Chamber and committees

The 2025-26 draft budget provides £139 million additional investment for health infrastructure, allowing some work to resume on delivering new acute facilities, including the Princes Alexandra Eye Pavilion.

NHS Lothian have been invited to progress the business case and design work, however, the exact timeline has not been established as to when construction will start or when the project will be completed.

There are no chalk streams in Scotland, however, we are taking action to protect Scotland’s water environment from sewage overflows.

Our waterways are in good condition. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) considers 86.5% of our water environment to be high or good quality - up from 82% in 2014. SEPA, which regulates discharges from Scottish Water’s assets to the environment, acknowledges the sustained investment made by Scottish Water across the period 2015-21 has been a key driver of this improvement

The Out-turn report for the 2022-23 Affordable Housing Supply Programme will be published early in the New Year. The 2023-24 out-turn report is still in progress and we do not, at present, have an identified publication date.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of homes. They can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/

Other Affordable housing programme data is also available on our webpage Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot

The Scottish Government continually considers where regulation for farmed fish health is necessary.

We already have robust legislation, policies, and operational practices in place to ensure fish farmers are meeting statutory requirements on sealice reporting and management, mortality reporting, listed disease surveillance and containment of farmed fish. The aquaculture sector in Scotland shows a significant level of compliance with both legislative and voluntary requirements. Enactment in law of the finfish sector’s Code of Good Practice through existing legislative instruments would not necessarily significantly improve outcomes for fish health and, therefore, there are no plans for further legislation at this time.

Decisions on non-domestic rates for 2026-27 will be considered in the context of the Scottish Budget 2026-27.

The Scottish Budget 2025-26 announced a new 40% relief for hospitality premises, including grassroots music venues with a capacity of up to 1,500, which have a rateable value of up to £51,000, capped at £51,000 per business. Following the passage of the budget, the Scottish Government will update the MyGov website setting out the non-domestic rates reliefs available to provide information to applicants on this new relief.

We are aiming to publish the marine and coastal restoration plan by the end of 2025.

We do not currently have an overarching mechanism to record where restoration is taking place across Scotland. Not all restoration projects require a marine license, and the patchwork of other consents and licenses needed by restoration projects does not provide a coherent overview of restoration activity in a centrally held database. The registration process for restoration projects we consulted on earlier this year was intended as a first step to improve our understanding in this regard. We will continue to explore the feasibility of such a process as part of the development of the restoration plan.

The Level 4 tables that were published with the draft Budget 2025-26 provide a summary of the changes from the previous year but it is not practical to list the full detail of all the changes associated with the Local Government Settlement, particularly where that detail is already available to the Scottish Parliament.

The specific details of the £1.5 billion of Local Government transfers processed at the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25 are published in Schedule 3.1 of the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25: supporting document.

The Finance and Public Administration Committee recommended that the Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 Amendment Regulations 2024, which give effect to the Autumn Budget Revision, should be agreed at their meeting on 12 November 2024. The regulations were subsequently approved by the Scottish Parliament on 4 December 2024.

In the context of unauthorised work and listed buildings, Historic Environment Scotland’s role is advisory. Historic Environment Scotland has no legal powers in relation to enforcement and listed buildings in general, nor in ensuring that consultation occurs or that the minimum works needed to make a dangerous building safe are carried out. Legal powers related to enforcement and listed buildings lie with the planning authority and, in some circumstances, Scottish Ministers.

General Practitioners are experienced in preventing, diagnosing, and treating chronic kidney disease and follow established professional guidelines, including those by NICE, in supporting patients through this chronic condition.

Professional clinical management decisions about how best to prevent, diagnose and treat chronic kidney disease by primary care teams are the responsibility of NHS boards and primary care clinicians.