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Existing laws already regulate the sale of dangerous bladed items. We continue to work closely with Police Scotland, local authorities and retailers to reduce knife related harm and to support the enforcement of these safeguards, including age restriction requirements. Retailers also have an important role to play in keeping their communities safe by ensuring the items they sell, including kitchen knives, are stored and displayed responsibly.

In this context, the Scottish Government has no current plans to introduce a legal requirement for kitchen knives to be security-tagged or kept behind the counter in retail premises.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of improving public awareness of the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis to support earlier diagnosis and reduce stigma.

We have worked with Crohn’s & Colitis UK and clinicians to update information and guidance on gastrointestinal conditions and symptoms such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. This is widely available to the public via the NHS inform website: Scottish health information you can trust | NHS inform.

Crohn's & Colitis UK - Symptom checker also provides an online tool designed to help people recognise potential symptoms and seek timely medical advice.

We are exploring opportunities to enhance digital tools to provide symptom guidance and signposting to reliable resources through NHS inform. This work will complement our ongoing efforts through the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme and the National Gastroenterology Speciality Delivery Group to improve early diagnosis and care for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

I have no plans of modifying the franchising model in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. Changing primary legislation would take time to deliver and any proposals to bring the Scottish powers in line with England would require us to revisit the entire approach to franchising.

Development of any new primary legislation in this area is likely to be a lengthy process and could not be undertaken before the end of this parliamentary session. Any changes to the legislation now could significantly impact Strathclyde Partnership for Transport’s (SPT) plans for developing its franchising proposals, as well as create uncertainty for all local authorities who may be exploring this option. Such a move would also push Scotland further behind England in delivering bus franchising.

The scheduling of the exam diet is an operational matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), which will be replaced by Qualifications Scotland. Following feedback from stakeholders, the SQA made a change to the published timetable on 9 December to move Higher Health and Food Technology away from the same day as Higher English.

I wrote to Nick Page, the Chief Executive of the SQA and met with the SQA in September regarding the 2026 exam timetable to underline that the priority should be ensuring that young people are supported following the return from the Easter break and do not face unreasonable workloads and additional stress from coincident and consecutive exams.

Developing the timetable is a complex task with over 200 separate exams across 130 different subjects and levels so coincident and consecutive exams are unfortunately unavoidable.

The SQA consult extensively with external stakeholders each year on the exam timetable before the publication, and work to ensure the number of coincident and consecutive exams are minimised. Their timetable advisory group includes representatives from practising teachers, head teachers, teaching unions, local authority representatives, learner agencies, and SQA staff.

Schools have well-established local arrangements to manage any impacts where coincident or consecutive exams arise. Learners are also eligible to use the Exam Exceptional Circumstances Consideration Service for the last exam of the day where they are scheduled for more than 6 hours of exams in one day and a request for extra time has been submitted as an assessment arrangement or English as an additional language (EAL) arrangement.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with SPPA, I have met with the SPPA Chief Executive 11 times in 2025. I visited SPPA on 27 August 2025 to gain first-hand insight on the latest developments aimed at improving service delivery and progressing the remedy programme. The budget allocation to SPPA has been increased year-on-year to support delivery of remedy while maintaining core business delivery. This additional funding is allowing investment in automation and the recruitment of additional staff.

The challenges faced by seasonal workers and their employers are complex, and therefore significant work is required in order to bring these bespoke standards into place. Whilst we will progress this work for the remainder of this parliamentary session, the government does not expect to legislate within this current parliamentary session.

As previously stated, we are assessing what is required pursuant to section 315 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42174 on 9 December 2025. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Following the appointment of Lord Scott to chair the Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry, I have consulted with the Chair, and met with the Caldwell family and a range of key parties to discuss the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry.

In these discussions I outlined my intention to keep the Terms of Reference focused on the original investigation of Emma’s death but sufficiently broad to allow Lord Scott to look at wider issues he considers to be pertinent to the Inquiry. This approach was broadly supported.

The Solicitor General, on behalf of the Law Officers, is content that the prosecutorial decision-making is examined by the Inquiry in connection with the investigation into the murder of Emma Caldwell.

I am pleased to confirm that the Inquiry will formally begin its work on 9 December 2025. The Inquiry’s setting up date marks the point at which I hand over full responsibility of the Inquiry to Lord Scott and the work of the Inquiry will commence.

The Terms of Reference agreed with Lord Scott are provided below:

PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE INVESTIGATION OF THE MURDER OF EMMA CALDWELL – TERMS OF REFERENCE

On 28 February 2024 Iain Packer was convicted of the murder of Emma Caldwell, 19 years after her death. I announced on 7 March 2024 that there would be an independent judge-led inquiry given the gravity of the case, the length of time that it took for justice to be served and the extent of the sexual violence suffered by the victims and survivors.

The Inquiry’s Terms of Reference are set out below. The Terms of Reference do not attempt to present a definitive list of every issue the Inquiry will consider. They specify areas of investigation which the inquiry will interpret flexibly.

Terms of Reference

• To examine the investigation carried out by Strathclyde Police, under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, into the murder of Emma Caldwell, including (i) the investigative strategy and decision making; (ii) the giving of direction by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (iii) any steps which could reasonably have been taken and, had they been taken, might have resulted in the offender being apprehended and prosecuted at an earlier stage; (iv) the roles and responsibilities of those involved; and (v) any other factors relevant to the circumstances of the investigation and related prosecution and to make recommendations to address any finding in that regard.
• To examine whether any failures in training, procedures, operating models or systems of working contributed to failures (if any) by Strathclyde Police or the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in relation to the investigation and to make recommendations to address any finding in that regard.
• To report to the Scottish Ministers on the above matters and to make recommendations as soon as reasonably practicable.

LFASS is an area-based payment under article 31 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 focuses on providing financial support to farmers operating in areas that face natural or other specific constraints.

The eligibility is contained within The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2010 which were developed and approved by the European Union at that time.

The importance of supporting our producers on our most constrained land is very well understood. We are committed to a thriving rural Scotland, and we are working with all stakeholders to ensure that our remote communities, and those producing in areas of constraint, are supported through the new framework.

Thousands of farmers in rural areas will begin receiving LFASS payments totalling more than £56m this week. This highlights our continuing commitment to investing in rural Scotland and supporting our iconic livestock sector.

Scottish Government remains fully committed to co-developing the future payment framework of the four-tier support system. We will work with our farmers, crofters and stakeholders to ensure any changes to LFA support continue to deliver stability and investment.

All the 2024 LFASS payment calculations were, in part, based on historic data.

Part of the payment calculation includes values based on a historic year, which stem from farming activity at that time.

In its 2025-26 Budget, the Scottish Government maintained a competitive non-domestic rates package including the most generous small business rates relief in the UK.