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Following a parliamentary debate on 26 February, a Motion (S6M-16571) was passed calling on Scottish Enterprise to review its human rights due diligence checks.

I updated Parliament (S6W-38968) on Scottish Enterprise’s review on 25 June. I confirmed that Scottish Enterprise had identified opportunities for improvements, which it committed to rolling out incrementally, over 2025-26.

I committed to providing a further update to Parliament, once Scottish Enterprise had developed its revised and detailed operational guidance, and asked that Scottish Government officials be kept abreast of that work.

On 28 November, Scottish Government officials received a formal update from Scottish Enterprise confirming that its updated human rights due diligence policy and procedure had been substantially finalised. Operationalisation of the revised human rights due diligence checks will now begin, on a phased basis. During the period of early implementation, these checks will be subject to further refinement. Scottish Enterprise outlined further detail of its improvements, which includes provisions to ensure human rights due diligence checks effectively address and adapt to emerging risks associated with customer relationships through:

• An increase in the frequency of human rights due diligence checks, to every 12 months to maintain ongoing vigilance and responsiveness.
• Removal of previous exemptions and broadening of the scope of human rights due diligence checks.
• Enhanced online screening, supplemented by follow-up engagement with customers as necessary.
• Introduction of targeted customer checks, including the requirement for a customer statement specifically addressing items and activities governed by the UK Strategic Export Controls regime.

Scottish Enterprise has indicated that work is continuing on the development of a new digital platform for customer onboarding, which is to be rolled out in 2026. This will provide a more comprehensive customer journey and workflow for managing and recording customer interactions and due diligence checks, including human rights due diligence checks.

Scottish Enterprise’s letter also confirmed that its internal Senior Review Group, established following its review, is now fully constituted and meeting weekly. The Group will provide strategic input and support operational decision-making.

I thank Scottish Enterprise for its work on developing these enhanced procedures, and towards implementing them fully in 2026.

We want to express our sincere thanks to all health and social care sector staff for the incredible work they do every day, and we also recognise those who will continue to provide care throughout the festive season. We know winter brings extra challenges and pressures, and the commitment to delivering high-quality care during this time is truly appreciated and makes a real difference to patients and communities.

Our Surge and Winter Preparedness in Health and Social Care Services National Planning Priorities and Principles, published last month, emphasises the importance of supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the health and social care workforce, improving capacity and retention, and supporting unpaid carers. This includes meeting the requirements of the Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 and ensuring appropriate staffing levels across services to enable safe, high-quality care and better outcomes for service users.

The wellbeing of our health, social work and care workforce remains a central priority during the winter period.

The development of the Community Needs Assessment methodology was undertaken by Stantec as part of a wider commission, the total value of which was £12,465.

We do not currently have a plan to make bleed kits available nationally across Scotland but we encourage the public to focus on calling the emergency services for assistance in the case of an emergency and encourage members of the public, including young people themselves, to learn the basic first aid skills which could be vital in saving a life.

Whilst our approach to tackling knife crime is to prevent young people from picking up a knife in the first instance, it is important that bystanders are given the best advice on how to provide direct pressure to a bleeding wound using readily available items such as dry towels or clothing. Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) call handlers are well trained to provide first aid advice to bystanders before an ambulance arrives.

SAS is following the position of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, which is supported by a number of UK organisations such as the London Ambulance Service and the NHS England London Violence Reduction Programme, in promoting bystander first aid but not the general role out of commercially available bleed kits. The SAS major trauma team regularly reviews how best to treat patients experiencing significant bleeding, which includes reviewing and taking part in guidance and research.

Social Security Scotland provides three benefits specifically for unpaid carers, including Carer’s Allowance Supplement which provides extra support only available in Scotland. Carer’s Allowance Supplement is worth £587 in 2025/26 with eligible carers receiving the most recent payment of £293.50 from the 4th of December. From March 2026 we will make further improvements to support for unpaid carers, including new extra support for carers getting Carer Support Payment and caring for more than one person – a Carer Additional Person Payment worth £520 a year for each additional person being cared for.

Parents of disabled children can also benefit from support through Child Disability Payment, Child Winter Heating Payment, and our five family payments, including Scottish Child Payment. We are committed to uprating all forms of assistance delivered under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 so that they retain their value as costs rise.

Beyond social security, parents across Scotland can benefit from a range of support under our cost-of-living guarantee, including free school meals and funded childcare hours.

Scottish Ministers are considering the Scottish budget for 2026-27, and this will be announced on 13 January 2026.

For work on Community Needs Assessments (CNA) for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services routes, people and other internal resources are allocated as part of Transport Scotland's planned work programme. Budget allocations for this work are as follows:

Consultancy services to support the CNAs for Cowal and Rosneath ferry services cost £24,990.

The CNAs for Coll, Colonsay, Iona, Kerrera, Lismore, Mull and Tiree are currently underway. For the consultancy services to support these, a Contract Award Notice was published on 1st December 2025 (View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland) and the total value of the contract is £148,602.

Work on the CNAs for the Sound of Barra and the Sound of Harris routes is being done in-house.

Consultancy services to support the CNAs for the Outer Hebrides (mainland routes), Small Isles routes, Skye and Raasay are currently being procured, and the contract price will be included in a contract award notice.

Resources and budgets for future CNA work for all other Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service routes will be determined allocated on a case-by-case basis.

The contractors carrying out Community Needs Assessment (CNA) work for Transport Scotland are appointed via procurement from a framework of pre-qualified organisations.

1.The CNAs for Cowal and Rosneath were undertaken by Stantec. The call-off contract was awarded in January 2023.

2.The CNAs for the Sounds of Barra and Harris ferry services are being undertaken in-house. Work started with the launch of user surveys in August 2025.

3.The CNAs for Coll, Colonsay, Iona, Kerrera, Lismore, Mull and Tiree, are being undertaken by Stantec. The call-off contract was awarded in November 2025.

4.The CNAs for the Outer Hebrides (mainland routes), Small Isles, Skye and Raasay are scheduled to commence shortly and contractors are currently being procured.

5.CNA work for the other Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services routes is planned to commence in 2026. Contractors have not yet been procured.

The Programme Working Group, comprised of representatives from CMAL, CalMac, Transport Scotland and Argyll and Bute Council, has been considering various replacement vessel and infrastructure options to ensure the optimum solution for ferry services to Dunoon and Kilcreggan.

In terms of moving forward with replacement vessels and infrastructure for the route, approvals from Transport Scotland’s Investment Decision Board and Ministers will be required following completion of the Outline Business Case, which will be subject to budget considerations and investment priorities across the network. An investment decision is currently scheduled for Q2 2026.

Transport Scotland is a member of the Craignure Pier Development Working Group chaired by Argyll and Bute Council; as well as being a member of the Craignure Marine Infrastructure Liaison Group (CMILG). Transport Scotland provides advice and support to the delivery of improved pier facilities for the Craignure-Oban route. Each group and its members meet on a regular basis, further details such as project working group minutes can be accessed via the Argyll and Bute Council dedicated project page: Current situation - Craignure Ferry Terminal | Argyll and Bute Council.

The Scottish Government has exchanged correspondence with 2 organisations in the past 18 months regarding requests for new funding to support traffic signal upgrades on Local Authority roads. There are currently no plans to replicate the Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and the Green Light Fund provided by the DfT in England.