We are aware that the fishing sector is not always understood as welcoming to women which can discourage women from entry. There are also reports of sexist attitudes, behaviour and language and this is unacceptable.

We would benefit from further research into views of men (of different ages) working in seafood jobs towards women and how these are changing, and we would be happy to explore options for collaborative working and for actions to be developed in partnership with the fishing industry and the wider research communities.

The Scottish Government is currently supporting a UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs project on “Co-designing an Evaluation Framework for Recruitment and Retention of Domestic Seafood Workers”. This project includes a survey and focus groups with people working in fishing, processing and aquaculture across the UK, including Scotland. The project will seek to explore questions related to barriers and opportunities for new entrants and across different project stages.

There are a wide range of existing legal protections that may be relevant in the context of unlawful activities by protestors. For example, criminal offences of acting in a disorderly manner, malicious mischief, threatening or abusive behaviour and breach of the peace may be relevant depending on the specific facts and circumstances arising. Application of any relevant laws is within the context of the general right to lawful protest. It is for Police Scotland to investigate any relevant conduct and for Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to decide whether to prosecute in any given case.

Police Scotland's develop and management of protocols for discovery of unexploded wartime military ordnance near critical infrastructure is a operational matter for the service which is scrutinised by the Scottish Police Authority. It is for Police Scotland, working with key stakeholder organisations across the UK to ensure that such protocols align with national security strategies.

The Scottish Government has a centrally-managed contract with Office Papers to supply newspapers on an ad-hoc rather than subscription basis. Costs are recharged to requesting cost centres. The contract allows for newspapers to be bought according to requirement, and cancelled when not required, for example during Parliamentary recesses. Details of purchases made under the contract in the last five financial years are in the following table.

Purchases in Financial Year 2020-21 were made by the Directorate for Learning, Directorate for Economic Development, Directorate for Legal Services, Directorate for Commercial and Procurement, Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support and the Directorate for Fair Work.

Purchases for 2021-22 were made by the Directorate for Learning, Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support and the Directorate for Commercial and Procurement.

All purchases in Financial Years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 were made by the Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support.

Some units may be subscribing to newspapers using their delegated budgets. This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government draft budget 2025-26 has been informed by planning forecasts provided by the Thrombectomy Advisory Group (TAG). Clinicians and third sector organisations, as well as NHS planning colleagues, are represented on the TAG and the information provided by them helps to inform decisions taken by the National Thrombectomy Programme Board.

Work is ongoing to establish how the £16 million funding announced in the Scottish budget, subject to parliamentary scrutiny, will be best used to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from thrombectomy.

From 1 April 2025, all ScotRail fares will increase by 3.8%, including season tickets and flexipasses.

We want more people to choose to travel by public transport for work, study and leisure but we know that people are still struggling with cost-of-living pressures and don’t always see public transport as affordable or attractive. That is why we have kept the rise this year as low as possible, while also supporting the generation of sufficient revenue to help maintain existing services, and contribute towards investment in infrastructure and fleets.

We are also continuing our 20% discounts on season tickets until September 2025 as planned.

Flexipass will also continue to offer 12 single (6 return) journeys and has recently been expanded to include the following stations: Exhibition Centre (Glasgow), Anderston, Motherwell, High Street (Glasgow), Charing Cross (Glasgow), Perth, Stirling, and Bathgate.

As independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, individual local authorities are statutorily required to produce a balanced budget, taking account of local needs and priorities in the process.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget will deliver record funding of over £15 billion for Local Authorities, a 4.7 per cent real terms increase, along with full discretion over Council Tax.

More frequent and meaningful engagement with COSLA and Councils, in the spirit of the Fiscal Framework with Local Government, was fundamental to the decisions that led to that record budget. It is Ministers intention to publish an update on the Fiscal Framework alongside the final Local Government Settlement and remain committed to working in partnership with Local Government but have no current plans to convene a national convention with local government.

Many applications do not proceed to assessment due to them either being withdrawn by the applicant or because they are identified as ineligible. No data is held on the numbers or types of these applications.

Of those eligible applications which are fully assessed the breakdown is in the following tables;

a) Successful applications

Transport Scotland invests in a variety of transportation projects and initiatives aimed at improving Scotland's transport infrastructure and promoting sustainable travel. This will include supporting bus services, including investing in zero-emission buses, developing and improving ferry services and investing in active travel infrastructure like cycle paths and footpaths.

Further details on these investment plans are contained in the Strategic Transport Projects Review page on Transport Scotland’s website.

The National Transport Strategy, published in February 2020, sets out our long-term vision for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system in Scotland. The vision is underpinned by four interconnected priorities: Reduces Inequalities, Takes Climate Action, Helps Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth and Improves our Health and Wellbeing. In December 2024, we published our fourth Delivery Plan which outlines the actions being taken by the Scottish Government to deliver these priorities, alongside a Monitoring and Evaluation report.

These initiatives will help to improve access to hospitals, health centres, pharmacies and other key health facilities across Scotland, however we do not directly invest in transport infrastructure for patients travelling to medical appointments.

The Scottish Government recognises that more could be done to bring health planning and transport planning together, in order to support this closer working, we published the Transport to Health Delivery Plan on 30 October 2024. This plan includes Commitment 12: ‘Transport Scotland will encourage Regional Transport Partnerships to have appropriate stakeholder groups with a remit on Transport to Health, which includes appropriate representation from local NHS Boards. In reviewing Partnerships’ Regional Transport Strategies, Transport Scotland will seek appropriate consideration of Transport to Health issues in their strategies’.