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There is no statutory requirement for either Scottish Borders Council to publish the request for confirmation of byelaws or for Scottish Ministers to publish the decision made.

However, section 202(11) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires the local authority to, as soon as practicable after receiving intimation of the confirmation of the byelaws by the confirming authority, publish a notice in a newspaper circulating in the area to which the byelaws are to apply or in such other manner as the confirming authority on the application of the local authority may determine to be sufficient in the circumstances. This notice will confirm the date on which the byelaws are to come into operation and provide details of where a copy of the byelaws as confirmed may be inspected.

There is no statutory timescale for Scottish Ministers to determine a request for confirmation of byelaws made under section 12 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Timescales to deliver the determination will be dependent on the complexity of the issues raised, representations received during the consultation period and any local inquiry that may be considered necessary.

In March 2025 the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) paused delivery of the Matthews Second Options exercise to enable it to accelerate progress in other dependent remediation work.

The timescale for issuing calculations and statements to firefighters was initially anticipated to be between October 2025 and March 2026. This timetable has subsequently been revised and these statements will be issued from April 2026, allowing eligible retained firefighters to make an application under the rules.

The SPPA website contains further useful information about the Matthews Second Options exercise: https://pensions.gov.scot/firefighters/matthews-2nd-option-case.

The following table sets out the area (in km2) within the proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) management areas (options 1 & 2) that have been subject to towed bottom-contacting fishing activity. These figures are drawn from the available dataset used to inform the assessments underpinning the consultation on the proposed PMF management measures. The years used are between 2015 and 2022 (the years of 2020 – 2021 were not considered representative of regular fishing activity due to the Covid pandemic and so were not included). It should be noted that the dataset relates only to vessels over 12 metres in length that are required to carry an electronic Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and therefore does not capture activity by smaller vessels.

Detailed consideration for such a proposal is not considered necessary: the Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2025 requires that anyone selling or otherwise transferring ownership of any dog must give regard to a Code of Practice setting out a range of considerations relating to the health and welfare of the dog, and that both parties must complete and sign a certificate which, amongst other details, confirms that the acquirer has received any relevant health records.

As outlined in the response to PQ S6W-43490 on 6 February 2026, the Scottish Government wants to ensure that Employment Injury Assistance better meets Scotland’s needs than the current UK Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) which is why longer-term reform is being prioritised. This approach was backed by the largest number of responses to the Employment Injury Assistance consultation in 2024. The Employment Injury Assistance Steering Group was established last year to identify priorities for reform and is expected to report this summer.

In order facilitate this work, the UK Government continue to deliver IIDB in Scotland. As such, they currently determine which conditions should be prescribed for the purposes of IIDB. The Scottish Government remains committed to working with the UK Government to continue to monitor the emerging evidence and ensure any changes to UK legislation are reflected in the relevant Scottish legislation.

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.

The level of resource allocated to the inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Priority Marine Features (PMFs) workstream between 1 September 2025 and 6 February 2026 has varied in line with operational requirements. During this period, the dedicated core resource ranged from 8.1 to 9.3 FTE. Additional resource was deployed as needed, varying between 0.6 and 10.4 FTE. The highest levels of additional resource were applied during the two-month period of preparation for the planned public consultation, which was subsequently postponed until after the Scottish Parliamentary Election.

Work on MPAs and PMFs is undertaken through a single integrated work programme and it is not possible to separate staffing by individual workstream. The figures therefore represent the combined resource allocated across both areas.

The work undertaken relates to the statutory and other assessments of the management measures being proposed including the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment, Sustainability Appraisal, Business Regulatory Impact Assessment, Island Communities Impact Assessment and Fisheries Assessments. This also includes preparatory work for the forthcoming consultation, such as consultation build, consultation report and other associated documents.

The core FTE resource provided also covers routine work relating to MPAs and PMFs, including responding to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial correspondence (MiCases), Environmental Information Requests, and similar commitments.

The Scottish Government publishes a ‘Major Capital Projects Progress Update’ every six months, the latest of which was published on 17 October 2025. The information asked for in the question is included within this report which can be found by way of the following web link: www.gov.scot/major-capital-projects-progress-update-august-2025

An accompanying update on the progress of ‘Major Capital Projects’ is also provided to the Convener of the Public Audit Committee at the same time and this can be found by way of the following Scottish Parliamentary web link: www.parliament.scot/public-audit-committee//major-capital-projects-update-october-2025

On 13 January 2026, we published a new Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline for the next four financial years which contains projects over £5 million and programmes over £20 million. This was accompanied by a spreadsheet which set out detail on expected costs and timescales. We will report on the progress of delivering the projects and programmes set out in the Delivery Pipeline every six months. The Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline can be found by way of the following web link: www.gov.scot/infrastructure-delivery-pipeline-2026

Self-assessment for income tax is reserved to the UK Government, however given the devolved nature of childminding legislation and regulation, it is disappointing childminders in Scotland were not consulted regarding changes to the administration of the wear and tear tax relief allowance.

Scottish Ministers understand the concerns the sector has raised about increased administrative work for childminders, and the creation of a two tier system which may impact childcare capacity and childminders’ income. As such, we wrote to the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury on 4 February 2026 highlighting these concerns and asking the UK Government to consider pausing implementation.

Our support for Scotland’s childminding sector in 2025-26 included a further £1.6m funding for the Scottish Childminding Association to continue delivering a national programme of childminder recruitment and retention.

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will expand into domestic maritime emissions for vessels of 5000 gross tonnage and above under the provisions of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026 currently being scrutinised by Parliament. The instrument does not extend the scheme to emissions for international maritime voyages, and UK ETS policy on this topic is currently under consideration after a recent ETS Authority consultation published in November 2025.

The ETS Authority, the governing body for the scheme comprising of the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive, conducted an Impact Assessment to support scrutiny of this policy as part of the laying of the instrument. The Scottish Government also conducted an Islands Community Impact assessment and a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment to support this legislation.