Chamber and committees

The Clydebridge Steelworks site has been non-operational since 2022. At the meeting of the Public Audit Committee on 25 February 2026 Jeffrey Kabel, Chief Transformation Officer at the Liberty Steel Group, advised that options were being explored for the future of the site and that the business had been engaging with Scottish Enterprise. Mr Kabel further stated that they were close to a significant development project for the site and that this would probably involve selling the site.

Local authorities and Registered Social Landlords can already access funding of up to £25 million through the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund to acquire or lease properties which can be used to provide homes to meet the needs of key workers. The Fund was launched in April 2023 and will run from 2023-24 to 2027-28. Information to assist local authorities and RSLs in acquiring properties is available on our website.

Local authorities and Registered Social Landlords should work closely with their Scottish Government area teams where they identify suitable projects.

The Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline sets out the infrastructure projects and programmes the Scottish Government will fund over the next four financial years.

The Scottish Government is working with all Health Boards to develop a whole system infrastructure plan to identify investment priorities across NHS Scotland. Projects that had previously begun the business case process but were then paused, such as the remaining National Treatment Centres, will be considered as part of this work.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with rural and island NHS Boards to ensure health workforce planning accounts for the unique recruitment and retention challenges faced in these areas. Any future expansion and improvement plans for Golden Hellos will be set out in due course.

The level of funding required to support any ferry service from Scotland to Europe will depend on the nature of the route, the strength of the commercial case and an assessment of value for money for the taxpayer.

Investment in ferry services to Europe from Scotland will be released once a full assessment of proposals for any such routes has been completed.

We have already invested an additional £100 million in 2026-27 to support delivery of commitments set out in the 25–26 Operational Improvement Plan, including action to reduce waiting times.

This funding is being allocated to Health Boards to support increased activity, including delivery of the commitment to undertake at least 50,000 operations and procedures within the first 100 days. Boards have flexibility to target this funding towards the specialties and services where waiting times are most challenged.

Information on the breakdown of these additional operations and procedures by specialty and location is not held centrally, as decisions on service delivery are made locally by Health Boards to reflect differing pressures and capacity across Scotland.

We are working at pace with Police Scotland to explore how to ensure we implement this manifesto commitment in the right way to effectively tackle the antisocial and criminal use of vehicles, including illegally modified e-bikes and e-scooters. The Scottish Government will keep Parliament updated regarding all progress made towards achieving this commitment.

Any conditions attached to grant funding for ferry services from Scotland to Europe will depend on the terms of scheme under which such a grant is made.

There is currently no fully established national clinical pathway for Ehlers–Danlos syndromes (EDS) or hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) specifically commissioned by NHS Scotland.

Clinical pathways, including any dedicated pathways for EDS or HSD, can be developed by individual NHS boards under established clinical governance arrangements, informed by clinical evidence, service needs and local population need.

Where proposals are put forward for pathway development, these are considered through established, clinically led processes by NHS and relevant national delivery partners.