Meeting of the Parliament 22 January 2026 [Draft]
I welcome the opportunity to speak in this stage 1 debate on the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill, which was brought to the Parliament by Sarah Boyack. I thank her for lodging the bill and for her constructive contribution to what is a very important debate in relation to Scotland’s future.
I also extend my thanks to Collette Stevenson and her Social Justice and Social Security Committee for their detailed scrutiny and all the engagement that they have carried out. Their work has certainly helped to shine a light on many important issues.
I recognise the positive intentions behind the bill. The Scottish Government shares its core objectives of embedding wellbeing and sustainable development across public sector decision making, strengthening accountability, and planning for the longer term. Those aims certainly reflect the values of fairness, sustainability and collective wellbeing that underpin our national performance framework, which in turn aligns with the United Nations sustainable development goals and sets out the kind of Scotland that we want to build.
This debate comes at a key moment. In January 2025, the Government committed to reforming the national performance framework and, since then, officials have undertaken substantial work to strengthen the framework as a long-term strategic goal.
We welcome the committee’s stage 1 report, which recognises the importance of embedding wellbeing and sustainable development in public policy and welcomes our commitment to reforming the national performance framework. We also acknowledge the constructive conclusions and recommendations in the report. As Collette Stevenson said, we responded to that report in advance of this debate. We share the committee’s view on the importance of enhancing policy coherence across the public sector and ensuring that the national performance framework is implemented consistently, and we are committed to doing that through a reformed framework.
The committee concluded that, on balance, the bill should not proceed to stage 2, citing, among other reasons, the issues of duplication, cost and complexity, and the Government shares that view. We can achieve the bill’s aims more effectively and efficiently through a strengthened national performance framework, so we believe that legislation is not required at this time.