Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will provide an additional £20m to Creative Scotland for its Multi Year Funding programme in 2025-26. 193 of the 251 successful organisations that will be supported by Multi Year Funding are undertaking performances, exhibitions or events which include UK-wide tour dates.

Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Organisations, with a total budget of £6m for 2025/26 funded by the National Lottery, will also allow applications from Scottish cultural organisations for UK tours of up to three venues.

The Scottish Government is also providing £4m additional funding for Scottish Festivals in 2025/26. This includes £3m to significantly increase the value and reach of our Festivals EXPO Fund, which supports the development of work that can be taken across the UK and internationally.

The EXPO fund will also continue to support the Made in Scotland programme. So far, 104 shows have toured to 44 countries with the support of Made in Scotland’s Onward Touring fund, with some shows even touring year on year since 2009.

The Scottish Government's international offices all held both Burns Night and St Andrew's Day celebrations in the past year. These cultural celebrations have proven instrumental in fostering meaningful connections with international partners and engaging with Scotland's global diaspora. They provide valuable opportunities to showcase Scotland's rich cultural heritage while simultaneously advancing our trade and investment objectives.

The opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw is currently under review given ongoing budget pressures.

There are currently no plans to open an office in the Middle East.

We will continue to work closely with Scottish Development International (SDI) and its network of trade and investment offices around the world, which includes offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

A revised version of the maintenance programme listing, updated February 2025, can be found in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 65666).

Table A lists the works completed in 2024-25 with the recorded construction costs indicated against the month in which the works were recorded as being finished, bearing in mind that some works could have taken several months to undertake.

Table B provides an updated listing of works that have been identified and included within the forward maintenance programme along with the current estimated construction costs. Some of works are already underway and others will be programmed over the coming months/years in line with our annual prioritisation process. The timing of these works is also subject to the availability of funding and operational constraints.

NHS Education Scotland (NES) are responsible for the publication of GP data in Scotland.

The most recent data from 30 September 2024 that was published on 3 December 2024 includes a breakdown of GP numbers by Health Board and can be found here. NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Scottish Government commitment to increase the number of GPs by 800 does not include commitments at Health Board level.

NHS Education of Scotland (NES) are responsible for the publication of GP workforce data. The most recent data including a breakdown of GP numbers by Health Board can be found here. NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Two businesses were funded in 2021-22, with payments totalling £750,000, located within Mid Scotland & Fife (Region) and North East Scotland (Region).

Two businesses were funded in 2022-23, with payments totalling £570,000, both located within Mid Scotland & Fife (Region).

The Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) is intended to bring about a number of benefits from the removal of freight from roads to other modes of transport. These include environmental and social effects including improved public health through reduced local air pollution; increased road safety through reduced volumes of heavy vehicle traffic; improved traffic flows through reduced congestion; and lower overall emissions from moving freight from heavy goods vehicles to lower-emitting forms of transport.

A total of £70,443,984 has been allocated through the Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) since its introduction in 1997. Of this the spend on rail projects was £44,708,510, or 63% of the FFG budget. The spend on water projects was £25,735,474 which equates to 37% of the budget.