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The national Good Food Nation Plan must be published and laid in Parliament before the end of the period of 3 months, beginning with the expiry of the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny. For example, if the proposed plan is laid on Friday 27 June, the 3 month period would begin on 30 September, meaning that the final plan would need to be published and laid within the period of 3 months from that date.

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution of the SME sector to the delivery of the right homes in the right places and their role in tackling the Housing Emergency.

The planning appeal and local review fee structure is designed to correspond with the different scales of planning applications. The fees operate under the same general principle i.e. the smaller the development, the lower the fee. The appeal fees are approximately 60% lower than those which are payable for planning applications.

It is important to note that in recent years, over 92% of planning applications have been approved and so the number of appeals arising is relatively low.

A business and regulatory impact assessment was carried out in relation to the new fees regulations. This considered the potential impacts of the regulations on businesses of all sizes.

We will monitor the implementation of the fees regulations and their impact, including on the performance of the appeals system. This will help us to identify, and in the future address, if necessary, any unintended consequences.

We are making good progress delivering across the 23 actions outlined in our Planning and the Housing Emergency Delivery Plan. Our National Planning Hub is now operational and on 22 May a Chief Planner letter was issued inviting authorities to identify areas for surge capacity, particularly on priority areas including housing.

Our work with key partners to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. We are committed to providing stakeholders regular updates on the Delivery Plan and on 30 April, myself and Chief Planner issued a letter detailing progress across all four themes of policy, delivery, capacity and efficiency.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.

The Scottish Government published Scotland’s Play Vision Statement and Action Plan 2025-2030 in March 2025, which emphasises our commitment to play and our vision for the future of play in Scotland. It reinforces our commitment to children’s rights and mitigating the impacts of poverty through the promotion and access to free outdoor play spaces and opportunities.

Within the Vision Statement and Action Plan document we have published a Play Theory of Change which can be used by partners as a framework for further local and community improvements to play opportunities. The Theory of Change identifies place as one of three primary drivers, alongside parents and practitioners, that influence play opportunities for children.

The Vision Statement and Action Plan are designed to reflect the vision of play for Scotland for the next 5 years and the steps we will take within that time to achieve our vision and aim. The Scottish Government will lead on the ten actions in the plan and will collaborate with key partners in their delivery.

Additionally, as part of Planning Reform introduced through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, we have made ensuring the sufficiency of outdoor play opportunities a statutory planning duty through the Play Sufficiency Assessment Regulations 2023.

Local authorities may choose to make use of this information to inform their future planning for outdoor play provisions.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the Fringe Society and all partners who deliver the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This is reflected in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society receiving £300,000 from the Scottish Government in 2025-26 to help grow the significant benefits the Fringe provides to Scotland’s economy, society and culture sector and to help safeguard the future of the Edinburgh Fringe as a world leading cultural asset, built on the principle of free access for all. We are currently working with the Fringe Society and wider Fringe ecosystem on its future sustainability including in areas such as commercial and visitor accommodation costs and accessibility for artists, audiences and venues

The Scottish Government monitors visitor accommodation costs using intelligence from a variety of sources including the Scottish Accommodation Occupancy Survey, published by VisitScotland Accommodation Performance I VisitScotland.org which provides data on peak and off peak tariffs for different visitor accommodation types, and Lighthouse data, published by VisitBritain UK short-term rentals | VisitBritain.org which provides monthly data on average daily rates for short-term rental properties in Scotland.

The Scottish Government fully values the importance of the music industry to Scotland’s culture and creative industries, and the value grass roots music venues deliver for the economy and the talent pipeline.

Whilst some issues that might assist grassroots music venues are reserved - such as dynamic ticket pricing and VAT rates - the Scottish Budget 2025 announced that music venues with a capacity of up to 1,500 will be eligible for the new 40 per cent hospitality relief from 1 April 2025 where the property meets the other eligibility criteria for this relief, including the £51,000 rateable value threshold which aligns with the threshold for the Basic Property Rate.

Recognising also that live music, of all genres, needs to flourish right across Scotland, 100 per cent relief continues in 2025-26 for hospitality premises, including music venues with a maximum capacity of 1,500 persons, located on islands, and in prescribed remote areas (Cape Wrath, Knoydart, and Scoraig), capped at £110,000 per business.

In addition to hospitality reliefs, the package of reliefs available in 2025-26 also includes the Small Business Bonus Scheme which remains the most generous relief of its kind in the UK. Around half of the properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are expected to be eligible for 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme relief this year.

We encourage grassroots music venues to approach public funding for activity that is additional to their core programming, such as attracting audiences from different marginalised backgrounds through more varied programming.

Ministers will continue to liaise with stakeholders throughout the sector, such as the Music Venues Trust and the Events Industry Advisory Group (EIAG), to discuss challenges facing the industry, and to explore what can be done within our powers and resources to help overcome these.

I can announce that our Renewed Policy Statement on reducing car use in Scotland that has been developed jointly with COSLA has been published today, 12 June 2025 and is available at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/achieving-car-use-reduction-in-scotland-a-renewed-policy-statement/.

The statement acknowledges that car use remains the largest contributor to transport greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland and we must reduce those emissions to support our just transition to net zero by 2045. We remain committed to reducing people’s car use, alongside our transition to electric vehicles, to reduce emissions and realise wider societal benefits.

The renewed policy statement reiterates our commitment to reducing car use in Scotland. It recognises the high level of car dependency in many parts of Scotland particularly mainland rural and island areas, and that car use will remain a transport need for many people. Our Programme for Government committed to working with COSLA and regional transport partnerships to develop delivery plans for car use reduction, reflective of different communities and places. Achieving car use reduction requires incentives and the current budget provides over £2 billion for sustainable transport, including providing up to 2.3 million people in Scotland with access to free bus travel. The policy statement also outlines the need to disincentivise motoring, for example through enabling discretionary local road user charging powers for local councils should they wish to use these, and undertaking a regulatory check of existing powers. We will also continue to press the UK Government to address how motoring taxation can support the greater uptake of EV cars, car use reduction generally and work with the 4 nations as how this can be achieved.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring the provision of a safe, sustainable and high quality healthcare service that best meets the needs of their patients. The whole general practice team is being strengthened significantly and we are committed to increasing investment in primary care and GP services over the course of this Parliament. We remain committed to the GP contract and the delivery of extended multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) making it easier for patients to see the right person, at the right time, in GP practices and the community.

It will not be known how many vessels that engage in any future squid fishery will have an Inshore Vessel Monitoring System (I-VMS) installed until after the parameters of the project have been established.