Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43303 on 5 February 2026. 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.

Scottish Canals receives annual grant funding from the Scottish Government to support the delivery of its statutory duties, which include the safe operation, maintenance and stewardship of Scotland’s inland waterways and associated heritage assets. Over the last five years, this funding has enabled Scottish Canals to maintain essential canal infrastructure, support navigation and water management, undertake safety-critical repairs, protect historic structures, and contribute to wider regeneration, active travel and placemaking objectives along the canal network.

Scottish Canals sets out its corporate priorities through its annual Business Plan, with the 2026-27 plan to be published in due course.

The funding provided in 2026-27 will support Scottish Canals’ core statutory responsibilities, ensuring the network remains well maintained, navigable and safe for the public. It will protect essential infrastructure, strengthen long-term resilience, and support the thousands of people who use the waterways every day — whether boating, walking, wheeling, cycling or enjoying the surrounding public spaces. This investment will enable priority maintenance and asset management work, and help deliver activity that maximises the public, community and environmental benefits of Scotland’s canal network.

Scottish Canals is sponsored by Transport Scotland and operates within a well-established governance and accountability framework that ensures robust oversight of its performance, delivery and use of public funds.

This includes compliance with its Framework Document, regular sponsorship meetings and Ministerial engagement, scrutiny of corporate and business plans, monitoring of performance data, oversight of financial management and annual accounts in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual. Officials also attend Board meetings. In my Ministerial capacity, I also meet with Scottish Canals’ Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board regularly to discuss and review performance.

Together, these arrangements provide continuous assurance over Scottish Canals’ governance, delivery and stewardship of public funds.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43633 on 18 February 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 remains committed to continued investment in new vessels and supporting infrastructure at our ports and harbours across the ferry network. Full detail on the Scottish Governments ambitious vessel renewal and port upgrade programmes was published in May 2025 as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan – Vessels and Ports Plan.

This includes 13 new vessels across the CalMac fleet. Major infrastructure investment has also been achieved with the Islay enabling works and the Little Minch Infrastructure Programme: Tarbert (Harris), Lochmaddy (South Uist) and Uig (Skye) along with other smaller projects. Work also continues on major projects including Port Ellen Terminal Development, Ardrossan and Gasay works.

The MV Glen Sannox entered service in Jan 2025 and the MV Isle of Islay has been handed over to CalMac and is enroute to Scotland. In addition, CMAL purchased the MV Loch Frisa in 2021 and works recently commenced on the Cumbrae Slipway Replacement Project.

Our new four-year Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline which was published in January, contains projects over £5 million and programmes over £20 million which have agreed outline business cases (or equivalent) and agreed funding. These include a number of vessels, ports and harbours inclusions and we will report on the progress of delivering these every six months following the Scottish parliamentary election in May.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

Local authorities and independent fostering agencies are responsible for foster care recruitment. The Care Inspectorate is the official body responsible for registering, inspecting, and publishing national statistics regarding fostering services in Scotland. It publishes annual statistics on fostering services and foster carer numbers, with the latest report published on 28 October 2025. Fostering_and_adoption_statistical_bulletin_2024-2025.pdf

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of timely consenting decisions in delivering transmission infrastructure for Scotland’s net zero ambitions. Working in partnership with industry and communities, we remain committed to our ambition to achieve a 52-week determination process to deliver Scotland’s energy transition.

Since 2023 the Scottish Government has been working with the UK Government on its Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, which finally received Royal Assent in December. Included in the Act are provisions that minimise the risk of delays in the consenting process, including replacing judicial reviews with statutory appeals and removing the automatic public inquiry while retaining it as an option, both of which take effect from 18 February.

The Act granted other regulation-making powers to the Scottish Government, including the ability to set requirements for pre-application consultation and engagement of communities and to create a formal acceptance stage where we assess compliance before accepting applications. These powers are intended to further improve the efficiency of application processing, and we intend to consult on them later this year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43341 on 10 February 2026. 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’s performance management policy and procedure provide a structured, supportive framework to help staff maintain effective performance. Under these arrangements, line managers are responsible for dealing with any concerns about performance at an early stage and on an informal basis initially. If concerns continue, formal processes can apply.

Currently, within the core Scottish Government Director-General business areas, there are 6 employees subject to formal performance management procedures for less than effective performance.

The core Director-General business areas are:

Director-General Communities

Director-General Corporate

Director-General Economy

Director-General Education and Justice

Director-General Health and Social Care

Director-General Net Zero, Director-General Scottish Exchequer

Director-General Exchequer Strategy & Performance.

In 2026-27 the proposed Budget increases core funding into the college sector by £70m, with an additional £61.4 million in resource funding and an extra £8.2 million in capital funding. For clarity, those figures do not include college specific infrastructure projects, such as Dunfermline Learning Campus.

The total budget for colleges increases from £694 million in last year’s budget to £764 million in 2026-27, with the aim of providing stability for the sector and space to consider reforms which will help deliver sustainability in the future.

Work is underway by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) with the sector - including with Dundee and Angus College, Forth Valley College and West College Scotland - to consider future infrastructure needs and funding for specific infrastructure projects.