists already in the process for pathway planning. The Scottish Government has linked with stakeholders to make improvements around planning and housing will feature in this consideration. Work is underway across the Scottish Government and with our partners to ensure that the response to the changes called for enables young people to access the co-ordinated housing support they need which will help them thrive.

   The Improving Care Leavers Housing Pathways report offers a step-by-step guide on how to prevent homelessness for young people leaving care. We will engage with colleagues from Housing as they work on implementing the recommendations of the ‘Improving Care Leavers Housing Pathways’ report.

7. Education – We did: In relation to financial education, Education Scotland are currently reviewing the curriculum in line with the Curriculum Improvement Cycle programme. Financial Education has been identified as one of the curriculum core competencies and Education Scotland are engaging with a wide range of practitioners and stakeholders, including children and young people, to review current Financial Education teaching and practice.

   Scottish Government provides funding to the MCR Pathways mentoring programme for young people with care experience. This is co-funded across the Education and Skills and Social Justice portfolios and multi-year funding has been agreed for 2025-26 and 2026-27 as part of the Fairer Funding Pilot.

   In order to improve the information available to care experienced students in Further and Higher Education, the Scottish Government worked with Widening Access teams across Scotland and Become, a charity for care experienced young people which hosts the Propel information website on support for care experienced people in further and higher education, to update and collate information for Scottish institutions.

   The Share Foundation deliver Stepladder Plus, a structured programme offered to every local authority in the UK which provides an incentivised financial education course for children aged 15-17 who have been ‘looked after’ for more than 12 consecutive months.

8. Employment – We did: The Our Future Now and Discovering Your Potential programmes, delivered by Inspiring Scotland and the Young Person’s Consortium respectively, continue to form an important part of post-school support for young people who are at risk of not transitioning to a positive destination and require additional help to move into employment, post-school education or training. These programmes have also received multi-year funding, agreed for 2025-26 and 2026-27 as part of the Fairer Funding Pilot.

   Through No One Left Behind, the Scottish Government and Local Government are working together with public, private and third sector partners to shape and deliver employability provision which responds to local needs. This includes working alongside childcare, education, housing, justice and health services, so that people can quickly and easily access the support needed to enter and sustain employment. The Scottish Government is committed to supporting all young people to achieve their potential.

   Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) aims to link young people with employers to support them to transition into the world of work. We will continue to engage with employability colleagues in the Scottish Government as they consider the employability landscape and highlight the need for specialist employability support in Scotland that recognises the distinct needs of those with care experience.  

   To acknowledge the challenges often faced by disabled individuals and those with care experience in their career journey, enhanced Modern Apprenticeship funding is available for individuals up to the age of 29.

   The Care Leavers Internship Scheme helps young people with care experience to develop their skills and confidence in a professional environment through an 18 month placement in departments across the UK Civil Service, including the Scottish Government. The scheme will open for applications on Civil Service Jobs over the summer.

   ​Our Employee Passport aims to help build an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone can perform at work to their best. Passports are voluntary, however everyone is encouraged to use them if they require a workplace adjustment to be considered. The Employee Passport criteria explicitly includes the potential need for support for colleagues with care experience.

     

9. Workforce training, trauma informed practice, consistency and transparency in service provisions – We did: All children need support when moving from childhood to adulthood, and when making decisions about their future. For young people with experience of care, support is needed to help with these transitions to give them the best start for their future. The Scottish Government has a joint ambition with CoSLA for a trauma-informed workforce and services across Scotland, supported by the National Trauma Transformation Programme.

   The National Trauma Transformation Programme provides free resources, guidance and support for implementation to help all members of the workforce and services understand the impact of psychological trauma, and to respond in ways which support recovery in those affected and avoid further harm.

   Since 2018, the Scottish Government has invested over £14 million in the National Trauma Transformation Programme and we are working with our stakeholders to develop a parenting resource to support kinship, foster, supported lodging carers and adoptive parents to provide trauma-informed care for their children and young people to help them to thrive now and in the future.

   Working with NHS Education for Scotland, initial learning materials and resources have been developed into a course. Initial small-scale testing took place in March 2025. We are continuing to work with stakeholders and carers as we consider our next steps to further test and develop this resource in 2025-26.

   The Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Programme aims to ensure Scotland’s Social Work services are given the necessary support and learning to recognise where people are affected by trauma, and to respond in ways which reduce risk of further harm and support recovery for children, young people and families. The programme will draw on the expertise of those with lived experience of care and trauma to deliver the programme.

Data Zones and Intermediate Zones are small area geographies used in the production of official statistics in Scotland. They were first introduced in 2004 and revised in 2014. The purpose of this consultation was to seek feedback from users on proposals to update these geographies to ensure that they remain fit for purpose.

We received responses from users across Scotland, including local authorities and other users. These responses made suggestions for how our proposed boundaries could be improved to better reflect local communities.

As a result of the feeedback we received we made a number of amendments to our proposed boundaries for Data Zones and Intermediate Zones. These were published in December 2024. You can find out more about the updated Data Zones and Intermediate Zones on the Scottish Government website.

We held a public consultation on media reporting on child homicide victims between 9 July 2024 and 1 October 2024

In the consultation we asked for views on a range of possible approaches - both legislative and non-legislative - to reducing the trauma that media reporting can have on bereaved families, and on the wider impacts those approaches might have.

The purpose of the consultation was to gather views so that next steps could be informed by a wide range of insights and experiences.

There were 46 responses to the consultation. Of these almost two-thirds (30) were received from groups/organisations and one third (16) were received from individuals. The largest category of respondent was media organisations, who submitted 11 of the responses.

Overall, throughout the consultation there was a general split in opinion between media organisations, and individuals who have been bereaved and victim support organisations. Respondents’ views were particularly polarised on whether legislating for anonymity was the appropriate action to take, and none of the four options set out in the consultation paper was supported by a majority of respondents.

The analysis of the responses received can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911937

An easy read summary of the main findings is available at: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836912484

We would like to thank all those who have taken the time to share their views and experiences, those who have been bereaved in particular.

We published an analysis of the consultation responses on 24 February 2025, it is available at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911937 

An easy read summary of the main findings of the analysis is available at www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836912484

NEXT STEPS

We do not intend to bring forward any legislation in this area.

The consultation has made clear that there would be serious complexities with developing legislation that avoided unintended consequences; that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice.

However, many of the experiences highlighted in consultation responses vividly illustrate the need for more sensitive reporting on these cases. We therefore intend to work with stakeholders on the following non-legislative measures:

• Media guidance – the Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of dedicated guidance for the media on sensitive reporting on child homicide cases, with a view to it being developed as a collaboration between victim support organisations and media representatives.
• Training - We are exploring the potential for journalism courses, newsrooms or regulators to offer bespoke training for journalists. We are also in discussion with justice partners about other work that could help in this area, including specialist training and guidance.
• Support materials for families - Victim Support Scotland, through its specialist service for families bereaved by crime, provides support and guidance for bereaved families on what to expect in terms of engagement with, and coverage by, the media. We are working with them on building this resource for wider use, such as guidance to support families in navigating the media interest in - and coverage of - the case, and to provide information on their rights throughout the criminal justice process.
• Further support for families - We are engaging closely with Victim Support Scotland to explore whether there are other practical interventions that would directly support affected families.

We sought views on updates to the International Territorial Level boundaires for Scotland. The International Territorial Levels (ITLs) are geographic boundaries used in the production of statistics in the United Kingdom.

The consultation received 21 responses. 11 responses were received from organisations, and 10 from individuals. Overall the proposals received support, although we received a small number of objections in relation to how the islands of Arran and Cumbrae should be grouped.

We published recommendation to the Office for National Statistics based on the responses we received. These recommendations were implemented by the Office for National Statistics.

In March 2018, the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) published a report and a draft Bill on a review of contract law which was the final output of a reform project that began in 2010.  The recommendations include a statutory statement of the law in relation to formation of contracts, the abolition of the postal acceptance rule and some reshaping of aspects of the law in relation to remedies for breach of contract.

It has, though, been 6 years since the recommendations on contract law were published and the Scottish Government sought views on whether the landscape around this area of the law has changed since then and, if so, whether the changes are material to the recommendations contained in the Report.  The Scottish Government also sought to test whether the views received by the SLC are still broadly held.

The Scottish Government’s consultation opened on 8 July 2024 and ran for 12 weeks.  A total of 9 responses were received.  Two respondents withheld their personal information and of the other 7, two were individuals and the remaining 5 were a mix of legal firms, a local authority, a group of academics, or other organisation.

An analysis of these responses can be found below.

Overall, the majority of respondents expressed continued support for the recommendations of the SLC and were not aware of material developments in the law or practice that require those recommendations to be revisited.

The sole exception is the law of retention, on which the Scottish Government has published a targeted consultation (here) in order to test the views of relevant stakeholders.

The Scottish Government’s intention is to continue work to implement these proposals, although this will be dependent on future work priorities and legislative activity.

The Scottish Government launched a consultation on the proposals, which ran for 12 weeks from 17 June until 20 September 2024. The consultation sought views on the proposals to inform decision-making and to establish whether these proposals were seen as the right changes to take forward through an affirmative statutory instrument.

A total of 24 written responses were received and of these 7 were from individuals; and 17 were from organisations.

All responses to the consultation were analysed and themes identified.

Given our consultation analysis, the Scottish Government will be proceeding with plans to bring forward subordinate legislation to:

• Dissolve the GCRB, the Regional Strategic Body for the Glasgow college region;
• Remove the designation of New College Lanarkshire   as the Regional Strategic Body for the Lanarkshire college region; and
• Designate each of the Glasgow and Lanarkshire colleges as “regional colleges”.

Subject to the Parliamentary process, we expect the new arrangements to be in place for the start of academic year 25-26.

The Scottish Government ran the post-school education and skills reform consultation on legislation for just over 12 weeks from 25 June to 20 September 2024.  The consultation sought views on three proposals to simplify responsibilities for apprenticeships and student support.  

The consultation also asked questions about how the Scottish Funding Council’s governance may need to evolve in response to the proposed expansion to its remit, in particular how it would ensure that employers’ views informed decision making.  Finally, the consultation also sought views on enhanced functions for the Scottish Funding Council, not least so it can receive the right information from funded organisations who provide post-school education and skills training.

In total, 194 consultation responses were received, comprising 133 responses from organisations and 61 from individuals. 

Consultation responses have now been independently analysed and the analysis report has been published.  All responses have been published where permission was granted and can be found on the consultation page.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. We are carefully considering the responses and analysis report to help inform development of the Post-School Education Reform Bill announced in the Programme for Government 2024-25 on 4 September 2024.  

We sought views on the fee proposals for the operation of the two new registers introduced by the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 - the Register of Assignations (“RoA”) and the Register of Statutory Pledges (“RSP”). The consultation opened on the 8 July 2024 and closed on 16 September 2024.

There were 14 responses to the consultation from individuals (21%) and organisations (79%).

An overwhelming majority of respondents (86%) were either dissatisfied or strongly dissatisfied by the consultation’s key proposals regarding RoA and RSP registration fees, with respondents’ viewing these as prohibitively high and excessive to the extent that the legal reforms intended by the Act could be negatively impacted.  

Additionally, over half of the respondents identified that the proposal for an £80 registration fee to be charged for each statutory pledge would compound the negative effect of what was already considered to be an excessive fee by charging for each individual statutory pledge (over individual assets or groups of assets) contained within a single document  - in other words, a “reduced fee for multiples” fee model was required for the RSP. 

The consultation’s registration fee proposals were based on cost-recovery, with registration volumes being estimated from detailed user research undertaken with a wide range of stakeholders, industry experts and academics over several years. Despite this level of engagement, it proved extremely difficult for Registers of Scotland (RoS) to obtain accurate estimates of volumes for the new registers. Accordingly, the RoS estimates of volumes which informed the proposed registration fees were necessarily cautious.

 The consultation responses indicated that the consultation had the effect of focussing the minds of stakeholders, particularly around the requirement for a “reduced fee for multiples” fee model for the RSP.  This prompted further engagement with stakeholders, including with a majority of consultation respondents, and that allowed more informed assumptions on likely usage for the new registers to be developed.

We sought views on the proposed river gradings for the 2025 salmon fishing season, as well as proposals to reinstate the Annan early rod season. The consultation opened on the 7 August and closed on 6 September 2024.

There were 37 responses submitted to the consultation which consisted of those from individuals (51%) and organisations (49%). A small proportion of respondents (19%) agreed with the proposed gradings for the 2025 salmon fishing season, 30% objected and the remainder did not express a specific view for or against the gradings. A number of respondents (35%) indicated that they believed the proposed grade assigned to a specific river was incorrect and should be changed.

Over a third (38%) of respondents agreed with the proposed amendment to reinstate the Annan early rod season and the remainder did not express a specific view for or against the amendment.

The views given on the proposed river gradings have been used to inform the process of finalising the gradings for the 2025 salmon fishing season.

The views given on the Annan early rod season have been used inform the decision taken.

Both of these will be used in the annual amendment to The Conservation of Salmon (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

We asked for your views on proposals for Crofting Law Reform.  The consultation covered potential legislative changes to support entry to crofting, to clarify the community aspect of crofting law, to promote use of common grazings, to strengthen adherence to crofters’ duties, to modify the Crofting Commission’s regulatory roles and powers, and to make simplifications and corrections to current legislation.

The consultation opened on 6 June 2024 and closed on 2 September 2024.

163 responses were received across the 3-month consultation period.  Of that, 136 responses (83%) were from individuals, and 27 (17%) were organisational responses. 

In addition, 257 people attended our 15 consultation events across the crofting counties in July and August, when the key proposals in the consultation were aired and debated.

