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The Scottish Government is committed to supporting stronger regional working. In the Programme for Government we provided that we would:

Work with regional and local partners to identify how best to formally devolve further elements of decision-making and delivery to Regional Economic Partnerships (REPs), and present options before the end of this Parliament.

Officials undertaking this work are engaging with a range of partners across the public, private and third sectors, as well as further and higher education partners, the UK and Welsh governments, and regional groupings elsewhere in the UK in order to understand how best to empower regional partners.

The Scottish Government is also working with COSLA on the Local Governance Review to consider how power and resources should be shared between national and local government and with communities. From the extensive engagement to date, there has been no specific proposals to introduce elected mayors or provosts.

The views of Local Government would inform any future changes to Local Government’s structure or governance arrangements. This is in line with the Scottish Government’s commitment to respecting Local Government’s democratic mandate as part of the Verity House Agreement.

There is a strong tradition of partnership working between local authorities, particularly through Regional Economic Partnerships. This partnership is a key way that services can be delivered more efficiently, and opportunities can be scaled. This is exemplified by the Northeast Regional Economic Partnership, involving Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council, who are delivering the Northeast Investment Zone in partnership with both the Scottish and UK Governments.

Regional Economic Partnerships are delivered via bespoke regional arrangements, and many other examples of joint working are on a case-by-case basis, so formal monitoring of the “level” of joint working would not be possible.

However, the Scottish Government has committed in the Programme for Government to working with local authorities and other key partners, to identify how to strengthen these partnership arrangements. This work is not yet complete, and it would not be possible to comment on outcomes at this time.

The Scottish Government remains firmly committed to the principles set out by the Christie Commission.

Our Public Service Reform Strategy: Delivering for Scotland, published in June 2025, sets out a comprehensive and ambitious programme to embed these principles across the public sector. The Strategy addresses long-standing systemic barriers to reform and sets out action to deliver more efficient, joined-up, person-centred services, with a clear emphasis on prevention and empowering communities.

This approach is rooted in the Christie Commission’s vision and is essential to ensuring Scotland’s public services remain sustainable, high quality and responsive to the needs of the people they serve.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine programme is having a huge impact on preventing cancers for those who have been vaccinated.

A study by PHS No cervical cancer cases detected in vaccinated women following HPV immunisation - News - Public Health Scotland shows that no cervical cancer cases have yet been detected in fully vaccinated girls who have received the first HPV vaccine dose at age 12-13 years, for those who entered the programme when it commenced in 2008. This demonstrates that HPV vaccination is a key step in preventing the development of cervical cancer and a cornerstone of the Scottish Government’s commitment to eliminating cervical cancer.

Human papillomaviruses not only cause cervical cancer, but can also cause other diseases, including anogenital, head and neck cancers and genital warts. To increase everyone’s protection against these diseases, the HPV vaccination offer was extended to all young people in 2019. HPV vaccination is also offered to gay and bisexual men in sexual health clinics.

Health Boards are working with Local Authority education partners to improve uptake of HPV and other vaccinations delivered in school settings. This includes the delivery of workshops and education sessions by vaccination teams to deepen both pupils’ and teachers’ understanding of the benefits of vaccination.

PHS, Health Boards and third sector partners work collaboratively to increase vaccination uptake, support those eligible for vaccination and address any inequalities through the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP) Inequalities and Inclusion Group.

Work is progressing to implement changes through Energy Act 2023 to establish a better enabling environment for offshore wind development. Scotland’s strategic compensation policy, including amendment to the Habitats Regulations, is now at consultation until 1 September 2025. The changes proposed seek to increase the availability of compensatory measures and give clarity on the requirements around environmental compensation for offshore wind development. These reforms have been developed in partnership with the UK Government to ensure a consistent approach across the whole of the UK.

Scottish Government is also working to establish a Scottish Marine Recovery Fund to deliver Strategic Compensation and a more streamlined process for securing compensation for adverse environmental effects of relevant offshore wind activities. Scottish Government has published Scottish Marine Recovery Fund Interim Guidance (available on the Scottish Government website) and consultation on these proposals will be undertaken in due course.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy in Scotland, is also now at consultation and a series of engagement events have been held around Scotland. The plan will set a clear roadmap for the sustainable delivery of offshore wind in Scottish waters.

