Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to taking forward work on the three proposed fixed links identified as part of the second Strategic Transport Review (STPR2) under Recommendation 41. Noting that STPR2 is a long term plan, the next step is in determining whether there is a robust enough business case and local support to progress these options for more detailed consideration.

The business cases for a potential Sound of Harris, Sound of Barra fixed links and a fixed link between Mull and Scottish mainland would need to consider the benefits, costs and challenges associated with these interventions and would further consider the feasibility of improving island connectivity through additional fixed links.

The funding allocated in the draft Budget is for Orkney and Shetland Councils to improve inter-island connectivity in the way that best meets local needs, therefore distinct from the STPR2 recommendation.

Since 2021-22, Creative Scotland has distributed £19.1m to organisations registered in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Funding distributed to organisations with a base outside Scotland will either have an office in Scotland and/or the funded activity will be related to work in Scotland. Full breakdown as follows:

Creative Scotland, as the national development body for the arts, currently employ 143 staff across Scotland. This figure includes four Creative Scotland staff members located in the Highlands and Islands region.

Since April 2021, the National Theatre of Scotland has undertaken the following number of productions in Scotland and in the Highlands and Islands region:

Data on collisions which cause injury and take place on the road network, including adjacent pavements and cycle lanes, is collected by Police Scotland as part of the GB-wide dataset known as STATS19.

Within STATS19, vehicles involved in injury road collisions can be recorded as ‘bicycle’ or ‘electric motorcycle’. However, there is currently no systematic way of determining which of these vehicles would be described as illegal e-bikes.

The UK Government’s Department for Transport routinely produces estimates of the values assigned to the cost of road casualties and collisions in Great Britain for use in cost-benefit analysis of the prevention of road casualties and collisions in road schemes. However, as it is not possible to systematically identify collisions involving illegal e-bikes, it is not possible to use these figures to identify the costs of collisions involving illegal e-bikes.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This information is held by Police Scotland.

The £1.73 bn forecast export sales relates to details provided by Scottish Enterprise (SE) in the results against key performance measures section of its 2023-24 annual report. The figure is based on accumulated evidenced export sales forecasts directly from companies, reflecting their expectations of future sales over the next three year as a result of support they have received from SE.

The Scottish Government routinely monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of export support in Scotland, and in November 2023 it published an independent report by Aston University on export support and promotion in Scotland, which included analysis of SE’s export sales forecasts. The evaluation was retrospective and therefore encompassed SE’s forecast export sales for the period up to 2021. A follow up evaluation is currently being planned and will continue to include SE’s forecast export sales.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting community ownership to increase the diversity of land ownership and, despite severe financial pressures, we have maintained an allocation of £7.1 million for the Scottish Land Fund in 2025-26. We will seek to increase this allocation going forward, subject to ongoing budget pressures

Yes. The Scottish Government keeps a range of measures under consideration as it develops and finalises its Budget. Final decisions are communicated with the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) as soon as is practicable.

Enforcement of traffic offences, including the illegal use of e-scooters and electric bikes, is an operational matter for Police Scotland, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority which operates independently of Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government fully supports Police Scotland and its partners in dealing with the misuse of such vehicles. Local policing teams are ideally placed to identify where the misuse of such vehicles is causing distress to the public and ensure that those areas can be prioritised to prevent future incidents.

Police Scotland issued communications before Christmas, reminding people to consider the legal implications when purchasing an electric scooter or e-scooters. It urged people to be cautious when buying electric bikes or e-scooters reminding the public that some models may not be permitted for use on public roads and that anyone found riding a non-compliant e-bike or e-scooter on a public road will likely have it seized by officers, with a significant cost to the owner. It highlighted that further information on the use of electric bikes is available at: https://www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules.