Chamber and committees

The latest EY Attractiveness survey, published 11 July 2024, shows that for the ninth consecutive year Scotland was the top performing part of the UK for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects outside of London. Scotland remains highly attractive as an FDI destination, with 26% of investors looking to invest or expand in Scotland in the next year. This is up from 19.2% in 2022 and ranks behind only London – as well as being well ahead of the UK’s other regions and devolved administrations.

Information on how Scotland has performed relative to other UK nations and regions are available via the EY attractiveness survey (the latest results can be found here: ey-scotland-attractiveness-survey-07-2024.pdf) and the Department for Business and Trade Inward Investment Results (the latest results can be found here: DBT inward investment results 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Minister for Employment and Investment's answer to your question S6W-28567 on 30 July 2024 provided details on investment in Scotland for the past five years from a UK-based parent company. 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.

The Minister for Housing visited the Wester Hailes pilot on 4 July 2023 and met with local councillors, members of the City of Edinburgh Mixed Tenure Improvement Service (MTIS) Team and local tenants living in flats affected by the MTIS. Scottish Government officials meet City of Edinburgh Council regularly to discuss progress with the MTIS and any issues arising, most recently in July 2024 with another meeting expected in September.

Living Rent Edinburgh gave a deputation at the City of Edinburgh Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee on 27 August 2024, after which they shared their concerns with council officials. The council have extended an invitation to Edinburgh Living Rent to hold regular meetings with them to discuss and agree options to improve local engagement.

MTIS is the responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council and decisions related to service delivery are best discussed with the council.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP were commissioned by Scottish Ministers to carry out this independent assessment. The findings of this assessment have been shared with the Economy and Fair Work Committee.

The document has been published online: Economic Contribution of Grangemouth Refinery | Scottish Enterprise (scottish-enterprise.com).

We remain committed to delivering a Just Transition Plan that reflects the needs of the industrial site operators, workforce and the wider community and anticipate the launch of a draft plan for consultation in the coming months.

We will update the Parliament on the Grangemouth Just Transition Plan in due course.

The Scottish Government freeze on public sector marketing expenditure for the remainder of the year is a necessary decision to ensure we have a balanced budget. There will be some limited Scottish Government activity where costs have already been committed, or an essential need is identified, and the process to identify exceptions is still underway.

The number of thrombectomy patients treated at each thrombectomy hub is shown in the following table.

The Scottish Government is continuing with its due diligence process, which includes a value for money assessment.

Transport Scotland is in regular contact with Hargreaves, the developer for the Blindwells Development. The last meeting took place on 3 September 2024.

Following the UK Chancellor's July statement, the Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution.

We have sought to protect mental health funding, despite difficult decisions about reductions which affect all of Government.

Despite this reduction to the 2024-25 budget, we remain committed to taking forward our work across mental health, working closely with our key delivery bodies, partners and stakeholders. Our collective focus has to be on making as much difference as possible with our funding.

No elements of the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme will be discontinued in 2024-25. Savings were realised through pre-agreed changes in funding to the original pilots, which from 2024-25 will be funded by local areas rather than centrally by the Scottish Government. The DBI programme continues to grow – it is now live locally in 29 of the 31 Health and Social Care Partnership areas, with the remaining 2 actively preparing to go live in October 2024. In addition, 3 national pathways to DBI are live – via NHS24 and via call handling centres operated by Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

£756 million of ScotWind option fees were received, of which £96 million was used in 2022-23 to support the overall financial position. No ScotWind Revenues were utilised in 2023-24.

£200 million of ScotWind Revenues were profiled as required to support the funding position in the original Scottish Budget for 2024-25. As was set out in the Fiscal Statement to parliament on 3 September current planning is on the basis of utilising up to £460 million of additional ScotWind revenue funding in the current financial year, the entirety of the remaining Scotwind option fee funding.

The statement made clear the intention to reduce this down as far as possible depending on the final financial position, with an update on the in-year consequential position expected at the UK Budget on October 30th. Decisions on the future utilisation of ScotWind Revenues will be taken in due course.