Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is taking wide-ranging action to support low income families and to help those in temporary accommodation to live dignified lives.

As part of over £3 billion of investment to tackle poverty and the cost of living for families in 2025-26, we have committed £644 million in our package of benefits and payments only available in Scotland. Among these, the Scottish Child Payment is forecast to be supporting the families of around 333,000 children. We are also continuing to invest around £1 billion a year to provide 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds, helping children to get the best start in life and parents to work and earn more, and supporting families through free bus travel for all under 22s, and free school meal provision for all children in primaries 1 to 5.

We have committed to strengthening the support available to families by further expanding free school meal provision, investing to enable the expansion of breakfast clubs across Scotland, and by developing the systems needed to scrap the impact of the two-child cap by April 2026.

In 2025-26, the Scottish Government will allocate at least £15.8 million for the provision of free income maximisation support, welfare and debt advice, an increase on our allocation for these services in 2024-25.

Scottish Government modelling, published on 27 March 2025, showed that on average, households with children in the poorest 10% of households are estimated to be £2,600 a year better off in 2025-26 as result of Scottish Government policies, with this value projected to grow to an average of £3,700 a year by 2029-30.

A household offered temporary accommodation can be asked to pay a reasonable charge for any accommodation provided directly by the local authority, or a reasonable amount for accommodation supplied by another provider but paid for by the local authority. In deciding what is reasonable, the local authority should take account of the household’s earnings and what the household can afford to pay.

If the household has no income or a low income, the local authority must help the applicant apply for Housing Benefit to help cover the cost of temporary accommodation.

We recognise that there are other costs households may face when living in temporary accommodation, including travel, energy and household equipment costs.

The Scottish Government funds local authorities to administer and disburse the Scottish Welfare Fund. The fund provides emergency support and a lifeline to people in need, through crisis grants to help meet immediate short-term needs arising from exceptional circumstances and community care grants to help eligible people establish or maintain a settled home.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health. Football plays a key role in this because it has a reach into communities like no other sport, and participation levels in women and girls football are at record levels.

The Scottish Government supports the Scottish FA in making football accessible for all and believes in the power of football in bringing communities together. We are also keen to support the SWPL in promoting and improving the elite women’s game to help encourage more women and girls into the sport.

Produced in partnership with UEFA, the Scottish FA’s Accelerate Our Game strategy has been designed to a provide focus to the Scottish FA’s commitment to progress the girls’ and women’s game in Scotland. The strategy aims to harness the power of women’s football by changing perceptions and empowering people to inspire the nation, whilst developing and promoting women’s football for all, enabling current and future generations to enjoy our national game equally.

In addition, the Scottish FA leads three key programmes targeting girl’s football:

• UEFA Disney Playmakers
• KDM Soccer Centres
• SPAR Future Stars Cup Square

Furthermore, sportscotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support the Active Schools Network. Active Schools aims to provide more and higher quality opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before school, during lunchtime and after school, and to develop effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community. In the 2022-23 academic year, football was the second most popular activity for girls within the Active Schools programme, with girls and young women making 379,944 visits to Active Schools football sessions.

To avoid accusations of bias or undue influence in planning and consenting decisions, Minsters cannot undertake any discussions with developers or objectors about the merits or otherwise of forthcoming, or live applications.

Ministers may of course undertake meetings with companies, as part of everyday Scottish Government business. However, these meetings do not contain conversations about specific planning applications and are properly recorded to ensure full transparency.

The Scottish Government does not publish local authority level data for the items requested.

Scottish Government does, however, publish related data on language learning and teaching at a national level. The table below provides a summary of data from the biennial 1+2 languages survey, summarising provision of language teaching for the first additional language (known as “L2”) and the second additional language (known as “L3”) in 2019, 2021 and 2023.

Scotland's current and future technology-enabled businesses depend on a strong and growing supply of people equipped with the appropriate skills for careers in AI.

AI skills needs are diverse and, beyond the more obvious Science and Engineering specialisms, include non tech skills from the humanities and also more foundational tech skills (which apply to careers outside AI).

Among the more foundational tech skills, highlighted as a key theme in the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review (STER), we are addressing provision of tech skills through the teacher-led body – Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science. STACS runs extra-curricular activities, promotes computing science as a valued career option and provides a resource centre allowing teachers to enhance their learning support for young people.

Widening access to careers in AI through upskilling is also key for building an inclusive and future-ready workforce. Skills programmes which support widening access are being delivered by the AI Alliance through our free national AI literacy programme and our AI Playbook which provides AI upskilling for SMEs and businesses.

Scottish ministers have been consistently clear about the devastating consequences that the UK Government’s approach to migration has had on Scotland’s education sector and our economy to date. International students, academics and research staff in our world-class universities make a vital contribution to Scotland's prosperity.

We need meaningful engagement with the UK Government on migration and we welcome further clarity on the UK Government’s approach, aligning migration policy with skills policy and look forward to more detail on the anticipated role of the Devolved Governments in this approach.

Soon, Scottish Enterprise will publish analysis which assesses the economic opportunities for AI in Scotland including Scotland’s AI strengths as well as how Scotland’s AI ecosystem compares to other countries. Scottish Government also regularly measures and assesses business activity and the use of AI amongst businesses through the Scottish Government BICS survey.

To ensure that Scotland competes globally in AI innovation, The Scottish Government is working with our enterprise agencies to promote investment and growth for Scotland’s AI ecosystem. Our agencies and partners are working to support AI companies at all stages of growth and to facilitate collaboration between AI companies, academic institutions and other partners for knowledge exchange and innovation. We are working closely with the Data Lab and the National Robotarium, to maximise the impact of our programmes and help the AI sector to flourish. We also support economic opportunities for AI through the Scottish AI Alliance, which is the delivery body for our AI strategy.

We have no current plans for legislative change regarding battery energy storage systems. Our Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) guides spatial development, sets out national planning policies, designates national developments and highlights regional spatial priorities. It is an integral part of the development plan and so influences planning decisions across Scotland. NPF4 Policy 11 part e) (energy) recognises that potential impacts on communities and individual dwellings, including residential amenity are important considerations in the decision making process and all applications are subject to site specific assessments.

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, the statutory responsibility for the provision of education in Scotland rests with individual local authorities.

School catchment arrangements are a matter for individual local authorities, which have the responsibility to manage their own school estates in consultation with local communities.

Any proposal to redraw school catchment areas is subject to the requirements of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010, which sets out clear procedures for public consultation to ensure that local communities have the opportunity to express their views.

There have been no discussions between Scottish Ministers and COSLA about the redrawing of school catchment areas – that is because a decision pertaining to changing catchment areas for Schools in Scotland is a matter for Local Authorities, not Scottish Ministers.

I am pleased to confirm that the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan has published today: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914556

The plan focuses on the following four critical aspects to help protect the quality and safety of care, supported by the increased investment for health and social care in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget:

• improving access to treatment;
• shifting the balance of care;
• digital and technological innovation;
• prevention.

It details how the specific commitments outlined in the answer to question S6W-34287 will be delivered – building on health boards’ own delivery planning to prioritise how services will be improved across NHS Scotland. This plan will be followed by publication of a population health framework later in the spring and a health and social care service renewal framework in June.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.