Chamber and committees

Grants awarded through the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme are not paid at the point that the applications are approved. Payments can only be made once the successful applicants have completed the works and submitted their claim, which is then assessed by scheme officials.

Payments to Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme claimants are issued once a week. The most recent payments were made on 18 August 2026.

We are not aware of any delays in making payments in respect of submitted claims.

In 2025-26 the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) received 1,063 applications, of which 777 were approved and 154 were rejected. The remaining 132 applications have a variety of statuses including still to be assessed, withdrawn, or offer letters have been issued but have yet to be returned by the applicant.

Since April 2026, 156 applications have been approved and offered contracts, with 61 of those already accepted. A further 50 applications have either been withdrawn or rejected.

The following table provides the number of injury road collisions recorded by Police Scotland, by road speed limit for the years 2021 to 2025.

The Scottish Government recognises and greatly values the commitment of on-call firefighters and the flexibility of their primary employers in allowing them time off to provide the essential fire and rescue cover across Scotland. On-call firefighters are expected to obtain their employer's agreement to be released, where appropriate, for operational duties. On-call firefighters have contracts of employment with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and receive an annual retainer fee together with additional payments for incident attendance, training and other approved activities. These payments are made directly to the firefighter rather than to their primary employer. Businesses which employ on-call firefighters do not receive compensation when employees are released from their primary employment to respond to operational incidents.

The eligibility criteria for lodging a proposal to alter a Council Tax valuation band are set out in The Council Tax (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 1993 and are administered by Scottish Assessors, who are independent of national and local government.

The current framework provides a number of routes through which valuation bands may be reviewed. Council Taxpayers may make a proposal in prescribed circumstances, including within six months of becoming liable for Council Tax at a property. Similar rules exist in England and Wales.

In addition, Assessors have an ongoing statutory duty to maintain accurate valuation lists and may alter a valuation band where they are satisfied that an error has been made. As such, Assessors may accept informal requests for the valuation of a property at any time, without time limit. The decision whether to undertake such informal consideration of council tax banding is discretionary and therefore is one for the Assessor alone to make.

The Scottish Government has worked with Local Government, including through a joint programme of engagement in the last parliamentary session, to build agreement and inform debate on the future of Council Tax. This has involved independent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a public consultation which closed in January 2026 and engagement with members of the public and tax professionals. Analysis of this engagement and consultation activity will be published later this year. This will help to provide a clear evidence base for further work to build agreement on the future of Council Tax.

We are grateful to community councils for the role they played in responding to the wildfire and we have committed up to £3m of support to Highland Council to provide direct financial support to businesses affected by the Cairngorms wildfire. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with local partners on what further support may be required for the area in the longer term.

Community councils and other community-led organisations played an important role in supporting local residents and emergency responders during the Cairngorms wildfire, helping to strengthen the overall response.

In addition to the specific funding for those recovering from this incident, the Scottish Government supports all of Scotland's approximately 1,200 community councils through funding provided to the Improvement Service, which delivers practical advice and assistance. The Scottish Government also provides guidance and resources through the Ready.scot website and works with the Improvement Service to deliver webinars and communications to community councils to support preparedness and incident response at the local level.

Highland Council is leading the multi-agency recovery effort following the Cairngorms wildfire. On 4 August 2026, Scottish Ministers also agreed to Highland Council's request to activate the Bellwin Scheme, which provides emergency financial assistance to local authorities to help meet the cost of immediate action in response to major emergencies.

The Scottish Government funds Crisis Grants through the Scottish Welfare Fund to support individuals to meet immediate short-term needs when an emergency or a disaster has happened, and there would be a risk to wellbeing without a grant. Applications are administered by local authorities, including Highland Council and those impacted by the wildfire, aged 16 years or over, on a low income and have no access to other suitable financial support can apply at www.highland.gov.uk.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-02052 on13 August 2026.

The  Scottish Government provides the overall guidance to NHS Boards for patient travel expenses reimbursement - individual Boards are responsible for developing and applying their own policies, including reimbursement rates, ensuring patient care and safety.

The Patient Travel Expenses Scheme (PTES) is Scotland-wide and provides support to those in receipt of certain benefits. Financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

All Boards are expected to support patients and their families in identifying and accessing available support and Board patient travel contacts can provide advice on eligibility and assistance available with bookings and advance payments, where necessary. The costs of the reimbursement schemes are met from Boards’ budgets.

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.

Cancer remains a national priority for the NHS and Scottish Government which is why we published our ten-year cancer strategy for Scotland in June 2023, focused on improving cancer survival and providing equitable access to treatment.

Continued diagnostic pressure is affecting 62-day performance. This is seen particularly in the high-volume pathways including colorectal, urological and breast cancer pathways.

We have invested £40m over five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times, with a focus on urology, colorectal and breast.

Officials and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery are engaging with boards, including NHS Highland, regularly and continue to scrutinise improvement plans and performance trajectories to ensure they are deliverable, whilst considering how available funding may support additional activity.