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The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill includes an exemption for new homes intended for social or affordable use, defined as homes let under Scottish secure or short secure tenancies and those funded under the Housing (Scotland) Acts of 1988 or 2001. The Bill also includes an exemption for developments occurring on islands.

The Scottish Government recognises that smaller developers can face proportionately higher development costs compared to others operating in the sector. Therefore, section 12 of the Bill enables Scottish Ministers to introduce a levy-free allowance. This is an annual number of units that will not be subject to the Levy, which will apply over and above any units covered by other exemptions. The Scottish Government is working with developers and industry stakeholders to gather evidence to inform the decision on where to set the allowance, which will be legislated for in secondary legislation.

The Bill as introduced includes build-to-rent developments within the scope of the Levy, consistent with the arrangements in place for the Building Safety Levy in England. The Scottish Government will continue to engage stakeholders throughout the legislative process to gather evidence and assess whether exemptions should be extended to include, for example, build-to-rent and mid-market rent properties.

In my statement to Parliament on 2 September, I set out a suite of urgent actions to be taken in response to the housing emergency. Some of the measures to reduce homelessness include:

• Committing to a multi-annual, multi-billion pound affordable housebuilding project worth up to £4.9 billion over the next four years, capable of delivering up to 36,000 affordable homes or put another way, providing 24,000 children with a safe, warm and affordable home.
• Doubling investment in our immediate acquisitions fund from £40 million to £80 million this year. This will support the acquisition of at least 1,200 homes over the 18 months of the fund, helping families move out of temporary accommodation and into permanent tenancies without waiting on the construction of new homes.
• Investing a £3 million capital grant to expand Housing First and create new tenancies, alongside a £1 million uplift to local authorities to accelerate existing Housing First programmes.
• Extending rapid rehousing transition plan funding to 2026-27 to enable local authorities to prioritise settled housing for homeless households.
• Rolling out a £1 million new national ‘fund to leave’. This could help up to 1,200 women and their children to leave abusive relationships.
• Investing up to £2 million through the discretionary housing payments scheme to support households currently in temporary accommodation to find settled homes in the private rented sector. This is in addition to £97 million already being invested in discretionary housing payments in 2025-26 including £79m to mitigate the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax.

I called on partners across the housing sector and beyond to support work to accelerate the delivery of high-quality homes of all tenures, with a focus on the delivery of affordable and social homes. I have also set out the government’s expectation that local authorities, in compliance with ALACHO guidance, should contact every family in good quality temporary accommodation to explore opportunities to convert those temporary tenancies to permanent tenancies.

The Scottish Government is committed to doing all it can to secure the future of the business’ operations at Grangemouth. As such, Scottish Ministers engage regularly with the management of INEOS O&P. Most recently, the Deputy First Minister met INEOS O&P UK CEO, Stuart Collings, on 22 August to discuss the challenges that the business continues to face and the role that the UK Government must play to support the business.

The Scottish Government continues to consider, alongside potential investors, regulatory and policy barriers to investment, including those outlined in Project Willow. We are already making tangible progress with the conclusion of an initial study by the James Hutton Institute and Scotland’s Rural College on the potential for cover crops to be grown in sufficient quantities that could support a potential biorefinery project at Grangemouth which will be published shortly. This will now progress to field trials to ensure a comprehensive approach is being taken to satisfactorily address the recommendation in the Project Willow.

Scottish Enterprise continue to make significant progress in identifying credible propositions, including the 9 projects identified by Project Willow, that will secure the long term and sustainable future of the Grangemouth industrial cluster. Scottish Enterprise have now received over 100 enquiries from businesses interested in opportunities on the Grangemouth site, including a number of near term developments related to the Project Willow plastic waste recycling, biorefining and fuel switching technology pathways.

The Scottish Government is providing £2 million towards the development of the Grangemouth Sustainable Manufacturing Campus as part of the Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal. The project is being led by Scottish Enterprise and Falkirk Council, with Scottish Enterprise currently assessing the most effective approach to move the project forward, in order to develop the project business case.

Every person, family and business impacted by the closing of the Grangemouth refinery matters and our focus, rightly, is on providing those who are losing their jobs with targeted skills support.

The £25m Grangemouth Just Transition Fund will be utilised to support new projects aligned to a Just Transition at Grangemouth. Scottish Enterprise are engaging with several emerging projects which have been identified via their triaging process and Ministers will provide further information in due course.

This additional £25m means that the Scottish Government – with a finite budget – has committed or already invested £87 million in Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government has increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, and £1.64 billion in 2025-26.

Decisions on how these resources are allocated, including the deployment of police officers, is a matter for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.

The total costs of overtime paid by Police Scotland to its workforce over the last five financial years are detailed in the following table.

The deployment of officers and staff are matters for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has stated that, “The nature of policing is unpredictable, and overtime is a flexible mechanism which can help to ensure we maintain an effective service for all our communities”

The Scottish Government is investing a record £1.64 billion in policing in 2025-26, an increase of almost £90 million of additional funding from the 2024-25 budget to support police capacity and capability. Our investment in policing has enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception in 2024-25. Police Scotland has stated that it has a healthy recruitment pipeline.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation which aims to bring frontline policing to its strongest possible position.

‘Unallocated’ and ‘Functionless’ are not terms which are applied to the categorisation of roles within the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government continually monitors its operations to ensure its resources are deployed as effectively and efficiently as possible. This is achieved through prioritisation, effective vacancy management and adapting to changing needs.