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The Fire and Rescue Unit is part of the Scottish Government Safer Communities Division. In common with all Scottish Government Divisions, strategic oversight is provided through Directors and Director Generals reporting to the Scottish Ministers.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6O-05097 on 5 November 2025 and S6W-41741 on 21 November 2025.

A broadened preventative role for firefighters has the potential to keep vulnerable people safe by avoiding hazards in homes and communities and in signposting help from other public bodies where that is identified as being helpful. Working in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service on emergency medical response has the potential to deliver better health outcomes.

The Fire and Rescue Unit is part of the Scottish Government Safer Communities Division. The Fire and Rescue Unit has a risk register and contributes to the Safer Communities Division and Directorate risk registers. In line with good practice, these risk registers are kept under constant review.

Safety of Nuclear Power: The Civil Nuclear sector is wholly reserved by the United Kingdom Government(UKG)and is regulated by The Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR).The nuclear sector is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the UK.

The procurement of fire and rescue vehicles and operational equipment is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Oversight and Governance is provided by the SFRS Strategic Leadership Team and the SFRS Board.

The Scottish Government has the utmost sympathy for the women who may have been harmed by stilbestrol. However, Scottish Ministers have had no discussions with NHS England, NHS Wales and HSC Northern Ireland on this issue as the regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The Future Farming Investment Scheme was a pilot scheme and we are now looking at what we do in the future, taking on board the concerns raised, to make sure we continue to support the agriculture sector. We will review the scheme to better understand what worked and where improvement to any potential future scheme could be made, to ensure it is more tightly targeted for any future rounds.

As you will already be aware, responsibility for the UK’s telecommunications network is reserved to the UK Government, with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology being the lead government department.

The move to digital-based services is an industry-led decision and process. The decision to upgrade the legacy PSTN network is driven by the increasing fragility of the 40-year old analogue landline technology and the increased difficulty in maintaining the current network, due to reduced availability of replacement parts and the reduction of expertise in these analogue systems.

Universal Service Obligations

It is worth noting that the PSTN migration does not affect the Universal Service Obligations set in the Electronic Communications (Universal Service) Order 2003, which require the designated providers to offer telephony services throughout the UK, and providers will remain bound by their existing statutory responsibilities.

Ofcom, the independent telecoms regulator, has issued guidance on how telecoms companies can fulfil their regulatory obligation to ensure that their VoIP customers have access to the emergency services in such circumstances. This guidance states that providers should have at least one solution available that enables access to emergency organisations for a minimum of one hour in the event of a power outage in the premises. The solution should be suitable for customers’ needs and should be offered free of charge to those who are at risk as they are dependent on their landline.

You can read Ofcom’s full guidance at the following links:

Customers who are not eligible for a free resilience solution should be able to request one but their provider may charge for it. Customers who are moving to VoIP services and are reliant on their landline should discuss their situation and requirements for a back-up solution with their provider before they are moved on to VoIP services.

Shared Rural Network

UK-wide initiatives will also bring coverage improvements in Scotland. The Shared Rural Network (SRN), led by the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the UK’s main network operators (O2, EE, Vodafone and Three) will make significant investments in 4G coverage: up to £1Bn to increase 4G access on at least one network to 95% of the UK’s landmass (which equates to around 91% of Scotland’s geography). This is a substantial increase on coverage levels of around 44% when the programme commenced in 2020. Ofcom’s most recent Connected Nations 2025 report states that as of July 2025, 90% of Scotland’s landmass had access to at least one mobile operator.

SRN is structured around two distinct but complimentary projects: the operators worked collaboratively to improve partial not-spots- those areas where 4G is only available on one or two providers – collectively investing in excess of £500 million on a commercial basis. This Partial Not-Spot project completed last summer.

Building on this, the UK Government is funding a second phase which is currently working to address 'total not-spots', areas where there is no coverage from any network provider and no likelihood of commercial investment. Further information about SRN is available at , including a high level map showing which areas will benefit from new Total Not Spot masts. Initial locations for Total Not Spot masts met strong opposition from groups such as the National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Land and Estates, the John Muir Trust and others over concerns for the impact on sensitive ‘wilderness’ landscapes and biodiversity. We brokered discussion among the mobile industry, UK Government and representatives from these groups to identify a mutually agreeable compromise solution.

