Chamber and committees

It will be the defining mission of this Scottish Government to support families with the cost of living and eradicate child poverty.

Our third Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, ‘Bringing Hope, Building Futures’ was published on 12 March and sets out a robust and enduring framework that will enable further progress against Scotland’s 2030 child poverty targets.

The Plan commits concrete action to drive continued progress. This includes investing £40 million in 2026-27 to deliver new support with transport and skills for families, increasing our Scottish Child Payment to £40 for families with a child under 1 during 2027-28, and investing to deliver a national breakfast club offer for primary school aged children with provision in all primary and special schools by August 2027.

Building on the actions we have taken to date, measures within the delivery plan are estimated to keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year.

We have committed to go even further to help people keep more money in their pockets and tackle child poverty. This includes introducing legal price caps on a range of essential food in big supermarkets, expanding support for childcare to all children from nine-months to the end of primary school, and introducing a £2 nationwide cap on bus fares to lower people’s travel costs.

The Scottish Government has supported the development of Men’s Sheds across Scotland for over a decade, recognising their important role in improving health, wellbeing and social connection. We have invested more than £1 million in the Scottish Men’s Sheds Association (SMSA) to support the growth and sustainability of the movement, which has helped expand the network from a small number of Sheds to over 200 groups across all 32 local authority areas, with new Sheds continuing to form.

As part of this overall investment, the SMSA received £72,264 from the Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund to support the development of Sheds in the Highland area.

The SMSA provides guidance, and advice on all governance and infrastructure matters to both new and existing Sheds. The SMSA also helps Sheds secure appropriate insurance, health and safety compliance, develop sustainable funding models, and access training, resources and peer support networks. In addition, it offers practical assistance to allow Sheds to operate effectively and remain viable over time.

Individual Sheds are however responsible for securing their own funding and, collectively, have received £452,819 through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults in the first four years of the Fund.

The Scottish Government has confirmed funding of £75,000 for financial year 2026-27 to the Scottish Men’s Sheds Association in Scotland.

We welcome the fact that in Scotland we have tough legislation in place to deal with livestock worrying. The Scottish Government supported Emma Harper’s member’s bill when it was introduced, to provide Police Scotland and the courts with greater powers to deal with those who allow their dogs to worry, attack, or kill livestock in Scotland’s countryside. Under this law owners of dogs that attack or worry livestock can be fined up to £40,000 or face a prison sentence of up to 12 months.

Please find the following tables with information about the highest fine (table 1) and custodial sentence imposed (table 2) in each of the last two years under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Scotland) Act 1953 or the amendment, and how many people received these. This information has been extracted from the management information data used to prepare the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard

Table 1: The highest fine imposed each year and number of accused who received it.

The 2025-26 budget and Programme for Government set out current infrastructure investment commitments for acute sites, and this was reconfirmed in the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline published on 13 January.

The financial position is expected to remain challenging and to ensure that available capital funding can be directed to best effect, we are currently working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland. This will support continued safe and effective use of existing facilities as well as informing future investment priorities based on assessment of need across the whole of Scotland.

The first phase, Business Continuity Planning, is focussed on priority investment in the existing estate to support service continuity. Boards have already completed their risk-based assessments and received confirmation of items which can be progressed with additional funding from the Scottish Government.

The second phase is focussed on the longer-term development of the estate to meet national, regional and local needs. All health boards have been asked to undertake strategic needs assessments for three local investment priorities. Returns will then be considered on a whole of Scotland basis.

This approach aligns with the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, which was published in June. You may also find DL(2025) 15 helpful, which provides further information on NHS whole system infrastructure planning (DL 2025-15).

In addition, NHS Boards have full delegated authority to allocate funding from within their annual capital allocation budget towards maintenance, equipment and other items of capital outlay. Any requests for capital funding outwith their annual capital allocation must follow the governance process and be approved by the appropriate Scottish Government official as outlined in the Annex to DL (2025) 15.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the contribution the whisky sector makes to our national economy and its strategic importance as the provider of high paid, skilled employment in many rural communities. This is particularly true of Speyside with the concentration of some of the most renowned distilleries in Scotland situated in the Speyside area. The previous Deputy First Minister saw first hand when opening the Cabrach distillery just how the whisky sector can provide the catalyst for local regeneration and bringing employment and tourism to some of our most rural communities.

