Chamber and committees

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

In line with our Green Industrial Strategy, we are continuing to support Scotland’s energy transition. The draft 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an allocation of £25m to support the development of hydrogen and carbon capture technologies, as well as initiatives to support Scotland’s businesses and industries to decarbonise and innovative projects such as the Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen.

The judgements and issues in the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan are informed and influenced by recent developments in UK Government energy policy and by court decisions.

This is a rapidly changing landscape and we are taking time to reflect on those developments before drawing any conclusions and publishing a final strategy.

The Scottish Government is working closely with public sector delivery partners to identify priority investment opportunities designed to mobilise private investment in ports, manufacturing and fabrication, to maximise the economic opportunities from offshore wind. As set out in our Offshore Wind Focus paper, the approach to prioritisation is underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities, considering the combined impact of a programme of public sector investments. We are working with delivery partners to target funding at projects that will have a catalytic effect on wider economic growth, and identifying and prioritising those with potentially high Benefit Cost Ratios.

I have not recently met any of the local authorities listed to discuss the impact of major electricity infrastructure or energy infrastructure consenting reforms.

This investment is year two of our five-year commitment to invest up to £500m over five years, which is expected to leverage additional private investment of £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the offshore wind sector. This is based on the assessment of current pipeline of potential projects, conducted with public sector delivery partners, which estimates a multiplier effect of an average of three times the original public investment.

The Scottish Government’s Offshore Wind Focus paper identifies key strategic opportunities across ports & harbours infrastructure and the wider offshore wind supply chain. The strategic assessment conducted with public sector delivery partners, drawing from a range of evidence, industry reports and wider market intelligence, concluded that a cluster approach would be essential for Ports and Harbours, and identified priority clusters in Cromarty/Moray and Forth &Tay with supporting investments in the broader North East, West Coast and Shetland clusters. We are not releasing details of the projects or the full potential pipeline of opportunities at this time as this is commercially sensitive, and the individual investment opportunities are subject to rigorous due diligence and value for money assurance processes.

We are working closely with NHS Grampian on the development of a sustainable plan to support improvements in capacity.

We know that system wide capacity challenges are driving pressure on our Emergency Departments. To address this we have a clear plan to reduce delayed discharges, release acute capacity and bring down A&E waiting times.

The plan will be supported by £200 million targeted investment through the 2025-26 Budget, if approved by parliament, with NHS Grampian receiving a share of this funding. We will focus on shifting the balance of care from acute, to community and will bring about this change by ensuring every A&E department has a frailty unit linked to community re-enablement.

We continue to support and monitor all Health Boards to ensure all possible actions are being taken to support services and safeguard patient safety during the winter period. Planning for this winter builds on the effective measures which have supported our health and social care services in previous years.

My officials and I have been meeting regularly with the leadership of NHS Grampian to progress both immediate steps and a sustainable plan to ease capacity pressures with a focus on improving patient flow through the system, preventing SAS ambulance turnaround delays, and discharging as soon as patients are medically fit.

Foundation Year 2 (FY2) doctors are encouraged to apply for and start specialty training through a range of initiatives that increase awareness and exposure to specific specialties, including educational and career events and targeted Foundation placements/programmes. Additionally, pay enhancements, including an 8.5% pay rise for doctors in training, help to improve the financial appeal of specialty training.