Seòmar agus comataidhean

The 2024-25 Scottish Budget settlement for Forestry and Land Scotland does not impact the use of car park charges at sites on Scotland’s national forests and land as part of the agency’s sustainable forest and visitor management strategy.

There is currently no projected underspend in the 2023-24 Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

Information has been shared in response to similar questions many times (at least annually) since Roseanna Cunningham answered on 15 August 2017, most recently in response to Willie Rennie MSP on 9 November 2023.

The following formal flood protection schemes are complete.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23878 on
‎ 8 January 2024. 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 has identified nine priority areas within our values-led Inward Investment Plan, including the decarbonisation of transport, and we would consider the Scottish aspect to an investment from Chery Automobile Co Ltd into the UK.

Engagement with individual companies is the remit of our economic development agencies collectively through Scottish Enterprise’s international arm, Scottish Development International (SDI), which has operational responsibility for attracting inward investment. The Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence is undertaken on potential inward investments.

The First Minister constantly keeps the performance of cabinet under review and meets regularly with his Cabinet Secretaries to discuss objectives. Should it arise that a mandate letter objective has not been met, the First Minister will hold a discussion with the Cabinet Secretary in question to (a) understand the reasons for the objective not being met and (b) agree the most appropriate next steps.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is increasing funding to the culture sector by £15.8m next financial year to £196.6m. This is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts by the financial year 2028-29. In 2025-2026 we aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector. This commitment to additional funding despite the challenging budget situation signals our confidence in the Scottish culture sector.

Through this increased investment we want to drive up opportunities for participation in creative pursuits, support the production of new works, and ensure that Scotland’s cultural output has platforms at home and abroad.

We will continue to work with the culture sector to identify barriers to immediate and long-term recovery. The Scottish Government will also continue to do everything within our powers and resources to help those most affected by current economic challenges.

The Scottish Government recognises the emerging seaweed industry is growing in scale and can provide a host of benefits to local communities, the environment, and contribute to the sustainable development of a Blue Economy through production of innovative and low-carbon products.

We commissioned research on ' Understanding the potential scale for seaweed-based industries in Scotland ', which was published in February 2022. This report explores the key areas of growth potential for the seaweed sector and the wider economic and social impacts of possible growth scenarios. As a result of this report, and to ensure that the seaweed sector in Scotland develops sustainably, the Scottish Government is funding, in partnership with Crown Estate Scotland, a 3-year business development manager position at the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association to support the growth ambitions of the Scottish seaweed sector.

We are initiating our commitment of up to £500 million to anchor our offshore wind supply chain in Scotland with investment of £67 million in 2024-2025.

This commercial and grant investment will stimulate and support private investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to the growth of our world-leading offshore wind sector.

We have worked with public sector partners to develop a framework which will achieve strategic alignment of public sector investment in offshore renewables supply chain and infrastructure development.

This very much aligns with the approach taken by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) in developing the Strategic Investment Model (SIM) to move from project-led to sector level investment that better supports growth in port and supply chain capacity and capability.

We will continue to collaborate with public sector partners and engage with industry and other partners as we finalise our approach and we will provide an update in due course.

Our strategic investment will support market certainty, create new jobs, embed innovation, and boost skills to foster a competitive economy, underscoring our determination to maximise the economic benefits from Scotland’s offshore wind potential.