Chamber and committees

Scottish Forestry operates a Strategic Timber Transport Scheme to support timber transport infrastructure improvements. Most recently, on 10 July, it announced that £900,000 has been allocated to 9 local authority projects this year. These projects are co-funded by the local authorities which include Highland Council, Scottish Borders Council, Argyll and Bute Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Ayrshire Roads Alliance. Another £945,000 this year is supporting the shipping of timber from Argyll to Ayrshire thereby removing approximately 75,000 tonnes from roads in those areas.

These are operational matters for Scottish Enterprise. I am advised by Scottish Enterprise that, since 2021-22, Cooperative Development Scotland has provided direct support to a total of 199 employee-owned companies and 94 co-operatives.

The following table shows the number of employee-owned companies and co-operatives that received direct support in each financial year:

Funding allocations within Scottish Enterprise are operational matters for the agency. I am advised by Scottish Enterprise that, through its most recent Letter of Engagement, it has been directed to ensure that it supports social enterprises, co-operatives and employee-owned businesses. Businesses using these models can access wider Scottish Enterprise services, provided they meet the general business criteria for those services.

We continue to work closely with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations, where it is practical and sensible to do so, on how best to achieve measures that improve sow welfare.

This work is ongoing and there is currently no specific timetable for the completion of the consultation.

Scotland’s education system is designed to be inclusive for all children and young people, with or without additional support needs(ASNs).

All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Education authorities are under a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and to review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs, including those who are deaf. They also have duties to employ teachers of deaf children and young people where support for a pupil is required.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the school workforce and the provision of additional support for learning. The 2026-27 Budget provides £186.5 million of additional resource to councils. This includes £28 million investment in the ASL workforce and builds on the £15 million each year for pupil support assistants. Councils have the flexibility to use this funding to increase the number of teachers of deaf children and young people in their area and provide other specialist support such as BSL Tutors and Communication Support Workers. Councils have also continued their record investment in additional support for learning, with almost £1.1 billion spent in 2024-25.

In addition to postgraduate qualifications in deaf education, professional learning opportunities in supporting children and young people with sensory needs are available via the Scottish Sensory Centre, Education Scotland and CALL Scotland.

Notwithstanding the support that the Scottish Government already provides to schools we recognise the need to go further and we have already committed to expanding the provision of BSL training for teachers and to ensuring that a pool of specialist teachers to support those children who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or deafblind. I will update Parliament on these plans in due course.

The Education (Scotland) Act 2025 ensures that the Qualifications Scotland and HMIE will have due regard to the specific needs and interests of those receiving BSL learner education or BSL medium education.

We are committed to making Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, work, visit and learn and will deliver on this through our BSL National Plan 2023-2029. The current National Plan 2023-2029 is ongoing, and Scottish Government will publish a midpoint Progress Report at the end of this year, which will include an overview of achievements and ongoing work.

Action 28 within the BSL National Plan recognises that hard-of-hearing and deafened people should have tools for them to communicate, including learning BSL.

There is currently no specific financial assistance available for hard of hearing and deafened people, funded directly by Scottish Government, to undertake accredited BSL learning.

Additionally, the Equalities, Human Rights, and Civil Justice Committee’s Report on the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 made recommendations, which Scottish Government has either fully or partially accepted. One of which was in relation to exploring the establishment of BSL courses. Work is in progress to scope this recommendation further.

We continue to work with and engage with our partners and stakeholders such as the Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) of the BSL National Plan to better understand the issues impacting on BSL users and their families and to address these issues.

In Scotland, the existing additional support for learning framework is well established and considered the right approach for our children.

The Scottish Government has long called for an effective Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary agreement to achieve some level of return to smoother, pre-Brexit, agri-food trade arrangements.

The Scottish Government welcomed the 19 May 2025 announcements (where the SPS outline agreement was described as part of the wider UK-EU reset summit and in a Common Understanding Document) – with the detail of the agreement yet to be finalized. Scottish Government officials have engaged with UK Government counterparts throughout the process on a range of issues, including animal welfare related matters.

The negotiations had been expected to conclude in advance of the UK-EU Summit, originally scheduled for the end of the month. However, following the resignation of the UK Prime Minister, the Summit has been postponed. Consequently, no further formal rounds of negotiation are expected to take place before September.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of specialist, gender-responsive support for women who have experienced gender-based violence.

Funding for the Women's Service at Murrays Initiative was provided through the National Drug Mission Fund, administered by Corra Foundation on behalf of the Scottish Government. The grant was awarded for a fixed period from 2021 to June 2026 and concluded in line with the terms of the grant agreement.

We remain committed to supporting women affected by gender-based violence through wider investment in services that prevent and respond to violence against women and girls and through our ongoing commitment to improving support for women affected by substance use and related harms. We will continue to engage with partners across the sector to help ensure that women can access appropriate support.