It is not normally the case that Parliament is informed of determinations on consenting applications. However, given that Parliament is in recess and that the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm consenting application of significant interest and of strategic importance, I considered it appropriate and helpful to proactively inform Parliament of the decision made in relation to this application.

I can therefore advise that Scottish Ministers have today granted consent to the application for the Berwick Bank Offshore Windfarm which will be located in the North Sea in the outer Firth of Forth. It will be one of the world’s largest windfarms and will have an estimated capacity of 4.1GW. This decision has been taken after careful and lengthy consideration of the project’s potential environmental impact and its potential impacts on other users of the sea.

This decision is a major step in Scotland’s progress towards achieving net zero and tackling the climate crisis, as well as supporting national energy security and growing our green economy. Increasing renewable energy generation is critical to meeting our climate change targets, with climate change being one of the biggest threats to Scotland’s biodiversity and health of its marine ecosystems.

We are requiring that the developer must deliver environmental compensation to address the environmental impacts of this windfarm, alongside measures which will mitigate and minimise impacts to other sea users. The Scottish Government will work with SSE Renewables and stakeholders on proposed environmental compensatory measures required to address the impacts of the project.

Offshore wind is already one of Scotland’s greatest modern success stories – we now have the opportunity to deliver a potential offshore wind pipeline of over 40 GW putting us at the forefront of offshore wind development globally. This is the right decision for Scotland’s interests and will help to deliver significant benefits for our nation.

The determination paperwork can be found here: Section 36 Consent - Construction and Operation of Generating Station - Berwick Bank Wind Farm - Firth of Forth | marine.gov.scot.

In determining an application for a licence, NatureScot must consider whether the hunt is sustainable, in that it would not have an adverse effect on the conservation status of the species concerned, namely gannets.

In the case of the Guga Hunt licence issued this year, NatureScot have confirmed that a population viability analysis of the gannets at Sula Sgeir was completed and considered as part of their assessment prior to issuing the licence.

In issuing a licence to permit the taking of 500 gugas, NatureScot have concluded that this number will allow the gannet population to continue to recover and enable a sustainable future take. The previous licence issued in 2018 was for 2000 birds.

Microsoft 365 licences are required for the 1654 users of the Parliament IT systems to access their emails, SharePoint, MS Teams, and MS Office applications as well as providing advanced security features. The annual cost for these licences is £549K and covers the period 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026.

The current system requires a fundamental review to ensure equity, transparency and efficiency. Piloting, testing and evaluating possible new resourcing models will be essential. To gather evidence as to what would work best to deliver a reliable, high quality range of services within, and related to, secure care, the Scottish Government will consult in 2025-26 to assess viability and effectiveness of some of the proposed options.

Page 18 of the recently-published response to reimagining secure care confirms that position: The Scottish Government will work in partnership with Scotland Excel, secure providers and commissioning authorities to consult on and co-design a new national commissioning model that reflects our shared aspirations for the future of secure care. This process will consider potential changes in funding and commissioning arrangements to better serve the needs of children across Scotland.

Information on average waiting times for psychological services specifically following (a) pregnancy loss, (b) stillbirth, and (c) neonatal death is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Psychological services are delivered by NHS Boards. Boards report their overall performance against the 18 week referral to treatment standard, and this data, published quarterly by Public Health Scotland, does not include the reason for referral at this level of detail.

We continue to work with all NHS Boards to improve access to mental health and psychological services, including specific support for perinatal mental health and bereavement.

The Scottish Government undertake a range of regulatory and advisory activities to support the delivery of good indoor air quality in our homes. This includes:

• All new homes and new building work are subject to building regulations which include provisions on the supply of outside air and removal of pollutants to address indoor air quality.
• To comply with the statutory Tolerable Standard, all housing in Scotland must have satisfactory provision for lighting, ventilation and heating.
• Our Warmer Homes Scotland programme requires a ventilation plan for each home, to make sure the right ventilation systems are properly planned and installed where needed.
• Our Area Based Schemes (ABS) programme requires councils to plan projects that ensure adequate ventilation for households as part of a broader compliance to the PAS 2035 design and installation standard.
• The importance of warm homes as a factor in prevention of respiratory conditions is recognised in our clinical Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland.

As confirmed in the recently finalised Islands Connectivity Plan Strategic Approach, we will revisit the Freight Fares Review in the medium to long term.

Further details on revisiting the Freight Fares Review to explore ferry freight issues in more detail, considering all routes including to and from Colonsay, will be confirmed in due course.

Supporting families through access to high quality, affordable and accessible childcare is critical to the First Minister’s mission of eradicating child poverty. That is why, since 2021, the Scottish Government has prioritised investment of £1 billion per year in funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) for all 3- and 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds whose entry to primary school has been deferred, and those 2-year-olds who need it most.

Scotland is the only part of the UK to already offer 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds and eligible 2-year-olds regardless of their parents’ working status – putting children first. If families paid for this offer themselves, it would cost them more than £6,000 per eligible child per year.

Scotland continues to face one of the most difficult public spending environments since devolution. Despite this the Scottish Government remains committed to reaching more younger children with funded ELC that need it most, and the Programme for Government, published on 6 May 2025, set out that this year we will work with local authorities to maximise uptake of our existing offer for eligible 2-year-olds to ensure that as many children as possible benefit from the current offer.

In terms of planning for a future potential expansion, we are investing up to £16 million over 2 years within 23 Early Adopter Communities (EACs), across 6 local authority areas. The EACs are helping the Scottish Government and our local partners to understand what it takes to deliver childcare systems that support families with children from the early years to the end of primary school. This work is expanding access to affordable childcare for low-income families with children and evaluating the difference this can make.

It is important to recognise that the UK Government’s offer is not an expansion of universal childcare for all children under three. The new entitlement is only available to working families in England - those where parents earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage and work for 16 hours a week on average. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has made clear that, despite billions of investment by the UK Government, “the poorest one third of families will see almost no direct benefit from the new entitlements”. The difference in entitlements between the UK Government and Scottish Government reflects the Scottish Government’s policy intention that access to more hours of funded ELC is an investment in all children’s later outcomes - underpinned by national and international evidence.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Firefighters in Scotland do not currently have wearable tracking devices but this is an area that SFRS are exploring for the future.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Currently every frontline fire appliance has 4 sets of Breathing Apparatus (BA), 2 of which have integrated radio communication. SFRS will shortly be procuring BA sets to an upgraded standard and all of these will have integrated communication as standard.