This blog is the last in a series on developing and delivering a model for parliamentary scrutiny of climate change, underpinned by the Conveners Group Session 6 strategic priority to strengthen cross-cutting scrutiny of climate change and net zero:
- Developing a model for parliamentary scrutiny of climate change (June 2023)
- Delivering a model for parliamentary scrutiny of climate change: drivers, actions and next steps (January 2024)
- Delivering a model for parliamentary scrutiny of climate change: a Climate Change People’s Panel (March 2025).
It focuses on scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s draft Climate Change Plan (CCP) 2026-2040. The CCP is the statutory plan setting out how the Government intends to meet emissions reduction targets across all portfolio areas and sectors of the economy and covers the period 2026-2040 as Scotland looks to be ‘net zero’ in carbon emissions by 2045. It is the central mechanism through which climate policy is translated into sectoral action, investment choices and delivery expectations across Government, and its scrutiny therefore plays a critical role in testing how credible, realistic and fair Scotland’s proposed pathway to net zero will be.
This blog outlines how scrutiny unfolded, the institutional support that enabled it, the diverse evidence that shaped it, and some lessons identified for Session 7. It sits alongside the blog on Draft Climate Change Plan 2026-2040 scrutiny and academic engagement.
A shifting legislative landscape
Scotland’s climate legislation has changed considerably over the last decade and a half, and as the legislative framework has evolved, so too have expectations of what effective parliamentary scrutiny can deliver. This places greater demands on Parliament to test not only the credibility of targets but the realism of delivery pathways, the robustness of costings, and the fairness of proposed approaches. The draft CCP for 2026-2040 was the first to reflect expanded statutory duties, covering costs and benefits and just transition principles, and the first to be scrutinised under a 120-day timetable – double that of previous Plans.
However, the draft CCP was significantly delayed – first expected in 2023, then 2024, then 2025 – and was ultimately laid only on 5 November 2025. The Scottish Government also ran the public consultation in parallel with the period of parliamentary scrutiny, presenting challenges with stakeholders potentially being asked to respond to two consultations on the draft Plan at the same time. The timing the draft being laid also meant that there was less than 3 weeks between the Parliament completing its deliberations on the draft and the final Plan being issued. Timing was not the only challenge: several witnesses told committees that the document lacked the level of detail needed for effective scrutiny, resulting in challenges extracting clear assumptions, delivery pathways and costings.
Taken together, these factors made the scrutiny process both demanding and instructive, highlighting the importance of coordinated, cross-committee scrutiny for complex, whole-system policy issues.
The Conveners Group’s strategic priority: enabling cross-committee scrutiny
Early in Session 6, the Conveners Group designated climate change and net zero as a strategic, cross‑cutting priority. As stated in the Conveners Group Session 6 Legacy report, this priority helped deliver two overarching benefits for committee scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s net zero policies:
- It supported sustained political and administrative attention on the scrutiny of net zero policy delivery throughout Session 6, enhancing cross-committee awareness of and engagement with climate change, encouraging committees to apply a ‘climate lens’ and supporting effective communication and coordination.
- It also enabled innovation and new approaches to net zero scrutiny, giving Members access to external resources, new scrutiny approaches and tools.
The Conveners Group priority provided the scaffolding for the scrutiny of the CCP. The Net Zero, Energy and Transport (NZET) Committee led and coordinated the work, with nine committees contributing to scrutiny – the most extensive cross‑committee involvement in a CCP to date. More information on the work undertaken by committees and cross-cutting themes is set out in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) blog Draft Climate Change Plan: key themes from scrutiny.
How scrutiny unfolded: a coordinated approach
A central factor in enabling this new model of scrutiny was the additional institutional support that had been put in place throughout Session 6. Committees were able to draw on a shared Adviser on climate change and net zero, whose role was to support the whole Parliament rather than a single committee. Alongside this, SPICe strengthened its specialist research and analytical capacity, which meant that Members had increased and enhanced access to timely, in-depth briefing, delivered in ways that could be readily used at pace during scrutiny. The Parliament also established a dedicated parliamentary post focused on academic engagement on climate change and net zero, to provide Members with a bridge into the wider research landscape, enabling committees to draw upon the most current academic insights and helping establish new networks (see blog on Draft Climate Change Plan 2026-2040 scrutiny and academic engagement).
