Questions and answers

Question reference: S6F-04257

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-39717

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the £756 million in ScotWind option fees that it has received, how much of this revenue has been used to date and for what purposes.

A total of £756 million was generated from the initial ScotWind leasing round.

To date £96 million of this funding has been spent, all of it in 2022-23. This was used to support the overall fiscal position, with pressures set out as part of the Emergency Budget Review in Autumn 2022.

£364 million of ScotWind revenues have been profiled into 2025-26. Final decisions on formally drawing down the funding will be made at the end of the financial year.

The remaining £296 million has not yet been allocated with decisions on their deployment to be taken at individual Budgets, in line with Scottish Government priorities.

The current profiled utilisation of Scotwind funding in 2025-26 is as follows;

Portfolio	Detail	Scotwind Capital	Scotwind Resource	Total
F&LG	Responding to COSLA’s ask for funding to respond to the climate emergency by making available £40 million to target local priorities. Additionally, £20 million is allocated for Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council to enable them to sustain and improve interisland connectivity in the way that best meets local needs. £10 million has been dedicated to reform public services.	52.0	18.0	70.0
NZE*	Supporting offshore wind capital investment, nature restoration and energy and transition funds. Additionally, £25 million has been allocated to support economic growth at the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster.	179.9	5.0	184.9
RALRI	£16 million to progress transformation and reform of the agriculture and food and drink industries, including energy efficiency and improved resilience. The remaining funding will be targeted towards peatlands restoration and woodlands creation.	30.6	0.0	30.6
Transport	Supporting capital investment for sustainable and active travel programmes and low carbon programmes	78.5	0.0	78.5
	Total	341.0	23.0	364.0

*Net Zero and Energy has since been split between Housing and Climate Action and Energy.

Question reference: S6W-39710

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government at what time the last ScotRail service of the day on each route (a) currently departs and (b) departed in 2019.

Question reference: S6W-39885

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value was of all successful applications to the Place Based Invest Programme in 2024-25, broken down by eligible town.

Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) funding is allocated directly to Scotland’s 32 local authorities, who are responsible for targeting investment locally in line with the agreed objectives of the fund. As such, the Scottish Government does not receive applications from local organisations for this funding. A total of £5.465 million was made available to 17 local authorities in 2024-2025 via the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) as detailed in the following table:

Local Authority In Receipt Of PBIP Funding In 2024-2025	Total Value
Aberdeen City Council	£210,000.44
Aberdeenshire Council	£615,729.00
City of Edinburgh Council	£605,500.00
Clackmannanshire Council	£112,000.00
Dumfries and Galloway Council	£311,000.00
East Ayrshire Council	£392,582.94
East Dunbartonshire Council	£182,000.00
East Lothian Council	£128,500.00
Fife Council	£300,000.00
Inverclyde Council	£170,000.00
Moray Council	£200,000.00
North Ayrshire Council	£75,000.00
North Lanarkshire Council	£830,000.00
Perth and Kinross Council	£150,000.00
Renfrewshire Council	£300,000.00
South Lanarkshire Council	£588,600.00
West Lothian Council	£294,000.00
TOTAL	£5,464,912.38

Question reference: S6W-39892

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12986 by Jamie Hepburn on 20 December 2022, how many students have taken up a medical school place at the University of (a) Glasgow, (b) Edinburgh, (c) Aberdeen, (d) St Andrews and (e) Dundee, in each year since 2020-21.

The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university, have been provided in the following table.

The tables only cover those entering ‘pre-clinical medicine’ and do not include other students entering medical schools on ‘clinical medicine’ or students in continuing years of study.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine at Scottish Providers

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
The University of Aberdeen	215	220	280	300
The University of Dundee	185	185	195	230
The University of Edinburgh	235	255	285	275
The University of Glasgow	335	325	295	335
The University of St Andrews	175	250	190	190
Total	1,145	1,230	1,240	1,335

Source: HESA student data

Pre-clinical medicine as defined by HECOS subject classification '100276'

Entrants covers new students only

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5

Includes all domiciles of entrants

Question reference: S6W-39887

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value was of all successful applications to the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund in 2024-25, broken down by eligible town.

Question reference: S6W-39890

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding its Community and Renewable Energy Scheme has provided to support the repair of community-owned wind turbines in each year since 2021.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) scheme has, on occasion, provided ad hoc support to communities looking to repair small scale wind turbines. Currently, CARES supports renewable energy generation projects through its Community Energy Generation Growth Fund. While support is focussed on the development of new projects, repairs can be considered as part of a wider project on a case-by-case basis.

Since 2021, CARES has offered a total of £63,772 in funding to support the repair of community-owned wind turbines. £24,000 was offered in 2021 and £39,772 has been offered in 2025.

Question reference: S6W-39883

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value was of all successful applications to the Town Centre Capital Fund in 2024-25, broken down by eligible town.

Question reference: S6W-39903

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the StandWithUs UK Report - Voice of Students 2024/25, published in May 2025, what action it is taking to (a) combat and (b) reduce instances of antisemitism on university campuses.

There is no place for antisemitism, Islamophobia or any form of racism or discrimination in Scotland’s education system. Antisemitic statements, behaviour or offensive or threatening material either on line or in person in universities is wrong and not acceptable. Debate on the current conflict must be done in a courteous and respectful manner. We expect universities to have in place measures to safeguard students and staff and continue to build good relations on campus. Jewish students should be able to express their faith and identity openly and without fear.

