Chamber and committees

The total cost of chartering MV Alfred, from the commencement of the charter in April 2023 to the end of September 2024, amounted to £16.2m. From October 2024 onwards i.e. the beginning of CY9, costs are estimated to be in the region of £1m per month. The current charter agreement with Pentland Ferries will conclude at the end of December 2025.

Since November 2024, the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme has been live in all 31 Health and Social Care Partnership areas across Scotland for those aged 16 and over.

We also have three national referral pathways to DBI - via NHS24; and via call handling centres operated by both the Scottish Ambulance Service and Police Scotland. These provide additional options for key services to refer people for DBI support.

As at the end of July 2025, over 95,000 people have been referred to DBI.

With our partners across a range of sectors, we will look to continue to embed and grow the DBI programme across Scotland, building on its considerable success to date.

We are working across public sector delivery partners, and with industry and the supply chain to deliver the ambition set out in the Green Industrial Strategy to realise the benefits from growing our renewables sector.

Our approach includes our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years, expected to leverage private investment of £1.5 billion in offshore wind infrastructure and manufacturing facilities; our Just Transition Fund supporting companies to move into the renewable sector, and a commitment with the onshore wind industry to develop a specialist blade treatment facility in Scotland.

During development of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, careful consideration was given to homeowner redress. The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland was established as an independent judicial body to hear disputes and, where appropriate, issue Property Factor Enforcement Orders (PFEOs).

Failure to comply with a PFEO is formally notified to Scottish Ministers and informs the assessment of whether a property factor remains fit and proper. Ministers’ initial approach is to work with the factor to restore compliance and ensure service standards are met.

Removal from the register is considered only where compliance cannot be achieved, as this prevents the factor from operating anywhere in Scotland and affects all homeowners they serve. Therefore, full consideration of legal requirements, including Tribunal decisions, is essential.

We encourage all local transport authorities to consider the full range of tools available to them under the Transport (Scotland) 2019 Act, so it is pleasing to see SPT are fully exploring the 2019 Act powers with a view on improving bus services in their area.

I welcome their decision to progress with the recommendations of their Regional Bus Strategy and further develop proposals to deliver a Franchise Framework Assessment using those powers. It is important that the business cases for improving bus services are made robustly and utilise all available evidence and views, before decisions are reached about future investments in the region.

As part of the development and delivery of the bus powers within the 2019 Act my officials engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, particularly local transport authorities, including SPT. I have also met with SPT on several occasions, most recently on 25 March to discuss the progress and plans on their Regional Bus Strategy.

In November 2024, the Scottish Government published a report on public bodies expenditure for 2022-23 (Public bodies expenditure: aggregated data for 2022-23 - gov.scot). The data was supplied by public bodies and indicates that total resource expenditure by public bodies was over £23 billion to deliver a huge range of services, including in Health, Education and Justice. Of this, public bodies spent almost £1.3 billion on running their corporate functions and another £2.3 billion was spent by those corporate functions. Public bodies passed through funding of over £7.6 billion to other organisations, including third and public sector organisations as well as private individuals. An additional £800 million was spent on the Scottish Government's own total operating costs.

While we are disappointed about the University of Aberdeen’s decision to pause the student intake for their dental technology programme in 2025-26 and 2026-27, the Scottish Government remains committed to the provision of dental technology training in Scotland to support this vital part of the dental workforce. We will continue to work closely with the dental schools at universities and with stakeholders on the NHS Dental Workforce National Strategy short-life working group, to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure the provision of high quality and sustainable education for the dental workforce.

The Scottish Government is a member of the Scottish Partnership on Rural Crime (SPARC) and regularly attends partnership meetings which cover a wide range of rural crime incidents. We are aware that the theft of GPS units is an issue affecting some businesses and the Scottish Government continues to support SPARC’s five priorities, one of which is the prevention of machinery, tools, fuel and metal and metal from rural premises. The revised SPARC strategy highlights activity Police Scotland and its partners are undertaking to prevent this sort of crime, prepare and protect rural businesses and pursue those responsible.

The Scottish Government continues to support Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) through targeted funding streams aligned with its commitment to delivering public transport at a regional level. While the Verity House Agreement sets out principles for collaboration and funding between central and local government, it does not explicitly reference RTPs, as funding priorities under the Agreement are determined by individual councils. It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to determine their funding priorities.

The Scottish Government is providing Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships (RTPs) with up to £15.5 million of capital grant funding from the People and Place Programme (total value £23.4 million, split between resource and capital).

The primary focus of the capital funding is to provide a programme of sustainable and active travel behaviour change interventions on a regional basis to encourage people to travel actively and more sustainably. In addition to the direct capital grant funding, RTPs can apply to the Tier 2 Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for both Design and Construction, and they worked with local authorities in receipt of Bus Infrastructure Fund awards.

There are no plans to amend the current criteria of the People and Places programme to include park and ride facilities as eligible capital projects.