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The Scottish Government estate is always under review to allow us to plan for accessible, modern and secure, energy efficient buildings to meet our changing needs and net zero ambitions, as well as to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money.

Estate decisions are informed by key estate data, for example the condition, usage, carbon emissions, accessibility and capacity. We prioritise funding towards ensuring our buildings are fit-for-purpose, inclusive and accessible for all staff and stakeholders and contribute to our net zero ambitions.

The Scottish Government has adopted a professions model. All our jobs are now aligned to profession and related job family and job type. We are starting to apply related expectations into how we design jobs and recruit people for jobs. For some professions and job types this will include professional membership and accreditation requirements that either need to be achieved on entry or once in the job - e.g. Finance, Procurement. For a few professions, professional memberships are mandatory to be able to practice - e.g. Law. Our Heads of Profession oversee these expectations and standards.

All our professional memberships are held by and apply to individuals so the Scottish Government as a body does not hold professional memberships.

While no formal post-legislative review has yet to be undertaken, my officials have been informally monitoring the use of Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs) by local authorities. Given the initial low uptake of ETROs following the legislative changes made it was felt that no formal review was required at that time.

Officials have advised that the scope of a review is currently being considered and that we plan to write to all local authorities to gather their views on the ETRO procedures within the next 4 months. It should be stressed that this review is often undertaken post-legislative change and would look at the numbers of ETROs brought in under the new legislation and any common issues local authorities are facing to help inform any further legislative change in the future. The review will not impact on the operation of existing ETROs or of TROs that are subsequently made under the current legislation.

Officials have also had a number of informal discussions with a number of local authorities who were in the initial stages of considering if an ETRO was suitable for various schemes. No specific record has been made of these conversations given that they are standard discussions between Transport Scotland and local authority officials

The Scottish Government is currently conducting a programme of work to reform and modernise compulsory purchase to make the system simpler, more streamlined and fairer for all parties. The reforms are intended to support the delivery of all types of project, not just those related to renewable energy infrastructure, net zero and climate adaptation. Our aim is to move towards a system that is:

• Equitable: compensating claimants fairly and timeously;
• Effective: supporting efficient decision-making, whilst ensuring procedural fairness, openness, and transparency; and
• Easy to understand, providing all parties with certainty and clarity about how the process works and their rights, roles and responsibilities within it.

In March 2024, we appointed an expert advisory group to help support the reform process. We are working with the advisory group and engaging with a range of stakeholders to develop reform proposals ahead of a public consultation later this year. A Compulsory Purchase Reform Progress Report was published in December 2024, which recaps progress to date, summarises emerging proposals and sets out next steps:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-reform-scotland-progress-report-december-2024/.

More information on the Compulsory Purchase Reform Programme, can be found at https://blogs.gov.scot/planning-architecture/2024/07/09/compulsory-purchase-reform/.

The Scottish Government uses robust contract management procedures in relation to the procurement and compliance of licensing agreements for software subscriptions, procuring through national public procurement frameworks to ensure transparency, quality and value for money. Criteria will vary depending on business needs, costs and value.

Scottish Government costs directly associated with the implementation of compulsory purchase orders cannot be disaggregated within the cost information that we hold.

All Scottish Government licensing is managed and maintained to ensure our legal and regulatory obligation under procurement arrangements are met, as well as meeting our Cyber Security commitments.

Professional memberships are funded by each Directorate - i.e. the home location of the job and the person.

Our financial systems do not hold central or aggregable data on how much each Directorate or Division spends on memberships.

In most cases this would be an element of their local learning and development budgets and not a distinct, identifiable budget component. The information requested could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Scottish Government has a centrally-managed contract with Office Papers to supply newspapers on an ad-hoc rather than subscription basis. The guidance on spending on newspapers allows for current awareness; to help identify and monitor local and regional issues and to support policy and operational delivery.

For software subscriptions, the Scottish Government uses robust contract management procedures in relation to the procurement of licensing for software subscriptions, procuring through national public sector procurement frameworks to ensure transparency, quality and value for money. Criteria will vary depending on business needs, costs and value.

In relation to the Scottish Government's policies or guidance in relation to spend on professional membership subscriptions, we have published guidance. The key points are that any professional membership the Scottish Government supports must be a) directly relevant to the person's current job, b) of relevant value to the SG, and c) further the person's continuous professional development. The funds and decisions on professional memberships are held by local senior managers, not centrally.