Drawing on diverse and high-quality evidence
These resources supported a deliberate effort to draw on a wide and diverse range of evidence to support scrutiny of the draft CCP. SPICe’s development of a publicly accessible hub mapping how climate change intersects with committee’s remits brought together tailored committee briefings, and was designed to help Members quickly see where climate issues were likely to arise in their subject committees. This resource supported scrutiny beginning from a shared understanding across the Parliament rather than from individual committee perspectives.
Alongside, the NZET Committee sought early engagement with independent scrutiny bodies including Audit Scotland, Environmental Standards Scotland, the Scottish Fiscal Commission and the Climate Change Committee on what a ‘good’ CCP looks like. Their early reflections helped frame expectations of what a credible, transparent and deliverable CCP should contain, providing committees with a reference point before formal evidence sessions began. This early framing was considered particularly valuable given the limited detail in the draft Plan.
Due to timing challenges, NZET ran a proactive Call for Views to ensure a robust evidence base was available from the start of the 120-day period of scrutiny, and to avoid parliamentary consultation running at the same time as the Scottish Government consultation. This was analysed by SPICe by sector and non-sector specific questions and shared across all committees. This prevented duplication and ensured that evidence was relevant and arrived in time to inform questioning, rather than emerging midway through scrutiny or competing with Scottish Government consultations. SPICe seminars – including on carbon budgets and sectoral pathways – complemented this work by deepening Members’ and officials’ understanding and awareness of issues and encouraging engagement and debate.
The shared Adviser further strengthened this picture by synthesising themes emerging from evidence gathered across the Parliament. This supported staff to highlight to members where similar issues were being raised in different portfolios and to approach cross-cutting themes in a more consistent and coherent way. Importantly, focused academic engagement enriched this picture, broadening the range of expert voices contributing to scrutiny – discussed in detail in the blog on Draft Climate Change Plan 2026-2040 scrutiny and academic engagement.
Crucially, the evidence base was not limited to technical or institutional sources. Engagement with communities and individuals provided important insight. Building on the themes from the Climate Change People’s Panel, NZET gathered views through online discussions, visits, and sessions with young people, alongside engagement carried out through other committees on specific sectors. A SPICe Summary of responses from public and community consultation and engagement on the draft CCP to NZET highlighted issues such as the accessibility of information, the challenges households face in taking action and the importance of community-led initiatives in supporting local transitions.
Taken together, this deliberate focus on diverse evidence allowed committees to form a fuller and more representative picture of both the opportunities and the practical constraints shaping Scotland’s transition to net zero.
Communication and coherence
Another critical element of the model was the extent of communication and alignment across Parliament. From the outset, the aim was to ensure that scrutiny of the draft CCP was cohesive and genuinely cross-committee, leading to a single NZET Committee report, summarising the key areas of evidence taken and recommendations by other committees. Delivering this required sustained coordination: Conveners Group provided a structured forum for collective updates from the NZET Committee and discussion of the evolving scrutiny landscape; conveners shared developments and evidence by correspondence and in meetings. Alongside this, SPICe’s tracking tools enabled officials to plan work in a coordinated way by mapping evidence sessions and minimising duplication, and cross committee correspondence by officials supported the exchange of emerging scrutiny questions and evidence.
Committees also worked from shared SPICe background materials and suggested lines of inquiry, proving a common analytical foundation for Members to draw from even though they were working from different subject remits. This helped committees identify gaps, avoid overlap and address crosscutting themes with greater consistency. Although the timing of the Plan and wider parliamentary pressures created unavoidable constraints, the level of communication and coordination achieved across committees meant that scrutiny remained connected, coherent and able to consider the Plan in the round.
