The Scottish Government has published standards for Single Building Assessments (SBAs) and Additional Work Assessments (AWAs), as mandated by the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 (H(CR)(S)A 2024). SBAs evaluate the risks to human life associated with external wall cladding systems and identify necessary remediation work. AWAs are required when new information arises between the completion of an SBA and the Scottish Ministers' approval of the completed work. The standards comprise specifications for SBAs, guidelines for conducting both SBAs and AWAs, and requirements for information retention. They apply to all assessments within the scope of the H(CR)(S)A 2024, regardless of the commissioning party. These standards are intended to complement, rather than supersede, existing building standards and fire safety legislation. The Scottish Government has also indicated that these standards will be subject to ongoing review.

The Scottish Government has published a summary of responses to its consultation on increasing the threshold for onshore electricity generation applications under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. The consultation considered whether the threshold should rise from 50 megawatts (MW), above which applications are decided by Scottish Ministers rather than planning authorities. Respondents generally favoured a single threshold across technologies, with 150MW receiving the highest level of support. The responses also identified implementation issues for the Scottish Government to consider, including local authority capacity, transitional arrangements, application fees and the treatment of technologies such as battery energy storage.

The Scottish Government has published a summary of responses to its consultation, ‘Accelerating home-building in Scotland: a consultation on incentives and penalties to speed up housing delivery’. Respondents considered options including fiscal measures to address inactivity or slow build-out, monitoring development progress and intervention powers, reducing procedural time and costs for SME developers, and encouraging a greater diversity of housing outputs across deliverable land. Common themes included the impact of infrastructure constraints, section 75 negotiations, market demand, labour and material costs, access to development finance, interest rates and adverse weather on build-out rates. While views varied across the proposals, respondents generally emphasised the need for proportionate and targeted approaches that take account of site-specific circumstances and external factors affecting delivery. Many expressed concerns that taxes, penalties, additional reporting requirements or revocation of planning permission could negatively affect development viability and housing delivery, while others supported incentives, improved transparency, more streamlined planning processes for SME developers and greater housing tenure diversity as potential measures to help accelerate housing delivery.

The Scottish Government has published two Single Building Assessments (SBA) Task and Finish Group reports, covering December 2023 and March 2024. The reports set out the issues discussed by the Group, outstanding issues, where resolutions were agreed, and recommendations for future progress and next steps.

The Scottish Government has published an updated Code of Practice that outlines the requirements for the recording, sampling, and reporting of materials received by materials facilities (MFs). These requirements will take effect from 1 April 2025.

The Scottish Government has published the updated Local Housing Strategy Guidance, which applies immediately. The guidance is intended to support local authorities in developing Local Housing Strategies (LHS) under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. It specifies that the developed LHS should include a clear summary of the local authority’s priorities for housing delivery across all tenures, outlining the scale and types of housing required, how these needs were determined and providing supporting evidence such as links or background documents. It should also summarise the affordable housing requirements over the strategy period, detailing the amount and types of housing needed, including any variations across different areas. Additionally, the LHS must demonstrate that engagement has been undertaken with ethnic minority communities to understand their housing needs, particularly those that go beyond mainstream housing provision.

The Scottish Government has published the national performance framework for local authority building standards verifiers, confirming its continued application from 1 April 2026 as the mechanism for monitoring verifier performance against agreed national outcomes. The framework operates under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, which establishes the building standards system to protect the public interest by securing health, safety, welfare and convenience in and around buildings, supporting the conservation of fuel and power, and furthering sustainable development. Scottish Ministers appoint verifiers, currently the 32 Scottish local authorities for their respective areas, on the basis of competence, impartiality and accountability, and verifiers are responsible for independently assessing compliance with building regulations through granting building warrants and accepting completion certificates, subject to meeting the framework’s requirements.

The Scottish Government has published a Voluntary Code of Practice on the Dismissal and Replacement of Land-owning Land Maintenance Companies (LOLMCs), which establishes a formal process for homeowners seeking to dismiss and replace these property factors, while also setting out minimum standards that the Scottish Government expects from all parties. LOLMCs own and manage open spaces in a development, with obligations imposed upon them by title deeds and reciprocal annual management fees paid to them by homeowners. The Scottish Government has also signaled that it may pursue legislative measures if the voluntary standards are not met, and it plans to review the code after three years of operation.

The Scottish Government has published its analysis of consultation responses on amending the goods, services, works and community benefit thresholds within the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The consultation focused on whether the current thresholds should be adjusted from £50,000 for good and services contracts, £2 million for works contracts and £4 million for community benefit requirements. These thresholds have remained unchanged since the Act was passed in 2014, despite inflation that would have increased them by 39.5% in real terms.

The Scottish Government has released Freedom of Information (FOI) documents revealing its involvement in developing the UK government's Clean Power 2030 Action Plan which was published in December 2024. The documentation illustrates extensive consultation between the UK and Scottish governments in terms of the plan to decarbonise Great Britain's power system by 2030. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) provided independent analysis in November 2024, with the final plan focusing on accelerating renewables and increasing low-carbon flexibility, while acknowledging Scotland's position against new nuclear power development. The publication includes internal briefings and meeting notes from September-December 2024, detailing intergovernmental coordination on implementation.

The Scottish Government has released an Improvement Plan in response to the Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) Investigation into Climate Delivery, setting out the proposed actions and timeframe the government will take in relation to making the reporting of scope 3 emissions mandatory for local authorities, following the laying of this Plan in the Scottish Parliament. This Plan covers the fourth recommendation in the ESS' final investigative report, published on 6 December 2023.

The Scottish Government has released guidance for hosts and operators of short-term lets, setting out their responsibilities to comply with the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order, SSI 2022/32, Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) (Amendment) Order 2023, SSI 2023/73, and Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) (Amendment) Order 2024, SSI 2024/227.