Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Information on the outcomes of the long COVID pilot project undertaken by Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Pogo Digital Healthcare and NHS Lothian is not held centrally. This is a matter for those organisations.

The Scottish Government’s £10 million long COVID Support Fund was announced in September 2021 and resource has been allocated from the fund from the financial year 2022-2023 onwards. The following table provides an overview of funding recipients from the start of the financial year 2022-23 to 28 February 2025. Allocations to NHS boards are made in tranches across the financial year to account for any slippage in programme delivery. It is anticipated that further allocations will be made to NHS boards from the fund before the end of this financial year, and in the financial year 2025-26.

The 2025-2026 budget outlines £7.586 million for the ‘Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions’ budget line. This represents a £4.5m uplift to the 2024-2025 long COVID budget line.

The Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies have provided £1,354,000 for the development of carbon capture and storage technology in 2025.

The Scottish Government has committed £2m of grant funding support to the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect Project and to date, £1,345,000 of this funding has been provided.

The Scottish Government remains wholly committed to supporting the development and deployment of CCUS, including the Acorn Project and the Scottish Cluster. Unfortunately, the UK Government continue to delay making a final decision on the Acorn Project which is risking billions of private sector investment and thousands of jobs.

Since April 2022, we have allocated over £6.2 million to territorial NHS boards to supplement core funding and support their responses to meeting the healthcare needs of people with long COVID. This has supported boards to undertake a range of activities including the development of long COVID rehabilitation pathways and providing additional capacity to existing services supporting people with symptoms resulting from long COVID.

Care and support for people with long COVID is being provided across the full range of services delivered by our NHS. This includes assessment in a setting close to home by local primary care teams, and referral to community-based rehabilitation services or secondary care settings for further investigation of specific complications where clinically appropriate.

Scotland’s national health information service NHS inform has a dedicated long COVID microsite containing information and advice on common signs and symptoms associated with long COVID and when to seek further advice from a healthcare professional. This is accessible at Long-term effects of COVID-19 | NHS inform.

Social Security Scotland recognises that clients can have complex and varied accessibility needs. Letters are available in a number of different languages and formats, including Braille, easy read and large print.

Before letters are changed to an alternative format, all letters are created using standard templates, in line with the Social Security Scotland style guide.

The Social Security Scotland style guide provides guidance on plain English terms and inclusive language for commonly used technical terms, such as using “benefit” or “award” over “assistance.”

Letter templates are designed using the Social Security Scotland style guide and Digital Scotland Service Standard. Templates are tested throughout the design cycle and aim to meet a Flesch Reading Ease of between 70 to 80, equivalent to school grade level 8 or reading age 9 - 11 years.

Social Security Scotland use accessible fonts, colours, and formatting options such as headings and lists to set out blocks of text for ease of reading.

Social Security Scotland work with external service providers who deliver translation services and letters in Braille and large print, in line with industry standards by following UK Association for Accessible Formats guidelines, which is the standard for UK transcribed documents.

Although the regulation of AI as a technology is unfortunately reserved to Westminster, Scotland can and has indeed been taking action for years to influence the national and global development of AI in a responsible way that reflects Scottish values. The purpose of Scotland’s 2021 AI Strategy is to make Scotland a leader in the development and use of trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI. The actions to deliver this vision include multiple, complementary interventions from education, with our foundational Living with AI course, supporting our business ecosystem, with the AI Playbook geared towards SMEs, and collaboration, through forums like the monthly public sector AI Taskforce and a strong public engagement programme led by the AI Alliance. Scotland’s position globally continues to be influential with Scotland being the first country to mandate a public sector AI Register and our unique Children and AI programme, which was featured in the brochure of last month’s AI Action Summit in Paris, the most important and selective global AI event since 2023 – and to which the Head of the Scottish AI Alliance was also invited. We engage closely with the UK Government to influence UK AI Policy, and internationally though membership of multilaterals such as the Disruptive and Emerging Technology Alliance (https://detalliance.com/).

