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The Chief Planner advised the Chief Reporter in a call on 10 June 2025 that Ministers intended to recall the appeal. On 12 June 2025, the Chief Planner, the Chief Reporter and I subsequently discussed the next steps for the appeal, following the debate in the Scottish Parliament. The merits of the appeal itself were not discussed.

In my role as Planning Minister, I will take the decision on the Lomond Banks planning appeal.

As Planning Minister, I have had discussions with the Chief Planner and the Chief Reporter in respect of the role of Scottish Ministers as part of the decision making process for this appeal and to explain procedures. I have had no discussions with Scottish Enterprise or with the Park Authority or with representatives or consultants of the appellant. At all times, the Scottish Government is mindful of the principles in the Scottish Ministerial Code.

I and Scottish Government planning officials have not been involved in any meetings with any consultants operating on behalf of the appellant. At all times, the Scottish Government is mindful of the principles in the Scottish Ministerial Code.

The Scottish Government’s Strategic Approach to challenge demand for prostitution and improve support for those with experience of it reinforces the clear message that there is no place for the exploitation of any individual, and that prostitution is recognised as a form of violence against women and girls, as was also set out in our Equally Safe Strategy.

There are a number of specific offences which make certain activities associated with prostitution illegal, including trading in prostitution of others, the running of a brothel, procuring for the purposes of prostitution, as well as publicly soliciting or loitering for the purpose of purchasing sex, and trafficking persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Current legislation is clear that no one can be forced into sexual activity without their consent.

Our joint work with Police Scotland forms a key element of our strategic approach and we support their national approach on prostitution, Operation Begonia, which takes a victim-centred trauma-informed approach routing women to support, whilst ensuring that Police more evidently use the powers currently available to them to challenge men’s demand.

The Democracy Matters steering group last met on 11 June 2025. The steering group is focused on developing the views that communities shared during the Democracy Matters engagement process into practical models for democratic decision-making.

Those working in our retail sector should be lauded for the important work they are continuing to do during such challenging economic circumstances. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse.

Retail workers (as well as all other workers) are protected by a wide range of criminal laws (i.e. the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour; the common law offence of assault; and the common law offence of breach of the peace).

In addition, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021(“the 2021 Act”) came into force in August 2021 and created a statutory offence of threatening, abusing, or assaulting a retail worker, adding to the offences that can already be used to prosecute those who abuse retail workers.

Scottish Government partners, like the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), share best guidance and resources, such as the free GroceryAid helpline, and Victim Support, for victims of violence and abuse in a retail setting.

As part of its budget for 2025-26, the Scottish Government is making an additional £3 million available for Police Scotland to work with the sector to tackle retail crime.

The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 requires the Scottish Ministers to publish a five-year Rural Support Plan and have regard to it when exercising functions under the 2024 Act. The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2025 came into force on 16 June 2025. In the first instance it provides the legal basis for the introduction of the Rural Support Plan, which will set out how support over each five-year period will deliver to 2024 Act objectives and wider Scottish Government priorities.

It will build upon for the Vision for Scottish Agriculture and the Agricultural Reform Route Map and outline the phased transition from legacy EU Common Agricultural Policy support to the new four-tier framework. It will reflect the on-going engagement and co-development taking place within the Agriculture Reform Programme. The Rural Support Plan will collate this information into a single strategic and coherent package, add programme level input and ensure the totality of measures is considered. This work is part of normal duties within the Agricultural Reform Programme and any costs will be met within existing budgets.

The initial Rural Support Plan is intended to be drafted through the remainder of 2025 and laid in Winter 2025, to reflect the Route Map, the on-going work of the Agricultural Reform Programme and published ahead of the first plan period of 2026-2030.

The Scottish Government has conducted an evidence review on hybrid working to support decisions on hybrid expectations for its own staff but has not undertaken analysis on the economic impact of hybrid and remote working policies on city centre economies.

The Scottish Government regularly monitors evidence on the prevalence of home or hybrid working through our publication of data from the Office for National Statistics Business Insights and Conditions Survey(BICS). The most recent iteration of data on home or hybrid working (for 19 May to 1 June 2025) indicated that 13.8% of businesses in Scotland are using or intend to use increased homeworking as a permanent business model, rising to 68.5% of businesses in the Information & Communication sector. Around 4 out of 5 businesses (79.6%) that are using or intending to use increased homeworking are doing it because it improves staff wellbeing, while 43.9% indicated that it offered them the ability to recruit from a wider geographical pool in the UK, and 34.4% indicated it supported improved productivity.

Around two thirds of businesses (65.5%) indicated they were not using or intending to use increased home working as a permanent businesses model going forward, with 84.9% of these businesses giving the reason that homeworking is not suitable for their business.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on all adults and children with learning disabilities who have been in hospital over the last five years. Local data will be held by NHS Boards.

The Dynamic Support Register (DSR) provides a mechanism for national data collection on people with learning disabilities and complex care needs, including those whose discharge from hospital is delayed. However, the DSR only collects data on adults (aged 18+ years) and, therefore, cannot provide data on children with learning disabilities who are in hospital. Additionally, as the DSR was established in May 2023, we do not hold data for adults before 2023.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) collect and publish quarterly data, with the most recent collection from 7 March 2025 published on 17 June 2025. At that time, there were an estimated an estimated 1,264 people on the DSR, of which there were 74 delayed discharges.

Additionally, PHS publish monthly data on delayed discharges. The most recent figures for May 2025 can be found here. This data is broken down to Health Board and Local Authority level.