In addition to this, BT recently announced it would address mobile not-spots through further investment. In the past 12 months, they’ve improved mobile coverage in more than 500 areas across the UK. BT will look to extend coverage in a further 900 locations by 2024.

Although the telecommunications sector is reserved to the UK Government, we understand the importance of increasing telecoms resilience, particularly in rural areas, which is why we invested £28.75 million in our multi award winning Scottish 4G Infill Programme (S4GI) programme.

Through S4GI we built and activated 55 future-proofed masts across Scotland, from Shetland to the Scottish Borders, to improve mobile telecoms resilience by increasing the overall network coverage in Scotland. All 55 masts are now live. The Scottish Government remains in close contact with UK Government-led initiatives such as the Shared Rural Network and the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme, which will also increase access to 4G services in rural, remote and island areas across Scotland. Both programmes make full use of our S4GI infrastructure further enhancing the impact of our investment and ensuring programmes achieve mutual aims. We continue to seek opportunities for further alignment.

For customers who don’t or can’t yet access broadband at home, Openreach have introduced a new dedicated landline service as an interim solution. This won’t require any in-home changes and will continue to provide access to a powered line.

Civil Contingencies

As previously mentioned, the responsibility of both telecoms and energy resilience rests with the UK Government. Both telecoms outages as well as power outages, affecting telecoms, can and do happen anywhere, at any time for a variety of reasons including severe weather or technical failures.

The Scottish Government work closely with the responder community on a variety of risks including those relating to telecoms outages.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places duties upon statutory responders to plan, co-operate, share information, assess risk, develop business continuity and warn and inform the public. The Scottish Government does not direct responders in how to fulfil their legislative duties under the act. However, resilience partnerships are formed by the statutory responder agencies who come together to prepare for civil emergencies.

The Scottish Government is also active in facilitating information briefing sessions between BT Openreach and Scottish Stakeholders including Regional Resilience Partnership members, to ensure they have the most up to date information to allow them to prepare for how their services will run when this telecoms switchover is completed.

Additionally, we continue to work with industry, UK Government, the regulator (Ofcom) and other devolved governments through the Electronic Communications – Resilience and Response Group (EC-RRG) whose aim is to develop and maintain cooperation between the Communications Sector and Government on issues regarding resilience and emergency planning.

Whilst the Scottish Government does not have any specific options that provide financial incentives for landowners to accommodate beaver wetlands, there are grant schemes that could be used to support complimentary and positive beaver management.

Agri-Environment Climate scheme (AECS) options could be used to for the creation and management of wetlands, water margins, and flood plain management. For example, if the edge of a field next to a burn or drainage channel regularly floods where beavers are present, having a larger water margin could help to reduce ongoing conflicts. For larger areas or naturally wet corners, wetland management options could be considered.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) may also be able to provide financial support for suitable habitat creation or restoration particularly at a collaborative project, catchment or landscape level.

Through the NRF, the Scottish Government is committed to providing £65 million additional funding from 2021 to 2026 for projects that will restore nature, safeguard wildlife and tackle the causes of biodiversity loss and climate change.

Although outcomes related explicitly to beavers or wetlands are not specified, the priority themes of the NRF would permit the creation of this kind of habitat e.g:

• Habitat and species restoration - management for enhancement and connectivity.
• Freshwater restoration, including restoration of natural flows in rural catchments.

Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme also offers funding through the Woodland Creation and Woodland Improvement Grants for the creation of new woodlands and the sustainable management of existing woodlands. Payment rates relate to the kind of woodland being created, each of which has a prescribed planting density. A higher rate can be paid if the woodland is in a target area such as a target area.

For Woodland Improvement Grants specifically, the aim of this option is to provide capital grants for a range of activities that will:

• encourage natural regeneration and benefit priority habitats and species
• increase species and structural diversity through low impact silvicultural systems management
• support the preparation of forest and / or management plans that set out management objectives for the woodland
• improve the biodiversity, resilience, and structural diversity of even aged woodlands

Going forward, NatureScot will work with the Scottish Beaver Advisory Group (SBAG) to ensure there is continued support available to land managers for beaver mitigation and to influence the design of future schemes to support land managers in making space for nature and building ecosystem resilience.

NatureScot has also produced guidance which provides further details on these schemes on what existing measures could be used in support of living with beavers

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Any land manager, farmer or crofter wishing to discuss positive beaver management should contact [email protected] for further advice.