The regulation of veterinary medicines as a reserved matter for the UK Government and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is responsible for market authorisation of antibiotics, including publication of antibiotic sales and sectorial usage statistics, and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

The VMD publish antibiotic sales and usage figures annually in the Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Sales and Surveillance (VARSS) Report. Figures for antibiotics sales figures, including aquaculture, are provided by the veterinary pharmaceutical companies marketing these products to the VMD, and this is a statutory requirement. The VARSS report also includes data on usage in different animal sectors, including fish, and the VMD works in partnership with various animal sectors to develop, facilitate and coordinate antibiotic usage data collection systems. These data are reported on a voluntary basis.

For the purpose of environmental protection, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) places licence conditions on marine fish farm operators to record and report antibiotic treatments to SEPA, including the product and volume used. The requirement for enforcement action associated with non-compliance in returns is assessed in line with SEPA’s enforcement approach.

Regulation of veterinary medicines is a reserved matter for the UK Government. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is responsible for enforcing Veterinary Medicines Regulations and undertaking appropriate monitoring in fulfilment of their regulatory duties.

Antibiotics are only prescribed by veterinarians and must be used responsibly where required for the health and welfare of farmed fish, as legally required under the reserved Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

Scotland participated in the development of the UK’s 20 year vision to contain and control antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by 2040, and is committed to delivering the strategic outcomes of the 2024 – 2029 National Action Plan, through a national implementation plan. This includes a commitment to support operators to protect animal health, including aquaculture, and reduce the need for antibiotics.

The Scottish Government is committed to the “One Health” approach of the 20 year AMR vision, which recognises human health is linked to the health of animals, plants, the environment and food. The VMD monitors levels of antimicrobial resistance in animals which is combined with data regarding levels of antimicrobial resistance detected in humans as part of this One Health approach.

Regulation of veterinary medicines is a reserved matter for the UK Government. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate is responsible for enforcing Veterinary Medicines Regulations and undertaking appropriate monitoring in fulfilment of their regulatory duties.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43099 on 23 January 2026. 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

The Scottish Government is taking a whole system approach in its assessment of data centre infrastructure requirements and implications, including ensuring that the energy and water demands as well as community concerns are considered. The current key considerations are set out below:

(a) Electricity Grid; In October 2024, the Scottish, UK and Welsh Governments jointly commissioned a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) for Great Britain which will assess the optimal locations, quantities and types of energy infrastructure required to meet future energy demand, including from data centres, with the clean, affordable and secure supply that we need. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is responsible for the development of the SSEP and the Scottish Government continues to engage with NESO on its progress and development.

(b) and (c) water resources and groundwater; This is an operational matter for Scottish Water which is encouraging data centre developers to look at sustainable alternatives, for example, using closed loop systems, using treated effluent or locating data centres in areas where there is a plentiful supply of water.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regulates activities that abstract more than 50m³/day of inland waters (surface or groundwater).

SEPA assess these activities against Environmental Standards using the latest data on waterbody capacity and existing pressures. This ensures cumulative impacts are considered and permits are not issued where standards would be breached or other users adversely affected.

(d) Communities; Where development proposals come forward, the planning system ensures the potential impacts of proposals on communities and nature – including cumulative impacts – are important considerations in the decision-making process. All applications are subject to site specific assessments.

Through continued engagement with NESO, SEPA and Scottish Water, we will ensure that data centre investment takes place in a resource considerate manner, mitigating negative impacts and maximising positive impacts where possible, such as reduction in curtailment costs, where opportunities align.

The following table provides a breakdown of the local authority areas that Just Transition Fund projects are located in – including projects from Financial Years 2022-23 to 2025-26. Some of the projects further distribute the funding to project partners, and where this is the case, this is indicated in the table:

The JTF is primarily a capital fund, and to date we have run capital funding rounds in 2022 and 2025. We do have a smaller resource budget, and we have made much of this available to the Just Transition Participatory Budgeting fund, as detailed in the following table . In year two of this scheme, an additional capacity building fund of £100k revenue was split between the three areas. In addition, we have also provided £324,192 resource funding for capacity support to North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub between 2022 – 2025 to fund staff resource costs to support delivery of the Just Transition Communities Project. We have also provided up to £40,000 to Moray Council to develop a Strategic Outline Case for the proposed Moray Engineering and Energy Innovation Centre in 2025-26.

The JTF has funded projects based on competitive bidding rounds, focused on delivering jobs and growth for the whole region. The Scottish Government has not made a specific commitment to allocate the JTF on a population-share basis between the council areas in the North East.

The full criteria for the competitive rounds of the Just Transition Fund have been published on the Scottish Government website. They are available to view at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-fund/pages/overview/

The JTF has funded projects based on competitive bidding rounds, focused on delivering jobs and growth for the whole region. As part of the assessment process, we examine each bid against the criteria for the scheme. The full criteria for the competitive rounds of the Just Transition Fund have been published on the Scottish Government website. They are available to view at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-fund/pages/overview/

We have funded work on two coordinated projects within the region – our funding of the Moray Net Zero Bottlenecks project has led to the development of a separate funded project to develop a Strategic Outline Case for the proposed Moray Engineering and Energy Innovation Centre.

Section 315 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 provisions are already in force which allows a local authority to take forward byelaws for the standard of accommodation for seasonal workers within its area should it decide it is the most appropriate route for its local area.