Most of the Government’s proposals were well supported by the consultation responses, but some proposals divided opinion.  Many respondents made use of the free text boxes to give reasons for their views and to make a variety of additional suggestions.  Some respondents said that the proposals did not go far enough, and called for a more fundamental package of crofting reforms to be developed.

We are grateful to everyone who took time to share their views and provide a response to this consultation.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government (PfG) 2023-2024 announced our commitment to develop and consult on proposals to reform crofting law, and our PfG 2024-25 announced our commitment to analyse and publish the consultation responses, and to bring forward legislation.

The Scottish Government commissioned The Lines Between to undertake an independent, impartial analysis of the responses to the consultation, including the points made in the 15 consultation events.  This analysis was published on 15 November 2024, along with the responses themselves (where permission to publish was given).

We are carefully considering what we have heard during the consultation process to help inform development of the Crofting Bill, and are having further discussions with key stakeholders including the Crofting Commission and other members of the Crofting Bill Group and the Crofting Stakeholder Forum.

The Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment held a call for evidence seeking views on Adult Disability Payment. The call for evidence ran from 28 June 2024 to 30 August 2024. Nine events aimed at a variety of audiences, including disabled people and stakeholders, supplemented the call for evidence.

Most formal call for evidence submissions were from organisations, with 7 responses from individuals. A range of organisations responded including third sector organisations, local authorities and representative bodies. During the events, attendees also shared their views about Adult Disability Payment. Their insights were considered alongside the formal call for evidence submissions.

The Chair of the Independent Review commissioned an independent research company, The Lines Between, to conduct the analysis of the call for evidence responses and has published the analysis report as well as an Easy Read version. The report presents the findings of the consultation and explains the methodology used to analyse the responses. The Chair has published the consultation responses, where permission has been given to do this, on Citizen Space.

The Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment held a public consultation seeking views on Adult Disability Payment. The consultation ran from 28 June 2024 to 30 August 2024. Nine events aimed at a variety of audiences, including disabled people and stakeholders, supplemented the online consultation.

Most formal consultation responses were from individuals, with 4 responses from organisations. A range of organisations responded including third sector organisations, local authorities and representative bodies. During the events, attendees also shared their views about Adult Disability Payment. Their insights were considered alongside the formal consultation responses.

The Chair of the Independent Review commissioned an independent research company, The Lines Between, to conduct the analysis of the consultation responses and has published the analysis report as well as an Easy Read version. The report presents the findings of the consultation and explains the methodology used to analyse the responses. The Chair has published the consultation responses, where permission has been given to do this, on Citizen Space.

We sought views on changing the point at which some long-term prisoners must be released on non-parole licence for a period of supervision in the community before the end of their sentence. The consultation opened on the 8 July and closed on 19 August 2024.

There were 161 responses to the consultation. In addition, two virtual workshops were held for relevant stakeholders on 26 July and 6 August 2024.

There was support for finding a better balance between serving a sentence in custody and the community to improve reintegration and reduce reoffending. In some cases, where support was given to the proposals, it was with the caveats that there is sufficient time and resource to plan for and effectively implement the changes. Some respondents were not supportive of long-term prisoners serving part of their sentence in the community in principle and felt that the proposals to change the release point would impact confidence in the justice system.

Read the consultation analysis report.

The proposed changes were not taken forward in the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025 which changed the release point for short-term prisoners. The Act does give Scottish Ministers power to propose changes to the release point of long-term prisoners and the views received during this consultation exercise will help inform the development of any changes that may be taken forward in the future. 

The Flood Resilience Strategy consultation ran between 20 May and 13 August 2024.

We asked for your views to help us develop the Flood Resilience Strategy. Part of Scotland’s National Adaptation Plan, the Strategy focuses on what Scotland needs to do to make our communities more flood resilient over the coming decades as our climate changes.

We sought your views on the key guiding principles and how actions centred on our people, places and processes can contribute to Scotland’s flood resilience.

The Scottish Government would like to thank everyone who took the time to provide a response to the consultation.

A total of 198 responses to the consultation was received, with 87 from groups or organisations and 111 from individual members of the public.

There was broad support for the guiding principles and the need to think more holistically about all the things that can be done to make our places more flood resilient.

Responses supported going beyond thinking about flood protection as the only solution. You recognised that we can’t protect everywhere indefinitely and that all opportunities to reduce our flood exposure, and to lessen the impacts when it does happen, should be explored.

You shared your views on how our people can help us become more flood resilient.

• You would like to see genuine collaboration between communities and relevant authorities when flood resilience is being considered.
• You would like to see people being more involved in all stages of flood resilience planning for their places and communities being given a real voice in decision making.
• You also recognised that for this to come about, improved data, information and support for communities would be required.

You shared your views on how our places can help us become more flood resilient.

• You communicated the importance of taking a placemaking approach accompanied by a robust planning regime to ensure flood exposure is considered from the beginning, in terms of both where and how to build.
• You emphasised that we should be avoiding development in flood prone areas.
• You supported making space for water in rural and urban areas and communicated that we should be using our land more to help us reduce the impact of floods both through natural flood management and the use of blue and green infrastructure.
• You also supported the need for long-term transition planning for our most exposed communities where it may not be possible to maintain a level of flood resilience indefinitely.

You shared your views on how our processes can help us become more flood resilient. How we can make changes to the way we do things and the way we work together to enable us to create flood resilient places.

• You highlighted the need for processes to support community involvement. This included providing communities with the information, advice and support to enable them to become involved in flood resilience decision making for their places.
• You communicated the value of networking and of sharing experiences, best practice, innovative solutions and case studies and the need for a single online access point for information, guidance and technical support.
• You highlighted a need to improve efficiency, consistency and value in delivering flood actions and communicated that this could be delivered through a single, national service.

A comprehensive, independent analysis of responses to this consultation was undertaken by Craigforth, a social research company. The report is now published on Gov.Scot. Where permission to publish has been provided, individual and organisational consultation responses are also available to view.

The responses to this consultation have directly informed policy development for the Flood Resilience Strategy for the three themes of People, Places and Processes including identifying six priority areas for action:

• Establishing a flood advisory service
• Involving and supporting communities
• Supporting a broader range of flood actions
• Improving land-use for flood mitigation
• Improving awareness and decision making through data
• Supporting long-term transition planning for communities at highest risk

The Scottish Government published the Flood Resilience Strategy in December 2024 informed by the findings of this consultation, a suite of impact assessments and the stakeholder engagement sessions carried out in 2023-24.

We sought views on what you like to do in your free time, what stops you from doing that, and asking what do culture and creativity mean to you. The survey opened on 8th July 2024 and closed on 2nd August 2024.

We received 504 survey responses, with representation across every local authority area in Scotland. The responses were mainly from individuals but included a small number (fewer than 14) from organisations.

Respondents were unanimously positive about the role that culture and creativity play in their life. The variety of responses highlight the way that culture and creativity are a major part in people’s expression and identity, with a strong link to social connections and wellbeing. While cultural engagement is related to people’s choices, interests and preferences, there are barriers for some groups. Cost, accessibility and infrastructure are three major challenges.

All survey responses were read and analysed by researchers, who produced a report: Cultural engagement in Scotland: insights from people's experiences. This report captures the different views with analysis of the main issues raised, and includes direct quotes from survey respondents.

This research has important implications. It underscores the need to ensure the approach to culture includes the everyday, the emerging, the established and the more formal, and that cultural events and programmes meet the needs and interests of different population groups.

What the impacts were of the measures put in place for UEFA EURO 2020, which took place in 2021.

How the measures that are likely required by UEFA for EURO 2028 could affect businesses.

What kinds of measures and exemptions would be most appropriate.

In summary, there was general support for the proposed measures to protect commercial rights for EURO 2028. The most common view was that there would not be a noticeable impact on respondents. Benefits to consumers were often noted. Planning and communication to help people prepare for, and mitigate adverse impacts, were encouraged.

Key themes raised by respondents included:

Street Trading

The most common view was there had been no or little impact from the street trading restrictions for EURO 2020. Similarly for EURO 2028 the most common theme was there would be no or little impact.

A few respondents highlighted potential impacts on businesses. This included the need to provide information and guidance on the measures or having to relocate temporarily.

Potential positive impacts were also mentioned. These included minimised unauthorised trading and improved consumer rights and confidence.

There was no consensus as to whether any exemptions or other measures should be applied to help manage adverse impacts of street trading.

More broadly, respondents called for advance planning to help businesses prepare for EURO 2028.

Other comments included one call for the restrictions to apply to pedlar certificates too. This was due to a rise in issues related with these.

Advertising

Fewer respondents were aware of advertising restrictions for EURO 2020 than for street trading restrictions.

Again, the main view was that these same measures would have no impact for EURO 2028. Impacts on businesses, such as restricting their ability to advertise, was the second most common theme.

Just over half of respondents did not feel there were appropriate exemptions or other measures that should be applied.

There were some calls not to apply advertising restrictions to charities or community groups.

Ticketing

The most common view was that ticket touting laws for EURO 2020 had no impact on respondents. Respondents were most likely to feel the same would be the case if similar laws are used for EURO 2028.

Some respondents highlighted positive impacts for visitors arising from the ticketing proposals. This included visitors having less contact with ticket touts or inadvertently buying unauthorised tickets.

Some suggested exemptions. This included tickets sold for charitable purposes.

There were mixed views around which level of penalty was most appropriate. Most commonly there was uncertainty around the level that would be appropriate. Higher penalties were more likely to be supported than lower ones. Some felt the penalty should be proportionate to the situation or amount made by ticket touts. A few felt the penalty should be publicised and act as a deterrent.

Community impacts

A range of other community impacts were highlighted beyond the scope of the proposed legislation. These included:

• the most common theme was that EURO 2028 may impact vulnerable people or disabled people. One organisation noted these groups were more likely to be the target of scams;

• the impact on communities of littering and noise during EURO 2028;
• over-crowding and the impact this has on aspects like commuting to work for communities; and
• parking issues for residents or their carers

Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)

One organisation called for greater clarity about the proposals. This was because it was difficult to give a clear response until the “location, proximity or duration” of restrictions were known. They called for further consultation once these had been identified. This organisation also preferred Option 3 of the BRIA – bespoke EURO 2028 legislation that was proportionate and limited. This was also the Scottish Government’s preferred option.

Another organisation felt the BRIA was useful in contextualising the proposals. They also highlighted the importance of maintaining consumer trust.

Other views

There was a call from an events organisation for the principals of the legislation to apply to all mass gatherings including music events. This view was shared by an individual who felt existing, as well as new and one-off events, should be supported. This was due to the wide-ranging positive impacts on Scotland of events.

In terms of street trading, there were concerns around the negative impact poor quality goods have on the consumer experience. There was a call for strengthened consumer rights to help address this. One individual felt the proposals would mean less choice for the consumer, though did not expand on why they thought this.

There were also concerns about the loss of business to those with premises in and around event zones or who advertise in these areas. It was highlighted that sometimes local businesses do not benefit from events like EURO 2028 with most benefits being felt by those in city centre locations.

In relation to the broader regulatory context of events in Scotland, there were calls for more preparatory work. This included engaging with and providing information to stakeholders and groups that may be affected. It also included reviewing legislation around the governance of events to make sure it is fit for purpose.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to write a response to the UEFA EURO 2028: commercial rights protection – public consultation. We are also grateful to those who came to the supporting virtual and in person events. We would like to thank the partners who supported the public consultation, in particular Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life.

There were 26 responses to the consultation. The Lines Between has analysed the consultation responses. This is now available. Individual and organisation responses are also available where permission has been given.

The need for effective communications to under-pin the proposed legislation has come through strongly in the public consultation. Glasgow City Council will lead on a Communication Plan to help ensure that those potentially affected by any commercial rights protection legislation for EURO 2028 have access to all the information they need as early as possible. This will include guidance for street traders and pedlars in accessible formats.

There were calls for exemptions to the proposed legislation, including for charities. We are considering whether these – and any other exemptions – might be applied to the proposed legislation for EURO 2028.

There were mixed views on the level of fine for ticketing touting. We continue to work with lead partners to explore the pros and cons of an increased fine for this offence during EURO 2028.

The need to consider pedlars came across in the consultation. It also came up in related engagement with lead bodies. This is being factored into development of street trading restrictions.

Community impacts of EURO 2028 were highlighted. This included on vulnerable groups, such as older or isolated people, or disabled people. One organisation noted these groups were more likely to be the target of scams. We have also heard the concerns raised on littering, anti-social behaviour and traffic management issues. These are important points but they are beyond the scope of the proposed legislation. We have therefore highlighted these issues to the relevant authorities for further consideration.

Scotland’s National Events Strategy 2024-2035 aims to build on the events industry’s many achievements to date. The refreshed strategy aims to provide a strategic focus for all those involved in planning, securing, supporting, and delivering events of all sizes in Scotland. Under the priority theme of quality planning and delivery the Strategy also identifies a potential action to further examine and develop the future regulatory context for events to support an optimal environment for the delivery of this strategy, taking into account best practice from around the world. Relevant feedback from this consultation will inform the detailed action plan for the strategy that is being developed. This will regularly be monitored by the Event Industry Advisory Group.

The UK Government is launching a consultation in the autumn to explore options for introducing new consumer protections in relation to ticket resales. The Scottish Government continues to liaise closely with lead UK Government Departments on how issues in the ticket resale market can be tackled effectively across the UK including any legislative considerations.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024-25 was published on 4 September 2024. This included a Bill to put in place commercial rights protections to meet UEFA’s requirements for hosting EURO 2028 matches in Scotland.

