The First Minister’s proposal for a bank holiday to follow Scotland’s opening game at the men’s FIFA World Cup will create an opportunity for the country to come together and share this landmark occasion.

We would encourage employers, including The City of Edinburgh Council and other local authorities, to be as flexible as possible to ensure their staff have the opportunity to celebrate the team's success.

In March 2025, NHS Orkney became the first Health Board to complete the installation of renewable heating in all of its buildings.

The top 20 emitting NHS sites produced more than 60% of NHS Scotland’s total building energy emissions in 2024-25. NHS efforts are focussed on these highest emitting sites which have the potential to act as catalysts for the development of district heat networks.

Health boards are developing site specific decarbonisation plans for the most energy intensive acute hospital campuses. This includes the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, the Edinburgh Bioquarter and the Foresterhill site in Aberdeen. These three sites alone account for 22% of NHS heat and power emissions.

A Prior Information Notice (PIN) was published for the provision of a low/zero carbon Heat Purchase Agreement for the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and surrounding NHS facilities on 18 December 2025 and is available on the Public Contracts Scotland website.

Decarbonising the heating of NHS hospitals is likely to result in an increase in electricity demand (due to the use of heat pumps). Reducing electricity usage is a key enabling action to prepare for renewable heating as it reduces the need for local electricity grid enforcement and limits overall energy bills, making renewable heating more affordable. NHS electricity consumption decreased by 6.2% between 2020/21 and 2024/25 (452,413,000 kWh to 424,163,000 kWh).

A dynamic purchasing system for Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) was launched by NHS National Procurement on 1 August 2025. PINs covering private wire PPAs have also been issued by NHS National Procurement to assess the market’s ability to supply renewable electricity directly to major NHS sites through private connections. Securing PPAs will result in increased supplies of renewable electricity and reduce the costs of electrified heat which can be a barrier to moving to renewable heating.

Further information is available in the NHS Scotland - climate emergency and sustainability: annual report 2025 - gov.scot.

The cost of harbour dues CalMac Ferries paid in 2024-25 paid to CMAL was £16,589,235, other harbour authorities was £11,702,717, and Local Authorities was £12,822,773

Details relating to each harbour is detailed in the following table:

Neither Scottish Government or NatureScot provide funding for the maintenance or improvement of the four statutory long distance routes. The respective local authorities and national park authorities lead on maintenance and improvements using a variety of approaches.

Scottish Government provides funding to the local authorities for “land access” as part of the Grant Aided Expenditure settlement. Scottish Government also provides funding to the National Park Authorities, and this has included capital for Long Distance Routes related projects such as Conic Hill on the West Highland Way in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

Upside does not provide funding directly to individuals released from custody.

As covered in the answer to question S6W-42664, funding is issued on a quarterly basis to Sacro as the nominated lead parter of Upside. Sacro distributes the funding to the remaining third-sector partners within the Upside partnership. This funding is used to support the operational delivery of the programme, including staff salaries, recruitment and training, IT and other associated running costs.

The Scottish Government will continue to promote trade union recognition and collective bargaining, at both local and sectoral levels, to achieve improved conditions and enhance effective voice. However, while collective bargaining can improve working conditions, a good standard of workplace health and safety should not be dependent upon this. The Scottish Government promotes strong, constructive relationships between employers and trade unions, particularly where they are recognised, or where it is clear workers are seeking this collective representation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42861 on 21 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.

The Government has increased police funding year on year since 2016-17. The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) budget will increase to a record £1.7 billion in 2026-27 to support Police Scotland to deliver on its priorities including frontline service delivery. This is £81.7 million more than the published 2025-26 Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) SPA budget. The allocation of police resources, including specialist capability to trace, freeze and recover cryptocurrency assets, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland.

In addition, the Civil Recovery Unit, acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers, can recover crypto assets derived from unlawful conduct, and additional powers were created to facilitate this in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA).

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that cryptocurrency-enabled organised crime is tackled and does not consider that weaknesses in this area risk depriving communities of potential POCA funding.

Law enforcement agencies in Scotland are equipped with significant POCA powers. These powers will be further enhanced when new powers for law enforcement to search, seize and detain cryptoassets and cryptoasset-related items come into force on 31 March 2026.

The Scottish Government continues to support operational partners to use all available tools to disrupt organised crime, including in the digital and cryptoasset space.

We remain committed to reinvesting recovered proceeds of crime to benefit young people and communities across Scotland. The Cashback for Communities Programme, funded through POCA receipts, will continue to invest in projects which support activity for young people at risk of becoming involved in anti-social and criminal behaviour. Phase 7 of the Programme, running from April 2026 to March 2029, will receive up to £26 million of funding, which is an increase of £6 million from Phase 6.

The independent Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting tax revenues in its Scotland's Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and for 2026-27 the forecast Non-Domestic Rates revenue is £3,387 million.

Once final rateable values are available, the Scottish Government will publish a report on the 2026 revaluation as it did at the 2023 revaluation. An interim revaluation report based on the 2026 draft rateable values has been published on the Scottish Government website at Non-domestic rates revaluation 2026: draft valuation roll statistics - gov.scot.

The draft Budget ensures the estimated revenues raised from non-domestic rates in 2026-27 will be 6% lower in real terms measured by CPI than pre-COVID, despite the number of properties on the valuation roll increasing in that time, and introduces the lowest Basic Property Rate for 2026-27 since 2018-19.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Following constructive and collaborative discussions with our partners, SPS have moved away from the national concept of a ‘Focused Day’ and instead have introduced a Regime and Roster Review which is designed to ensure that staff are available to an establishment when and where needed the most.

It is our intent that any changes adopted as part of this review, will not compromise a person’s time out of cell or access to purposeful activity, therefore no activities have been stopped or suspended. Changes are expected to create a more consistent and reliable regime for those in our care whilst protecting opportunities to maintain family contact either through in person visits or via in-cell telephones.