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The Scottish Government’s proposals for the currency of an independent Scotland are highlighted in A Fresh Start with independence , and set out in detail in the Currency and fiscal policy section of Building a new Scotland: A Stronger economy with independence.

On independence, Scotland would continue to use the pound sterling for a period, before moving to the Scottish pound. The decision about when to do this would be taken by the Scottish Parliament, guided by transparent criteria and economic conditions, rather than a fixed timetable.

Decisions about the Scottish pound would also be made by the elected government and parliament at that time. Those would include the precise form of the currency regime for a Scottish pound including a fixed or floating exchange rate, informed by analysis and advice from the Scottish Central Bank.

The 2024-25 Official Statistics on Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland will be published by Spring 2026. A specific date will be announced at least four weeks in advance via the Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot.

In line with the Sustainable Procurement Duty in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/12/section/9), public bodies are already required to demonstrate in their annual procurement strategies how they will prioritise and take account of climate and circular economy in their procurement activity and report ongoing progress against these commitments in their annual procurement reports.

Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2022: Public Procurement – Taking Account of Climate and Circular Economy Considerations clarifies expectations for public bodies with respect to addressing climate and circular economy considerations in procurement activity. The policy note can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-procurement-taking-account-of-climate-and-circular-economy-considerations-3-2022/

Regulations under section 82 and 82A of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act could potentially enhance circular economy opportunities in relation to the procurement of goods, works or services. These powers allow Ministers to make regulations that require contracting authorities to purchase goods with recycled content, recycled or reused products or recyclable products. We have commissioned research to identify potential candidate products for these regulations.

Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2022: Public Procurement – Taking Account of Climate and Circular Economy Considerations clarifies expectations for public bodies with respect to addressing climate and circular economy considerations in procurement activity. This can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-procurement-taking-account-of-climate-and-circular-economy-considerations-3-2022/

In line with the Sustainable Procurement Duty in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/12/section/9), public bodies should demonstrate in their annual procurement strategies how they will prioritise and take account of climate and circular economy in their procurement activity and report ongoing progress against these commitments in their annual procurement reports.

The analysis of public bodies’ annual procurement reports forms the basis of the Scottish Ministers’ Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland. 80% of those who provided an annual procurement report in financial year 2022 to 2023 provided evidence of addressing environmental wellbeing and climate change through their public procurement activities. The Report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-report-procurement-activity-scotland-overview-procurement-activity-2022-2023/

Circular skills involve a range of skills such as repair, reuse, resource recovery and recycling as set out by Zero Waste Scotland on their website: https://cdn.zerowastescotland.org.uk/managed-downloads/mf-t4rmosgz-1729177635d

The Zero Waste Scotland report ‘The Future of Work: Baseline Employment and Skills Pathways for the Circular Economy in Scotland’ explores this in more detail:

https://cdn.zerowastescotland.org.uk/managed-downloads/mf-ta4osdo0-1677494902d

Learning for Sustainability (LfS), which includes sustainable development education, is an entitlement for all our children and young people through the Curriculum for Excellence. Within the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, which is being led by Education Scotland, LfS is highlighted as one of the cross-cutting themes – with production and consumption, climate change and nature being considered.

In the 2025-26 Programme for Government the First Minister confirmed his commitment to introducing a new Scottish Government-led approach to national skills planning, and strengthening regional skills planning, to ensure that post school provision becomes more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills needs and priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41648 on 17 November 2025. 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.

In common with the general approach to the collection of financial penalties imposed by the Scottish Courts, the funds from this fine will go into the Scottish Consolidated Fund for use within the overall Scottish administration.

It should be noted that, under the terms of the Scotland Act 2016 and associated legislation, the amount of the fine income retained by the Scottish administration is offset through the operation of UK Government funding for the Scottish Government. Retention of fine income operates on a cost neutral basis through the relevant arrangements, and this does not represent additional funds for the Scottish Government.

The draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland is intended to work within the wider policy context for lifelong learning. The Scottish Government recognises the critical importance of providing the current and future workforce with high-quality lifelong skills, either acquired through new learning or upskilling and reskilling – and the pivotal role this plays in our plans to unlock Scotland’s green economic potential.

In the 2025-26 Programme for Government the First Minister confirmed his commitment to introducing a new Scottish Government-led approach to national skills planning, and strengthening regional skills planning, to ensure that post school provision becomes more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills needs and priorities.

The new skills planning approach will develop a better understanding of skills needs at national and regional levels, and how we can address them, particularly where solutions lie within the education and skills system.

The answer to question S6W-40860 used management information provided by Police Scotland as the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of youth perpetrated sexual offences. This related to the number of people under the age of 18 who were accused of any sexual crime between 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2025.

The following table below provides the equivalent information for part c, i.e. from 1 January to 31 December 2024. Data for earlier years are not available from the single standardised national system used by Police Scotland to gather details of those involved in crime, which became fully operational from January 2024. The introduction of this system has strengthened and standardised crime recording, providing a consistent basis for national reporting and establishes 2024 as the baseline for future comparison.

It should be noted that the totals presented below for crime types (and overall) are not necessarily all unique individuals as it is possible an accused may have committed more than one sexual crime during the period. Furthermore, the table below is not a total of sexual crimes as some crimes may have had multiple perpetrators.

Number of Accused aged under 18 at time of Offence

Zero Waste Scotland has a long-standing relationship with all of the Enterprise Agencies, with a focus on collaboration and ensuring the collective support to businesses in Scotland is complementary.

They are actively working on a range of projects, including co-funding a post with South of Scotland Enterprise, supporting the European Circular Innovation Valley project with Scottish Enterprise, and looking at future opportunities to maximise the value from their collective expertise, skills and networks.