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The investment in discretionary housing payments (DHPs) announced as part of the Housing Emergency Action Plan on 2 September will be made available to local authorities experiencing the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures via a distribution methodology agreed with COSLA.

This further DHPs will target eligible households in temporary accommodation who are interested in a settled home in the private rented sector but who are concerned about affordability. Local authorities will use DHPs to cover any shortfall between the housing benefit people receive – determined by the UK local housing allowance (LHA) rates – and the actual cost of private rent.

While this additional £2 million investment will be targeted at households in temporary accommodation, local authorities retain discretion to support other households facing shortfalls between their rent and LHA rates. Many local authorities already use this flexibility to help people secure and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector, spending £3.1 million in 2024-25.

Under the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations, it is the responsibility of those applying to translocate/release wildlife to consult with a) farmers, and b) landowners, on these proposals.

NatureScot’s guidance for beaver translocations recommends as a minimum this should include ‘All land managers likely to be impacted and their representative bodies - National Farmers Union for Scotland and Scottish Land and Estates’.

NatureScot would expect to see evidence of the nature and findings of this engagement submitted with an application. In their role as licensing Authority, NatureScot have carried out further engagement with neighbouring farmers and land managers in a few cases where concerns had been raised. This has allowed them to better understand the likely scale and nature of impacts and how they may be mitigated and has informed their decision making.

Through the Beaver Management Framework introduced when beavers were granted European Protected Status in 2019, NatureScot can provide licences to prevent serious damage to agriculture and NatureScot provide free advice and operate a mitigation scheme that can support a range of interventions primarily designed to support living with beavers in the landscape. However, there is no compensation available to land managers for costs incurred due to beaver activity.

NatureScot’s direct spend on beaver advice and mitigation since 2020 is as follows:

We can confirm that security passes are not issued on the basis of gender identity. Our pass management system records the details necessary to ensure safe and secure access to the Parliament estate and gender identity is not a factor in the issuing of passes. 

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40219 on 19 September 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40219 on 19 September 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.

Listening to stakeholders is a priority for this government. That is why the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government met with the Scottish Retail Consortium earlier this week on 16 September to discuss the upcoming Budget, amongst other matters. The Scottish Government will be setting out the timetable for the draft budget for 2026-27 in the near future. That budget will set out our policies on taxation, reliefs, and public spending for 2026-27.

The Scottish Government’s Tax Strategy, published alongside the Budget last year, has already set out our intention not to increase the number of bands, or their rates, of Scottish Income Tax for the remainder of this parliament. We will also continue to deliver on our commitment to protect lower income households, ensuring more than half of taxpayers pay less than they would elsewhere in the UK.

The Scottish Government has already set out its plans to manage the projected gap between funding and spending over the next five years in its Medium Term Financial Strategy and Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan, with action focused across public spending, tax and economic growth. Under these plans, the Scottish Government will focus efforts on increasing value for public money and improving efficiencies and productivity across the public sector, underpinned by reform. This includes an action to reduce the public sector workforce by an average of 0.5% every year until 2030 while protecting frontline services. The Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform Strategy, published in June 2025, fully supports this setting out the detail on our vision and priorities for reform.

I am pleased to announce that we have today published a consultation on a comprehensive package of proposals to modernise compulsory purchase in Scotland, to make it simpler, more streamlined and fairer for all parties. The publication of this consultation, which was a Programme for Government commitment, marks an important step towards the wholesale reform that many stakeholders have been calling for.

Compulsory purchase orders are a powerful tool which can help to deliver a wide range of projects, from major infrastructure developments to bringing empty homes and vacant land back into use. However, the legislation is complex and out of date, which can discourage public bodies from using it. The reform programme aims to overhaul the system so that it can fulfil its potential to drive change, as well as being fairer and more transparent for those whose property is affected. Following commitments given to parliament earlier this year, the consultation also includes some questions on compulsory sale orders and compulsory lease orders.

The consultation is available on the Scottish Government website and is open until 19 December.

The DWP is ultimately responsible for increasing take-up of Pension Credit. Despite this, through our Benefit Take-Up Strategy, of which there is no UK Government equivalent, we continue to tackle barriers to take-up and explore opportunities to raise awareness of this payment to people in Scotland. For example, Social Security Scotland have shared content on Pension Credit, via social media, and information is included in posts where entitlement is relevant to a devolved payment.