The Scottish Government will carefully consider the Community Trade Union’s report as part of our continued commitment to the vitally important sector. We acted at pace in 2016 to secure the future for the Dalzell and Clydebridge steel works, rescuing more than 100 jobs, and retaining steel plate production in Scotland. To protect the interests of the Scottish workforce, the Scottish Government maintains regular engagement with the plant owners, the UK Government and other partners; and we will shortly respond to the UK Government consultation on the Plan for Steel.

A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) was published to accompany the introduction of the then Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill 2023. The BRIA can be found on the Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/visitor-levy-bill-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/

The BRIA was written using the best available information at the time, based on evidence gathered from engagement with relevant stakeholders. Local authorities are encouraged to actively consider the varying capacities of businesses in the local area. It is important that the administrative requirements on smaller businesses are minimised. If a council introduces a visitor levy it is required to establish a visitor levy forum, with members from businesses, communities, and tourism organisations, to provide the council with views on a visitor levy scheme.

An online reporting and payment platform is being developed by some Councils with the Improvement Service. This platform will be for use by businesses across Scotland to remit the visitor levy to the Council if their accommodation is liable and will help. This standardised system will help streamline the returns process and support businesses operating across multiple authorities.

VisitScotland is responsible for producing, and maintaining, guidance on the operation of the Visitor Levy. Following the outcome of the meetings with stakeholders, as referred to in the response to the question in S6W-35723 on
25 March 2025, we will work with VisitScotland as they consider any changes to guidance. This may include further information in relation to those operating their business within a local area with a Visitor Levy scheme.

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

The Scottish Government's procurement activities are conducted in compliance with the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Regulated procurements are transparently advertised on the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) website, ensuring open access to potential suppliers. A link to PCS is provided below for information.

Selection and Award Criteria are outlined in the published Contract Notice and are detailed within the associated tender documentation depending on the specific nature of the procurement. This approach supports the public procurement principles of fairness, transparency and equal treatment.

https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/

The Scottish Government is working with VisitScotland to establish a series of meetings which will include key representatives from the tourism industry and local government. These discussions will provide an opportunity to improve and refine published guidance including consideration of operational aspects of the levy such as administration, reporting, and forms.

Funding

The following tables set out how much the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) has spent on the delivery of Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) and Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs) in each of the last 5 complete financial years.

Accountability for, and funding of, Graduate Apprenticeships and Foundation Apprenticeships (delivered through colleges) was passed to the SFC in Academic Year (AY) 2021-22. In the same year SAAS became responsible for funding tuition fees for new GA enrolments.

In this time period, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) also provided funding for FAs and GAs that resulted in enrolments in addition to those below.

Table 1: Split of GA Funding Across SFC and SAAS from 2019-20 to 2023-24

Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and the top priority for this Government.

The Scottish Budget for 2025-26 outlines wide-ranging investment to deliver progress on our national mission to eradicate child poverty. This includes investment in breakfast clubs, to expand the provision of free school meals to around 25,000 more children and to develop the systems to mitigate the two-child limit.

We are continuing to invest in direct support through social security, including the ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment. Recently published statistics show that the Scottish Child Payment has provided over £1 billion of payments to eligible families since its launch in February 2021 to the end of December 2024, of which £62 million was issued to eligible families in South Lanarkshire. As of the end of December 2024 the families of more than 326,000 under 16’s across Scotland were actively benefiting from Scottish Child Payment, with over 19,600 of these within the South Lanarkshire local authority area.

Through our Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund, we awarded South Lanarkshire Council a total of £79,897 over 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support its ‘Pathways out of Poverty’ project. This project is working with families with a disabled child to test a holistic, person-centred model of support.

We are also supporting the Wise Group to deliver its relational mentoring programme, and in 2025-26 will make nearly £2.2 million available to allow ongoing delivery across six local authority areas, including South Lanarkshire. This investment will allow Wise Group to provide wraparound support to around 2,000 households in these areas.

In 2025-26, the Scottish Government continues to allocate over £3 billion a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living for households.

The Scottish Government will continue to do all we can within our powers and will leave no stone unturned across government as we seek to eradicate child poverty.

We know that many carers experience mental, physical, employment and financial impacts as a result of their caring role. We recognise that a highly effective mental health system must address all levels of need. It means recognising and responding to the many underlying social determinants, circumstances and inequalities that can affect people's mental health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy (https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-carers-strategy/) published in December 2022 sets out our cross-government approach to carer support and recognition, and sets out the importance of carers, including young carers, and their mental health.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan and the Workforce Action Plan were published jointly with COSLA in November 2023. Actions in the Delivery Plan cover a wide spectrum, from maintaining good mental wellbeing, to support in communities, to ensuring specialist services are available whenever needed.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan recognises the valuable role of carers and sets out our ambition to both improve carer awareness training for the mental health and wellbeing workforce and also improve access to wellbeing support for carers.

Our National Wellbeing Hub provides advice for unpaid carers, with information and resources to support carers to look after their mental health and wellbeing.

The National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions was published in September 2023. It aims to improve access to and the quality of psychological therapies and interventions so that people accessing help, including unpaid carers, have positive experiences.

Support for carers is one of the aims of the Core Mental Health Standards, which includes signposting to support and resources when needed. These standards were developed with the input of individuals with lived experience, including carers and set out clear expectations for what services will provide and to let individuals, their families and carers know what they can expect from a secondary mental health service. They emphasise the involvement of carers in care planning and decision-making, as well as the importance of gathering and acting on carer feedback.

Scottish Government grant making is allocated across portfolios to various parts of the third sector to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will be issued through third sector intermediary organisations. Spending is not specifically classified as allocated to geographical areas for third-sector organisations to deliver local services. Consequently the information requested is not available.

Details on region specific funding can be sourced from the regions Third Sector Interface (TSI) or via SCVO's funding tracker - https://funding.scot/

As noted in response to S6W-26881, NatureScot maintains a detailed FAQ section on the Nature Investment Partnership on their website, which has been recently updated https://www.nature.scot/doc/nature-investment-partnership-faqs. The information requested in parliamentary question S6W-35357 is available on this page.