Frequent flyer mileage or other loyalty schemes are managed by airlines themselves and not by the Scottish Government's travel agent nor its Travel Management systems. Any membership of such schemes, and use of any accrued benefits is a personal matter for the traveller, and in line with the Scottish Government's travel policy, should be used for Scottish Government business travel only, and not for the travellers' personal gain. Air miles may be donated to a charity of the travel operator's choice.

Where a business journey is justified, Scottish Government Ministers and officials are required to travel in the most cost effective and time efficient manner available at the time of travelling.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for the creation of a Scottish mapping layer, this work went out to tender in 2025. Creation and validation of a map, with a spatial resolution of 10m, is currently underway with a scheduled finalisation date of end May 2026. This mapping layer will allow current Scottish bracken extent to be assessed, and the code and methodology will be transferred to Scottish Government geo-spatial analysts to allow future remapping of changes to bracken area. The Scottish LiDAR programme may also inform future iterations of the map. The intention is that the mapping layer will be available for general use and dissemination to stakeholders by summer 2026.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43118 on 27 January 2026. 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

Details of how many applications were live when responsibility transferred to the Minister for Public Finance on 18 December 2025 are as follows:

The current allocation of responsibility for consents under the Electricity Act 1989 is expected to continue for the remainder of this parliamentary term, unless a future change in portfolio responsibility is made.

The decision-making process is undertaken in accordance with the Electricity Act 1989, and other applicable regulations pertaining to applications depending on the specific details of each case. Recommendations are made in accordance with regulatory requirements, taking into account all material considerations, including the benefits of the development, the impacts, and accordance with relevant policy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43113 on 27 January 2026. 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 Scottish Government has published details of the publication costs for all the independence papers published during this parliamentary term, and they can be found at:

Building a New Scotland papers: costs - gov.scot

S6W-42127 on 25 November 2025. 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.

A Fresh Start with Independence: publication costs - gov.scot

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43110 on 27 January 2026. 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

Scotland House London is a unique collaboration between the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International, VisitScotland and Scotland Food & Drink, and provides a platform to showcase Scotland’s unique offer to key domestic and international audiences. The facility also provides a home in London for a range of Scottish businesses and organisations seeking to develop relationships, engage new markets and explore opportunities to succeed and grow.

Whilst the overall budget for SHL increases from £2.095m in 2025-26 to £4.111m in 2026-27 (a 96.2% rise), this increase is almost entirely due to a one-off capital charge of £2.019m required to extend the SHL office lease to November 2029. Importantly, the annual resource costs have not increased and remain at £1.660m. This is an accounting requirement. The cash lease payments will continue to be made over the 3 year period of the lease in the normal way.

Under International Financial Reporting Standard(IFRS) 16, long-term leases must be recognised as assets on the Scottish Government’s balance sheet. The total lease payments for the full three-year extension period amount to £2.019m. In accordance with IFRS 16, this full value must be recognised upfront as a right-of-use asset and corresponding lease liability in the Scottish Government’s Consolidated Accounts.

As required by HM Treasury rules, this results in £2.019m of capital budget cover being needed only in the year the lease is extended (2026-27). This is a single-year requirement only, covering the entire period to 2029, and therefore will not recur in future years’ budgets. This short-term extension to the current lease arrangements for SHL has been made to allow Ministers of the incoming administration, following the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, to take decisions on the Scottish Government's presence in London in the longer term.