Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-04726

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the education secretary has had with NHS boards and local authorities regarding the levying of fees for hospital teaching costs for children who routinely attend independent schools.

Question reference: S6W-37519

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it has adjusted income tax rates and bands since the start of the current parliamentary session.

Please see the following table setting out changes to Scottish Income Tax since the start of this parliamentary session.

Table 1: Scottish Income Tax Policy: Income Tax Rates and Bands, 2021-22 –
2023-24

	2021-22		2022-23		2023-24
Band Name	Income Range	Rate	Income Range	Rate	Income Range	Rate
Starter Rate	£12,571* - £14,667	19%	£12,571* - £14,732	19%	£12,571* - £14,732	19%
Basic Rate	£14,668 - £25,296	20%	£14,733 - £25,688	20%	£14,733- £25,688	20%
Intermediate Rate	£25,297 - £43,662	21%	£25,689 - £43,662	21%	£25,689 - £43,662	21%
Higher Rate	£43,663 - £150,000**	41%	£43,663 - £150,000**	41%	£43,663 - £125,140**	42%
Top Rate	Over £150,000**	46%	Over £150,000**	46%	Over £125,140**	47%

* Assumes individuals are in receipt of the Standard UK Personal Allowance

** Those earning more than £100,000 will see their Personal Allowance reduced by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000

Table 2: Scottish Income Tax Policy: Income Tax Rates and Bands, 2024-25 –
2025-26

	2024-25		2025-26
Band Name	Income Range	Rate	Income Range	Rate
Starter Rate	£12,571* - £14,876	19%	£12,571*- £15,397	19%
Basic Rate	£14,877- £26,561	20%	£15,398 - £27,491	20%
Intermediate Rate	£26,562 - £43,662	21%	£27,492 - £43,662	21%
Higher Rate	£43,663 - £75,000	42%	£43,663 - £75,000	42%
Advanced Rate	£75,001 - £125,140**	45%	£75,001 - £125,140**	45%
Top Rate	Over £125,140**	48%	Over £125,140**	48%

* Assumes individuals are in receipt of the Standard UK Personal Allowance

** Those earning more than £100,000 will see their Personal Allowance reduced by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000

Question reference: S6W-37532

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it (a) spent in Session 5, (b) has spent in the current parliamentary session to date and (c) estimates it will spend in total in Session 6 on private sector-led research and development projects.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes an annual report on Research and Development (R&D) expenditure by government departments. The latest report was published on 9 April 2025 and can be found at: Research and development expenditure by the UK government - Office for National Statistics. Please see Table 14 for data on Scottish Government purchased R&D (or funding provided for R&D) by receiving organisation for the 2023 financial year.

Comparable data for the 2022 financial year and the 2021 financial year are available at the following links. Earlier years data are not strictly comparable due to the reclassification of a research performing organisation.

2022 data:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/datasets/scienceengineeringandtechnologystatisticsreferencetables/current/previous/v11/goverd2022.xlsx

2021 data:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/datasets/scienceengineeringandtechnologystatisticsreferencetables/current/previous/v10/rftgoverd2021.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-37529

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to the Women’s Business Centre in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it plans to provide by the end of the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing women’s entrepreneurship and fostering an inclusive business environment, through implementation of the recommendations of the Pathways report on women in entrepreneurship, which consulted extensively to identify impactful measures that would address the gender gap.

To date we have supported a range of programmes including the South of Scotland Enterprise regional Pathways Pre-Start programme and the Pathways Funds. We are investing a record £6 million to support further Pathways implementation in the current financial year, transforming the number of women who start and scale businesses and widening participation in entrepreneurship.

Question reference: S6W-37523

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to the Scottish National Investment Bank in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it estimates it will have provided by the end of the current parliamentary session.

Audit Scotland published a report on the Scottish National Investment Bank’s performance on Thursday 15 May (Scottish National Investment Bank | Audit Scotland). Page 16 details the Capital and Resource allocations by year since the Bank was launched in November 2020:

Financial Year	Scottish Government capital allocation (£m)	Scottish Government resource allocation (£m)
2020-21	£75	£7.1
2021-22	£200	£5
2022-23	£206	£9
2023-24	£263	£5.8
2024-25	£174	£2.8
2025-26 (budget)	£200	£0
Total	£1,118	£29.7

Question reference: S6W-37530

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to develop Scotland as a tech start-up hub in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it plans to provide by the end of the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government has set the goal of establishing Scotland as one of Europe's leading start-up economies, fostering an environment where innovation and high-growth businesses flourish. Within this parliamentary term it has spent over £60 million to aide these ambitions with at least a further £23 million committed by the end of the Parliamentary term.

These figures do not include spend from our Enterprise Agencies or Entrepreneurial Education. In addition this does not include spend for financial year 2026-27 due to our single year budgeting process.

Question reference: S6W-37524

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on infrastructure in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it estimates it will have spent by the end of the current parliamentary session.

Over the current parliamentary term, we estimate that the total spend through the capital budget will be £31.1 billion. This is based on the latest figures available. The following table sets this out in detail.

Table 1: Total capital spending between 2021-22 and 2025-26, £ millions

Outturn 21-22

£ m

Outturn 22-23

£ m

Outturn 23-24

£ m

Budget Allocated at SBR

24-25

£ m

Budget Allocated at Scottish Budget 25-26

£ m

Total 21-22 to 25-26

£ m

Capital

5,402

6,296

5,953

6,266

7,199

31,116

Question reference: S6W-37527

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to businesses to enable them to pilot a four-day week in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it estimates it will have provided in total by the end of the current parliamentary session.

No funding has been provided to any private business this parliamentary session to pilot a 4 day working week and there is currently no planned funding for Private Sector Pilots. The Scottish Government recognises the environmental, health and wellbeing benefits, and efficiency gains that a four-day working week could bring and have taken forward unique pilots in public sector organisations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37531

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on rural entrepreneur funds in the current parliamentary session to date; how much it plans to spend by the end of the current parliamentary session, and whether it is its policy to create a £20 million rural entrepreneur fund.

This Government is committed to building a vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive rural economy.

We are widening participation in entrepreneurship, giving more people the opportunity to start, grow and scale their business. To date we have supported a range of programmes, including the South of Scotland Enterprise regional Pathways Pre-Start programme and the Pathways Funds. We are investing a record £6 million to support further Pathways implementation in the current financial year, transforming the number of women who start and scale businesses and widening participation in entrepreneurship.

Alongside this, we are supporting rural entrepreneurs through our Ecosystem Fund, which has invested a total of £2.6 million across 75 innovative projects since 2021, through our Techscaler network, through our wider support for our enterprise agencies, and through delivery of our National Innovation Strategy.

The Rural Entrepreneur Fund was a 2021-22 Programme for Government commitment to invest £20 million over the lifetime of the current parliament. However, in light of the challenging financial environment, the Scottish Resource Spending Review prioritised investment plans to ensure that they were deliverable, impactful and affordable. Consequently, there has been no money invested in the Rural Entrepreneur Fund to date.

Question reference: S6W-37525

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) monitors and (b) estimates the number of jobs supported by its infrastructure spending.

Our current Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) which was published alongside the last Capital Spending Review, estimated that annually, around 45,000 construction and maintenance jobs would be supported through the associated total capital investment. This information is not centrally monitored, however as part our annual reporting on the progress of the IIP, we include information on major capital projects and their contribution to local economic development.

Our annual IIP Progress Reports are published on the Scottish Government website and can be found by way of the following link www.gov.scot/infrastructure-investment-plan

Chamber and committees