The analysis of all responses to the consultation have been carefully considered. Scottish Ministers will take these views into account in their decision-making.

For views on whether a review of charity regulation is needed, and if so what the purpose and parameters of a review should be.

A total of 163 responses were received, 80 of which were from organisations and 83 from individuals. 83% respondents agreed that there should be a review of charity regulation. Reasons for supporting a review included increasing confidence in charity leadership, ensuring organisational structures were correct, enabling the provision of clearer guidance and a need for regular reviews to be conducted. Other reasons included a need to strengthen regulation or a need to reduce regulation.

The most common reason for wanting a review was that it has now been 20 years since the original Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 was introduced and a review was felt to be timely. Many of the responses said that the review should be wide-ranging and should not exclude anything.

We commissioned an independent, impartial analysis of the responses to the consultation, including notes collated from nine consultation events. This analysis was published on 25 March 2025.

You can read the report here: Review of charity regulation: consultation analysis - gov.scot.

You can also read the responses (where permission has been given to publish): Published responses for Review of charity regulation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.

A lot of responses raised the need for changes which can be delivered without needing a review. The Scottish Government remains committed to a review in the longer term, and we want to work with charities to shape that.

We also want to do what we can to make helpful changes to charity regulation now and over the next year we intend to:

1. Bring forward two sets of commencement regulations to fully implement the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, one in the summer and one at the end of 2025. This will enhance accountability and transparency in charities, which is a key finding from the consultation analysis.
    
2. Introduce new Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations in the autumn that will raise the audit income threshold for charities registered in Scotland from £500,000 to £1 million.
    
3. Consult on draft regulations to make improvements for the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Removal from Register and Dissolution) Regulations 2011, with a view to introducing amendment regulations before the end of the Parliament. The draft regulations are based on recommendations from an independent working group and substantial stakeholder feedback.
    
4. Convene a working group to examine the challenges that some charities can face when looking to incorporate to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).

The Scottish Government invited comments on proposals to disapply Section 124 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 concerning the time limits for taking enforcement action for unauthorised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) development.

The majority of those who responded supported the proposal, across all respondent groups. Reasons given for support varied. Despite the variation in reasons given, it was clear that protecting the environment from adverse impacts of unauthorised EIA development was an important factor.

Some respondents expressed concern about, or suggested changes to, the detailed wording of the draft Regulations, which now need to be carefully considered.

 What is your view on the proposed TAC level for Clyde herring in 2024?

A range of responses were recieved, as can be found in the outcome report.

Having considered the best available scientific information, the wider obligations and analysed all responses submitted through the consultation process, the TAC for 2024 has been recommended to the UK Secretary of State at 583 tonnes. This is a rollover of the 2023 TAC and retains the existing management measures.

The survey was conducted to gather and consider the views of interested stakeholders on the new model of neonatal care and what matters to them. The process was supported and input provided by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and Bliss the charity for neonatal families. 

The survey was launched on Citizen Space on 21 June 2024 and closed on 8 July 2024 and asked a total of 20 questions (7 open and 13 closed).  

The survey received 434 responses. Of these, 428 (99%) were from individuals and 6 (1%) from organisations.

Over three-quarters of respondents (79%) reported that they had a baby admitted to a neonatal unit 

The information collated has now been provided to the three Health Board Regional Chief Executives, the Health Board Regional Planners, the Young Patient Family Fund Leads and the neonatal community, all of whom will work together to ensure implementation of the new model of neonatal care. 

We asked for your views on a new leaflet on Birthplace Decisions and ran an engagement survey which was open from 3 June to 3 July 2024.

In the survey we asked for views on the content, language, images and infographics used in the leaflet. We also invited views on what else should be included in the leaflet.

The consultation closed on 3 July 2024.

We asked 11 questions. A total of 61 responses were received. 49 were from individuals and 12 were from organisations.

Analysis of responses showed that respondents were generally supportive of the leaflet.

The responses were carefully considered and changes were made to the Birthplace Decision leaflet as a result of feedback received.

The survey analysis and survey responses (where permission was granted) have been published on Citizen Space.

The leaflet has now been published: Birthplace decisions Information for pregnant women and partners on planning where to give birth - gov.scot

The consultation sought views on changes to cattle identification and traceability in Scotland.

A total of 218 responses were received. 169 (78%) responses were submitted by individuals and 49 (22%) were submitted by, or on behalf of, a broad range of organisations.

90% of respondents answered ‘yes’ to use of electronic ear tags as an official means of identification in cattle.

73% of respondents were in favour of using ultra-high frequency (UHF) technology for electronic ear tags.

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are available to view online and the analysis report can be found here: Cattle identification and traceability: consultation analysis - gov.scot

Following the results of the consultation, The Scottish Government has confirmed a commitment to delivering UHF electronic identification to improve traceability for cattle in Scotland.

We asked for your views on increasing court fees in Scotland. 

23 responses from individuals and organisations were received. A list of published responses can be found in the Published Responses section below.

An analysis of the consultation and response from the Scottish Government will be published shortly. The Scottish Government intends to implement the proposals set out in the consultation. We have taken all of the comments and suggestions made as a result of the public consultation into consideration when preparing the Scottish Statutory Instruments which have been drafted in order to implement the fee increases.

The public consultation sought views on a range of proposals to support improvement in the delivery of planning services, including smarter ways of working, getting more people to consider a career in planning and alternative approaches to financing.

140 responses were received from a wide range of stakeholders, of which 113 were from groups or organisations and 27 were from individual members of the public.

View a summary of responses to the consultation. 

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are now available to view online.

We are currently considering the responses to the consultation and will provide an update on next steps when the Scottish Parliament returns after recess.

We asked for views on:

• what it would mean if the fee waiver for volunteers in the PVG Scheme moved to a discount
• introducing a discount for people with experience of care
• introducing a discount for people in receipt of certain benefits
• the fee level for accredited bodies (organisations) receiving disclosure, and
• any other comments on the impact of changes to Disclosure Scotland’s fees.

Most of the 1236 responses recieved related to the consultation on the future of the fee waiver for volunteers in qualifying voluntary organisations.

There was a high level of opposition to the proposal to move from a full fee waiver to a discount for volunteers in Qualifying Voluntary Organisations. The current pressures on charity budgets and increasing costs across the board were raised. People who answered questions on discounting for people in receipt of certain benefits were generally supportive but there was a significant group opposed, and concerns expressed about practical implementation. Issues with practical implementation was similar for proposals to discount PVG scheme membership for young people with experience of care.

An inflationary increase for accredited body registration fees did not attract any new themes or issues against previous consultation on this topic. Raising fees is not generally popular, however there was a significant level of understanding that fees had been frozen since 2011 and some increase was required and expected.

We will continue to provide free Disclosure Scotland PVG scheme membership to volunteers in qualifying voluntary organisations. This decision recognises the vital role volunteers play in Scotland’s society with roles in care, health, sports, community and children’s recreational activities.

On 1 April 2025, the fee for accredited bodies annual subscriptions will increase from the current level for registered bodies to £125. This is in line with the inflationary increase from 2011. We will keep this fee level under review to avoid high single year increases in the future.

In 2025, no new discounting will be introduced. However, further work will be undertaken on what support is needed for people with experience of care within the disclosure system. 

For your thoughts on our proposals for regulations to enable amendments to the development plan – both the National Planning Framework (NPF) and Local Development Plans (LDPs).

Positive and constructive feedback was received for each part of the proposed regulations. 

We have taken account of all the responses received and are using these to inform the development of the final regulations and accompanying guidance. Our summary report following your feedback is now available. 

The public consultation sought views on the proposed regulations on the procedures to prepare Masterplan Consent Areas (MCAs).

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 establishes the principles for establishing MCAs, but regulations are required to set out the detailed procedures to enable planning authorities to use this new consenting mechanism. MCAs will allow planning authorities to take a place leadership role, by proactively consenting the type and quality of development they wish to see in their places.  

The consultation set out the proposed procedures and included two sets of regulations: the first covering the main process for making MCA schemes and secondly separate regulations covering Environmental Impact Assessment provisions for MCAs.

62 responses were received from a wide range of stakeholders, of which 57 were from groups or organisations and 5 were from individual members of the public. Respondents were generally supportive of the proposed regulations and there was broad agreement that the regulations should be kept to the minimum necessary.

View a summary of responses to the consultation. 

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are now available to view online. We took account of the responses, which have informed the development of the final regulations.

We consulted on the Detail of proposed regulations to restrict the promotions of foods high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public to inform further development of the policy and associated impact assessments.

The primary aim of the policy is to reduce the public health harms associated with the excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt, including the risks of developing type 2 diabetes, various types of cancer and other conditions such as cardiovascular disease.

The consultation ran from 27 February to 21 May 2024. 

The consultation received 362 responses. Of these, 279 were from individuals, 37 were from industry respondents (including industry representative bodies, manufacturers, and retailers), and 46 were from public and third sector organisations.

Overall, views tended to vary by respondent type:

Individual respondents held mixed views. Support tended to be on the basis that action was needed to support diet and healthy weight. Opposition tended to reflect general disagreement with the overall premise of restricting the promotion of particular foods and state intervention. Concerns were also raised around cost of living and the perceived impact of restrictions on food prices.

Industry stakeholders were generally supportive of proposals where these align with equivalent regulations for England to minimise regulatory burden; strongly oppose restricting meal deals and temporary price reductions suggest comprehensive guidance is required to support implementation.

Public and third sector stakeholders were very supportive of proposals, particularly proposals to include temporary price reductions within scope of restrictions; want regulations to be as comprehensive as possible to maximise positive public health impact and reduce loopholes.

The independent consultation analysis report and the Scottish Government’s policy response is available on the Scottish Government’s website. Consultation responses for which respondents have given permission to be published, can be found on this website.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care announced in a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 17 June 2025 that the Scottish Government will bring forward regulations in Autumn to help create a food environment which better supports healthier choices.

The Scottish Government would like to thank everyone who took the time to provide a written response to the consultation exercise and who engaged with officials.

We sought views on draft statutory guidance for Part 2 of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 and on draft statutory guidance for Part 3 (section 18) of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024. The consultation opened on the 22 February 2024 and closed on 16 May 2024.

There were 92 responses submitted to the consultation from individuals (18) and organisations (74). In addition, 55 children and young people were consulted via four organisations who held a range of activities, focus groups and interviews to gather their feedback.

Part 2:

1) Respondents told us that the guidance was too long and needed to be clearer, some of the language was difficult to understand. Some respondents asked for sections to be moved and some suggested extra information.

2) Some respondents wanted examples of organisations and workers who have to follow the guidance. Others asked for more specific, directive, operational level guidance focused on the practical side of how to uphold children’s rights.

3) Some respondents felt that legal expertise would be needed to understand and interpret the guidance. They felt that it was too complicated for children and their families to understand.

4) Several respondents raised concern that some organisations might not realise that the UNCRC Act applies to them.

5) Several respondents took the opportunity to raise concerns outwith the scope of the statutory guidance consultation, such as concerns about resource and funding implications.

Part 3:

1) The guidance was felt to be lengthy, complicated and not user friendly. Respondents flagged that duplication of some of the information in statutory guidance on Parts 2 and 3 of the UNCRC Act was unnecessary.

2) The language was generally considered to be too complex and included legal terminology, making it difficult for lay readers and children and young people and their families to understand.

3) Some respondents called for more information and greater clarity to be provided about various aspects. This included the timing of reports; the development of combined and joint reports; requests for signposting to resources to support the development of child friendly reports; distinguishing between essential and desirable tasks; and how to work through decision-making.

4) Some respondents asked for examples of children’s rights reports, case studies and pro-forma templates to be provided. It was also felt that the guidance would benefit from more sector specific details or examples to support understanding.

5) Some respondents suggested that flowcharts and diagrams would be useful.

Part 2:

1) The updated Statutory Guidance for Part 2 of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 was published on 13 September 2024.

We simplified the language as much as possible and made the guidance more concise by separating additional content into two further documents: Clarification of inherent obligations of the UNCRC and Sources to guide interpretation of the Act.

2) We have provided more specific, directive, operational level guidance focused on the practical side of how to uphold children’s rights in Non-statutory guidance on taking a children’s human rights approach. This was published on 8 January 2024.

The Scottish Government is unable to provide examples of organisations and workers who must follow this statutory guidance, as the UNCRC Act may apply differently across the range of public authorities, depending on the different functions of each public authority. Public authorities will be required to make an assessment of how the UNCRC Act applies to their functions, seeking legal advice as appropriate.

3) The purpose of the Statutory Guidance on Part 2 of the UNCRC Act is to provide public authorities with pragmatic information that may assist them with understanding and acting in accordance with section 6 of the UNCRC Act. The guidance is primarily intended for those with responsibilities within public authorities for implementing and delivering the provisions of the UNCRC Act. If a public authority is unclear on whether the section 6 duty (the compatibility duty) applies to it, it should seek independent legal advice.

Statutory guidance is not intended to provide information for children and their families. Resources are in development to support children and their families to understand the UNCRC Act. This includes a resource to help children and young people realise their rights in practice, guidance on how to make use of child friendly complaints processes, a social media campaign from Young Scot and information on the Parentclub website. 

4) We reviewed and updated the sections on public authorities and functions of a public nature to include further explanation of the duties under section 6 of the UNCRC Act.

5) We were only able to take action on responses that related to the statutory guidance consultation.

Part 3:

1) The updated Statutory Guidance for Part 3 (section 18) of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 was published on 18 September 2024. We removed all content in the guidance that duplicated sections in statutory guidance for Part 2 of the UNCRC Act. Instead, links are now provided to the relevant information.

