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Public bodies, including local authorities, are expected to comply with all relevant procurement legislative requirements. Public bodies are responsible for deciding their actions in individual cases.

In addition to following organisation-specific guidance, the Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook provides guidance on the rules and policies that apply to the procurement activities of public bodies in Scotland. Additional and more specific guidance and e-learning is available to public bodies in various forms such as via the Procurement Journey website, Sustainable Procurement Tools and various Scottish Procurement Policy Notes.

The Scottish Government reviews its guidance on an ongoing basis to ensure necessary and helpful updates are made as appropriate.

Working with our Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group, we published our Evaluation Strategy on the impacts of the 1140 expansion on outcomes for children, parents and families over the 2018-2025 period in October 2022.

The Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC) is the main vehicle for collecting evaluation evidence on child and parent outcomes. Baseline data for the SSELC were collected during 2018 and 2019 from children and their parents accessing up to 600 hours of funded ELC. Reports on the first three phases were published in 2019-20. Data collection for the post-expansion phases of the SSELC took place during 2023 and 2024 with reports published across 2024-25. Independent contractors ScotCen are now analysing this data and preparing their overall report.

In August 2024 we published the ELC Expansion to 1140 hours: Interim Evaluation report, which considered progress against the intermediate outcomes of quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability. I previously informed Parliament that a full report on the ELC 1140 expansion evaluation for the period 2018-2025 would be published in late 2025, however we now expect to publish this in early 2026. This report will draw together findings from across all the strands of the evaluation, including the SSELC and parent and carer surveys carried out before, during and after the ELC expansion.

The NDAs are currently updating their 5 year strategy to cover the period 2026 to 2031. This is a routine exercise and so we do not intend to propose a parliamentary debate on this issue.

We will consider the requirement for a parliamentary debate on any proposals to transfer major nuclear defence liabilities, including the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) if and when any such formal proposal is received.

While inter-governmental discussions are ongoing, and while we are developing PSED-related improvement proposals, we have not yet made an assessment of the likely impact on women of the UK Government’s commitment but we are making stringent efforts to resolve this matter and to consider how action planning could be used in a Scottish context.

As Minister for Equalities, I am still awaiting a confirmed meeting date with UK Government Ministers, following an offer via correspondence in May 2025, to discuss the Scottish Government’s concerns around provisions in the UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill and to seek a resolution in line with current timelines for the Bill’s passage. These concerns relate to powers to mandate for equality action plans and the naming of outsourcing providers for public bodies in Scotland. Currently these provisions will only come into force for public bodies in England, and so Scottish Ministers continue to seek assurances around receiving the equivalent powers to regulate as those proposed for UK Government Ministers.

Using the powers that we do have and as part of the Scottish Government’s phased approach to improving the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in Scotland, we continue to review the operation of the Scottish Specific Duties to support Scottish listed authorities to enable better performance of the general duty.

The Scottish Government is aware of the ongoing concerns regarding unresolved equal pay cases within the Scottish public sector. We recognise that transparency and accountability are essential to ensuring equal pay for equal work for everyone across all public bodies in Scotland.

As part of our phased approach to improving the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland (PSED), we continue to review the operation of the Scottish Specific Duties. This includes considering reforms to the equal pay statement duty, where necessary and proportionate, and seeking to ensure that regulations are used to reinforce each other for maximum effect in enabling better performance of the general duty.

In line with Scottish Ministers’ statutory duty under Regulation 12 of the Scottish Specific Duties, the Scottish Government will publish our new proposals to enable better performance of the PSED in Scotland for 2025-29 in December 2025. These proposals and the accompanying report will set out our considerations and next steps to improve the effectiveness of PSED in Scotland. We are carefully considering a wide range of evidence including the effectiveness of equal pay regulations as we develop these proposals.

Scottish Government has been informed of a memorandum of understanding and initial business case between the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) to carry out technical work to evaluate the potential transfer of the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, near to Caithness, from the MOD to the NDA when the site reaches the end of its operational life. As this relates to initial work to consider the viability of a potential transfer, Scottish Ministers are not required to endorse or approve this.

Under the terms of the Energy Act 2004 any proposal to give the NDA additional responsibilities, including any defence liabilities, in Scotland requires agreement from Scottish Ministers and a Designation Direction under the Energy Act 2004 would require to be laid at the Scottish Parliament so Scottish Ministers agreement would be required for any transfer. We expect that Vulcan will continue operations until at least April 2027.

A) Under the terms of the Energy Act 2004 any proposal to give the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) additional responsibilities in Scotland, including defence liabilities, requires agreement from Scottish Ministers and a Designation Direction under the Energy Act 2004 would require to be laid at the Scottish Parliament.

B) Scottish Ministers have not agreed any transfer of defence liabilities in Scotland from the Ministry of Defence to the NDA as no formal proposal to transfer any such liabilities has been presented to us.

This is a matter for the operation company and the Scottish Government is unable to disclose this information as it is considered commercially sensitive.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) approved the Final Draft of the Strathclyde Regional Bus Strategy on 19 September. A costed programme and timeline for delivery of a Franchise Framework Assessment as required by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019) will be considered at a future partnership meeting.

As this work develops, SPT will be required to undertake more detailed appraisals to determine which of the various bus options they want to progress with. In a climate of increasing fiscal pressure, it is important that the business cases for improving bus services are made robustly and in an evidenced based way to support future decision making on funding.

In 2025-26 the Scottish Government provided record funding of over £15.1 billion to local authorities, a real terms increase of 5.5%. It is, however, the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available, including on support for bus provisions such as franchising in their region, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.

Section 7 of the Act was brought into force on 26 June 2024 but only insofar as for the purpose of section 8 (removal of certain trustees by court: unfitness). The Scottish Government’s preferred approach is to allow the remaining provisions of the Act to be brought into force at the same time as a Scotland Act Order extends relevant provisions to pensions trusts and officials are working closely with UK Government colleagues to progress this work.