Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33259 on 11 February 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.

The draft budget for 2025-26 proposes planned investment of £768 million in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, an increase of more than £200m compared to the 2024-25 published budget. This will help tackle the housing emergency while contributing towards our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 70% will be social rented homes and 10% in rural and island areas.

Discussions on the use of the Financial Transaction (FT’s) funding for the 2025-26 financial year are ongoing and no decision has been made at this time.

The Scottish Government continues to support home ownership and have interventions in place to help first time buyers through our Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme which helps people on low to moderate incomes to buy their first home.

Scottish Government Ministers and Officials engage with major energy companies and employers on a regular basis as part of their duties.

As part of this engagement, Energy and Climate Change Directorate officials most recently met with Equinor in February 2025. The Marine Directorate also regularly engages with offshore oil and gas operators, including Equinor, as part of its chemical assessment contract with the UK Government’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero; and with respect to Equinor’s floating offshore wind project Hywind. Ministers and officials also attend a range of industry events where developers and investors in offshore energy are present.

The Scottish Government continues to be guided by the expert clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI has the responsibility to provide high-quality and considered advice and recommendations to the UK Health Ministers following thorough risk and benefit analysis. They consider vaccine safety, efficacy and look at the impact and cost effectiveness of immunisation strategies.

Upon following this advice, the Scottish Government does not expect the eligibility criteria to differ in winter 2025-26 from winter 2024-25. Should the JCVI eligibility criteria for the flu vaccine change in the near future, we stand ready to implement those changes.

We will continue to work with Public Health Scotland and NHS Boards to ensure that those who are eligible are able to easily access a flu vaccination.

Additionally, the Scottish Government will hold sessions with key stakeholders to look at how we can support improved vaccination uptake among eligible groups in winter 2025-26.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) based at the Golden Jubilee Hospital is developing national pathways for respiratory conditions including severe asthma, COPD and sleep apnoea. This work to improve patient journeys aligns closely with the Respiratory Care Action Plan and we are working with CfSD to understand the implications for wider respiratory policy.

In 2022 the Scottish Government published the Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Once for Scotland Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation in a Post-COVID Era. Which sets out a framework for delivering innovative and inclusive rehabilitation for all.

It supports rehabilitation service providers to identify ways to deliver individualised, cross-sector rehab utilising existing services. It also supports community-based services and supported self-management.

The approach outlines Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation that can be applied across rehab services which are universal principles for delivering good and accessible rehabilitation for all, at the point of need.

We also have a specific work plan aiming to improve access to Pulmonary Rehab across Scotland and provided recommendations to NHS Boards in 2024.

Information on the total number of incidents in schools attended by Police Scotland is not held centrally.

Information is available from the Accredited Official Statistics on the number of police recorded crimes of weapon possession in a school. This is available within Table A8 of the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2023-24 publication, back to 2017-18 (the first year data was collected separately for school settings).

The number of vaccinations and percentage of uptake for each of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority groups is available via the Public Health Scotland (PHS) Surveillance website PHS Vaccination Surveillance.

This information is correct as of 26 January 2025.

The PHS surveillance dashboard is updated monthly.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Local authorities make their own decisions about how to prioritise the provision of after school clubs based on local need.

Through our School Age Childcare (SACC) Programme, the Scottish Government is currently investing in designing and testing funded school age childcare services within targeted communities across Scotland, in order to understand what it takes to deliver SACC that supports those families most at risk of living in poverty. This includes our Early Adopter Communities in 6 Local Authority areas, our Extra Time Programme in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, and our Access to Childcare projects.

We intend to provide free foot passenger travel on inter-island ferries for under 22-year-old island residents within the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland Island groups.

We also intend to extend the existing ferry concessionary scheme - which provides 4 journeys to or from the mainland each year for 16-18 year-old islanders - up to and including 21 year olds across Scotland.

We have no current plans to extend this further and have therefore not considered in detail any operational issues or matters such as implementation costs.

High level estimates, based on a range of assumptions, for annual spend on CalMac and NorthLink ferry passenger fares for island-based residents under 22 years old would be as follows:

(a) – Argyll and Bute Council area: Between £0.5m and £0.7m.

(b) – North Ayrshire Council area: Between £0.3m and £0.4m

(c) – Highlands & Islands Scottish Parliamentary Region: Between £ 1.2m and £ 1.6m

The figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m and the range in costs reflects potential travel behaviour change.