2) Language was reviewed and simplified where possible. The purpose of the guidance is to provide public authorities listed in section 19 of the UNCRC Act with pragmatic information to assist them with understanding and fulfilling the reporting duty under Part 3, section 18 of the UNCRC Act.

Statutory guidance is not intended to provide information for children and their families on the children’s rights reporting duties. Listed authorities are required, under the UNCRC Act, to publish a child friendly version of their children’s rights report.

3) The statutory guidance was reviewed and updated to provide greater clarity where possible, including clarity on what children’s rights reports must include. The Scottish Government is providing support to listed authorities which will include support to develop child friendly documents.

Listed authorities vary greatly in terms of their functions and how they are constituted, therefore, the Scottish Government cannot provide guidance on their decision-making. Guidance on decision-making was therefore outwith the scope of the statutory guidance.

4) The purpose of the guidance is to provide listed authorities with pragmatic information to assist them to understand and fulfil the reporting duty of under Part 3, section 18 of the Act. The UNCRC Act does not prescribe the format of children’s rights reports, however, Annex A provides a number of frameworks and considerations to support reporting and help listed authorities in the fulfilment of the reporting duty.

The purpose of the statutory guidance is mainly to explain the duties in the Act.  As the format of children’s rights reports is not prescribed in the Act, it would not be appropriate to include examples of children’s rights reports or case studies in the guidance, or to provide pro-forma templates, which could limit how listed authorities could meet their reporting duty.

Statutory guidance must support all duty holders. Sector experts will be best placed to develop further guidance for their context.

5) For accessibility reasons, flowcharts and diagrams should only be included in documents where there is a clear identified need. On reviewing and updating the document, no clear need was identified to use a flowchart or diagram.

On 21st March 2024 the Scottish Government published a consultation seeking views on legislative proposals to facilitate marine nature restoration. The proposals covered legislation that would enable Ministers to introduce a registration process for marine restoration projects below a threshold of environmental impact, and changes to provisions in the Marine (Scotland) Act 201 that would enable Marine Conservation Orders (MCOs) to be used to protect habitats and species undergoing restoration alongside other smaller amendments. 

A total of 51 responses were received to the consultation. The majority (41) were submitted by organisations, and 10 by individuals.   

Overall, there was support for both sets of proposals. However, there was a lack of consensus around the detail of the legislative powers. Many respondents also highlighted the need for a framework and better understanding of where restoration can best take place around Scotland. 

The Scottish Governments analysis of responses to the consultation has been published. The report includes a summary of key findings and a response from the Marine Directorate.  

As a result of the responses received, the legislative proposals set out in this consultation will not be taken forward at this time.  However, we will continue to explore the regulatory framework for marine restoration as part of the development of a marine and coastal restoration plan. Development of this plan is one of the actions set out in the Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan 2024–2030. 

We asked for your views on the implementation of the prohibition of the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland.

A list of published responses can be found in the Published Responses section below.

A summary of consultation answers and the government response has been published on the Scottish Government website. The document can be found here: Single-use vapes consultation: SG response

We sought views on proposed enabling powers that would better allow for future amendments to Scotland’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regimes and Habitats Regulations. The consultation opened on 18 March 2024 and closed on 13 May 2024.

We received 41 responses to the consultation. These included responses from 30 organisations and 11 individuals.

• There was overall agreement with our rationale for seeking the enabling powers both in relation to the EIA regimes and Habitats Regulations.
• Overall, respondents also agreed there should be limitations on how Scottish Ministers can use these powers.  
• A full analysis of the responses highlighted a number of key themes relating to the scope of the powers and procedures for their future use, including:
  • Consultation and engagement
  • Scottish Parliamentary procedures
  • Review of the powers
  • Environmental standards
  • Consistency across legislative regimes

The analysis of consultation responses has been published, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted). The Scottish Government intends to include the proposed enabling powers in the planned Natural Environment Bill, as set out in the Programme for Government 2024 - 2025. We are considering all comments and suggestions from the consultation as we develop the provisions.

Any future proposals for use of the enabling powers will be subject to appropriate consultation and assessment of impacts.

The Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) is replacing the previous Ferries Plan but is broader in scope, covering wider transport connectivity, taking account of aviation, ferries, fixed links and onward and connecting travel. The Plan is an important part of the Government’s efforts to improve ferry services alongside the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract.

We asked for your views on the visions and priorities set out in the Strategic Approach paper, considering island transport connectivity including ferries, aviation, fixed links and, especially, addressing the strategic challenges facing the Northern Isles Ferry Services and the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services.

We also asked for your views on the updated Vessels and Ports Plan that provides detail on the Scottish Government’s objectives for the Northern Isles Ferry Services and the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services and which the Scottish Government is directly responsible for. It provides a long-term plan, to 2045, for the vessel and port investment considered necessary to address the key challenges of reliability and resilience.

A total of 197 responses were received. The majority, 141 responses, were submitted by individual members of the public. The remaining 56 responses were submitted by organisations or groups. A majority of the individual respondents – 78% of those who answered the relevant question – said that they live on a Scottish island or peninsula the majority of the time.

The consultation responses have been carefully considered and will be used to inform further elements of the overall Islands Connectivity Plan, most notably the final versions of the Strategic Approach and the Vessels and Ports Plan.

We will continue to engage with our key stakeholders to update them on the development of the Islands Connectivity Plan, with further engagement in particular to inform various community needs assessments.

Further updates will be made available via the Transport Scotland website as they become available.

We sought views on the draft Scottish National Adaptation Plan 3 (SNAP3) 2024-29, which sets out out how we intend to support the people of Scotland prepare for and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Consultation on the draft Adaption Plan (SNAP3) opened on 31 January 2024 and closed on 24 April 2024.

The consultation asked 32 questions, on a broad range of issues, around:

• Lived and local experiences of climate change;
• The Plan’s 5 outcomes of Nature Connects; Communities; Public Services and Infrastructure; Economy, Business and Industry and International Action;
• Enabling factors, such as monitoring and evaluation and responsible, private investment;
• The possible effects and outcomes of the Adaptation Plan on people, businesses, and communities and how to avoid any unjust negative impacts, to inform our impact assessments. 

A total of 240 responses were received, triple the number from the previous Adaptation Plan. 131 (55%) responses were submitted by individuals and 109 (45%) were submitted by or on behalf of a broad range of organisations.

In response to the consultation respondents:

• Highlighted concern for the adverse economic impacts of climate change, including rising costs and disruptions to key services and supply chains, and the importance of adequate financial support, as well as public and private investment; 
• Expressed concerns around declines in biodiversity and a decreased resilience of natural ecosystems, and supported enhancing green spaces, restoring natural habitats such as forests and peatlands, and improving waterway management;
• Called for strengthening the resilience of infrastructure and public services, including coastal and flood defences, public transport networks, energy systems and public utilities;
• Emphasised collaborative action within and across the public and private sectors, including for the Plan to facilitate multi-stakeholder platforms and partnership networks;
• Highlighted the importance of empowering communities to participate in climate adaptation efforts and of community-based initiatives as important ways to build resilience;
• Raised the importance of raising awareness and increasing education on the impacts of climate change in Scotland; 
• Sought increased integration of health considerations into the Plan to protect and improve the mental and physical wellbeing of communities, especially for populations most vulnerable to climate impacts; 
• To support or incentivise more investment in adaptation action, there was support for the approaches proposed in the draft SNAP3, notably grant funding schemes to help offset risks associated with adaptation investments;
• Most respondents from organisations supported the proposed approach to monitoring and evaluating progress of the Adaptation Plan. Suggestions were raised for additional outcome indicators in the monitoring framework, such as socio-economic measures and added environmental indicators.
• Mixed viewpoints were shared on the Plan’s impacts on children’s rights and Island communities, but respondents hoped the Plan would lead to a safer living environment and improve overall standard of living.

A comprehensive, independent analysis of responses to this consultation was undertaken by Alma Economics and is now published on Gov.Scot. Where permission to publish has been provided, individual and organisational consultation responses are also available to view.

The responses to this consultation have directly informed policy development for the final Adaptation Plan, including but not limited to:

• Integrating an increased focus on action to support coastal communities and progressing commitments to support community-led action in the Plan’s outcome on Communities;
• Maintaining an emphasis on action to protect and enhance nature including nature-based solutions, as a key means of supporting resilience, in the Plan’s outcome on ‘Nature Connects’;
• Committing to expand regional adaptation partnerships and to further guidance and support to help public services and infrastructure operators understand future climate scenarios;
• Increasing educational resources, including the development of children’s version of the final Adaptation Plan to support learning;
• An increased focus on action to manage supply chain vulnerabilities for food and vital goods, mobilise increased responsible private investment, as well progressing proposals for business support in the Plan’s outcome on Economy, Business and Industry;
• Integrating a greater focus on the relationship between climate and health, including mental health and wellbeing, across the Plan;
• Developing a robust approach to monitoring and evaluation, including ideas for effective data sources.

The Scottish Government intends to publish a final Adaptation Plan 2024-29 which in informed by the findings of this consultation, a suite of impact assessments and stakeholder engagement in Autumn 2024.

We sought views on the draft national Good Food Nation Plan. The consultation opened on 24 January 2024 and closed on 22 April 2024.

The consultation asked 35 questions about the Plan including on the national Good Food Nation Outcomes, ways of measuring progress and how different groups envision life in a Good Food Nation. It also sought views on specified functions.

The consultation was conducted with regard to the importance of communicating in an inclusive way, and the importance of effectively engaging with children and young people.

452 valid responses were received to the consultation paper, of these 281 were from individuals, and 171 were from organisations. A series of stakeholder engagement workshops were conducted, with ten workshops delivered in-person at locations all over Scotland and five online. Additionally, a resource pack was developed and distributed to schools with the aim of engaging children and young people with the consultation. Over 1000 responses were received from children and young people as a result of this activity.

Across all respondents, views were generally positive about the draft national Good Food Nation Plan. A majority of respondents agreed with each of the six Good Food Nation Outcomes. Respondents were given the opportunity to provide further feedback on each proposal. Following qualitative analysis, these views have been presented via emerging themes. These included concerns regarding how the Outcomes, targets and indicators would be measured, monitored and evidenced. Additionally, there were concerns raised regarding the funding and resources required to implement the Plan. These responses will be considered by policy leads during further policy development.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. We commissioned an independent research company to undertake an independent analysis of all responses received to the consultation and during the consultation events. The consultation analysis report was published on 27 September 2024 and presents the findings from the public consultation and explains the methodology that was used to analyse the responses. 

Where permission to publish consultation responses has been provided, the responses are now available to be viewed on Citizens Space.

We have been using the responses to the consultation to help inform the national Good Food Nation Plan, including amending the draft to reflect the feedback received in the consultation. The amended draft will be laid before the Scottish Parliament for their consideration and comment. This will be accompanied by a statement outlining the steps taken to consult, and how the responses have been considered. The Scottish Parliament will have an opportunity to consider and comment on the draft Plan before final publication.

We asked for your views on proposals for a Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill.  The consultation covered potential legislative changes to protect, respect and champion the rights of people with learning disabilities and neurodivergent people. Proposals covered a wide range of areas of life such as justice, health and education.

The consultation opened on 21 December 2023 and closed on 21 April 2024.

877 responses were received across the 4-month consultation period.  Of that, 609 responses (69%) were from individuals or groups of individuals, and 268 (31%) organisational responses. 

Overall, the evidence supported the need for improvements across a range of systems to support better outcomes for neurodivergent people and people with learning disabilities. The analysis demonstrates a diverse range of views across several of the proposals that were consulted on, and additional suggestions were put forward.

We are grateful to everyone who took time to share their views and provide a response to this consultation.

An independent analysis commissioned by the Scottish Government was published on 26^th August 2024.

The consultation analysis report, was accompanied by a standalone Executive Summary, two Easy Read documents as well as audio and BSL video.

We are carefully considering what we have heard during the consultation process to help inform development of the LDAN Bill.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government (PfG) 2024-25 announced our commitment to continuing to develop proposals for the Bill and that we will also publish draft Bill provisions.

We sought views on the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018: proposed amendments. The consultation opened on the 15 December 2023 and closed on 30 March 2024.

We received 50 responses to our consultation questions. These included responses from 42 organisations and 8 individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

• the proposals on the technical provisions relating to water, waste, and industrial activities;
• the four proposed new activities and changes to the process in relation to the public consultation and call-in procedure;
• the various amendments to the common procedures in the 2018 Regulations and technical provisions for radioactive substances activities.

A full analysis of the consultation is available on the Scottish Government website.

The analysis of responses received has been published, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted). The Scottish Government intends to implement the proposals set out in the consultation to amend the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018. We will now take all the comments and suggestions made as a result of the public consultation into consideration when preparing the Scottish Statutory Instrument.

Between 5 January and 29 March 2024, we carried out a public consultation on proposed changes to modernise deer management legislation in Scotland to ensure it is fit for purpose in the context of the biodiversity and climate crises. These changes arose from recommendations made by the Deer Working Group (DWG) in its report of February 2020.

The consultation also sought views on additional powers for NatureScot (above and beyond those recommended by the DWG) to address issues of biodiversity and habitat loss caused by wild deer, alongside a small number of proposals concerned with farmed and kept deer.

We commissioned an independent research company to conduct the analysis of the consultation responses and their analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website.

A total of 1605 responses were received. Most consultation responses were from individuals, with 107 responses from organisations. A range of organisations responded including land management, deer and sporting organisations, conservation and animal welfare organisations, and other organisation types including public bodies, food sector organisations and a small group of organisations that did not fit into any of the other groups.

