Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has increased investment in the college sector, with more than £750m allocated in the 2025-26 draft budget to support the delivery of high-quality education and training.

The £13.2m (2.1%) increase in the 2025-26 net college resource budget allocation includes funds of £4.5m to support the college lecturer pay settlement and funds to cover increased pension costs.

In addition to this, as negotiations progressed around the budget agreement, we have now agreed a proposal to invest a further £3.5m in targeted support for the College sector. This will be used to create an Offshore Wind Skills Programme and College Care Skill Programme, supporting a pipeline of skilled workers.

Colleges continue to deliver exceptional learning to students while driving forward reforms, and the Scottish Government and the SFC will continue to work closely with the sector to diversify funding opportunities and deliver more flexible funding arrangements.

The Scottish Funding Council will now work closely with the college sector to identify the best split of the available resources, taking into account Government priorities and the college sector’s needs.

We have recently made available £5m per annum capital budget over 4 years to fund the extension of the public water network to enable the removal of Private Water Supplies which should improve resilience to affected water supplies during power outages. Milton of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire has been shortlisted as one of the communities who will benefit from this funding.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) published in December 2022, provides guidance on long term investment in Scotland’s strategic transport network. STPR2 recommends future investment to ensure that Scotland’s trunk road network remains safe (Recommendation 30), adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change (Recommendation 31) and resilient (Recommendation 32).

Recommendation 31 provides a basis for identifying, prioritising and implementing transport infrastructure improvements. Measures could include but are not limited to strengthening or replacing sea walls, upgrading coastal fences and stabilising embankments, slopes and hillsides.

Scottish Government have also initiated a Significant Local Infrastructure process in which Local Resilience Partnerships are mapping infrastructure within their geographic areas. This will allow better understanding of this local infrastructure and will collate a rich picture to support further work, including identifying dependencies and interdependencies and allow improvements to business continuity and emergency response plans.

We would recommend that, should you require further information on storms and infrastructure in Aberdeenshire, you contact Aberdeenshire Council.

Permits to participate in recreational fishing are sold by owners of fishing rights on a private basis, not by the Scottish Government.

Where an individual wishes to obtain a permit to participate in recreational fishing, it would be advisable for the individual to contact the local district salmon fishery board or fisheries trust for local information.

The Scottish Government continues to fully fund local authorities to deliver 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare to eligible children across Scotland, backed by around £1 billion funding each year. Local authorities have a duty to make this service available to all eligible children within their area and are responsible for local service delivery planning.

At a national level, several work programmes are underway to support childcare access in rural and island communities. This includes funding a new national childminder recruitment and retention programme, making grants available to local authorities via the Addressing Depopulation Fund(two of which contain a focus on addressing childcare issues) and investing £16 million over two years into our 6 early adopter communities, including those in rural and island locations.

The Scottish Government is also committed to strengthening the childcare workforce. As set out in the draft Scottish Budget we will provide an additional £9.7 million to local authorities in 2025-26 to support an increase in the pay of childcare workers in the private and third sector delivering funded ELC so that they can be paid at least the Real Living Wage of £12.60 from April 2025.