Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials met NHS Lothian on 7 March to discuss all their capital priorities, which includes the East Calder Medical Centre.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

HMP Glasgow is a nationally important infrastructure project which is committed to working with, and employing, local people.

Whilst this is a matter for the contractor, I understand Kier Construction has been actively engaged with representatives of Unite and met with them as recently as 1 April for further discussions.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all NHS facilities, including mental health units, provide a safe and therapeutic environment that complies with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) standards, though the size, age and complexity of the NHS estate means this is a challenging issue to manage. The Scottish Government believe that current levels of capital and maintenance funding allocated to NHS boards are adequate to meet these essential requirements, as it is allocated on a risk-based approach and is there to support boards in maintaining their existing estate, addressing backlog maintenance, and investing in necessary upgrades and new developments for mental health services.

The Total Operating Cost (TOC) budget for 2025-26 is set at £801.7 million, accounting for 1.3 percent of the overall Scottish Budget, as measured by Total Managed Expenditure.

In 2019-20, a change in approach to operating costs was implemented, which means a comparable figure for 2013 cannot be provided. Previously, costs, including staffing, were held centrally as part of the administration budget and also as part of portfolio budgets for staff who were implementing and delivering specific public services. Since 2019-20, Total Operating Costs have been aligned with the portfolio budgets they support, replacing the dual system where both administration and portfolio budgets funded operating costs.

It is not possible to provide all incidences where either REM or VMS indicated that a scallop vessel fished inside a nature conservation area since 2014. Our retention policy for camera data is one year and for position data as long as we feel necessary as per our privacy notice REM privacy statement found at: Remote Electronic Monitoring ("REM") systems on fishing vessels (2024): Privacy Notice - Fishing - remote electronic monitoring: privacy notice - gov.scot. We also do not have access to VMS data going back to 2014.

We can provide the number of detected cases submitted for enforcement action where VMS and/or REM was the initial method of detection since 2020.

2020 – 1

2021 – 2

2022 – 2

2023 – 2 (note these were for incursion into the Mull Crab box, designated to protect crab stocks)

2024 – 1

The original National Treatment Centre (NTC) programme included 6 centres with an initial cost estimate of £200 million, though budgets were not allocated for individual projects at that point.

The Scottish Government published economic modelling on 27 March 2025 which estimates the impact of Scottish Government policies on child poverty in Scotland. The report finds that Scottish Government policies will keep an estimated 70,000 children out of relative poverty in 2025-26, including 40,000 through investment in the Scottish Child Payment alone. The impact of Scottish Government policies is estimated to grow over time to keep 100,000 children out of poverty by 2028-29.

As set out in Best Start, Bright Futures, the Scottish Government recognises that a balanced approach is needed to effectively tackle child poverty and to meet the 2030 targets. This includes action focused across the three drivers of child poverty reduction: income from employment, the cost of living and income from social security and benefits in kind. On this basis, the Scottish Government has no current plans to publish economic modelling focused on how the Scottish Child Payment in isolation can meet the 2030 targets.

We know that employment can offer a sustainable route out of poverty for many families, and we remain committed to doing everything within the scope of our powers and budget to support parents to access employment and to increase their earnings. This includes through action focused on ensuring parents have access to the right employability and skills interventions to support them on their journey into and within work, and through action focused on strengthening the labour market and promotion of fair work practices.

The Scottish Government will publish our third child poverty delivery plan by the end of March 2026. We are in the process of consulting with a wide range of stakeholders to inform its development, building on the considerable evidence and action taken to date. We are clear on the scale of the challenge faced to meet the 2030 child poverty targets and the plan will set out action to drive further progress.

The draft 2025-26 Scottish Budget provides additional investment of £139 million for NHS infrastructure. This provides increased core capital funding for NHS Boards and, as a first step to lifting the capital pause, allows work on the replacement of some acute facilities to resume, as well as providing funding to address NHS Boards’ priority areas for infrastructure investment.

Despite this additional investment, the capital funding position remains challenging and there remains uncertainty in the longer-term funding position, as we await the outcome of the UK Government’s spending review. All due consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable, deliverable and provide best value, following the outcome of that review, this will include the National Treatment Centre in Livingston.

The number of fines issued for breaches of the landing obligation (discarding) since 2020 were.

0 issued in 2020

4 issued 2021

9 issued 2022

4 issued 2023

1 issued 2024

EY’s independent forecasts set out their estimates of future GVA growth across different parts of the UK. They forecast that Aberdeen’s GVA will grow on average 0.9% per annum between 2025 and 2028. The pace of growth in the region is largely expected to be impacted by their assessment of the long term decline in North Sea oil production and its impact on growth in the UK mining and quarrying sector.

The Scottish Government continues to support a just transition for Aberdeen and North East Scotland through the Aberdeen City Region Deal and Just Transition Fund (JTF). Through the Deal we are providing up to £125 million over 10 years to strengthen and diversify the regional economy. JTF is another 10 year programme supporting projects and communities to create jobs, support innovation and secure a highly skilled workforce. From this, £75 million has been allocated to date.

This is in addition to our recently completed Energy Transition Fund, protecting jobs, skills and knowledge in the region while supporting the creation of new jobs. Meanwhile, Aberdeen City has also benefited from £12.9 million Scottish Government regeneration investment since 2014. It will additionally benefit from our £400,000 commitment to support Our Union Street over 2024-25 and 2025-26.

All while we continue working with regional partners and UK Government to support the North East Scotland Investment Zone. This will include funding of up to £160 million over 10 years and the ability of the region to benefit from 100% retention of non-domestic rates. It will give partners the opportunity to invest in regeneration and infrastructure to support further growth within the Investment Zone.