We have used the responses to the consultation to inform our final provisions regarding deer management set out in part 4 of the Natural Environment Bill. The Bill was introduced to Parliament on 19 February 2025 and brings forward reforms to the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996. 

The Bill is part of a wider policy package to implement recommendations made by the Deer Working Group and improve deer management in Scotland. You can find further information about non-legislative aspects of that work here:  https://www.gov.scot/groups/strategic-deer-management-board/

We sought views on draft Guidance on inclusive design for town centres and busy streets. The consultation opened on the 9 January and closed on 29 March 2024.

There were 57 responses submitted to the consultation which consisted of those from individuals (27) and organisations (30). There was broad support for the Principles set out in the guidance. Analysis of the responses has been carried out and that report is now published.

• Analysis of Consultation responses to the Draft Guidance for Inclusive Design of Busy Streets and Town Centres
• Easy Read version of the above

The responses will inform the working group as to whether any of the Principles require consideration for further review. The Principles will inform future guidance with updates on any existing related guidance e.g. Designing Streets, Cycle by Design and Roads for All, where appropriate. Officials will also share these Principles with other public bodies to consider embedding these Principles into their current and future guidance for planning and design of shared space.

We sought views on the proposed priority and further actions within the Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030, to accelerate more sustainable use of our resources in Scotland, support delivery of a circular economy to 2030, and reduce emissions associated with resources and waste. The consultation opened on the 18 January 2024 and closed on the 15 March 2024.

There were 156 responses to the consultation from individuals (43) and organisations (113).

Across the consultation most respondents agreed or strongly agreed with each strategic aim, and respondents provided constructive feedback on the proposals and associated impact assessments. There were consistently high levels of support across the Route Map’s strategic aims*:

• 77% agreed with the Reduce and reuse priority actions. 71% agreed with its further actions
• 76% agreed with both the priority and further actions proposed within Modernise recycling
• 78% agreed with both the priority and further actions proposed within Decarbonise disposal
• 76% agreed with the Strengthen the circular economy priority actions. 81% agreed with its further actions.

*The percentage of respondents who answered ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked the extent to which they agreed with the proposed actions set out under each of the strategic aims.

Responses to the consultation have been published, and you can find a link to the independent analysis of the consultation responses here https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836015611. Ahead of the publication of the final Route Map later in 2024, we’re carefully considering all feedback to ensure our transition to a circular economy works for Scotland’s businesses, public sector and communities and helps us reach our net zero ambitions.

We sought views on whether to make permanent the use of remote means in school admission and exclusion appeal hearings. We also asked for feedback on whether video conferencing should be the default method, whether remote hearings should only proceed if all parties agree, and what improvements could be made to mitigate potential barriers such as digital exclusion.

The consultation closed on 12 March 2024. A total of 23 responses were received from a range of stakeholders and individuals. You provided views on the wide range of issues presented including those we asked about as well as around the themes more generally.

• We plan to amend regulations to permanently allow remote school admission and exclusion appeal hearings while ensuring that appellants have the choice of their preferred hearing format.
• We will work with stakeholders to develop guidance.

Consultation Analysis Report

We asked for your feedback on the draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.

A list of published responses can be found in the Published Responses section below.

A summary of consultation answers and the government response has been published on the Scottish Government website. The document can be found here: Draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 consultation: SG response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We asked for views on the operation of the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services. This was an opportunity for those who have advocated for change, including aspects such as improved resilience, greater transparency, better communications, responsiveness, service flexibility, and increased certainty for communities and service-users, to directly contribute to the contract development process.

In total, 434 responses to the consultation were received, Most of the responses were submitted by individual members of the public. There were also 41 responses from organisations, including Ferry Community Boards and Ferry Committees. Community Councils and Development Trusts (the two largest groups with eight and seven respondents respectively) also contributed responses.

Respondents expressed views about the ferry services within the Clyde and Hebrides area. A recurring theme was the unreliability of the services, particularly in relation to timetable changes, reduced services, and last-minute delays or cancellations. This has led to a perception of the service being at a crisis point.

Communication issues were also highlighted, with instances of passengers not being informed about cancellations until the last minute. It was stated that the unreliability of the services has caused difficulties for commuters and those needing to attend important appointments, in addition to creating challenges for businesses, affecting the movement of goods and staff.

Despite these concerns, the vessel crew and port staff were often commended for their resourcefulness, resilience, and responsiveness, embodying the qualities desired for the entire CHFS operation.

The consultation responses have been carefully considered and CalMac is working collaboratively with Transport Scotland on a range of improvement measures.  We will continue to engage with communities, unions and businesses to update them on the consultation outputs, and planned service enhancements in relation to the issues raised; this includes working with CalMac to proactively roll out an Enhancement and Change Plan.  We will be hosting in-person community engagement events  alongside webinars to discuss the next steps for the service.  Further updates will also be made available via the CHFS3 website as they become available.

We asked for your views on Community Learning and Development (CLD) in Scotland. We asked learners, potential learners, practitioners and stakeholders of CLD what they think is working well and what could be done better.

We did this to help the Independent Review of CLD provide information and recommendations to the Scottish Government relating to measuring outcomes delivered through CLD, delivering positive outcomes and improved life chances for marginalised and vulnerable learners and a suitably professionalised CLD workforce equipped to deliver high quality outcomes for learners.

We received a total of 1140 responses on Citizen Space, of which 717 were from learners and potential learners and 423 were from practitioners.

Awareness and visibility of CLD was highlighted as a key issue. Respondents suggested that awareness can be limited by CLD being a poorly defined sector and having insufficient policy profile. There were calls for better communication to improve awareness of CLD provision, and especially around the positive impacts being delivered.

Poor awareness of CLD opportunities was also highlighted as a particular issue for people who want to access learning. Respondents suggested that access can be easier for those who have already engaged with CLD and who are aware of local opportunities. Reaching those who might benefit from CLD but who have not yet engaged with services remains a challenge. 

Flexibility of learning provision was seen as a key strength for CLD, especially in terms of making opportunities as widely accessible as possible. However, respondents referred to multiple barriers to access. These included access to and cost of transport, digital exclusion, and maintaining CLD alongside other time commitments. Funding challenges were also highlighted as impacting the CLD workforce and learner journey.

Practitioners were clear about the positive outcomes they deliver for learners, and the contribution that CLD makes to national policy priorities. However, there was a perception that CLD is undervalued. Respondents wished to see change to increase the profile and status of CLD across the wider learning and skills sector.

Learners reported that they felt well supported by CLD practitioners throughout their learning. This included support to build on their current learning, and specifically around transitions during their learning journey. Practitioners referred to a range of methods used to assess the effectiveness of outcomes, but saw scope for this to improve. It was suggested that consideration should be given to data collection around national outcomes against a set of agreed KPIs.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to these consultations. The responses have been helpful in informing the review report and recommendations to the Scottish Government, which will be published in due course. We have published all non-confidential responses to the review. The analysis of these responses will be made available in the overall Evidence Report, which will be published alongside the review report and recommendations. Direct links to these will be added below once they are published.

We asked for your views on Community Learning and Development (CLD) in Scotland. We asked learners, potential learners, practitioners and stakeholders of CLD what they think is working well and what could be done better.

We did this to help the Independent Review of CLD provide information and recommendations to the Scottish Government relating to measuring outcomes delivered through CLD, delivering positive outcomes and improved life chances for marginalised and vulnerable learners and a suitably professionalised CLD workforce equipped to deliver high quality outcomes for learners.

We received a total of 1140 responses on Citizen Space, of which 717 were from learners and potential learners and 423 were from practitioners.

Awareness and visibility of CLD was highlighted as a key issue. Respondents suggested that awareness can be limited by CLD being a poorly defined sector and having insufficient policy profile. There were calls for better communication to improve awareness of CLD provision, and especially around the positive impacts being delivered.

Poor awareness of CLD opportunities was also highlighted as a particular issue for people who want to access learning. Respondents suggested that access can be easier for those who have already engaged with CLD and who are aware of local opportunities. Reaching those who might benefit from CLD but who have not yet engaged with services remains a challenge. 

Flexibility of learning provision was seen as a key strength for CLD, especially in terms of making opportunities as widely accessible as possible. However, respondents referred to multiple barriers to access. These included access to and cost of transport, digital exclusion, and maintaining CLD alongside other time commitments. Funding challenges were also highlighted as impacting the CLD workforce and learner journey.

Practitioners were clear about the positive outcomes they deliver for learners, and the contribution that CLD makes to national policy priorities. However, there was a perception that CLD is undervalued. Respondents wished to see change to increase the profile and status of CLD across the wider learning and skills sector.

Learners reported that they felt well supported by CLD practitioners throughout their learning. This included support to build on their current learning, and specifically around transitions during their learning journey. Practitioners referred to a range of methods used to assess the effectiveness of outcomes, but saw scope for this to improve. It was suggested that consideration should be given to data collection around national outcomes against a set of agreed KPIs.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to these consultations. The responses have been helpful in informing the review report and recommendations to the Scottish Government, which will be published in due course. We have published all non-confidential responses to the review. The analysis of these responses will be made available in the overall Evidence Report, which will be published alongside the review report and recommendations. Direct links to these will be added below once they are published.

On 28 August 2023, the Scottish Government and COSLA launched phase two of the Democracy Matters engagement process as part of the Local Governance Review. This followed phase one where communities told us they that wanted more control over the decisions that matter the most to them. This time, Communities were encouraged to get together and consider that control and different democratic future might look like. Views and comments were sought on what future sphere of more local decision making should look like including the following areas:

• Powers
• Representation
• Accountability and Participation
• Setting local boundaries and priorities
• Standards, resources and relationships
• Nurturing Community Capacities

The consultation closed on 28 February 2024 and received a total of 166 responses – 83 from community conversations conversations hosted by, for example, community organisations, community councils, third sector organisations, and equality advocacy groups. 46 responses came from organisations and 30 came from individuals. Responses with consent to be published were published on 19^th September and can be found here.

The key findings arising from the engagement event discussions and consultation responses were:

• Arrangements for community decision-making should be flexible and responsive to the needs of the community and place.
• Decision-making bodies should be a platform to influence decisions and shape services in a structured and meaningful way. They should be representative of their community, including groups with protected characteristics.
• Ensuring accountability and building trust was seen as critical and could be done through transparent and accessible communication and effective planning, priority setting and evaluation.
• Clear participative mechanisms should be in place to make decisions, with various approaches used to maximise accessibility and encourage participation.
• A decision-making body should have a sustainable budget that can be directed independently.
• Community capacity building and skills development will be important to enabling communities to deliver more.

The responses from the consultation will be used to help inform the development of proposals for community decision-making arrangements. The Scottish Government has published an independent analysis of consultation responses and a joint statement with COSLA setting out our next steps. The report and statement are available here: Local Governance Review - Improving public services - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Following the findings of this consultation, a Democracy Matters steering group was established in December 2024 to develop the findings further.

It will meet every six weeks to consider different aspects of community decision making model design, as well as how these can be tested with communities and partners in the public and third sector.

It will conclude by spring 2025 with the aim of agreeing models in principle and how to progress these through to the next stage of Democracy Matters, focusing on feasibility and testing.

We asked for your views on policy proposals for water, wastewater and drainage services and how we can adapt these services to the risks posed by climate change. The consultation opened on 21 November 2023 and closed on 21 February 2024. 

The consultation responses show broad support for our policy proposals. Respondents understood the need to make changes in order to protect our services, whether this is by using water more efficiently, managing rainwater more sustainably or being more responsible with what is disposed of into sewers. There is an understanding that these changes will require investment and that there need to be changes to how the water industry operates, but that change is necessary.  

The Scottish Government would like to thank everyone who took the time to provide a response to the consultation. The consultation responses are now available to view online where permission to publish has been provided. A full consultation analysis report has been published and is available on the Scottish Government website. 

We asked for views on proposals for a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill (WSD Bill), which aims to further improve decision-making and the implementation of the National Performance Framework to ensure that all policy and delivery is focused on increasing the wellbeing of people living in Scotland, both now and in the future.

We also asked for your views on further improving accountability and scrutiny of the National Outcomes, including the case for a Future Generations Commissioner.

The consultation opened on 6 December 2023 and closed on 14 February 2024.

We received a total of 180 responses. During the data review process one response was removed as it did not relate to the questions. A joint response from various public and third sector organisations was counted as two responses. There were 117 responses from organisations (65%) and 63 from individuals (35%).

Below is a short summary of general views, however this is not exhaustive and does not represent every view expressed. The consultation analysis, available here, includes further detail, although this is still not exhaustive. A full list of all publishable responses is available here.

A majority of respondents were in favour of statutory definitions of ‘wellbeing’ and ‘sustainable development,’ with various benefits identified, including providing greater clarity and consistency in their meaning and application to decision-making. Challenges were also identified, including the broad, subjective, and multi-faceted nature of the terms and subsequent difficulties in setting statutory definitions.

Some respondents said the current duties on the National Outcomes were not clear or robust enough and that a stronger legal duty, or wording of a legal duty, could provide a more explicit requirement to work towards the National Outcomes. Some expressed it would be worthwhile to review existing duties and how strengthening duties on the National Outcomes would align with these. Those in favour of legislation broadly agreed it should cover all areas of decision-making and those not in favour of legislation thought it should exclude all areas.

Most agreed that the strengthening of a legal duty should apply widely and include Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Government explicitly. Some argue this should go further and apply to private and third sectors, and few feel duties should not be applied to any organisation.

Some agree that it is important for the Scottish Government to explore ways to improve reporting on the achievement of wellbeing objectives. A common point made is that this would help to hold public bodies to account and aid learning. However improved reporting should not become unduly onerous or bureaucratic and duplicate other existing processes. Instead, a proportionate approach should be taken, including guidance and support for public bodies in fulfilling duties and reporting.

