Data on collisions which cause injury and take place on the road network, including adjacent pavements and cycle lanes, is collected by Police Scotland as part of the GB-wide dataset known as STATS19.

Within STATS19, vehicles involved in injury road collisions can be recorded as ‘bicycle’ or ‘electric motorcycle’. However, there is currently no systematic way of determining which of these vehicles would be described as illegal e-bikes.

The UK Government’s Department for Transport routinely produces estimates of the values assigned to the cost of road casualties and collisions in Great Britain for use in cost-benefit analysis of the prevention of road casualties and collisions in road schemes. However, as it is not possible to systematically identify collisions involving illegal e-bikes, it is not possible to use these figures to identify the costs of collisions involving illegal e-bikes.

Since 2021-22, Creative Scotland distributed £251k to organisations registered in the EU (plus Norway). Full breakdown as follows:

As per Creative Scotland’s (CS) Regular Funding Organisation (RFO) handbook, CS works with organisations to ensure that expectations such as contribution to the development of the sector, best practice governance, management and leadership, and resilient financial health are met.

RFOs provide data and reports to CS on an annual basis and further detail on the monitoring data and information that CS gather can be found here: Project Monitoring | Creative Scotland

CS’ other funding activity to organisations is based on their Strategic Priorities and Funding Criteria, which is available on the following link: Strategic Framework and Funding Criteria | Creative Scotland

All overseas development assistance provided by the Scottish Government is guided by a rigorous process to ensure complete transparency and accountability focused on areas of need where Scotland’s aid can make an impact.

Following a review in 2021, and in consultation with our African partner country governments and civil society, the Scottish Government developed new thematic areas of focus directly aligned to the priorities of our partner country governments as set out in their respective development strategies. With a focus in particular on mitigating the impact on women and girls of the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing attainment gaps. As a part of this process, independent analysis and evidence papers were commissioned and published which underpin our two key larger areas of international development investment, namely the new health and inclusive education programming in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. A key consideration has been how best to focus international development investment on sectors in which Scotland can provide added value through existing expertise in relevant subject areas.

As new projects have launched, the participatory design phase has enabled delivery partners to engage with a range of stakeholders to continue to understand their needs and to work with them to create effective programmes that deliver for communities and align with national sector plans. A key example of this is our new Women and Girls Fund, under our Equalities Programme, where women and girl led groups in our partner countries have designed the scope of the Fund, towards advancing gender equality in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia.

Since 2021, all new international development investment has been guided by the Scottish Government’s International Development Principles. This includes provisions for ensuring that the Scottish Government and our delivery partners are transparent and accountable to local communities and the general public in our partner countries and in Scotland; and that all of our work has appropriate safeguarding policies and practices in place. Ongoing strong monitoring and evaluation is a key consideration throughout programme management processes.

No, we have not assessed the impact of closing some international offices on Scotland’s ability to promote exports and attract investment.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting community ownership to increase the diversity of land ownership and, despite severe financial pressures, we have maintained an allocation of £7.1 million for the Scottish Land Fund in 2025-26. We will seek to increase this allocation going forward, subject to ongoing budget pressures

The Scottish Government is a member of the Trading Standards Policy and Coordination Group. This Group is coordinated by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) as the representative organisation for local government in Scotland. The Group seek to provide:

• strategic leadership of the trading standards function across Scotland;
• and effective co-ordination of trading standards priorities between local and national government and recruitment and retention of trading standards staff.

Since April 2021, the National Theatre of Scotland has undertaken the following number of productions in Scotland and in the Highlands and Islands region:

Since April 2021, Scottish Opera has undertaken the following number of productions in Scotland and in the Highlands and Islands region:

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing safety across Scotland’s road network.

The Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030. This contains mode and user specific targets focussed on our priority areas, including pedestrians and cyclists.

The Scottish Government has allocated a record £36m for road safety investment in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes £10m for the Road Safety Improvement Fund to support local authorities reduce casualty and risk on the local road network, and over £4m to support the delivery of projects aimed at reducing pedestrian and cyclist casualties.

To further protect vulnerable road users, a national behaviour change campaign will launch in March 2025, encouraging all road users to recognise the road is a shared space. Additionally, a dedicated stakeholder group has been established to monitor risks, identify emerging trends, and develop measures to address specific safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.

These measures reflect the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to making Scotland’s roads safer for everyone.