Most recently, the First Minister was thanked by President Trump for making the case of the symbiotic partnership between the Scotch and US whisky industries. This helped in securing the commitment by the US President to remove whisky tariffs, in a significant boost for the Scottish whisky sector, helping to safeguard exports to this vital market. The US is the single most valuable country for Scotch whisky exports worth nearly £933m last year.

The Scottish Government has invested over £20 million to the “Sustaining Scotland Supplying the World” food and drink industry strategy since 2023 to drive growth across the entire food and drink sector, including whisky. This is supporting innovation, expanding market opportunities, and helping the industry accelerate progress towards our net-zero ambitions. In March 2026, we also launched the Food and Drink Processing Scheme Scotland as a key part of a £9 million package of capital funding to strengthen production and resilience across the country’s food and drink businesses.

The Six-Point Export Plan, delivered through the 2025-26 Programme for Government, strengthened support for businesses to access international markets, diversify their export destinations, and build global partnerships. These improvements now sit firmly within our export growth plan, A Trading Nation, as we continue to deliver and invest in the practical support that underpins export growth.

For the food and drink sector specifically, we have also provided over £7m since 2014 towards delivering the Scotland Food & Drink Export Plan, an SDI-led plan to help the industry exploit the most significant opportunities for Scotland with a team of food and drink specialists situated in our key markets around the globe.

Ministers and officials will continue to meet with the sector to understand the issues facing the industry and opportunities the sector can better leverage, in Speyside and across Scotland.

As outlined in our pledge over the first 100 Days of a new government and as set out in the Scottish Budget 2026-27, Scottish Spending Review 2026 and the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline 2026, published on 13 January, the Scottish Government is fully committed to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness and the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen.

The Scottish Government provided an update to Parliament on the A9 Dualling Programme in January 2026 and will be providing a further update to MSPs at the upcoming MSP Engagement Briefing in Parliament to which you will be invited. I can confirm that delivery of the A9 Dualling is currently on track as per the 2026 Delivery Plan, with 11 miles currently under construction.

The A9 Dualling Programme is estimated to cost £3.97 billion at April 2025 prices and the Scottish Government remains committed to completing the A9 Dualling programme by the end of 2035.

In terms of the A96, the Scottish Government supports the full dualling of the route. As part of this commitment the Scottish Government is already starting the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including Nairn Bypass.

With the land acquired for the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) in 2025, funding is included in the 2026-27 Budget to commence the delivery of advanced works. In parallel to the advanced works, investment in 2026-27 will also allow Transport Scotland to continue to take forward the work to determine the most suitable procurement option for delivering the scheme and further develop the Business Case.

The Scottish Government’s preference would be to deliver the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) as one project. However, due to the continued fiscal challenges, it is planned that the Scottish Government will take forward a phased approach to delivery, starting with the Nairn Bypass, followed by the remaining sections of the scheme, from Seafield, east of Inverness, to Balloch and then on from Balloch to the Nairn Bypass.

Completion of the preparatory work, including approval of the Business Case, will enable a firm timetable for delivery to be set as part of the annual budget setting process, with a view to commencing procurement of the main works contract for the Nairn Bypass within this Capital Spending Review period.

The Capital Spending Review also allows for the commencement of construction of the Nairn Bypass in 2029-30, subject to business case approval and confirmation of funding beyond the spending review period.

Despite the current fiscal position and following the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme, the Scottish Government will continue to progress dualling of the A96 eastwards, including an Elgin Bypass.

The Scottish Budget 2026-27 contains no provisions to reopen the Local Bridge Maintenance Fund and no requests from any MSPs and opposition parties were received in developing the budget.

Determinations by Scottish Ministers will only be taken after careful consideration of all relevant information, the Reporter's assessment and recommendations from the public inquiries.

Scottish Ministers have an ambition to determine priority applications for transmission infrastructure within 52 weeks of the date of application.

Officials have routine meetings with SSEN Transmission in relation toa range of matters. While application handling processes and associated timescales may be discussed as part of routine engagement, no specific date for determination of the proposed Kintore to Tealing electricity transmission line has been confirmed through those discussions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43830 on 2 March 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