Views are mixed on whether Scotland should establish an independent Future Generations Commissioner (FGC). Less than half of respondents agree with this, and a sizeable proportion were unsure or did not answer, with some against the proposal. Further clarity and consideration are needed on the role, remit, purpose, functions and powers of the FGC and its integration with the existing landscape of Commissioners, including the risk of overlap. Some see significant value in an independent body with adequate resource and powers, which can provide support and keep public bodies, including Scottish Government, to account.

Respondents who feel that there is not a requirement for an FGC or who said that the case for such an appointment has not yet been made by Scottish Government, raise concerns including the risk of under-funding for other bodies, dilution of their duties or remit and fragmentation of the landscape. The cost of an FGC and risk of additional bureaucracy are also raised. They state alternative options could be identified and assessed.

Scottish Government will issue a Final Consultation Report, summarising views in more detail than done so here and outline the subsequent decisions taken.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. The consultation responses have been independently analysed and the analysis report has now been published, along with the individual/organisation responses (where permission was granted). These responses have been carefully considered as part of further policy development and advice to Scottish Ministers. Ministers will take these views and considerations into account in their decision-making on how to progress. We will update this section and all stakeholders once next steps are determined.

In the Scottish Government’s consultation paper on criminal justice modernisation we asked for your views on making permanent those of the temporary justice measures in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022, which could deliver significant longer term benefits and provide a basis for the future resilience, effectiveness and efficiency of the criminal justice sector. We are also sought your views on proposals which support the modernisation of our justice processes and procedures.

The public consultation was held between 6 November 2023 and 12 February 2024. The particular provisions from the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 which were consulted on are:

• Allowing for the electronic signing and sending of documents in criminal cases.
• Enabling virtual attendance at a criminal court.
• A national jurisdiction for callings from custody, so that custody cases can be heard in any court in Scotland.
• An increase in the maximum level of fiscal fine, to £500, along with adjustments to the scale of fines.

Additional proposals included as part of this consultation were:

• Legislating to maximise the use of remote and digital ways of working including the use of digital images rather than production of physical evidence in court.
• Alternative ways to prove copy documents to provide more flexibility in the law, taking account of digital innovations such as Digital Evidence Sharing Capability.

In total, 30 consultation responses were received, of which 22 were from groups or organisations and eight from individual members of the public. The views of a small number of those with lived experience of the justice system were also gathered using a shorter question set specifically relating to provisions allowing attendance at criminal court by electronic means.

The responses have been analysed by an external contractor, Craigforth HCAS Limited. A full consultation report was published on 8 July 2024.

As is further set out in the consultation analysis report, several cross-cutting themes emerged across consultation responses, that appear to have influenced views on proposals. For example, responses to some proposals appeared to reflect underlying views on the relative value of digital and physical evidence, and between remote communication and in-person testimony.

Other common themes emerged across views on potential for proposals to positively or negatively impact the justice system. The opportunity for efficiencies in time and resources was highlighted across proposals for conduct of business by electronic means, virtual attendance and digital productions.

Efficiencies were seen as a significant positive in the context of the current backlogs in court cases and potential for efficiencies to enable cases to be handled more quickly, benefiting all parties including vulnerable people with complex needs. The needs of vulnerable people were a factor in comments around potential for proposals to enable more trauma-informed justice processes, particularly for views on use of virtual attendance and conduct of business by electronic means.

The consultation responses have been carefully considered, alongside other evidence, in relation to the development of a Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill which was announced in the Programme for Government 2024-25. The Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 24 September 2024.  

We asked for your views on the policy proposals for the Care Leaver Payment. This included questions on the intention of the payment, the proposed eligibility criteria of the payment, the application process and what support is required when applying for and after receiving the payment.

The consultation closed on 26 January 2024 and 80 responses were received, including 32 individual responses and 28 organisational responses. These have been published on the consultation hub.

An independent analysis has been commissioned by the Scottish Government and is currently underway. The analysis report will be published in Spring 2024.

The responses, along with reports from engagement events during the consultation period, will inform the policy development of the proposed payment.

We sought views on the Scottish Government's proposal to:

1. Introduce secondary legislation that will permit and regulate the production and marketing of plant reproductive material of an organic and heterogeneous nature in Scotland
    
2. Method of delivery:

• The legislative mechanisms by which OHM might be marketed
• The scope of species any new legislation should apply to

The consultation closed on 23 January 2024 on the Scottish Government Citizen Space website and gained a total of 30 responses.

The majority of respondents (77%) supported permitting the regulation, production and marketing of OHM, with a majority (80%) supporting the scope of this legislation being applied across all plant types.

However, a number of respondents whom are well placed in the seed production industry, whom did not support permanent legislative change, provided a range of valid concerns.

The Scottish Government’s analysis of the consultation has been published as well as the consultation responses (where permission was granted).

In response to the consultation results, recognising the majority support of permanent legislative change, a review current Scottish legislation is being held with the aim of making revisions to allow the regulation, production and marketing of OHM.

However, further investigation is currently being conducted into the issues of OHM. This is being handled by directly contacted plant breeder's rights organisations as well as industry (seed producers).

The consultation opened on 6 October 2023 and closed on 22 January 2024.

We proposed measures, and sought your views on changes, to strengthen existing enforcement powers and increase penalties for offences under sections 21, 27 and 48 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003.

Under section 21 if owners should be held accountable for offences where they allow unauthorised occupation of a new, extended or converted building without a completion certificate. 

Under Section 27, proposals were to include an option for removal of work, introduce a standalone stop notice, clarify the scope of section 27 to take action after acceptance of a completion certificate for High Risk Buildings (HRBs) and set a time limit for serving enforcement notices. 

Under section 48 proposals were to increase penalties for offences from £5000 to £50,000, and include a  two-year custodial sentence to act as a greater deterrent for those persons who undertake building work that does not meet the building warrant or Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

In total, 43 consultation responses were received. Individuals provided 18 responses to the consultation; the remaining 25 were from organisations. The largest number of organisations were from local authorities and their associated bodies (15), professional associations and membership organisations (7) and commercial organisations and manufacturers (3).

Many individuals and organisations with detailed knowledge took part in the consultation, sharing their views on the proposals to strengthen the existing enforcement powers of local authorities and change the penalties for building standards offences.

Overall, there was broad support for the proposals. Respondents typically agreed that the proposals provide a clearer, stronger deterrent that should help to improve compliance, enable more effective enforcement and ensure building safety. The proposals were also seen as offering greater flexibility to relevant parties and helping to align Scotland with other parts of the UK.

Nine in ten respondents agreed with the proposal to hold owners accountable for new/converted buildings which are occupied illegally (section 21), and between two thirds to over four fifths of respondents supported a new provision for the removal of work, a standalone stop notice, and the ability to take enforcement action after the acceptance of a completion certificate for High Risk Buildings (section 27).

Views were more mixed on introducing a time limit for local authorities to take action on all work subject to a building warrant and building regulations (section 27). While seven in ten agreed with the introduction of a time limit, just under half favoured the proposed 10-year limit. Other respondents either felt a 10-year limit was too long, or that there should be no end date to being able to take action on non-compliance.

Very high levels of support were noted for increasing the level of a fine to a maximum of £50,000 and the option to include a custodial sentence (section 48). However, many caveated their agreement by noting the need to ensure penalties are proportionate to the level or nature of non-compliance.

While perceived impacts of the proposals were generally limited, there was concern from many respondents, particularly local authorities, that the proposals could put additional pressure on the time and resources of local authorities and their verifier teams. Across the consultation, some organisations noted additional costs and risks which builders and developers could face. There were also calls for the Scottish Government to provide further guidance and clarification about how the provisions could be used in different scenarios, and to consider how the provisions would work alongside existing legislation.

A full analysis of the consultation is available on the Scottish government website.

The Scottish Government will seek to amend sections 21, 27 and 48 of The Building (Scotland) Act 2003.

We asked for views on two minor amendments to road works legislation. Firstly,  on the proposal to revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument,  “The “Scottish Road Works Register (Prescribed Fees) Regulations 2022” and replace it with a new Regulation to account for the overall running cost in the 2024/25 and secondly, Secondly, we sought views on amending “The Road Works (Qualifications of Operative and Supervisors (Scotland) Regulations 2017”, and the Road Works (Reinstatement Quality Plans, Qualifications of Supervisors and Operative and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023, by expanding the list of approved awarding organisations to include two additional bodies, “Highfield Qualifications” and “EUIAS ”

In total, thirteen responses to the consultation were received, primarily from roads authorities. One response was received from an individual, seven from local authority roads teams, four from statutory undertakers and one from a public body responsible for the regulation of road works in Scotland. Brief analysis of these responses is detailed below:

There was strong support for both proposals; ten of the thirteen responses gave full support for the proposal on Fees. One roads authority noted no objection or preference, and two statutory undertakers objected to the current splitting mechanism. Of the two undertaker responses in opposition to the proposal, one made no alternate suggestions, but noted that undertakers appear to be paying more than roads authorities generally. However as the mechanism is use based, and at present utility firms undertake 75% of works, this is to be expected. Another undertaker suggested a new splitting model for future years in addition to opposing the current one. Twelve of the thirteen responses gave no objection to the addition of two new awarding bodies in road works training for Scotland, with one response skipping the question. One comment was received caveating their ‘no objection’ response,  on the condition that the bodies in question meet the relevant standards

The consultation responses have been carefully considered, most of the respondents supported the proposal to replace the 2022 Scottish Statutory Instrument. As a result, we will now revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument, “The “Scottish Road Works Register (Prescribed Fees) Regulations 2022”, and replace it with a new Regulation as proposed. We have also added the two new awarding bodies, “Highfield Qualfications” and “EUIAS” to the appropriate statute. We have passed on the single request for a new apportionment model for fees and amounts with the Roads Authority and Utility Committee (Scotland), as the industry body representing the road works community. We have advised that if the group wish to review, amend or replace their current proposed splitting mechanism, comment must be returned to Transport Scotland by September 2024, to allow for sufficient consultation ahead of the next financial year.

As part of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment consultation, we explained our intention to replace the UK Government’s Winter Fuel Payment on a like for like basis. As part of this, we asked questions about whether the proposals were likely to meet the policy intent; whether the eligibility criteria is clear; the naming of the benefit; the amount, format and timing of the payment; the impact of the policy as well as requesting views on the longer term development of the benefit.

We received 906 responses to the consultation, 881 from individuals and 25 from organisations. Most respondents indicated that they support the like for like introduction of a new benefit to replace Winter Fuel Payment, and there was strong support for maintaining universal eligibility of the payment. However, some also expressed reservations about the proposed universal eligibility criteria, and called for payments to be better targeted at those experiencing fuel poverty. These views were also reflected in the work undertaken with stakeholders alongside the consultation.

Concerns were also expressed around the timescales for clients to request a redetermination following an unsuccessful application. Respondents raised concerns that clients would have 31 days to request a redetermination, whereas Social Security Scotland will have 56 days to consider this request. Respondents suggested that older people may need longer than 31 days to gather the evidence required to challenge a decision. Similarly, many suggested that 56 days may be too long for clients to wait for the outcome of a redetermination, as this long period may leave individuals without funds at the start of the winter period.

Respondents highlighted a range of ways in which the payment could be made more effective for rural and island communities. Highlighting the difficulties for those living off gas-grid in sourcing alternative fuels, and the rising prices of these fuels across the winter period, many called for higher payment values and earlier or more flexible payment timings for rural communities.

Similarly, many respondents highlighted other groups who could benefit from the payment, calling for the expansion of eligibility to include vulnerable groups such as adults with disabilities and unpaid carers.

We considered the consultation responses and the impacts that the suggested changes would have if they were implemented. We have taken into account the extent to which any changes to the policy may present a significant financial challenge or potentially risk our ability to deliver the benefit in winter 2024-25, due to the requirement for a substantial redesign of the delivery systems of the payment.

In response to concerns raised within the consultation about redeterminations, we have now changed these timescales to give clients 42 days to challenge a decision, rather than the originally proposed timescale of 31 days. This will provide clients with greater flexibility, giving them more time to challenge a decision on their application.

Due to the complexity of decision making within Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, which may involve a process of household matching as well as seeking additional information in relation to the qualifying week, we have not changed the timescales for Social Security Scotland to respond to redetermination requests. It is important to note that 56 days would be the upper limit for completing a re-determination, and that we expect most re-determinations to be completed more quickly. This benefit will have the largest caseload of all Social Security Scotland benefits, with over 1 million people eligible. Considering the scale of the eligible cohort and the complexity of decision-making, even a small volume of re-determinations could have significant operational impacts. A timescale of 56 days to complete re-determinations will allow Social Security Scotland to more effectively manage these requests, reducing the risk of re-determinations going out-of-time.

As proposed, we will maintain universal eligibility to ensure the safe and secure transfer of the benefit this winter. The Scottish Government will continue to consider options for the longer term development of the benefit post-launch. The responses to the consultation will support this work.

We asked for your views on allocation of Additional Quota. We presented seven possible allocation methods and asked for input on four additional areas for consideration in the longer term. We did this because the Joint Fisheries Statement requires us to periodically review how we distribute fishing opportunities, in consultation with industry and other stakeholders.

There were 91 responses to the consultation. These consisted of 36 private individuals (40%) and 55 organisations (60%). Organisations which responded included: fishing associations, environmental/conservation organisations, sectoral groups and fishing businesses.  

The responses demonstrated expertise, practical knowledge and conviction about the management of Scotland’s fishing opportunities. We thank all of those who took the time to provide a response.

