Chamber and committees

Following our commitment in 2024 to invest up to £500m over five years in offshore wind infrastructure and supply chain, the Scottish Budget has allocated up to £93m for investment in 2026-27. We are working closely with industry and public sector delivery partners to identify and deliver projects at pace, with a continued focus on leveraging significant wider investment. Over the past two years, we have made £200 million of capital funding available and allocated £100 million, leveraging up to £370 million of private investment, with the potential to support over 2,000 jobs.

And overall to date, our investment of almost £150 million is crowding in a further £70m from UK public finance institutions and leveraging up to £670 million in private investment into projects with the potential to support up to 5,000 jobs.

The impact of global offshore wind market conditions, and delays to progress on key UK-level policy and system enablers – including Contracts for Difference, transmission charging, electricity grid connections, and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan – have affected short-term investor confidence. It is now more important than ever that the UK Government takes decisive action to ensure the Scottish project pipeline can be deployed quickly in order to deliver the thousands of offshore wind sector jobs that can support a just transition.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of continued access to specialist services to support Scotland’s deaf community. I am due to meet with members of the Cross Party Group on Deafness next month to learn directly from stakeholders and those with lived experience on access to audiology and wider services.

In addition to meeting with stakeholders, Scottish Government has published a number of plans which underline its commitment to providing support to those who are deaf in Scotland, including the British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan (2023-29) which has ten priority areas to address barriers to transport, justice and democratic participation which BSL users have highlighted.

A list of national support organisations for people with hearing loss and deafness can be found online at www.all-ears.nhs.scot/. Details of localised support services can be obtained from local authorities and health and social care partnerships.

Scottish public finances continue to face a challenging fiscal environment, with public services having to meet growing demand despite increasingly challenging settlements. Despite this, the Scottish Government remains committed to working with partners to continue to grow the community energy sector and has allocated £8.5 million to support community and local energy in 2026-27. This will support more communities across Scotland to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition by providing funding for them to develop renewable energy generation, heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects.

The overall reduction to Scottish Water’s 2026-27 allocation does not reflect a reduction in spending, but an increase in interest to be received by Scottish Government on voted loans issued to Scottish Water. Voted Loans remain consistent with 2025-26 levels at £170m. The Hydro Nation allocation has reduced from 2025-26 levels in line with contractual commitments.

In comparison to the 2025-26 ABR position, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA) allocation has reduced 1.8%. However, the ABR comparator includes in-year transfers predominantly for delivery of River Basin Management Plans and Marine funding which are expected to be repeated in 2026-27. Compared to the 2025-26 Budget Bill, SEPA’s funding has actually increased by £1.9m, to enable SEPA to deliver its statutory responsibilities.

SEPA will also receive in-year funding (in line with recent years) that will support, for example, the Water Environment Fund. ‘Core’ funding for SEPA has therefore increased with project funding to be confirmed in-year, in line with standard practice.

SEPA funds 57% of its operating costs from charging schemes, applying the principle of 'polluter pays'. SEPA’s income forecast increases by 5% in 2026-27, reducing demand for public funding.

Listed authorities play a key role in realising the ambitions of the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015, as they deliver services and information to BSL users where they live.

We fund British Deaf Association Scotland through the Equality and Human Rights Fund to support community engagement and bring lived experience, expertise and support to BSL local plans. On 3rd February 2026, the Scottish Government attended an annual event held by BDA Scotland in Glasgow. This event brought together listed authorities and members of the BSL community to share both their experiences of developing local plans and to provide examples of best practice as we move towards publication of the BSL National Plan progress report in November 2026.

In addition, the Scottish Government funds the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) to create a support network for listed authorities to enable opportunities to share good practice, resources and raise challenges around implementing local BSL plans. The network will encourage partnership working, improve data collection, foster connectivity and enable greater accountability on progress towards implementation of local plans.

This BSL National Plan (2023-2029) plan represents our ongoing commitment to making Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, work, visit and learn, in line with the principles of the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015. The Scottish Government is committed not only to delivering this six-year plan but also ensuring that continued efforts are made in improving the quality of life for BSL users. Ensuring equal access, opportunity, representation and inclusion are key components of our plan stemming across areas such as education, health, justice and culture. These are areas that the BSL community have told us are important to them.

We know there is more work to do and that is why we have accepted, either in part or fully, 40 out of 44 of the recommendations made in the recent Equalities, Human Rights, and Civil Justice Committee report into BSL, which covered key areas including education, health, justice, and transport. We will consider further 3 recommendations, and we have declined one recommendation as this is not within the remit of the Scottish Government to respond to. That declined recommendation is for the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services to consider as it relates to specific issues in the civil courts. These recommendations vary in scope and duration, with many being cross-portfolio, so we will continue that work as we head into the next parliamentary session. In addition, we will publish a progress report on the National Plan in November 2026, as per the requirements of the Act.

We continue to work with key partners who represent the Deaf and Deafblind communities in Scotland as part of the Implementation Advisory Group and are grateful for their provision of lived experience and expertise to help strengthen the delivery of the National plan, and our response to the committee recommendations.

Through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, we have provided over £1.7m to support organisations to provide access, advocacy, and support for Deaf and Deafblind people in Scotland.

We have deployed Scotwind revenues to boost the funding available across the Spending Review period, achieve smoother funding profiles, and support investment that provides longer term benefits for Scotland.

In 2026-27 £50 million is targeted at improving public services, and addressing the cost-of-living pressures faced by households. This funding is supporting public sector reform (£30m) and The Summer of Sport initiative (£20m). In 2027-28 £236 million has been deployed to resource, reflecting the challenging funding position in this year with the resource block grant growing just 0.3% in real terms, this funding hasn’t been allocated to specific projects yet.

As with all the deployment of Scotwind to support the resource position, the intention is to reverse this deployment if the funding position improves as has been achieved in previous years.

Transport Scotland will continue to support the project promoters in its advisory capacity and has long committed to fund station fit out and its annual operational costs.

We have received a request for Scottish Government funding to support Winchburgh Railway Station. As the business case for that project is currently being evaluated, no decisions have been taken at this stage on the nature or source of any funding contribution.