When it next plans to review regulations relating to the conduct of religious bodies.

There are no current regulations specifically aimed at the conduct of religious bodies, however, a number of areas of regulation may apply to religious bodies.
The Scottish Government is currently running a collection of four public consultations on different aspects of regulation of the funeral sector in Scotland. This may be of interest to religious bodies.
The collection of four consultations cover regulations on the following topics: alkaline hydrolysis (‘water cremation’), burial, inspection of burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors and licensing for funeral directors.
The consultations are all available on the Scottish Government’s consultation hub, Citizen Space and will be live from 25 August – 17 November 2023.
Some religious bodies are registered charities in Scotland, and charity trustee duties are set out in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice has committed to work with the third sector and partners to develop the scope for a wider review of charity regulation. Charity trustee duties may be considered as part of this scoping work.
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Civil partnership (Scotland) Act 2020 contain provisions on qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies to meet before they can solemnise marriage (or register a
civil partnership). These provisions are not in force. The Scottish Government has committed to carrying out a full public consultation before making any regulations to introduce qualifying requirements. This consultation has not been a priority given other workload pressures.