Chamber and committees

Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per child attending pre-school, and per primary and secondary pupil alongside allocations (accounting for teaching and tuition fees funding) per college and university place.

2024-25 figures for Pre-School, Primary and Secondary School will be available after the publication of the 2024-25 Scottish local government finance statistics in February – March 2026.

The Scottish Government do not hold data on Pre-School registrations prior to 2010.

Indicative University and College funding allocations for 2025-26 were published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) earlier this month. These include a cash terms increase in teaching funding for colleges, and a cash terms increase to the Main Teaching Grant (and teaching price) for Universities, compared with last year. These indicative figures have not been included in this table as the underlying calculation requires further details, including the number of controlled and non-controlled funded places, which are not yet available to SFC.

Further detail of College and University Indicative Funding Allocations for 2025-26 can be found at:

College Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council

University Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council

Table 1: Average Expenditure Per Place for each Education Level (Cash Terms)

The Scottish Budget continues to support businesses, including nightclubs and music venues, with a number of measures including maintaining the Small Business Bonus Scheme which remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK, and a freeze to the Basic Property Rate in 2025-26 which ensures that over 95 per cent of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.

Recognising the challenges faced by the hospitality sector 40 per cent relief is offered in 2025-26 for hospitality premises with a rateable value up to and including £51,000, including Grassroots Music Venues with a capacity of up to 1,500 people, capped at £110,000 per business. 100 per cent relief continues for hospitality premises located on islands, and in prescribed remote areas (Cape Wrath, Knoydart, and Scoraig), capped at £110,000 per business.

The Scottish Government continue to demonstrate steadfast support for culture and the arts in Scotland, with record-changing increases in funding for the sector. The highest ever number of artists and organisations will receive regular funding from Creative Scotland this financial year – including grassroots and community culture as well as the music sector.

The Scottish Government does not assess geographical variations in people accessing Scottish Medicines Consortium-approved therapies for advanced or complex Parkinson’s Disease. However, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery are having initial conversations about the potential to undertake Parkinson’s Disease pathway work, which we understand would help to explore and articulate pathways for therapies for advanced and complex Parkinson’s Disease.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) assesses the clinical and cost- effectiveness of newly licensed medicines on a once for Scotland basis and publishes advice for Health Boards to consider. It is expected that Health Board Area & Drug and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) will consider making an SMC-recommended medicine, or an equivalent, available on their local or regional formulary for routine prescribing within 90 days of SMC advice being published.

Health Boards are expected to apply common principles and processes in the introduction of newly licensed medicines to facilitate consistency of approach to local decision-making. The decision to prescribe a medicine, and which medicine to prescribe, is entirely for the clinician in charge of a person’s care, having considered their clinical condition, their safety, and any relevant clinical guidance.

Decision-making on Scotland’s vaccination programme continues to be guided by the independent, expert advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI currently advises flu vaccination for all those aged 65 years and over, along with individuals who have specific underlying health conditions.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the JCVI advised routine flu vaccination for those 65 years and over, as well as those with underlying health conditions. Scotland followed this advice.

Our programme was expanded during the pandemic in order to protect the people of Scotland, the NHS and the wider health and social care sector, while it was under severe COVID-related pressure. The programme was expanded to those aged 55 years and over in 2021, and then to those aged 50 years and over in 2022 and 2023.

In winter 2024, as we moved beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we reverted to the standard JCVI-advised groups and those aged 50-64 years were no longer included. This is in line with JCVI advice, endorsed by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer.

In 2023, the Scottish Government provided Public Health Scotland with funding to undertake a scoping exercise with a view to developing a respiratory audit programme. However, due to current fiscal challenges, it has not yet been possible to progress this work further.

We recognise the importance of having access to meaningful data in relation to respiratory services and we are carefully considering the best way that this can be achieved going forward.

It has always been the Scottish Government’s intention that extended producer responsibility for packaging funding should support investment to improve recycling rates and reduce carbon emissions, especially during the early years of the scheme. Therefore, there will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26). The funding purpose - to pay for the cost of managing household packaging waste - is clearly set out in legislation.

Extended producer responsibility for packaging funding will be paid directly to local authorities by PackUK (the scheme administrator) and it will be for each local authority to decide how it manages this funding. Under the Verity House Agreement, local government funding in Scotland will not be ring-fenced or directed, unless there is a clear joint understanding to do so. Similarly, council tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities, who had full flexibility in setting rates for 2025-26. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26)

Ensuring that workers and communities currently reliant on oil and gas are protected and indeed, stand to benefit from the transition to net zero is central to the rationale underlying our wider Just Transition policy.

The Grangemouth Just Transition plan will be an iterative document that is subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation and this will inform wider policy development around the transition to net zero at a local level.

We will continue to work with stakeholders across Scotland’s energy system, doing all we can within our power to identify priority areas for action.

Since 2007 we have completed ten major trunk road upgrades, including on the A830, A82, A9, and A96, improving the safety and reliability of these routes for roads users across the Highlands, Islands and beyond.

We opened new stations at Conon Bridge and Inverness Airport, and our investment in Scotland’s Railway has allowed for improved frequency and journey times on the Highland Mainline and between Inverness and Aberdeen.

Orkney and Shetland residents receive a 30% discount on ferry fares, while Road Equivalent Tariff saves passengers around £25 million per year in total.

Over 57,000 young people across the Highlands and Islands have benefited from free bus travel, with more than 9.2 million journeys made since the Under 22’s scheme launched.

Transport provision has improved, and will continue to improve, as we introduce new vessels to our ferry networks, and deliver further upgrades to key trunk roads and public transport infrastructure.

I can announce today that Scottish Ministers have decided that a direct award should be made to CalMac Ferries Limited. The due diligence work has concluded there is no financial, operational or legal impediment to proceeding with a Teckal-compliant direct award of CHFS3.

This is a unique opportunity to change the emphasis from a commercially driven arrangement to a public-focused service wholly directed at meeting the important and particular needs of the communities it serves. Discussions will continue with staff, island residents, businesses and communities and trade unions on the arrangements so that the new contract reflects local needs and interests. Transport Scotland is now working closely with CalMac Ferries Ltd on the necessary arrangements for commencement of the new contract on 1 October 2025. I will ensure that Parliament is kept updated about progress on those new arrangements.

Taken together with our ongoing investment in new vessels and infrastructure, this will improve the overall resilience and capacity of these services, particularly for the future, as set out in the recently published Islands Connectivity Plan.