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Occupational therapists or physiotherapists are the professions involved in Blue Badge assessments and are best placed to assess an applicant's eligibility, due to their specific training courses, accredited by their professional bodies and subsequent registration with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Transport Scotland does not collect data on the numbers of assessors or their training records. This information would be held by individual local authorities.

There are currently no plans to run a nationwide public awareness campaign.

We are continuing to transform the way we support farming and food production in Scotland, to deliver our Vision for Agriculture, and become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

Yes, the Scottish Government does agree with this view and we continue to call upon UK Ministers to intervene at Grangemouth as it has done in other parts of the UK.

Singapore’s economic performance has been strong and it is always useful to look at international comparisons and learn from others. The analysis which the Scottish Government published in June 2022 as part of the first Building a New Scotland paper shows that independent, small Northern European countries are better comparators for Scotland. The evidence in our paper suggests that decision-making at Westminster and a UK economy which does not suit Scotland’s distinct circumstances has led to outcomes that fail to match Scotland’s potential.

In 2022, The Scottish Government published it’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). This sets out a ten year transformation with the objective of creating a fair, green and growing economy and establishing Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation and ensuring that its businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services are more innovative and productive than they have ever been. In the three years since NSET was published, we have made significant progress in delivering the strategy with 39% of the original action complete including the publication of the Green Industrial Strategy.

The Green Industrial Strategy (GIS) sets out our strategic approach to green growth, offering a clear view of the economic sectors and industries in which we have greatest strength and most potential. Alongside this, Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy identifies the sectors that drive economic growth, and the underlying actions required to deliver that growth.

Transport Scotland is responsible for Blue Badge legislation. However, local authorities are wholly responsible for the scheme from application, administration through to enforcement.

While Transport Scotland does not explicitly define the way in which local authorities must publicise these services, Transport Scotland continues to work closely with local Blue Badge teams and reiterates the need for paper application forms, and for local authorities to raise the awareness of help offered locally to those who may need additional support during the application process.

We are making good progress towards the levels of peatland restoration implied by the CCC recommendations and to celebrate World Peatlands Day on 2 June, SG announced record levels of peatland restoration during 2024-25.

Through our Peatland ACTION partnership we have restored around 90,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands to date with strong recent annual increases in rates enabled by associated increases in annual budgets.

The Scottish Government does not retain any DNA or tissue samples. It is for other bodies to ensure compliance for their interest.

Health Boards are responsible for ensuring that correct processes and regulations are followed for any retention of samples, for example, following post-mortem examinations, including compliance with the appropriate privacy and data requirements.

The law on surrogacy is reserved to Westminster. As such any changes to legislation would need to take place in the UK Parliament.

There are a range of ways in which the Scottish Government provides an enabling framework for land use change to align with biodiversity and water quality goals, the key ones being the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), the Strategic Framework for Biodiversity, the Land Use Strategy (LUS) and River Basin Management Planning (RBMP).

NPF 4 is explicit in putting tackling the twin climate and nature crises at the heart of the Land Use Planning System. The requirement to consider the impacts on biodiversity of proposals going through the planning process is enshrined not only in Policy 3 Biodiversity and Policy 4 Natural Places, but across several other policies, including Policy 5 Soils, Policy 9 Brownfield sites and Policy 20 Blue and Green Infrastructure. NPF4 also highlights the importance of improvements to the water environment to support community resilience to flooding, and highlights the importance of high-quality blue infrastructure to support a range of ecosystem services across several policy areas.

The Scottish Government’s Land Use Strategy supports our ambition to achieve sustainable land use in Scotland. The third Strategy was published in March 2021 and resets our focus on the integrated nature of land use by showcasing the range benefits we get from our land, including biodiversity and water quality. The initial development of Scotland’s fourth Land Use Strategy began in late 2024, with the final strategy due for publication by the end of March 2026.

Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity sets out our ambition and plans to halt the loss of nature by 2030 and make significant progress to restoring nature by 2045. This Strategic Frameworks sets out how the actions required to halt biodiversity loss and promote nature recovery are being embedded across a wide range of land use and wider policies, for example, the Agricultural Reform Programme which seeks to support our farming and food production sectors to become a world leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. The focus of support will be to deliver high quality food production, climate mitigation and adaptation, and nature restoration.

Scotland’s third River Basin Management Plans, which are covered in the Land Use strategy, set out objectives and actions to protect and improve our Water Environment and aim to ensure that 92% of the water environment has a good or better classification for water quality by 2027.

Preventing deterioration in the quality of the water environment is a key part of River Basin Management Planning. SEPA supports RBMP objectives, including by regulating sectors and activities that can affect the water environment through The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Anyone intending to carry out any activity that may affect Scotland’s water environment must abide by regulations and, if necessary, obtain an authorisation to proceed.