Chamber and committees

The NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022– 2026 aims to maximise plant-based options in the provision of food in Hospitals across NHS Scotland, whilst ensuring that nutritional needs are met in line with the Food in Hospitals specification.

Transport Scotland has already allocated over £145 million of our 2024-25 budget to delivery partners across both Active Travel infrastructure and behaviour change. 2024-25 is the first year for a local authority and Regional Transport Partnerships led delivery model for infrastructure and behaviour change programmes that will encourage a shift towards more walking, wheeling and cycling. This funding remains in place.

The utmost importance is placed on balancing the Scottish Government’s budget each financial year. The Scottish Government and the whole of the public sector face a financial position that is extremely challenging. As with all programmes across Scottish Government, further active travel funding will need to be considered in this context for 2024-25. As the active and sustainable travel funding referred to in the Cabinet Secretary for Finance’s Pre-Budget Fiscal Update had not been allocated, no organisations nor local authorities will see their previously confirmed 2024-25 funding reduced as a result.

Operational decisions on matters such as staffing are the responsibility of individual colleges.

The Scottish Government expects every effort to be made by Scotland’s colleges, in consultation with trade unions, to protect jobs, while continuing to deliver provision to meet regional needs.

The Scottish Government maintains regular and ongoing communication with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on shared priorities. The Scottish Government and UKHSA do this through formal meetings, working groups, and collaborative efforts on public health issues such as disease surveillance, pandemic preparedness, emerging health threats and emergency response. UKHSA also provides expert advice and support to Public Health Scotland and other relevant bodies to ensure a coordinated approach to health security across the UK.

This collaboration plays a vital role in ensuring robust public health surveillance, managing health risks effectively and protecting Scotland’s population.

The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal includes a commitment of up to £5m from both the Scottish Government and the UK Government to assess the benefits and challenges of extending the Borders Railway to Carlisle. This includes the undertaking of associated detailed feasibility work to fully understand the factors associated with re-instatement of the railway. Whilst the project is still going through the business case development phase, no funding has yet been drawn down to date, however the Scottish Government remains committed to enabling Growth Deal Partners to progress this project.

We recognise that there are a number of complexities within this project and we need to make sure that the extensive feasibility work undertaken is fit for purpose from both a transport appraisal perspective as well as meeting Growth Deal criteria. The cross-border nature of this particular project also means that input and agreement from both Governments is needed for this to advance. The Scottish Government recently approved its contribution for the recruitment of a Project Manager to progress the feasibility work necessary to support the project business case and we hope similar approval is obtained from UK Government post October Spending Review to allow this element of the project to commence .

The Scottish Government continues to work with UK Government and Scottish Borders Council, the lead delivery partner, in an effort to move this project forward.

Scotland’s River Basin Management Plans 2021-2027 (RBMP) set out a range of actions aiming to improve the overall condition of Scotland’s water environment by 2027.

The Scottish Government invested almost £5m last year in the Water Environment Fund, a key element of the RBMP. Work continues this year providing access to rivers for migratory fish and restoring urban rivers providing benefits for biodiversity, climate change adaptation and flood management.

The most up to date RBMP classification information is available at the water classification hub.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30125 on 30 September 2024. 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.

Under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act VisitScotland have a duty to prepare and publish guidance for local authorities on the introduction and administration of a visitor levy. Whilst that guidance is for local authorities, it will be of interest to businesses and other organisations. Scottish Ministers are currently considering that guidance, as required under section 23 of the Act. Local authorities are best placed to provide guidance to businesses in their area on the specific visitor levy schemes they decide to put in place.

The Scottish Government, through Transport Scotland’s Trunk Road Casualty Reduction programme of works, is delivering signalisation works on the A75 at the Cuckoo Bridge Roundabout. The works are currently programmed to start on site in January 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing financial support for bereaved people on a low-income.

Funeral Support Payment has provided £51.1 million of support to over 26,000 people since launching in September 2019. The average award for 2024-25, up to 30 June 2024, is £2,065. There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment and in 2024/25 we increased the flat rate payment by 6.7%.

We are committed to continually reviewing and improving Funeral Support Payment; we substantially widened eligibility compared to the UK Government’s Funeral Expenses Payment at launch and have recently introduced legislation to make further improvements.