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We want everyone eligible for disability benefits to access their entitlements. Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment provide financial support to help mitigate the additional costs of being disabled or living with a long-term health condition. We take a person-centred approach to decision making, based on individuals’ level of need, rather than on the specific condition or disability.

The Scottish Government have abolished anxiety inducing private sector assessments for Adult Disability Payment. Instead, Social Security Scotland make decisions on the information provided in the application form and any supporting information.

If more information is needed, a consultation with a Social Security Scotland health and social care practitioner may be carried out. Consultations are based on trust and they do not involve degrading examinations.

The Minister for Equalities and I are pleased to announce that Scotland’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy for young disabled people – a joint strategy with COSLA - has now been published.

The strategy has been developed in partnership with young disabled people, parents, carers, the professionals who support them and the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy Strategic Working Group. It calls for a co-ordinated, collaborative approach that integrates the efforts of all relevant sectors and partners. The strategy, which is also available in accessible formats, can be found here National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy for Young Disabled People - gov.scot.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) conducted a review of the emergency departments of the three main receiving hospitals in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2024, and published a report on findings from the review on 27 March 2025.

Eleven recommendations from this report are of national, strategic relevance and the Scottish Government will work collaboratively with stakeholders, at pace, to implement improvements to the challenging environments recognised by HIS inspectors.

I wrote to the Chair and Chief Executive of HIS on 2 June to respond formally to each national recommendation. A copy of this letter has been published on the Scottish Government website today, Monday 30 June, which can be found here https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-greater-glasgow-and-clyde-emergency-department-review-response/.

Four out of six key measures provided for within the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022, have been implemented and two have been paused, as outlined to the Criminal Justice Committee. The decisions to pause the implementation of a licensing system for those wishing to use fireworks and restricting the days on which fireworks can be supplied and used, are being kept under review. The Scottish Government is keeping abreast of developments being made by the UK Government including the consideration of the Private Members’ Fireworks Bill seeking to restrict and limit the use and sale of fireworks.

The Scottish Government is clear in our support for a just transition for Scotland’s valued oil and gas sector, which recognises the maturity of the North Sea basin and is in line with our climate change commitments and energy security.

Decisions on licensing, consenting and the associated fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas are all matters currently reserved to the UK Government.

The UK Government consultation ‘Building the North Sea’s Energy Future’ closed on 30 April and we are now awaiting the Government’s response.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials engage with UK Government counterparts and a wide range of stakeholders when considering all of these issues and will continue to do so.

I most recently met with Minister Madders, Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets alongside the Deputy First Minister of Wales, on 26 February 2025 to discuss what more can be done on firework regulations as part of our on-going discussions to address the dangerous misuse of fireworks.

The Scottish Government is committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop and grow to realise an ambition of generating 5GW of green and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 and 25GW by 2045. Working with our Enterprise Agencies, we are actively engaging with developers to support and encourage hydrogen production projects across Scotland. Given the nascent nature of the sector, and the pace of the developing global hydrogen economy, future production capacity levels are subject to many factors and are challenging to forecast.

Since 2020-21, 50 grants worth a total of £44.57m have been allocated to projects to support and develop green hydrogen production, as detailed in the following table.

Hydrogen is not considered the primary approach to decarbonising domestic heat; however, it does still have a role to play where electrification is not the optimal solution.

Our Heat in Buildings Strategy set out the potential for hydrogen to replace natural gas in some parts of the gas grid. Any such role continues to depend on strategic decisions by the UK Government in the coming years.

Hydrogen use for domestic heating is new and needs to be demonstrated before the UK Government makes its decision. The Scottish Government has provided £6.9m grant funding to SGN’s H100 Fife hydrogen for home heating demonstration project, which will contribute to the evidence base on the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat using the gas network. This project is expected to come online in Autumn 2025 and will fit up to 300 hydrogen boilers supplied with 100% green hydrogen produced from offshore wind renewable electricity.

The Scottish Government recognise that lowering the production cost of green hydrogen is a key factor in the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. We are supportive of innovation and technological advances that could support this aim.