The Scottish Government will publish a new AI Strategy in March 2026. Building on the 2021 AI Strategy, it will outline the Scottish Government’s approach to harnessing the economic opportunities of AI.

Through the Service Renewal Framework, the Scottish Government and COSLA have committed to developing a framework for the safe, efficient and ethical application of AI across health and social care. This is expected to be published in March 2026 and will set out key requirements across the policy and regulatory landscape, define organisational AI readiness and establish a shared AI lifecycle model to support consistent, accountable decision-making across the system.

Scottish public finances continue to face a challenging fiscal environment, meeting growing demand despite increasingly challenging settlements. Difficult choices have been necessary, but through the plans set out in the draft 2026-27 Budget, the Scottish Government will invest £1,122 million in 2026-27 in the Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands budget.

This budget will support a sustainable, productive and prosperous future for our rural economy. It provides over £660 million in support for agriculture, including continuing to pay direct payment support unlike other parts of the UK, and spends over £130 million to ensure our land and forests will help to tackle climate change, protect nature and support green jobs, skills and businesses.

The Strategic Integrated Impact Assessment sets out the impact that decisions made in the Scottish Budget, Scottish Spending Review and Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline are likely to have on different groups of people in Scotland.

As set out in the Scottish Spending Review 2026, the majority of these efficiency and reform savings will come from the 3% target NHS Board recurring savings.

The NHS Scotland Finance Delivery Unit (FDU) is hosted by Scottish Government and aims to work with all NHS Boards to drive sustainable improvement, deliver insight and provide hands on capacity, for example, through the use of the ‘15 Box Grid’. Since the FDU was established in 2023, savings delivery in NHS Scotland has increased significantly, and recurring savings across NHS Scotland have doubled.

The FDU supports NHS Boards to achieve the 3% target by providing benchmarking and sharing best practice across NHS Boards. It also assesses local, regional and national opportunities, and sets the medium to long term financial forecast assumptions for NHS Scotland linking closely to the evolving work on reform.

On other operational efficiency and productivity savings, The Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan sets out measures and actions to deliver efficiencies including deprioritising lower impact spending and better targeting of existing resources. For example, we have established an Investment and Value Board to improve the evidence base for the impact of existing spending and new spending proposals, to drive evidence-based investment/disinvestment decisions.

Health efficiency and service renewal is also being taken forward through the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan, the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, and Population Health Framework.

Our approach to health and social care reform and efficiency is multi-facetted, including service redesign, prevention and investment in technology. Our work on reform and change will be developed in partnership with trade union colleagues. It is not possible to provide the cumulative impact of all our actions on the number of jobs impacted each year.

The Scottish Bracken Working Group (BWG) last met on the 19 of January, and I plan to write to the Rural Affairs and Islands committee with an update on both the bracken mapping work and other outputs of the BWG and its member organisations during February 2026.

The Scottish Government’s current position has not changed – it remains in support of full dualling of the A96 and is progressing the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including the Nairn Bypass.

Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and this Government’s top priority. That is why we have put tackling child poverty at the heart of the Scottish Budget for 2026-27, which outlines our plans to reinvest money previously committed to our Two Child Limit Payment.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission have forecast that, of the £141 million which would have been allocated to the Two Child Limit Payment in 2026-27, £14 million will be invested to meet the additional demand on devolved benefits as a result of the Two Child Limit being removed. This includes increased spending on Benefit Cap mitigation and for the Scottish Government’s Five Family Payments.

Of the £126 million made available in 2026-27 after meeting these costs, the Scottish Government will invest:

• £50 million in a package of Whole Family support that will wrap around families and help break the cycle of poverty. This will further enhance existing support and will include support with skills and direct assistance via trusted third sector organisations.
• £61.5 million in our Tackling Child Poverty Fund to supercharge action on child poverty across the life of the next Parliament, with details of investment set out in our forthcoming Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.
• a further £21 million to meet the cost of increased expenditure on the Scottish Child Payment in 2026-27. This includes uprating the payment to £28.20 per child per week from April.

Through the Scottish Spending Review, we have also committed to developing the systems and legislation needed to increase the value of our Scottish Child Payment to £40 per week for all children under the age of 1 commencing in 2027-28. Investment in this enhanced support will be met from the reallocation of Two Child Limit Payment funding.

These measures, alongside others announced in the Scottish Budget and Spending Review, will help to support the delivery of the Third Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan to be published by the end of March 2026, setting our ambitious path towards the 2030 statutory Child Poverty Targets.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43057 on 28 January 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

It is anticipated that the Sea Eagle Management Scheme will receive a similar budget allocation in 2026 that was awarded in 2025. The budget for the Sea Eagle Management Scheme in 2025 was £970,000.

NatureScot will begin work on offering management agreements as soon as approval of the budget has been received. The scheme covers the calendar year period January to December and payments to farmers and crofters who sign up to the scheme are made in December.

The university sector continues to face financial challenges due to a number of factors, including the impact of migration policies introduced by the UK Government, and an increase to employer national insurance contributions.

While universities are autonomous institutions, the Scottish Government expects staff and trade unions to be consulted meaningfully and constructively on the potential impact of any cost-saving measures – in line with Fair Work principles.

Ministers cannot compel universities to commit to no compulsory redundancies, however my clear expectation is that they are only considered as a last resort, after all other cost-saving measures have been fully explored.

In the unfortunate event that redundancies occur, PACE is the Scottish Government’s response and can provide free and impartial advice, and is available to all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business nor how many employees are involved.

The Framework for Sustainability and Success of Scotland’s Universities was launched on 18 December 2025 and will complete in the Autumn of 2026.

A Steering Group will oversee this work, supported by Project Delivery Groups, with outcomes to be published and reported to Scottish Ministers and Universities Scotland.