Currently, a breakdown of spending returns on AI business support is not available as it is challenging to break down elements of work that are specific to AI and their impact as it is implicated in so many wider business impacts. However, recent research indicates that private equity investments were up by a third in 2024, with VC investment in Scotland rising by 14% in the last quarter of last year indicating a strong investment growth into AI in Scotland. We continue to work with enterprise agencies to identify where the Scottish economy is benefitting from AI and SE are soon to publish research on the economic opportunities for AI in Scotland.

The Scottish Government are supportive of SaxaVord Spaceport and their efforts toward reaching their first launch, which is currently understood to be later this year. This milestone will contribute significantly to Scotland’s launch ambitions and deliver end-to-end capability for the sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Government maintain regular contact with Saxavord Spaceport, however, as a private enterprise, the spaceport is responsible for managing its own communications and disclosures.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of whisky to our nation's tourism and hospitality sector, as well as the Scottish economy in general.

There were just over 2 million visits made to Scotch Whisky visitor centres in Scotland in 2022. This was the second highest number on record and more than double the number in 2021. The associated spend of these visits was £85 million in 2022. The Scotch Whisky industry employed around 1,200 people at Scotch Whisky visitor centres in 2022. (Source: Scotch Whisky Tourism Survey 2022).

The Scottish Government continues to do everything we can to support tourism and hospitality businesses to thrive.

Spirits distilleries looking to expand their visitor facilities can access funding through economic development agencies such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). HIE provides a range of financial support to independent whisky distilleries for projects specifically focused on the development of visitor facilities, as well as increased production volumes. Recent examples include Deerness Distillery, Lerwick Distillery and Dunnet Bay Distillers.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with business organisations and leaders to discuss current challenges and solutions, while pressing the UK Government to help businesses and ensure sustainable development within the visitor economy.

The whisky tourism sector brings in huge numbers of visitors to some of our most rural communities. These visitors help support much needed jobs, both on the mainland and in our Island communities. In partnership with Scotland Food and Drink, VisitScotland has created an industry guide to help businesses share some of the world class products we have (such as whisky) through the creation of memorable tourism experiences. The guide encourages businesses to think about the opportunity quality food and drink experiences can provide, including visitors’ desire to learn more about the region behind the produce and the local culture and history that influences it.

At a regional level, VisitScotland works closely with key partners and stakeholders to develop regional/destination strategies and support the development of regional investments. VisitScotland works with individual businesses as it looks to develop new products and help them to identify opportunities linked to trends, marketing etc.

In 2024, VisitScotland ran several regional workshops throughout Scotland and plans to continue to deliver these in 2025. The aim of the workshops is for tourism businesses to reach new markets and encourage longer dwell time.

VisitScotland also works in partnership with local Direct Marketing Organisations, to encourage integrated food and drink experiences, whisky tasting and storytelling into broader tourism offerings. This helps to enrich the overall visitor experience and helps attract visitors to the region. The Scottish Government also supports and promotes Whisky Trails through its other economic development agencies. For instance, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) provided funding for the Hebridean Whisky Trail. HIE also supported an ambitious community-led distillery project ‘Cabrach Distillery’ with up to £0.5m funding towards the £5m development to create a new distillery in the most rural area of Moray, well known for its history in distilling. HIE’s funding will help with the refurbishment of the farm steadings. The new distillery hopes to attract thousands of new visitors to the area

VisitScotland supports and promotes whisky related tourism businesses across its activity including marketing (owned, earned and paid), industry support, travel trade engagement. VisitScotland weaves whisky imagery and content into its seasonal global marketing campaign activity including current activity with Expedia, TripAdvisor and SkyScanner. Whisky tourism experiences also feature across all VisitScotland’s owned channels – email marketing, website, social media etc. Through consumer PR activity, VisitScotland has generated 117 media articles globally with an inclusion of whisky from 1 April 2024 – 13 February 2025.

Whisky remains a key driver of visits, with 21% of visitors indicating that they visited a whisky distillery as part of their trip to Scotland.