The Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament by Sarah Boyack MSP on 27 March 2025, and this new Parliamentary Research Briefing summarises the situation as of 8 October.
Scottish Parliament writes:
The Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 27 March 2025. It is a Member’s Bill and was introduced by Sarah Boyack MSP (‘the Member in charge of the Bill’). Information about Member’s Bills, including how they are introduced and progress through the Scottish Parliament, is set out on the Scottish Parliament website.
The Bill creates a new public duty, which requires all public bodies to have ‘due regard’ for the need to promote wellbeing and sustainable development in the exercise of their functions. It also establishes statutory definitions of the terms ‘wellbeing’ and ‘sustainable development’ for the purposes of the Bill. It establishes a ‘Future Generations Commissioner for Scotland’.
The Bill as introduced can be found on the Scottish Parliament website alongside supporting documents which include:
- A Policy Memorandum
- Explanatory Notes
- A Financial Memorandum
- A Delegated Powers Memorandum
- Statements on legislative competence.
As a Member’s Bill, the Bill and supporting documents were prepared by the Scottish Parliament’s Non-Government Bills Unit (NGBU). The lead committee for this Bill is the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. The Committee issued a Call for Views on the Bill which closed on 24 August 2025. 41 submissions were received through the Committee’s call for views on Citizen Space, and an additional 7 submissions were received by correspondence. All responses have been published either on Citizen Space or on the Bill’s webpages. There is a published SPICe summary of these responses. More information about the Committee’s scrutiny of the Bill can be found on the Bill webpages of the Scottish Parliament. Here you can also find a link to scrutiny of the Bill’s Financial Memorandum by the Finance and Public Administration Committee, and the report from the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee.
