Chamber and committees

The Production Growth Fund aims to draw large-scale film and TV productions into Scotland; it does not directly target post-production or VFX work. Recent projects which were attracted to locate some or all of their production in the Highlands and Islands via the Production Growth Fund include the Netflix drama Department Q (which filmed partly in Caithness) and the feature film Jack of Spades (Argyll & Bute).

Post-production and VFX work is supported through Screen Scotland’s recently launched Project Post. This initiative was designed to help Scotland-based post-production facilities secure work that might otherwise go elsewhere. Screen Scotland is actively promoting the fund internationally to attract more business to Scotland. Any Scotland-based post-production or VFX facilities, including those in the Highlands and Islands, are encouraged to contact Screen Scotland to discuss how the Project Post fund could support their growth.

The number of homes completed through the demand led Rural and Islands Housing Fund by local authority area since 2023-24 is as follows:

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund is a demand-led fund. The following table shows how much the Scottish Government has spent on the Rural and Islands Housing Fund in each year since 2023-24, broken down by local authority area:

Each structure on the trunk road network is inspected every two years. Any defects found are recorded and categorised in terms of severity and extent. Currently, of the 2069 bridges on the trunk road network, 1939 are recorded as having defects. An assessment of the extent and severity of these defects is used to prioritise works and produce one and three year programmes for repair. 270 bridges are deemed to have defects severe enough to programme specific works. Programmes are updated every year taking into account data from the previous year’s inspections.

Spreadsheet A contains a list of structures with defects along with their positions on the trunk road network.

Spreadsheet B contains a list of structures with programmed repairs along with the year in which they are due to commence, , with some schemes devised to address similar defects on multiple structures.

These can be found in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 66564)

The Rural and Island Housing Grant Scheme is expected to provide support to individuals including first time buyers, families, rural returners and others to help them access affordable owner occupation in the rural and island communities of their choice.

The development of this new grant scheme will be taken forward with rural and housing partners. It has an indicative budget of up to £20 million over four years and will be demand-led.

The following table captures the number of businesses registered on the GlobalScot platform:

The Scottish Government does not hold the specific information requested and this would need to be sought from the operator. However, I can advise that the original cost of the CHFS2 contract included a forecast amount relating to agency staff of £729k.

The initial contract award period was extended by one year (Oct 2024 – Sept 2025) and the estimated costings provided did not separate out any agency costs.

The Scottish public sector delivers a wide range of digital services, and ensuring these are secure and resilient is critical. For more than five years, the Scottish Government has encouraged public bodies to adopt a proactive, risk-based governance approach, anchored in clear board-level accountability, to strengthen their cyber resilience.

The refreshed Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland (published November 2025) sets out the key priorities to build the cyber resilience maturity of the public sector. These include implementing robust security standards, controls and governance; maintaining and routinely testing incident response plans; ensuring staff are well-trained; and embedding learning from cyber incidents across Scotland and beyond.

The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) plays a central role in coordinating multi-agency responses to cyber incidents affecting the public sector. SC3 provides national support by working directly with organisations, sharing real-time and emerging threat intelligence and helping them mitigate risks. This strengthens preparedness for cyber incidents and ensures public bodies have the standards, tools and skills they need to build strong cyber resilience and fend off attacks.

In addition, the Scottish Government hosts quarterly Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network webinars, bringing together cyber and information security professionals from more than 180 public bodies. These sessions enable the sharing of good practice and lessons learned, provide updates on evolving threats and risks and help identify common challenges where government support.

The Scottish Government is not a formal reporting agency for cyber attacks or data breaches and therefore does not record the costs of ransomware attacks to public sector bodies, beyond the basic notifications encouraged by the voluntary Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incident Notification Procedure.

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) manages the Scotch and Specially Selected assurance schemes, including their marketing and branding, helping to highlight the quality and provenance behind them.

This activity is funded through levy payments as per the Quality Meat Scotland Order 2008. No Scottish Government funding has been provided to assist in the promotion of Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb or Specially Selected Pork since 2021. In addition, no promotional funding has been provided to any organisation for game.

In 2025-26, the Scottish Government is providing £45,000 of support for the venison sector which includes £20,000 towards enhancing the Scottish Quality Wild Venison Assurance Scheme, as well as £8,000 towards implementing a promotional work programme, alongside others including the Soil Association and Food for Life, that will inform public sector buyers around venison.