Chamber and committees

The draft Budget 2025-26 includes £5m of funding for Coastal Change to be included in the General Capital Grant provided to local authorities.

It is Scottish Government’s policy to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. The vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government considers that proposals for a case management portal is worth exploring and has been in discussion with stakeholders.

Section 8 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 makes provision for a qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) regime in Scotland and sets out when QOCS may be disapplied.

As set out in section 23(2) of the Act, the report on the 5 year review of Parts 1 to 3 must, in particular, contain information about the effect of the operation of section 8 on access to justice and the administration of Scottish courts.

The Scottish Government’s investment in rail covers a wide range of improvements and decarbonisation of rail services forms part of that, be it fleet replacement, investment in feeder stations, or electrification of railway lines and therefore is integrated into the rail budget figures to be found in the draft budget for 2025-26 in Chapter 8 – Transport

The information as requested is not available.

The house improvement option enables crofters to make both minor and significant improvements to their croft house. In 2023, we introduced energy efficiency measures, allowing crofters to apply for 80% grants of up to £38k, to improve the energy performance of their property and contribute to energy cost savings.

*Figures are broken down by the Rural Payments and Inspections Division by area not by local authority area.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £34m to the culture sector next financial year. This includes an additional £20 million for Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding programme. This will enable Creative Scotland to roll-out its multi-year funding programme from April 2025 – ensuring that the highest ever number of artists and organisations across Scotland including in the Highlands and Islands region receive regular funding. The Culture Collective programme will also be restarted which will benefit Scottish communities, community organisations, individual artists and freelancers.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the Pregnancy and Baby Payment in December 2018, 97,685 payments with a combined value of £43,041,145 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,371,294 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Transport Scotland has received considerable feedback and input through the Community Needs Assessment report, user survey, and community engagement events. This information has now been reviewed and a decision on the future service design for the Gourock-Dunoon passenger ferry service will be made shortly.

Preferred vessel options for the Gourock to Dunoon ferry service are being considered as part of the outline business case and this work is ongoing. Any investment in new vessels and infrastructure must offer value for money and be affordable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32831 on 16 January 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