Lothian Green MSP report – December 2025 to January 2026

Top & Timely

Happy New Year All! Welcome to an election year! We are very much hoping to elect a larger group of MSPs to the Scottish Parliament in May. To that end we are all ramping up the campaigning and fundraising to give us the best chance of a bigger Green Group. Please come out and help us knock on doors if you can and if you are able to donate a few pounds to the party or one of our crowdfunders, that will go a long way.

Lorna with eight other activists doing a selfie — City Centre Action Day in January

I have managed to secure an amendment at Stage 3 of the Natural Environment Bill to put UN Declaration on Biological Diversity into the bill, i.e. to capture it in Scottish Legislation, which I’m delighted about, as it was the signing of this at COP15 in Montreal that I was speaking to when I was there as Minister for Biodiversity.

I’m going to write to the Cabinet Secretary and try to get some sort of commitment on taking action on peasant releases, even if it is just data gathering on the impacts at the moment.

Portfolio

The big bit of work at the moment in the Economy and Fair Work portfolio is the Community Wealth Building Bill that comes to Stage 2 this week. I have submitted about 50 amendments: everything from putting targets, fair work conditions and support for cooperatives into the bill to how we manage common good land, and who councils need to consult with to develop their community wealth action plans.

The Economy and Fair Work Committee is currently scrutinising the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan. It is clearly disappointing how they have deviated from UK Climate Change Committee advice, kicked the can down the road and failed to give specifics and details where those are needed. It also only covers emissions reductions and not adaptation or resilience measures. You can see me asking a question on negative emissions technologies here >

On January 9th I spoke at the Cooperatives UK event at Parliament.

Co-operatives UK Instagram post: Scottish Parliament - Co-operatives UK joined MSPs and Scottish co-operatives to launch our Call for a Co-operative Scotland – a bold plan to grow democratic business.“More and bigger co-operatives – that’s the kind of growth I can get behind.” – @lornagreens at the event Co-operatives already contribute over £1.9bn to Scotland’s economy. But with the right policies – education, finance, infrastructure – they can deliver much more. #scottishelection — “More and bigger co-operatives – that’s the kind of growth I can get behind.”

Regional & Campaigns

Progress is being made towards developing a Bike Mechanic Apprenticeship for Scotland and towards putting together and ask for a comprehensive Wool Strategy, that brings together interests in agriculture, sustainable textiles, circular economy and design and tourism.

The Friends of Holyrood Park Committee have met and will be submitting a response to the HES planning application around the fencing and signage of Radical Road.

The next Linlithgow Loch community meeting will be on Monday 9 February, 19:30, at the Linlithgow Tool Library.