Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2026 [Draft]
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations Scottish charity awards. The positive impact of the third sector and the incredible people in it was on display once again that night, as it is in every community, every day, right across Scotland. Their work and volunteering change lives, strengthen communities and provide support to people where and when they need it most. However, to be clear, for that support to continue, a sustainable, thriving and independent third sector is essential. It is on that note that we will be supporting the amendments from the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Greens and Labour today.
The third sector works across a huge number of policy areas, from healthcare and education to reducing the impact of child poverty and advancing climate action. As one of our key partners, the third sector directly contributes to the Government’s four missions. What sets the third sector apart is its deep knowledge of communities, which makes it uniquely placed to identify and deliver real solutions. That knowledge cannot be replicated by any Government, national or local.
The Government recognises that, to tackle the biggest challenges of the day, we need to work in partnership with the sector. Further, we recognise that we have a responsibility to protect the independence of the sector and respect the remarkable work of those organisations. The Government fully supports the rights of charities to campaign on behalf of those whom they represent and to influence changes in policy, regardless of their funding status. Questioning the integrity of the third sector erodes trust and harms communities at a time when community support could not be more important.
To that end, the Government will formalise the relationship to demonstrate the value that we place in third sector bodies, not simply as service providers but as partners in shaping, informing and delivering. That ambition forms the foundations of our third sector partnership agreement. It is important to recognise that support for the third sector is not new for the Government. Over the previous parliamentary session, the Government took meaningful steps to strengthen and support the sector, most significantly our ongoing commitment to fairer funding. That delivered significant progress to embed multiyear funding across Government, supporting organisations as diverse as Scottish Mountain Rescue, a number of disabled people’s organisations and Apex Scotland, to name but a few.