Chamber and committees

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be delivered by the Glasgow 2026 Organising Company, in partnership with the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Scotland. Glasgow 2026 Ltd is the corporate vehicle established to deliver the Games. The event will be privately funded by the Commonwealth Games Federation, commercial income from ticketing, broadcast revenue, sponsorship, hospitality and merchandising, and additional investment from Commonwealth Games Australia.

This private investment will provide direct economic benefit for the Scottish supply chain. Glasgow 2026 Ltd has committed to the creation of a Scotland-focused procurement strategy which will provide operational and event-based contracts for Scottish suppliers and ultimately create a number of Scottish jobs, in line with other similar sized events. In addition, Glasgow 2026 Ltd will seek to make best use of the world-class event specialists in Scotland as it works to deliver the Games, providing further employment opportunities.

Visitors to the event are also expected to provide further direct spending into the economy. It is anticipated that approximately 500,000 tickets will be available for sale. Past Commonwealth Games have strongly supported the visitor economy, driving tourism and footfall. For example, 34% of all visitors to the West Midlands in 2022 said they were influenced to attend because of the Games. As with all major events it will undoubtedly bring visitors and media attention to the city, provide an opportunity to promote Scotland to key Commonwealth markets as well as reinforce our reputation as the perfect stage for events.

At this stage, Commonwealth Games Scotland estimate the total economic value of the Games to Scotland to be £150 million. Anticipated benefits will be assessed throughout the project planning phase and the event will be subject to a final socio-economic impact evaluation.

Housing developments are not commonly the focus of proposals submitted for Islands Programme funding.

Since 2021-22, four awards made through the Islands Programme have had the development of housing units among their deliverables. For some of these projects, the Islands Programme supported the delivery of enabling infrastructure, survey or other work required to proceed with the construction of housing units.

The following table provides a summary of housing projects that have received funding through the Islands Programme since 2021-22.

In 2024, the Scottish Government commissioned the Improvement Service with support from Assist FM, to map breakfast provision across Scotland. The results of this survey indicate that almost half of all primary and special schools in Scotland currently provide breakfasts in some form.

Existing breakfast club provision is delivered through a mixed model of delivery via a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. Therefore, we do not hold a data set or register of breakfast club delivery at individual local authority level, although this data may be available locally.

The Islands Programme awarded £120,000 in 2021-22, £72,000 in 2022-23 and £700,000 in 2023-24 to infrastructure projects supporting the delivery of housing units on islands.

Housing developments are not commonly the focus of proposals submitted for Islands Programme funding.

The Scottish Government has a track record of investment to improve croft housing. 186 croft houses have been built and recorded with Registers of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32085 on 19 December 2024. 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.

There is no business requirement for officials to record the time spent on specific tasks or their work more generally. These are completed as part of normal duties, along with other tasks appropriate to roles as civil servants. As such, the Civil Service does not assess or hold costing estimates with regards to the development of policy proposals.

In November 2024, the Scottish Government published its Asylum Right to Work pilot proposal. It proposes a number of changes to current UK policy with regards to the right to work for people seeking asylum.

Policy officials from both the Asylum & Refugee Integration team and the Population team contributed to development of the proposal, however there were no civil servants allocated to this work on a full-time basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32124 on 7 January 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 information as requested is not available.

In 2024, the Commission introduced a system of investigating crofters who appear to be non-resident and in breach of at least one of their duties. The project had positive results and has been well-received throughout the crofting counties. Allied to this, through Crofting Reform, we will look to strengthen residency and land use, creating a faster and more extensive enforcement process that will result in more active crofts and create opportunities for new entrants.

This Government recognises the importance of crofting to the sustainability of our rural and island communities and is committed to continuing to support crofters to live on and work their land.