A programme of work to streamline the consent process, to meet and, where possible, reduce timescales in relation to application determination and post-consent approvals for offshore wind projects and associated infrastructure, has also been undertaken. Officials sought views from industry, regulators and other stakeholders on proposed improvements to the consenting and licensing process and intended updates to the guidance. Improvements have now been implemented through engagement with developers, updates to external guidance and updates to internal procedures including:

• Promotion of effective stakeholder engagement earlier in the process including updated guidance on pre-application engagement with stakeholders
• Front loading the consenting process and reduced post consent consultation and approvals by requiring certain information on mitigation with applications that was previously required post consent
• Supporting high quality applications through engagement with developers and updated guidance and checklist on information required to support applications for offshore renewable energy projects
• Improvements to planning authority consultation on applications, including clarifying timescales and provisions for planning authority consultation on applications

Vaccination is globally recognised as being second only to clean water in terms of its transformative impact. The Scottish Government is working with NHS Health Boards and Public Health Scotland through the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP) to improve public confidence in vaccination.

Scotland's 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan, published in November 2024, includes goals to increase uptake and reduce inequalities in vaccination. To do this, SVIP will continue to build on existing practice to build confidence through a range of actions, including: making vaccination, and information about vaccines, more easily accessible; improving the patient experience; working with different communities to understand and respond to any concerns or questions; and supporting the workforce to have confident conversations about vaccines with patients and members of the public.

SVIP continues to build on and develop partnerships with community, third sector and religious organisations to co-produce and disseminate factual information for those who have questions about vaccination.

The Scottish Government is also aware of the harms false health information can cause and is looking at what approaches can be taken based on the latest evidence.

Regulations for hydrogen transport through pipelines and storage are reserved to the UK Government. As such, Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with UK Government counterparts on these matters as they relate to Scotland's hydrogen interests.

The UK Government has recently published a consultation on the economic regulatory framework for 100% hydrogen pipelines. This was published on the 15th of July and will run until the 9th of September and invites stakeholder's views on the suitability of the regulatory framework set out under the Gas Act 1986 for the needs of the hydrogen economy. The Scottish Government is currently considering the framework proposed and is formulating our response to be submitted in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to ensure the geographical variations across the UK, particularly in Scotland, are considered in any changes to hydrogen regulations, as well to ensure the UK Government develops a fit for purpose regulatory regime that enables us to achieve our shared hydrogen ambitions.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government introduced new Building Guidance on the installation of charge points in new buildings and developments to help further increase the provision of electric vehicle charging. These regulations mandate the provision of electric vehicle charging in new domestic dwellings to support the transition to electric vehicles.

For households that require on-street solutions Section 59 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 prohibits placing anything on the public road that could cause an obstruction without the written consent of the local authority. Under Section 109 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, a local authority has the power to regulate the installation and use of equipment in or under public roads, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It is under this Act that permission may be granted by local authorities for the installation of on-street charging solutions.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the transition to electric vehicles and is supporting the Scottish Collaboration of Transport Specialists (SCOTS), a network representing transport officers from Scotland’s local authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships, to develop guidance on cross-pavement charging which addresses legal and safety issues and supports all local authorities to enable cross-pavement charging.

The Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Oversight Committee was established in May 2024.

Information about the group, including the minutes and membership are published here Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Oversight Committee - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government has published a consultation on a draft Environment Strategy, building on the Vision and Outcomes document published in 2020, that will fulfil the requirements of section 47 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021.

The draft Environment Strategy brings together our approach for creating a Scotland whose environment is healthy and robust and benefits everyone in Scotland. It sets out a holistic framework for delivering Scotland’s role in protecting our environment by tackling nature loss, climate change and pollution. It focuses on approaches that will improve the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s communities, promote social justice and strengthen our economy, helping us to become a fairer, more prosperous and resilient nation. In this way, it is designed to support the delivery of all four of the government’s priorities.

The consultation is available on Citizen Space at https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/draft-environment-strategy/ and we encourage responses from all parts of society and from our business community. The consultation will close on 29 September.