Chamber and committees

Storage requirements for offshore wind are project-specific and vary depending on a wide-range of factors such as: the type of foundations, whether floating or fixed; project location; infrastructure availability; and deployment timelines. Each offshore wind developer will determine specific construction and storage solutions specific to their project.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The nursing workforce has increased by 16.0% over the last decade to 65,350.2 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff as at December 2025.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with NHS Education for Scotland (NES), now part of Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSDS), to develop a workforce planning tool to assess the future size and shape of the workforce. This tool uses historical inflows and outflows, including student intake data, to support projections of future workforce requirements.

This enables NHS Boards to plan their future workforce needs effectively. Workforce considerations are reflected in the student intake process and inform decisions on setting student intake targets.

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff. Ultimately, responsibility for recruitment lies with Health Boards, which must ensure safe and effective staffing levels are in place to deliver services.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor and consider a range of evidence in relation to the energy sector.

As part of this, we commissioned and published independent analysis on Scotland’s Energy System and Just Transition in 2023. An update, published in 2025, to the baseline data for this analysis found that the oil and gas sector supported an estimated 53,000 direct and indirect jobs in Scotland in 2022.

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.

The Scottish Government intend to deliver four further new major vessels, in addition to the two already deployed. These six major vessels in total along with the seven new small vessels will mean that this government has invested to renew over a third of CalMac’s entire fleet.

To improve services in the short term we have also extended the charter of MV Alfred to the end of the summer timetable.

Scottish Ministers are clear that island communities must have a strong and meaningful voice in the governance of Scotland’s ferry services. They have taken active steps to support this, including through representation on the boards of Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and CalMac Ferries Ltd. As a result, there are currently two island residents serving on the Board of CalMac Ferries Ltd.

Ministers will continue to use the public appointments process to actively encourage applications from individuals with lived experience of island communities, while ensuring that all appointments are made on merit and that boards have the skills required to deliver high-quality ferry services.

Work is ongoing with CMAL and CalMac Ferries Ltd to promote board opportunities within island communities and to support applications from individuals with direct experience of island life. Future appointment rounds, including the forthcoming CMAL campaign, will provide further opportunities to strengthen island representation on these boards.

Data on vacancy rates for medical and dental consultants, nursing and midwifery, and allied health professionals are collected quarterly and made publicly available through Turas Data Intelligence on the Official workforce statistics website - NHS Scotland Workforce Data. Data on vacancy rates for other groups are not held centrally.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing support to the City of Glasgow to complete the refurbishment of the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens to see them reopened to the public. We are currently awaiting an update regarding the restoration project which will inform a decision on what support is needed, as well as a revised timescales for reopening.

Since the demand-led Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund was announced in April 2023, of the 43 homes approved 30 homes have been reported as completed through the scheme.