Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Promoting A More Inclusive Society (PAMIS) to develop the Changing Places Toilet Scotland Fund, which launched on 7 August 2025. PAMIS monitor the number and location of active Changing Places Toilets across Scotland, which are registered through PAMIS. Further information about Changing Places Toilets available across Scotland can be found on the Interactive Map.

Within the Highlands and Islands region specifically, there are currently 29 Changing Places Toilets. A breakdown by local authority has is provided in the following table.

The Scottish Government will continue to actively engage with our partners and our farming industry through Autumn 2025 to inform the drafting of the first Rural Support Plan and to meet the requirements set out by the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 on engagement. This process will not involve the publication of a draft plan. The 2024 Act requires the Scottish Minister to lay a statement describing the engagement undertaken in respect of the plan at the same time as laying the plan. The Scottish Government intends to complete this process and publish the first Rural Support Plan in December 2025.

For further background I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39056 on 10 July 2025. 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.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to meet the statutory duties stemming from Part 9 of the Community Empowerment Act (Scotland) 2015 through a range of guidance and collaborative networks, supporting and strengthening local expertise.

In partnership with the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), earlier this year the Scottish Government arranged workshops to provide a high-level overview of the legislative requirements of Part 9 and an opportunity for allotment officers to share best practice and network. As a direct consequence of positive feedback received from these workshops, ongoing networking and mutual support will be facilitated when APSE establish a specific allotment and community growing network in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government has also published detailed guidance to assist local authorities in fulfilling their Part 9 statutory duties:

• Allotments: duty to prepare a food growing strategy – guidance for local authorities
• Allotments: guidance for local authorities – Introduction to Part 9 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015

While the Scottish Government provides support and guidance, decisions regarding allotment provision ultimately rest with individual local authorities. As per the statutory duties under Part 9, they are expected to take reasonable steps to meet their obligations where specific demand for allotments is met.

Since the start of the Baby Box Programme in 2017 up to 22 August 2025, 352,165 Baby Boxes have been delivered to families across Scotland. The Baby Box Managing agent, APS Group (Scotland), have received 190 reports of faulty or damaged items, below is the breakdown of this figure:

The scoring process for applications is based on criteria that do not require information on whether the applications are creating new, expanding or reinvigorating existing growing sites. Since 2021 we have awarded over £491,000 to Green Action Trust, with 55 community organisations and projects across Scotland receiving a share of this funding.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting communities across Scotland to access land for growing food. While there is no dedicated national funding stream specifically for community established allotments, given the cross-cutting benefits delivered by community growing projects, communities may be able to access support through broader programmes that promote community-led regeneration and increased access to nutritious food.

We continue to work with partners to promote good practice and facilitate access to resources that support community growing. Communities are encouraged to engage with their local authority and explore opportunities through existing regeneration and community development programmes.

In addition to this, since 2021 we have awarded over £491,000 to enable Green Action Trust to deliver the Growing Food Together Fund. The fund is hugely popular and enables community groups to expand their growing area and season with new and improved infrastructure including new raised beds, polytunnels etc. This year a further 14 eligible community groups across Scotland were successful and have been awarded a share of £100,000. This brings the total number of community organisations and projects supported over the last five rounds to 55.

Organic farming statistics for the UK are published annually by Defra. The following table shows the area of fully organic land farmed in Scotland since 2007:

Transport Scotland has had no requests for support from Argyll and Bute Council regarding the closure of the B8035. Transport Scotland has responsibility for the trunk road network, and as such has no responsibility for the maintenance or repair of any local road.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.

Between January 2021 and July 2025 a total of £2,463,260.88 of Payment Adjustment Factors (PAFs) have been applied to our Trunk Road Maintenance Contracts. The table below provides and annual summary and totals.

The Scottish Government’s universal Baby Box programme, the only one in the UK, opened for registration on 15 June 2017 and nationwide delivery of Baby Boxes began on 15 August 2017. Every baby born and resident in Scotland is eligible for a Baby Box.

To receive a Baby Box parents have to opt in to receive a Baby Box through the registration process via their midwife.

The following table details the number of births registered each year, the number of Baby Box registrations and the number of families who did not register for a Baby Box.