Scottish Ministers have said they expect to spend at least the equivalent of the £97.1 million received inconsequential funding on Cladding Remediation, and will do so when it is appropriate.

The Scottish Government expects that the cost of cladding remediation work to be met through a combination of responsible developers assessing and remediating their own buildings, funding allocated through the Scottish Government budget, and receipts from the proposed Scottish Building Safety Levy.

We publish spend relating to the programme on a quarterly basis. Further information regarding this can be found at Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot. The figures will be updated in due course to reflect Q4 2024-25 spend.

Our spending on remediation costs can only follow a full end to end process. This includes checking buildings are in scope, commissioning a Single Building Assessment, completing that robust technical assessment, identifying the works that need to be carried out, designing those works and gaining the necessary approvals, and then carrying out the remediation itself.

Investment in the programme continues with £52.2m allocated in the 2025-2026 Scottish Government budget to support delivery and acceleration.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18505 on 28 September 2018. 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 delivers support for the historic environment through our sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland, the lead public body responsible for preserving, maintaining and promoting the historic environment.

Historic Environment Scotland has published guidance setting out its policy for designation on its website titled ‘Designation Policy and Selection Guidance’. If further clarification is required, Historic Environment Scotland would be best placed to answer the member directly at [email protected].

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. That is why we recently published our 10 year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023.

The strategic aim and vision is to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care across Scotland.

Scottish Government continues to positively engage with the UK Government, including on the development of the new UK Government National Cancer Control Plan 2025.

The allocations of activity at National treatment Centres (NTCs) for the year 2025-26 have been made. Please see table below:

NHS Grampian

The areas of non-native coniferous forestry created in Scotland in each of the last five years are set out in the following table.

The 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 consideration of the National Treatment Centre programme.

Economic growth is and always will be a clear priority for the Scottish Government and we are committed to ensuring Scotland is one of the best places to do business. FSB are is a key voice for small business and work closely with the Scottish Government to support all of the sectors that they represent in Scotland.

We are acutely aware of the concerns raised by the FSB over rising energy costs, employers national insurance increases, and trade tariffs. We have carried out initial analysis of trade statistics to understand Scottish exposure to US trade across key products and where that may differ from the UK economy. The First Minister discussed this particular matter with the Prime Minister earlier this month and made clear that urgent action should be taken to protect Scotland’s economic interests. We have also consistently called on the UK Government to reverse in full its decision to increase employer national insurance contributions from April 2025.

Here in Scotland we have the most generous small business rates relief in the UK with a competitive non-domestic rates relief package worth an estimated £731 million in 2025-26. We will publish our Programme for Government next week, which will ensure that small businesses are able to thrive and grow.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires Scottish Ministers to have regard to just transition principles in development of Climate Plans. The upcoming Climate Change Plan will outline how this government will take action to reduce emissions in a way which supports environmentally and socially sustainable jobs and supports low carbon investment and infrastructure. It will also set out an estimate of the costs and benefits associated with the polices contained. Furthermore, the final plan will be published alongside a series of impact assessments, which will look at the impact of climate policies on areas such as equalities, island communities and children's rights.

The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the cost of delivering connectivity to individual Local Authorities through the R100 contracts. Costs for delivery of the R100 contracts are collected at contractual level and, as such, it is not possible to break that figure down for Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders only.

As of the end of March 2025, payments totalling £99.1 million have been made to our contract delivery partner Openreach for work to deliver infrastructure through the R100 South contract, including 6,741 connections in Dumfries and Galloway and 6,234 in the Scottish Borders.

The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is also part of the R100 programme. As of the end of March 2025, payments totalling £12.8 million have been made to registered suppliers for a total of 5,073 connections across Scotland, including 244 in Dumfries and Galloway and 313 in the Scottish Borders.