Chamber and committees

Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is expected to leverage additional private investment of up to £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the offshore wind sector.

We are almost tripling our capital funding in offshore wind to £150 million in 2025-26. This strategic investment is being delivered through the Scottish National Investment Bank and our enterprise agencies, with public funds leveraging additional investment.

We welcome the commitment of developers to invest an average projection of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project across the 20 ScotWind offshore wind projects through the Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) process. We expect developers to honour their SCDS commitments, which were a condition of their being awarded Option Agreements.

A national public energy company that is involved in large-scale energy generation would only be possible in an independent Scotland where we had full powers over the energy market and full access to borrowing. The Green Industrial Strategy sets out how the people of Scotland will see maximum benefits from Scotland’s energy transition, including identifying Scotland’s wind economy as one of the five opportunity areas.

We are investing up to £500m over five years to anchor our offshore wind supply chain in Scotland and are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million in 2025-26.

Offshore oil and gas licensing, consenting and the associated fiscal regime are all matters that are currently reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government is taking the appropriate time to carefully consider the UK Government’s consultation on Building the North Sea’s Energy Future and its potential outcomes.

Alongside this consideration, Scottish Government Ministers and officials continue to engage with UK Government counterparts as well as trade unions, industry bodies and other stakeholders on a range of issues relevant to the energy transition.

We are clear in our own support for a just transition for Scotland’s oil and gas sector, that recognises the maturity of the North Sea basin and is in line with our climate change commitments. At the heart of our approach is ensuring a just transition for Scotland’s valued and highly skilled oil and gas workforces to a net-zero future.

The Scottish Government provided £750,000 to the UNRWA Flash Appeal for Gaza in November 2023. This funding was used to provide lifesaving food, medical aid and shelter to displaced people across the Gaza strip. Although we do not regularly fund UNRWA and currently have no plans for further contributions in 2025-2026, we remain steadfast in our support for the agency's continued operation.

UNRWA has a direct mandate from the UN to provide humanitarian aid and essential services across Gaza and the West Bank and there currently is no alternative for providing the scale of humanitarian aid which is so desperately required. Even since the Israeli Parliament's ban on UNRWA came into force on January 2025, at immense personal risk, UNRWA staff have continued to provide food and other essential humanitarian supplies to 2 million people in Gaza.

I am deeply concerned by Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA from operating in the occupied Palestinian Territories and urge them to reverse this decision. Israel must abide by its international obligations, end its siege and allow vital humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18505 on 28 September 2018. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18383 on 14 September 2018. 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

Following the debate in Parliament on 26 February on Scottish Enterprise Funding to Arms Companies, a Parliamentary motion was passed calling on Scottish Enterprise to “review its human rights due diligence checks to ensure that they take account of where products’ end use is, and that they fully comply with legal obligations under the Export Control Act 2002 and international law”.

In line with the motion, Scottish Enterprise immediately began work on its review. The Scottish Government continues to stay in close contact with Scottish Enterprise on this work, and I will update Parliament and wider stakeholders once the review has concluded.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise, I have asked Adrian Gillespie, the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, to respond to you directly.

The Scottish Government’s Guidance on due diligence: human rights sets out recommendations on how we, our executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake appropriate due diligence on companies, including their human rights record, before entering into an investment relationship with them.

As the guidance makes clear, this should include an assessment of whether an individual or company, including any parent or subsidiary, has been associated with human rights abuses anywhere in the world.

It is for the Accountable Officer of each agency and non-departmental public body to ensure that their organisation complies with guidance issued by Scottish Ministers.

In operationalising the Scottish Government guidance, Scottish Enterprise’s Customer Due Diligence Procedure sets out the process it follows in undertaking human rights due diligence checks on companies it works with. The other enterprise agencies have similar processes in place.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting people’s rights to public assembly and protest. The operational policing of protests and demonstrations is rightly a matter for Police Scotland and their priority will always be maintaining public safety. The Scottish Government supports Police Scotland, as a rights-based organisation, to take appropriate and proportionate action in response to any criminal offences and to maintain public order at, and around, such events. We have funded the Centre for Good Relations to run training courses to upskill stewards and marshals involved in facilitating marches, parades and protests. This training is available free of change and has received very positive feedback in 2024-25, which is why we are continuing to support this in 2025-26.