We concluded our analysis of consultation responses and published the outcome report on 7 June 2024. We will shortly update and issue allocations and new Scottish quota management rules. 

We will explore further the potential of a greater role for community quota initiatives, and the use of AQ to encourage greater compliance with regulatory requirements related to fishing. 

We asked your views on SSSC’s proposals to streamline and improve registration. In order to achieve this, we asked your views on reducing the number of Register parts from 23 to 4, requiring employees to apply for registration within three months of starting a new role and be registered within six months. We also asked about SSSC’s proposals to include more information on the public facing Register, such as specialist qualifications for social workers, and information relating to fitness to practise which is currently available on a different parts of the SSSC website. The consultation opened on 4 October 2023 and closed on 2 January 2024.

A total of 69 responses were received; of these, 53 were from individuals and 16 were from organisations. 

The vast majority of respondents were supportive of the proposals, with many highlighting that reducing the number of register parts will help improve the process of registering with the SSSC. 87% of respondents agreed with this proposal, with 77% agreeing with the proposals to reduce the timescales for applying and 77% also agreeing with the proposals to include more information on the public facing Register.

There were also some respondents who had some concerns with certain aspects of the proposals. Several respondents highlighted that they believed 3 months was too short a timescale to expect a worker to apply for registration and others believing that sharing additional information on the public facing register could have a negative impact on individuals.

A full analysis of the consultation is available on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Government intends to implement the proposals set out in the consultation by amending Regulation of Care (Social Service Workers) (Scotland) Order 2005, The Scottish Social Services Council (Appointments, Procedure and Access to the Register) Regulations 2001 and The Registration of Social Workers and Social Care Workers in Care Services (Scotland) Regulations 2013. More information is available on the Scottish Parliament Website.

We asked for views on our proposals to replace the SQA and approaches to maximise the role inspection plays in providing assurance and supporting teachers and other practitioners to improve education in Scotland, including through legislation. The consultation opened on 7 November 2023 and closed on 18 December 2023.  

We received a total of 386 responses; of these, 234 were from individuals and 152 were from organisations. 

There was general agreement on the need for a new qualifications body which works collaboratively with partners and stakeholders as part of a system-wide holistic approach. Generally, the proposals for increased involvement and representation in the body through adjustments to the Board and the introduction of an Advisory Committee and Charter were welcomed, although views varied on the future membership of the Board and Advisory Committee. 

On Inspection, 69% of respondents agreed with the purposes of inspection set out in the consultation and 66% agreed that education inspection should be provided to the full range of establishments and services set out. Views varied on the necessity of legislating for establishing a new approach to inspection, by way of creating the role of ‘HM Chief Inspector of Education’ as an independent office-holder and for an Advisory Council for the inspectorate to be established.  

A full analysis of the consultation is available on the Scottish government website. 

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. The consultation responses have been independently analysed and the analysis report has now been published, along with the individual/organisation responses (where permission was granted). These responses have been carefully considered and we have sought to incorporate these views into the Education (Scotland) Bill. For instance, feedback showed that Qualifications Scotland would benefit from additional teaching experience on the Board of Management. We therefore doubled both the number of board members who are required to be providing teaching or training as a registered teacher and the number of board members who are providing relevant teaching or training in colleges from our original proposals (outlined in Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Bill). The Scottish Government introduced the Education (Scotland) Bill to Parliament on 4 June. 

We asked for views on the revised Code of Practice for Proper Persons in Scotland in relation to the exercise of powers to execute warrants and orders conferred by Chapter 3 of Part 8 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Three responses were received on this Consultation. One response suggested some minor textual changes in Chapter 1 of the Code, other pertinent points were raised concerning disclosure and the safety of Proper Persons executing a warrant or order.

As a result of the responses received we have made the suggested changes to Chapter 1 and have amended the Code to clarify when a Proper Person should provide their name and that they need not do so if they believe that doing so might endanger themselves or others.

We sought views on a revised Code of Practice for constables in Scotland when they search people, premises or vehicles for cash, listed assets or cryptoasset-related items under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which may have been obtained through unlawful conduct or be intended for use in unlawful conduct.

The revised Code was generally welcomed by respondents, but a few points were raised. It was noted though that the revised Code would be used to assist in producing further guidance and training documents for constables.

Other points raised included strengthening the guidance in Annex A of the Code in relation to the search of children and young people where issues of child protection are identified by the constable, and for further clarification of the advice and guidance for constables on the search of transgender persons in Annex C to the Code.

Further points were noted in the body of the Code around the procedures that constables should adopt, particularly on the training of constables.

As a result of the helpful responses received we have made some, although relatively minor changes to the Code. We have introduced a new paragraph A.29 in Annex A to assist constables where additional child protection measures have been identified. We also  amended Annex C to clarify issues around how constables treat transgender persons. We have also sought to improve the Code for the benefit of constables although issues relating to training are a matter for the Police Service of Scotland.

The consultation on Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity asked for your views on the final version of the Strategy, the first five year Delivery Plan that accompanies the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy; the policy frameworks for Nature Networks and 30 by 30; and on elements that may be included in a proposed Natural Environment Bill – namely statutory nature restoration targets, and proposals to modernise National Parks legislation. 

We also asked for feedback on the impact of our proposed Framework and supportive legislation. 

There were over 600 responses from 474 individuals and 180 organisations.  An analysis of the views submitted is available on the Scottish Government website.

In summary there was general support for the Biodiversity Framework however you asked for actions in the Delivery Plan to be SMART and for clear delivery leads to be identified; and for more clarity on implementation aspects of our Nature Networks and 30 by 30 policies. You agreed with the proposed approach to placing nature restoration targets on a statutory footing, the criteria for selecting the targets, and the approach to reviewing and reporting on the targets. There was general agreement with the need to review the legal framework for National Parks given their vital role in reducing carbon emissions, building climate resilience and halting biodiversity loss whilst continuing to support local communities and promote public access and enjoyment of these areas.  A majority of you agreed with the proposals to modernise the aims and powers of National Parks, however, there were mixed responses relating to proposals to change the governance of National Parks. 

We are reviewing the actions set out in the Delivery Plan to ensure that they are SMART and have a clearly identified delivery lead, where possible.  The Delivery Plan will be published on the Scottish Government website later in 2024, alongside a finalised version of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. 

We will also publish final framework documents for Nature Networks and 30 by 30 policy areas on the NatureScot webpages; alongside updated guidance documents and an updated Nature Network toolbox, which local authorities and other delivery partners have been helping to develop. 

Our Programme for Government 2024-25 has set out that the Natural Environment Bill will be introduced this parliamentary year, and that the Bill will: put in place a framework for statutory targets for nature restoration; modernise deer management and national parks legislation; and provide powers to allow for future amendments to Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation and the 1994 Habitats Regulations to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.  We are carefully considering the consultation responses as the proposals for the Bill are developed.

Not all respondents commented upon the impacts of our Biodiversity Framework, however of those that did, responses are helping to refine our approach to Impact Assessments which will be published on the Scottish Government website later in 2024. 

We asked for views on amending the Building Standards system to mandate gigabit-capable connectivity in new build developments up to a cost cap of £2000 per premise to the developer. Where this cap was exceeded a requirement to install a connection using the ‘next best’ available technology available within the cost cap would exist in addition to installing the passive infrastructure required to facilitate a gigabit-capable connection at a later date.

The consultation opened on 19 September 2023 and closed on 12 December 2023.

In total 22 responses to the consultation were received of these 7 were from individuals, 7 from public sector organisations and 8 from organisations in the telecoms or housebuilding sectors.

The majority of responses considered that the proposals would ensure that gigabit-capable digital infrastructure would be placed in the best location to connect to a network distribution point and to ensure early engagement between telecoms operators and developers through the Connectivity Plan. Half considered the costs to be reasonable with a recognition that there was the potential for factors off-site, such as the rurality of a location, or third party land issues considered to be a potential cause of exceeding the cost cap.

Among the respondents a majority supported the inclusion of reference to existing road works guidance within the Technical Handbooks for external physical infrastructure and best practice advice to improve connectivity within an individual dwelling.

A full analysis of the consultation can be found on the Scottish Government website.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-build-developments-delivering-gigabit-capable-connections-public-consultation-analysis-report/

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. We are carefully considering the results to inform the development of secondary legislation and associated statutory guidance to mandate gigabit-capable connectivity up to a cost cap through the Scottish building standards system.

Revised Building Standards Technical Handbooks will be published and regulations laid later this year to enable these changes.

Effective regulation of independent healthcare is an important element in supporting public safety. We asked if you agreed that the regulation of independent healthcare services should continue to be funded through fees charged by HIS to private providers. We also asked if, given the increasing costs required to regulate independent healthcare, you agreed that the proposed maximum fees HIS can charge, as outlined in the consultation, was required. Finally, we asked, If you do not agree with the proposed maximum fee adjustment, what alternative approaches or strategies you believed would be fair and effective, and how should HIS address the challenges of the rising costs while minimising the impact on their stakeholders.

We received 105 responses, of which 83 were from individuals and 22 were from organisations. The majority of respondents identified themselves as being affiliated with an independent healthcare service, either identifying as the owner or working for such businesses. The responses we received showed a fairly even split between those who agreed that the regulation of independent healthcare services should continue to be funded through fees charged by HIS to private providers (46%) and those who did not (53%). 83% of respondents did not agree with the proposed maximum fees that HIS can charge for the commencement of the regulation of independent medical agencies. 87% of respondents did not agree that the increase to proposed maximum fees HIS can charge, as outlined in the consultation, is required given the increasing costs required to regulate independent healthcare. 50% of respondents who elected to add additional information suggested that non-healthcare professionals should also be registered with HIS. 34% of these respondents felt that fees should be based on the size of the business.

We have published all non-confidential responses to our consultation and the analysis of these responses. Direct links to these publications can be found below.

The response to the proposals was considered by Scottish Ministers. It was decided that the proposals are essential to ensure effective regulation of independent healthcare, which ensures public safety. It is vital that HIS has the necessary resources to fund its regulatory responsibilities, but in response to the large majority of respondents who did not agree with the proposals, we are proposing a reduced maximum fee cap in a number of areas. Further information can be found in our government response to the consultation analysis.

For comments on the draft revised RSHP teaching guidance.

We needed to provide more clarity on the content of the guidance.

We will reflect on the comments received as the revised guidance is finalised.

We asked for your views on whether Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) should be continued as part of the range of policy measures in place to address alcohol related harm, and, in the event of its continuation, the level the minimum unit price should be set going forward. The consultation opened on 20 September 2023 and closed on 22 November 2023. We asked for your views on whether Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) should be continued as part of the range of policy measures in place to address alcohol related harm, and, in the event of its continuation, the level the minimum unit price should be set going forward. The consultation opened on 20 September 2023 and closed on 22 November 2023.

We received 545 responses to our consultation questions. These included responses from 432 individuals and 113 organisations. Respondents included public health organisations, alcohol industry representative bodies and alcohol producers.

Two fifths of all respondents (39%) supported MUP continuing, three fifths (59%) were opposed, and 2% did not answer. There were, however, significant differences between individuals and organisations. Just over one quarter (27%) of individuals supported MUP continuing, compared to nine in ten (88%) organisations. All public health organisations who responded to the consultation agreed MUP should continue; however, 83% of alcohol industry representative bodies and 60% of alcohol producers were opposed.

One third of respondents (32%) agreed with the proposed minimum unit price of 65 pence. Two thirds (66%) disagreed, and 2% did not answer. Individuals and organisations held almost exactly opposing views. While 79% of individuals disagreed and 19% agreed, among organisations 79% agreed and 17% disagreed.

Most respondents held firm views either for or against MUP. One third (32%) supported a continuation and a price increase, while three fifths (59%) opposed both proposals. However, 7% were in favour of MUP continuing, but opposed to the specified price.

A full analysis of the consultation can be found on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. The consultation analysis report has now been published, along with the individual/organisation responses (where permission was granted). We have also provided feedback which can be read on the Scottish Government’s website. Following extensive evaluation, the evidence supports that MUP has had a positive impact on health outcomes, namely a reduction in alcohol-attributable deaths and hospital admissions, particularly in men and those living in the most deprived areas, and therefore contributes to addressing alcohol-related health inequalities. It is our intention to lay draft orders before Parliament to continue minimum unit pricing beyond 30^th April, and to set the price per unit at 65 pence.

We sought views on the proposals to regulate alkaline hydrolysis as a method of disposal of human remains in Scotland. The consultation opened on 25 August and closed on 17 November 2023.

There were 64 responses to the consultation. These included 24 from organisations, and 40 from individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

• The introduction of regulation to allow alkaline hydrolysis to be made available in Scotland.

• Regulation of alkaline hydrolysis to follow a similar approach to that already in place for cremation, including the inspection of operators and requirements for handling human remains.

• Application processes to be in line with those used in cremation with similar statutory application forms to be provided.

The consultation analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted).

The Scottish Government will now consider the proposals for regulating alkaline hydrolysis in light of the consultation findings and will continue to engage with the funeral sector and other interested parties to inform further development of the policy proposals for alkaline hydrolysis regulations.

We sought views on the implementation of regulations for burial in Scotland. The consultation opened on 25 August and closed on 17 November 2023.

There were 59 responses to the consultation. These included 37 from organisations, and 22 from individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

• The introduction of a burial management plan and the majority of respondents shared the view that it should be an open, transparent and publicly available document

• The proposed list of powers to be granted to burial authorities to enable them to manage and maintain their burial grounds to a safe standard.

• Required consent from the lair right-holder and the nearest relatives of the deceased for an exhumation.

