Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

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.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the welfare of all animals in Scotland. We have a PfG commitment to consult on the use of farrowing crates and will continue to work closely with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations on how best to achieve improvements in animal welfare including ways to improve sow welfare, where it is both practical and sensible to do so.

The free bus travel pilot scheme will operate until 31 March 2026. We recognise that bus travel has the potential to be transformative for people seeking asylum, who are among the most vulnerable in society. The pilot scheme is providing important evidence of the effect of free bus travel in helping people seeking asylum to access essential services and integrate into society, in line with the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

The move to a three-yearly revaluation cycle was a key recommendation of the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates. The legislative provisions to introduce the shorter revaluation cycle and one-year tone date received universal cross party support and were warmly welcomed by the business community including the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association and a consortium of Hospitality Industry bodies, including Hospitality UK (Scotland) and the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association.

Delivering that independent recommendation is critical to the integrity of a rate system which the SCDI noted at the time of the legislation “will be more reflective of, and responsive to, up-to-date market and business conditions”. Where ratepayers have evidence that their rateable values do not reflect up to date market and business conditions, there are robust proposal and appeal processes in place to ensure such issues are addressed. While some properties will see increases in rateable values at the 2026 revaluation, over 40,000 properties will see a decrease and Revaluation Transitional Relief will cap gross bill increases for those seeing the most significant impact.

We have not specifically undertaken analysis of the cost of pausing rates increases for any particular sector but have delivered a comprehensive package of reliefs. 96% of retail, hospitality and leisure properties could benefit from some form of relief in 2026-27.

As it is set by the UK Government, the Scottish Government has no power to influence the strike price for projects in Scotland.

Independence would allow the Scottish Government to take decisions that would reduce electricity bills, including reforming our energy market arrangements and how it interacts with neighbouring markets. We would also work to ensure that the lower cost of renewables is passed to customers, with the price of electricity more accurately reflecting our abundant, low-cost renewable resources.

The full powers of independence could tackle fuel poverty in Scotland and bring the cost of living down substantially for households.

Taking into account the impact of the 2026 Revaluation, decisions announced at Budget 2026-2027, and the extension of additional relief for licensed hospitality, the estimated net non-domestic rates revenue raised from licensed hospitality premises is expected to decrease by 0.3% in cash terms, compared to 2025-2026.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) is the main source for Labour Market Indicators by region and more detailed characteristics. The ONS state there are concerns with the quality of the APS estimates for smaller groups of the population and geographies below Scotland level. Therefore, it is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people aged 16 to 24 in Inverclyde who are not in Education, Employment or Training from this source.

Alternative estimates for 16 to 19 year olds not participating in education, employment, and training by local authority area from Skills Development Scotland’s Annual Participation Measure - Skills Development Scotland are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of people aged 16 to 19 in Inverclyde who were not participating in education, employment or training, unconfirmed and participating in education, employment or training in 2021 to 2025

The procurement process for ScotRail’s replacement fleet is currently under way. The Public Contracts Scotland website sets out the vehicle procurement: View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland.

The Battery electric multiple units (BEMUs) are being procured to operate as a pooled fleet, with no specific vehicles being allocated just to the Fife routes.

The Scottish Government has deleted all versions of the 2021-22 Health and Wellbeing Census dataset held internally. All onward data recipients, both internal and external, have deleted their copies of these datasets.