What scrutiny delivered: outcomes and impacts
Scrutiny of the draft CCP produced a set of short‑ to medium‑term outcomes, as well as contributed towards longer-term impacts that can carry into the next Session.
Committees built a more cohesive picture of the draft Plan, drawing together evidence across nine remits into a lead NZET Committee report published on 27 February 2026, followed by a Chamber debate on 5 March 2026 which included references to the advantage of this coordinated approach. The scrutiny process made visible where policy coherence across Government will be required to deliver effective climate action, clarified gaps and barriers in the draft Plan, and identified feasibility issues that will require continued attention. Together, these outcomes establish a clearer baseline for ongoing scrutiny.
Evidence gathered through the Climate Change People’s Panel, online discussion, committee visits and engagement with young people helped ensure that scrutiny captured practical issues. Participants called for clearer, accessible information about progress; long-term, reliable support for community-led climate action; practical and trusted advice for households; and better targeted communication. These insights directly informed several recommendations in the NZET Committee report, including proposals for a public dashboard of indicators, multiyear funding for community climate action, clearer household guidance and codesigned, plain language communication strategies. The visibility of these contributions also supports longer term democratic legitimacy by demonstrating Parliament’s willingness to incorporate evidence from engagement, or “lived experience”, into scrutiny.
The Scottish Government published the final CCP on 24 March. In Annex 4, it states that several changes were made as a result of parliamentary scrutiny, including in relation to accessibility of the final version, and further detail on methods as well as financial and other benefits for people – including health and wellbeing. However, many of the actions set out in the ‘you said, we did’ section appear to have been previously discussed, proposed or committed to in one form or another. Some areas include new commitments, e.g. to review the overall approach to supporting heat networks. Because the publication came on the penultimate day of this parliamentary session, there was no meaningful time to scrutinise the changes made to date. It is also too early to assess how parliamentary scrutiny of the CCP may affect the Scottish Government’s ability to accelerate delivery.
Internally, the approach to scrutiny of the CCP contributed to a strengthening of the Parliament’s capability to scrutinise complex, crosscutting climate issues. Members benefitted from a broader range of perspectives and technical insights, supported by expanded SPICe capacity, enhanced academic engagement and the shared Adviser. It also created opportunities for more coherent collaboration among parliamentary teams and with external experts. These changes contribute to a cultural shift towards more routine cross-committee working, reinforcing recognition of climate change as a systemic issue which benefits from a collective approach across the Parliament. While some of these internal gains will require ongoing attention to maintain, particularly as staffing and committee membership change between Sessions, they represent a meaningful strengthening of Parliament’s institutional capacity.
Lessons for Session 7: strengthening scrutiny for the next Parliament
The NZET report on the draft CCP concluded that the process surrounding the timing of the draft CCP was unsatisfactory and recommended that changes should be considered early in the next parliament to ensuring a minimum period between the draft and final CCP, to ensure sufficient time for the Government to incorporate the results of scrutiny and other consultation. These recommendations respond directly to the timing and process challenges experienced in Session 6.
Although many of the outcomes from this scrutiny cycle are not yet final – and will require follow-up in the next Session – the work collectively represents a more coherent and inclusive approach to scrutiny of the draft CCP. It has strengthened Parliament’s internal capability, broadened its evidence base and demonstrated the benefits of coordinated, cross committee‑ scrutiny.
The learning from committee scrutiny of the CCP and the Conveners Group legacy report includes that Session 7 net zero scrutiny can begin with a clear foundation: stronger collaboration across committees, enhanced institutional capacity and strengthened engagement with the public. Together, these provide a platform for the next Parliament as the focus is likely to shift more firmly towards scrutiny of delivery against the CCP, until the next draft is laid.
Abbi Hobbs, Senior Analyst – Climate Change Scrutiny, SPICe
Graeme Cook, Head of Research and Sustainable Development Scrutiny, SPICe
Featured image by the Scottish Parliament.