The consultation analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted).

The Scottish Government will now consider the proposals in its development of the draft burial regulations.

We sought views on the implementation of regulations for funeral director licencing in Scotland. The consultation opened on 25 August and closed on 17 November 2023.

There were 32 responses to the consultation. These included 26 from organisations, and six from individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

• The proposal for the Scottish Government to maintain a directory of licensed funeral director businesses in Scotland which would be searchable on the Scottish Government website,
• A licence only being valid for a time-limited period.
• The Scottish Government’s proposals to charge a fee at the time of a licence application and licence renewal for funeral director businesses.

The consultation analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted).

The Scottish Government will now further consider the proposals for the intended licensing scheme in its development of licensing regulations.

We sought views on the implementation of a statutory inspection regime for burial authorities, cremation authorities, and funeral directors in Scotland. The consultation opened on 25 August and closed on 17 November 2023.

There were 32 responses to the consultation. These included 26 from organisations, and six from individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

• The proposal to provide for both routine and ad-hoc inspections, as well as announced and unannounced ad-hoc inspections.
• A risk-based approach to determining frequency of inspections.
• The proposal for Inspectors to be able to request interviews with staff of relevant bodies and the right for potential interviewees to refuse to be interviewed

The consultation analysis report has been published on the Scottish Government website, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted).

The Scottish Government will now further consider the proposals for the intended inspection regime in its development of inspection regulations.

We sought views to inform a review of the Scottish Government’s National Islands Plan published in December 2019. The consultation opened on 18 July and closed on 7 November 2023.

The consultation received 167 responses submitted by 39 organisations and 128 individuals. Most respondents (82%) said they were permanent island residents. In addition, a total of 231 individuals participated in consultation workshops (13 in-person on islands and 3 online) delivered by the Scottish Government’s Islands Team.

There were mixed views, both among organisations and individuals, about whether the National Islands Plan had had any effect on their lives, with organisations (50%) more likely than individuals (10%) to say the plan affected them positively.

There were also mixed views on the contents of the current National Islands Plan, with 37% of respondents saying they had positive views, 36% saying they had negative views and 27% saying they had no views at all.

A large majority of respondents wanted to see a new (or revised) National Islands Plan.

The Scottish Government will commence work to develop a second National Islands Plan, to be published in 2025. The new document will be informed by the feedback received through this public consultation as well as close collaboration with island communities, island local authorities and delivery partners. We will continue the implementation of the commitments set out in the current plan whilst the new document is developed.

Under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 a Sustainability Appraisal is required to assess the potential impacts from the proposed policies in National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2), on marine sectors, communities and the marine environment. 

As part of the Sustainability Appraisal a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) will be conducted alongside the development of the NMP2. This process is designed to determine the potential impacts of the policies on the environment and allow for subsequent adjustment to the plan, where required, to minimise the identified impacts. 

The first stage in the SEA was a scoping exercise culminating in the production of a Scoping Report, published 25 September 2023.

From 25 September 2023 until 30 October 2023 the Scottish Government Marine Directorate held a public consultation seeking views on the NMP2 SEA Scoping Report. 

The consultation was hosted on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space portal and consisted of six open-format questions, responses provided via email or post were also accepted. 

In total forty-two responses were received in response to the consultation; one individual and 41 organisations. Three organisations sent responses by email which were then manually entered into Citizen Space to allow for full and complete analysis. All responses were read in full by the NMP2 team, with thematic analysis of each response being conducted to capture the main opinions expressed by respondents and to explore overarching feedback. 

The categories providing most responses were:
•    public sector bodies including regulators and local authorities - 29%
•    representative bodies and charities – 29%

Responses received from organisations were split according to type. Most responses in the ‘businesses/private sector category’ were from organisations with their main interest in the renewables sector.

The need for greater emphasis on the global climate emergency and support for the transition to net zero was highlighted, and it was clear that respondents wanted to see greater emphasis on halting loss and proactively recovering biodiversity in the marine environment.

Generally, respondents were supportive of the proposed approach to the SEA and of the identification of key environmental issues under each topic to be used in the assessment and to inform the SEA objectives.  
 
However, several respondents felt that commentary on the SEA framework was challenging because the updated SEA objectives for the NMP2 were not available in the scoping report. 

Read the  consultation analysis report.

All responses received were recorded and categorised according to theme and topic. Responses with common themes were grouped to provide a series of general statements relating directly to each of the six questions. 

All comments submitted were logged. Comments specifically relating to the SEA process have been anonymised, shared with the assessing contractor, and will be used to inform the assessment methodology. Proposed additional evidence base sources, and additional environmental considerations were compiled according to theme and will be shared with the assessing contractors to ensure all contributions are considered. 

A number of common points on proposals for the new NMP2 itself were also observed during the analysis and will be used in the development of the NMP2.

On 29 September 2023, the Scottish Government launched a questionnaire asking private and social rented sector landlords and tenants questions on rental sector reform to inform development of legislation to deliver A New Deal for Tenants through a Housing Bill in this parliamentary year. The questionnaire was accompanied by a paper on the current proposals, which is available on the Scottish Government website.

The questionnaire closed on 27 October 2023 and in total 6,650 questionnaire responses were available for analysis. The largest respondent groups were PRS landlords, accounting for 44% of respondents, and PRS tenants, accounting for 29% of respondents. Other points to note are that:

• 48% of all respondents came from the four groups with a landlord perspective (PRS landlord, PRS landlord organisation, SRS landlord and SRS landlord organisation).
• 33% of all respondents came from the four groups with a tenant perspective (PRS tenant, PRS tenant organisation, SRS tenant and SRS tenant organisation).

Overall the analysis demonstrates that there are a variety of views on proposals for rented sector reform, with respondents in general agreement on a number of issues, and divided on others. More generally, feedback on the questionnaire included concerns that the closed question only format did not allow for a nuanced response and did not allow stakeholders to provide further information or commentary.

The Scottish Government is grateful to those who took the time to provide a response to this questionnaire. The analysis report has now been published, and we have also published a separate report with analysis of email responses received in relation to the matters covered in the questionnaire. Where consent has been given to publish responses from organisations these can be viewed here. 

We have carefully considered the wide range of views expressed and sought to incorporate findings into the final policy proposals. The Scottish Government intends to implement these proposals to deliver a New Deal for Tenants by introducing a Housing Bill to Parliament in this parliamentary year.

We asked for your views on draft regulations to add the Transport Tribunal to schedule 1 of the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014, and to transfer certain appeal functions of the Transport Tribunal under section 39 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland. In addition, we asked for your views on draft regulations allocating functions relating to appeals in connection with bus services improvement partnerships to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland. Finally, we asked for your views on draft regulations setting out rules regarding composition and procedure to be followed by the Upper Tribunal when dealing with these appeals. We asked for your views on draft regulations to add the Transport Tribunal to schedule 1 of the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014, and to transfer certain appeal functions of the Transport Tribunal under section 39 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland. In addition, we asked for your views on draft regulations allocating functions relating to appeals in connection with bus services improvement partnerships to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland. Finally, we asked for your views on draft regulations setting out rules regarding composition and procedure to be followed by the Upper Tribunal when dealing with these appeals.

We received a total of five responses from individuals and organisations (the organisations being local transport authorities). One respondent was content for their response to be published with their name. Two were content for their responses to be published anonymously, and the remaining two did not wish for their responses to be published.

The majority of respondents were content with the provisions. The main concerns have been addressed in the analysis of consultation responses document. Some responses commented more generally on local transport provision, which was outside of the scope of the consultation.

The Scottish Government would like to thank everyone who took the time to provide a response to this consultation. We have published the non-confidential responses to the consultation and an analysis of the consultation responses (link below). We have carefully considered all of the comments provided and the responses have informed the draft regulations. We will lay the suite of draft regulations described in the preceding paragraph in the Scottish Parliament later this year. If passed, the described appeal functions outlined above will be allocated to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.

We asked for feedback on revised draft statutory guidance focused on integration authority strategic plans and annual performance reports, which are requirements under the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The draft statutory guidance documents were revised in collaboration with a working group of partners from across health and social care. We were seeking further feedback and views through the public consultation.

28 consultation responses were received in total. 19 of these responses were from organisations and 9 were from individuals.

On the whole, the responses indicated general support for the overall approach taken in updating and revising the guidance.

There was also a lot of useful, detailed feedback on information and areas of the guidance that could potentially be changed or improved.

We published the responses to the consultation and a consultation report.

Using the feedback from the consultation, we further revised the guidance documents before final publication.

Changes made to the guidance included:

• adding a ministerial foreword
• re-ordering some parts of the guidance
• adding new sources of information
• clarifying and amending some of information already in the guidance
• making further links to other planning duties

Some feedback would have required changes to legislation. These views are helpful in considering and progressing development of the National Care Service.

We have also published an easy read version of this 'We asked, you said, we did' summary.

The public consultation sought views on the proposed implementation of mandatory training on planning for elected members. The implementation of mandatory training was set out in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 as part of a package of measures for the planning system. Once we implement these measures, elected members will be prohibited from carrying out certain planning functions if they have not completed the required training.

120 responses were received, of which 77 were from groups or organisations and 43 from individual members of the public.

An independent analysis of responses to the consultation has been undertaken and can be viewed at: Planning system - mandatory training for elected members: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). We are currently considering the responses to the consultation and will provide an update on next steps in due course.

Where permission to publish has been provided, the consultation responses are now available to view online.

We asked for views on proposed increases to the building warrant fees required to deliver change to strengthen the building standards system and also the development of a new building warrant fees model in Scotland. The consultation formed part of the work undertaken by the Verification Delivery Model work stream which is one of the seven work streams being directed by the Building Standards Futures Board. The Building Standards Futures Board was set up to provide guidance and direction on the development and implementation of the recommendations made by expert Review Panels in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and construction failings in public buildings in Scotland.

We asked for your views on an increase in building warrant fees to support verifiers to deliver a strengthened and improved building standards service in Scotland. We also sought views on increased fees specifically for new and enhanced verification requirements for High Risk Buildings, to support the Building Standards Hub, enhanced Scottish Government Building Standards Division (BSD) monitoring and auditing and if the local authority Building Standards enforcement role should be funded by building warrant fees. We also asked for your views on whether or not fees should be devolved or set nationally to assist in informing future policy considerations.

In total, 95 consultation responses were received from 39 individuals and 56 organisations. There was widespread consensus and agreement to all the proposals put forward, excluding questions 3.1 and 3.2. The majority of respondents agreed to an increase in building warrant fees (65%) and to using a proportion of fees to support a national Building Standards Hub (70%).

81% of respondents supported the introduction of an enhanced fee for High Risk Buildings (HRB) due to the increased complex nature of a HRB warrant applications and the need for improved verification and oversight capabilities of such buildings and applications.

There was widespread consensus (88%) that building warrant fees should be set at a national level.

While many believed there would be no impact on people with protected characteristics or on socio-economic inequalities, respondents suggested the proposals could increase the financial burden on individuals and businesses wishing to undertake building work and increase the workload for building services.

The Scottish Government will increase building warrant fees from 01 April 2024. The national Building Standards Hub, launching in May 2024, will also be funded through an increase to building warrant fees.

Work will continue through the Compliance Plan work stream to introduce an enhanced compliance plan process for High Risk Building (HRB), with the intention of introducing a corresponding enhanced verification fee for HRBs. 

Through the Verity House agreement, the Scottish Government will continue discussions with CoSLA and other key stakeholders on any potential future devolution of building warrant fees.

It is not the current intention of the Scottish Government to fund the statutory building standards services through building warrant fees. We will continue to engage with stakeholders through our Working Groups on this.

The consultation analysis report can be found on the Scottish Government website: Building warrant fees: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The consultation outcome report can be found on the Scottish Government website: Building warrant fees: consultation outcome report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We asked for views on our proposals to reform Energy Performance Certificates.  We sought views on introducing a new rating system which would give consumers fuller information on their building’s energy performance in relation to net zero objectives, in particular the energy efficiency of its fabric, and the emissions and efficiency of its heating system. We also sought views on how to strengthen the quality of EPCs and the assessors who prepare them, together with improvements to make EPCs more accessible and interactive.

In total, 323 responses were received to the consultation paper, of which 122 were from organisations and 201 from individuals. A majority of organisation responses came from representative bodies, businesses in the construction sector and local authorities. Findings are set out in full in the accompanying analysis report. Brief analysis of these responses is detailed below.

There was broad support from organisations for the principal elements of EPC reform set out in the consultation paper. These included a revised rating system; a shortened validity period; a digital and accessible format; and changes to the operational system. Individuals were less supportive of EPC reform because of perceived concerns about affordability and the practicality of energy upgrades. Many individuals felt that a standardised EPC model is not suitable for certain types of property, including traditional stone-built properties, tenements and listed buildings. As such, there were some requests for more individualised EPCs for different types of property. There were calls for EPCs to be presented clearly in a user-friendly and easy to understand format so that all users understand the information presented.

We have considered the consultation responses and set out our final decisions in our Government Response to the consultation. This confirms that we will introduce new EPC regulations in the Scottish Parliament during 2025 and plan to bring them into force in 2026. The new regulations will introduce the reformed EPC rating system, bring in a redesigned EPC certificate and user interface (following further user testing), and will reduce the validity period of EPCs from 10 to five years to ensure consumers have more up-to-date information. We will also introduce strengthened operational governance arrangements for EPC assessors and Approved Organisations to enhance quality assurance for consumers and we will establish a new technical infrastructure to bring in a new EPC Calculation Methodology and new EPC Register. We will also consult further on the level of EPC lodgement fees and penalty charges ahead of introducing the new regulations.