We are aware of the StandWithUS UK Report and regularly receive reports from the Community Security Trust (CST) which chart the rise in antisemitism since the start of the current conflict in the Middle East.

My officials meet regularly with Universities Scotland, the Union of Jewish Students and the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and, at the end of August, met with a range of stakeholders, including Chaplaincy, Community Security Trust, Jewish Council of Scotland, Scottish Funding Council and Universities Scotland. The meeting provided the opportunity for stakeholders to share concerns on antisemitism on campuses, and the roles of key partners including higher education institutions, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Police Scotland in addressing those.

Any student who has experienced antisemitism should report it to their institutions, the Community Security Trust (CST) and Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39891

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment Scottish Water has made of any (a) wastewater assets and (b) sewerage infrastructure upgrades that may be needed in the future, broken down by local authority area, and on what date any such work (i) was first identified as required and (ii) is projected to be completed by.

During the current regulatory period (2021–2027), Scottish Water plans to invest over £6 billion in maintaining and improving Scotland’s water and wastewater infrastructure, including over £2.5 billion in wastewater investment. Scottish Water have provided an indicative breakdown of investment by local authority area for this period in the following table:

Local Authority Area	Wastewater	Water	General	Total
	£000,000	£000,000	£000,000	£000,000
Aberdeen City	38.6	51.9	1.9	92.3
Aberdeenshire	109.0	170.6	0.1	279.7
All East Unitary Authorities	6.5	39.1	2.3	47.9
All North Unitary Authorities	4.9	27.4	0.0	32.3
All South Unitary Authorities	11.3	40.6	0.0	51.9
All West Unitary Authorities	14.2	110.9	0.0	125.1
Angus	42.9	29.6	0.0	72.5
Argyll and Bute-Cowal & Bute	14.8	53.8	0.0	68.6
Argyll and Bute-North Argyll	16.5	62.2	0.0	78.7
City of Edinburgh	102.7	16.7	16.5	135.8
Clackmannanshire	19.0	1.5	5.1	25.6
Clackmannanshire (East)	0.0	1.7	0.0	1.7
Dumfries and Galloway	94.8	182.9	0.5	278.2
Dundee City	6.0	6.3	0.2	12.5
East Ayrshire	34.0	33.4	1.4	68.7
East Dunbartonshire	5.6	48.8	3.2	57.6
East Lothian	31.7	18.5	0.0	50.2
East Renfrewshire	25.9	32.1	0.0	58.0
Falkirk	56.5	17.4	0.0	73.9
Fife	129.6	36.5	0.0	166.0
Glasgow City	189.8	11.6	0.0	201.4
Glasgow City (South)	2.4	0.0	0.0	2.4
Highland	131.2	163.4	0.6	295.3
Inverclyde	11.6	10.2	0.3	22.2
Midlothian	39.2	43.9	0.0	83.1
Moray	32.6	47.1	0.0	79.7
Na H-Eileanan an Iar	8.9	40.1	0.0	49.0
North Ayrshire	33.2	33.3	0.0	66.6
North Lanarkshire	74.6	19.1	0.0	93.7
North Lanarkshire (West)	2.3	0.1	0.0	2.4
Orkney Islands	7.4	14.6	0.0	22.0
Orkney Islands (North)	3.8	0.0	0.0	3.8
Perth and Kinross	186.3	113.6	0.0	300.0
Perth and Kinross (West)	0.0	0.8	0.0	0.8
Renfrewshire	80.0	20.5	0.1	100.6
Scottish Borders	49.3	83.0	0.0	132.3
Scottish Water Wide	658.0	1,069.2	505.4	2,232.6
Shetland Islands	7.3	63.3	0.0	70.6
Shetland Islands (North)	1.9	0.0	0.0	1.9
South Ayrshire	35.2	105.1	0.0	140.3
South Lanarkshire	104.3	95.3	0.0	199.5
South Lanarkshire (West)	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.2
Stirling	67.3	88.8	0.1	156.2
West Dunbartonshire	16.7	29.1	0.0	45.9
West Lothian	58.6	19.9	0.0	78.5
West Lothian (West)	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1

Total	2,566.6	3,053.9	537.7	6,158.3

It should be noted that Scottish Water’s operational boundaries do not align precisely with local authority areas, and some projects may be categorised as Scottish Water-wide where they span multiple areas. Scottish Water does not routinely publish assessments or upgrade timelines broken down by local authority area, as its operational boundaries do not align with local government boundaries. Many infrastructure assets serve multiple communities or regions, and investment planning is undertaken at a system or catchment level.

Scottish Water provides details of live projects on an annual basis to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. The 2023-24 submission can be found at https://wics.scot/publications/scottish-water/annual-return-regulatory-accounts/2023-24-annual-return/2023-24-g-tables, with the 2024-25 submission due to be published later this year. Scottish Water also provides information about its capital investment programme on its website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/About-Us/Who-We-Are/Investment-Programme

The process for agreeing investment priorities for the next regulatory period (2027–2033) is underway. WICS has published its methodology for the Strategic Review of Charges, which will guide decisions on customer charges and investment levels. This can be accessed at: https://wics.scot/latest/wics-launches-methodology-2027-33. This process will determine Scottish Water’s level of investment and charges over the next 6-year period, taking into account long term priorities and the need to ensure sustained investment.

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