Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials have commissioned an Economic Impact Assessment of the value delivered by our investment in Glasgow Prestwick Airport. As previously set out to Parliament, a market testing exercise evaluating the potential for returning the airport to private ownership is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

We will publish key findings from the Economic Impact Assessment when the market testing exercise has been concluded.

Scottish Government Ministers have said they expect to spend at least the equivalent of the £97.1 million received in consequential funding on Cladding Remediation, and will do so.

Information on expenditure is published quarterly on the Scottish Government website:
Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

I have asked Colin Lancaster, Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board to respond. His response is as follows:-

Business continuity arrangements already exist for the Solicitor Contact Line (SLC). Should the GMB Union notify SLAB that their SCL members intend to progress to industrial action, SLAB will consider whether further contingency planning is needed to mitigate any potential impact of that action on those in police custody who do not already have a solicitor.

SLAB’s approach to discussions with the GMB has been collaborative and consultative. SLAB continues to engage regularly with the GMB and SCL staff. GMB is supportive of engaging with ACAS, which SLAB is currently arranging.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

Private landlords in Scotland are required to register with their local authority which has responsibility to investigate and take any necessary action arising from complaints from tenants of private rented properties.

Where a tenant believes their rented property does not meet the legal repairing standard, they can take their landlord to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing & Property Chamber). The Tribunal can enforce repairs by issuing the landlord with a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order (RSEO) which compels the landlord to carry out specific repairs within a set timeframe.

Where a landlord fails to comply with an RSEO the Tribunal will send a copy of the failure to comply decision to the local authority. The Tribunal may also issue a Rent Relief Order restricting the rent payable until the RSEO has been complied with. A local authority has powers to apply to the tribunal on behalf of vulnerable tenants.

I have asked Colin Lancaster, Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board to respond. His response is as follows:-

The Solicitor Contact Line (SCL) is a team of publicly funded criminal defence lawyers who provide telephone advice and in-person representation to suspects in police custody. The majority of publicly funded advice for those in police custody is provided by solicitors in private practice: SCL assists the around 30% who do not already have a solicitor, mostly by way of telephone advice.

Where SCL identify that in-person representation is needed, this will normally be provided by duty solicitors from either the private sector or the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office. The SCL provides contingency cover which is called upon in a small proportion of cases.

There has been no formal ballot for industrial action and it is unclear whether or when any such a ballot might take place. If the result of any ballot supports action, the form or extent of that action is also unclear. At this stage it is therefore not possible to comment on potential impacts.

Assessing the total economic impact of cybercrime losses on households in Scotland is challenging, as a significant proportion of these crimes are not reported to the police. In recognising the value of improving the evidence base on this topic, new questions were added to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) for 2023-24 onwards. New headline findings were then published on the 10th June 2025 (Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2023/24 - gov.scot).

Further analysis of the survey shows that 2.2% of adults (aged 16+) living in private households in 2023-24 lost money as victims of a cyber-enabled fraud or computer misuse crime. The vast majority of these crimes were fraud. The median amount lost was £103 per crime, though a minority lost significantly more with 9% of crimes above £1,000. In around half of all cases (48%), the ultimate direct economic impact on the household was limited, as they received a full or partial refund (most often from a bank or building society).

The Scottish Government remains committed to tackling school violence and supporting staff wellbeing.

In 2025-26, we are providing over £2m to implement the Violence Prevention Framework, delivering actions including addressing youth violence, the carrying of weapons and violence in and around schools.

The 2025-26 budget also sets out an additional £29 million of investment for Additional Support Needs (ASN). This will include an allocation for both local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce, with £28 million directed to local government and £1 million retained for national work. This investment will continue to be a joint endeavour with local authorities, who retain the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education in Scotland.

An agreement reached with COSLA will see local government and the Scottish Government working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025, freeze learning hours, and make meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. To support this, we are providing £186.5 million to local authorities in 2025/26 to restore overall teacher numbers across the country to 2023 levels and maximise the number of teaching posts available.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the work required to research, analyse and collate the data for each requested year would quickly breach the PQ cost threshold.

Some of the information is available on the Scottish Government website in the annual Budget documents, which will include budget allocations for some public bodies. Links to these are included below. The information only goes back to 2015-16 when Scottish Government revised its approach to provide greater transparency. Prior to this, spend on public bodies was generally amalgamated into portfolio budgets.

2023-24: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2023-24/documents/
2022-23: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2022-23/documents/
2021-22: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2021-22/documents/
2020-21: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2020-21/documents/
2019-20: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2019-20/documents/
2018-19: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-draft-budget-2018-19/documents/
2017-18: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-budget-draft-budget-2017-18/documents/
2016-17: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-finances-key-facts-figures/documents/
2015-16: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/21090/1/00460440.pdf

Further information may also be found on some public bodies’ funding in their published audited accounts, which can be found online on their websites. Links to these is provided in the National public bodies directory (https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/).

It is estimated that completion of the A9 Dualling Programme between Perth and Inverness will result in an average of three fewer fatalities annually with early analysis of dualling the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen estimating an average of one fewer fatality every two years.

It is important to acknowledge that PISA is one source of evidence amongst a broader set of data. Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (ACEL) 2023-24 data showed that ACEL levels for numeracy in primary and secondary schools were at their highest ever levels. The 2024 National Qualifications data also showed progress in maths attainment, with both entries and passes for Higher Mathematics increasing between 2019 and 2024.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland are taking forward the Curriculum Improvement Cycle which introduces a systematic approach designed to ensure that Scotland’s curriculum remains relevant, forward looking, clarifies the role of knowledge and ultimately supports high quality teaching and learning. The review is considering the curriculum in a planned and systemic way, including alignment between the Broad General Education and the Senior Phase.

Work to update all eight curricular areas of CfE is underway, with mathematics being prioritised. The National Mathematics Specialist Advisor has been working closely with Education Scotland to consider all elements of the mathematics curriculum, informed by a wide range of evidence, including PISA data. Outputs of this initial phase of work have been shared in the second discussion paper published by Education Scotland on 19 December 2024.

Work is underway to continue to update and strengthen the Literacy and English Curriculum through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. Other activities include Education Scotland publishing a suite of professional learning resources on Learning to Read in the Early Years, supported by complementary professional learning; and continued investment in the Read Write Count and Reading Schools programmes.

Inspiring young people to study STEM and promoting excellence in the delivery of STEM education sit at the heart of our STEM Education and Training Strategy. In the last Financial Year alone, the Scottish Government provided over £1.74 million to a range of organisations which support the high-quality delivery of STEM education.

The Scottish Government has committed to increasing international evidence around numeracy and literacy by re-joining the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for the assessments in 2027, and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) for the assessments in 2026. The next PISA assessments will take place in Scotland in September and October 2025. The Scottish Government and Education Scotland are developing a programme of support to help schools and pupils to participate in the assessments.