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The final passenger revenue and subsidy for Caledonian Sleeper for the financial year 2024-25 will be known when the accounts for this year have been finalised and published. The Office for Rail and Road publishes passenger numbers on its website.

The budget for the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund was set in the Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 at £11.5 million for financial year 2024-25. The settlement of £12.8 million, as published on 4 December in the Scottish Budget, relates to the next financial year 2025-26.

Over the course of 2024, we have continued to launch new programming following a series of competitive calls for proposals, as well as continuing to fund some existing long-term initiatives:

In Inclusive Education, we are funding: scholarships for women and girls in Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, and Pakistan; and a programme which aims to remove barriers to quality education for out-of-school children with disabilities and additional support needs in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. See our webpages for more detail: Inclusive education - International development - gov.scot

In Health, our projects focus on tackling non-communicable diseases – the world’s leading cause of death – by building stronger health systems in Malawi, Zambia, and Rwanda. See our webpages for more detail: Global health - International development - gov.scot,

In Equalities, in March we launched our Women and Girls Fund which will support the advancement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in our partner countries. We have additionally continued our support for the Police Scotland Peer-to-Peer Partnership Programme with the Police Services of Malawi and Zambia. See our webpages for more detail: Equalities - International development - gov.scot.

We continue to support the work of four networking organisations as part of our support for global citizenship in Scotland: the Malawi Scotland Partnership, and their sister organisation the Scotland Malawi Partnership, Scotland’s International Development Alliance, and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. See our webpages for more detail: Global solidarity and citizenship - International development - gov.scot.

Through the Humanitarian Emergency Fund, we have provided provide lifesaving assistance to vulnerable communities in the Middle East, Sudan and neighbouring countries, Kenya, Southern Africa, Libya, as well as in our partner countries of Malawi and Zambia. See our webpages for more detail: Humanitarian response - International development - gov.scot.

Finally, the Scottish Government’s Global Renewables Centre has continued to drive innovation in renewables across Scotland and our African partner countries. See our webpages for more detail: Renewable energy - International development - gov.scot.

Please also see the Scottish Government Contribution to international development 2021 to 2023, which provides a holistic look at a wide cross-section of our international development activity during calendar years 2021-23, as well as providing (c11) details of our future programmes from 2024 onwards.

SEPA are responsible for flood forecasting and warning in Scotland and continually develop this service. They work in partnership with the Met Office to forecast for flooding and operate Floodline in Scotland to warn emergency responders, and the public, when flooding is likely.

The Scottish Government collaborates with and funds academics and research institutions through its Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Strategic Research Programme (SRP) 2022-2027. There are mechanisms within the programme used specifically for work on flood resilience. For example, the CREW Centre of Expertise for Waters provides the Scottish Government and its agencies access to water related (including flooding) expertise from Scottish Higher Education Institutes and Research Institutes. Recent CREW research commissions include work on is on improving flood forecasting in catchments influenced by reservoirs. The SRP also funds longer term strategic research including a five year research project on nature-based solutions at the James Hutton Institute.

The National Flood Resilience Strategy commits to seek new flood resilience partners across the public, private and third sector and seek to influence policy across sectors who can contribute to creating flood resilient places.

In developing the Strategy the Scottish Government undertook an extensive programme of engagement with a range of flood risk management stakeholders and communities over 2023 and 2024. This included engagement at the annual Flood Resilience Conference in February 2024 attended by a range of public and private sector organisations.

More widely in November 2024 Scottish Government launched Scotland’s Natural Capital Market Framework which outlines the steps we will take to attract greater responsible private investment into high-integrity natural capital projects – including those that improve flood resilience.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32614 on 14 January 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.

A principal lesson learned from international comparisons is reflected in the Scottish Government’s rolling programme of electrification works to reduce unit costs and maintain secure employment. This key difference from the approach taken by the UK Government has contributed to the more efficient electrification costs delivered in Scotland.

As operator, CalMac have estimated 44tonnes (this equates to two HGV tankers) of LNG per week during vessel operation. However this is being reviewed as part of the network trials which are currently being undertaken.

In 2024, the Scottish Government France Office continued to take forward the objectives of the Scottish Government’s International Strategy [Scotland's International Strategy - gov.scot] in bringing benefits to Scotland under our key themes of Economy, Trade and Investment; Climate Change, Biodiversity and Renewable Energy; and Reputation, Influence and Relationships.

Some examples from 2024 include:

To support Economy, Trade and Investment, the Scottish Government and SDI France jointly organised a Saint Andrew’s Day showcase event at the British Embassy and supported a Ministerial-led delegation of Scottish meat producers led by Quality Meat Scotland at the Salon International de l’Agroalimentaire to showcase Scottish products.

To support Climate Change, Biodiversity and Renewable Energy, we continued to engage with French partners to promote green energy including at the Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Conference (FOWT) in Marseille, with a range of potential investors in the offshore wind sector in Paris and with a delegation of Scottish companies at Hyvolution.

To support Reputation, Influence and Relationships, we continued to work with the Brittany Region with our MoU, with UK delegations of multilateral organisations (UNESCO and OECD), and numerous Scottish diaspora organisations (under our Scottish Connections Framework). We also supported a range of cultural events such as the Interceltique Festival in Lorient, and worked with the UK Embassy on remembrance events and ceremonies.

Examples of our international network’s work from last business year can be found here: International network: annual report 2023-2024 - gov.scot

As set out in our recently published National Flood Resilience Strategy, we are considering how farmers can be supported to make changes to handle extremes in water availability; for example, through improving soil management practices. We continue to work with stakeholders to make the most of existing financial support for farmers to adapt to a changing climate for the good of the farm itself, and the wider public good, as well as exploring opportunities offered by the Agricultural Reform Programme.

Existing financial support includes the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) which was launched in 2015 to promote land management practices which protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality, manage flood risk and mitigate and adapt to climate change. Last year alone £4 million of funding was made available through AECS to fund irrigation lagoons. As well as support for the restoration of natural riverbank profiles and intertidal habitats through the AECS, support to restore flood plains which can provide space for flood water to be stored was also included; helping to reduce flood risk downstream.

Agricultural businesses also have a range of support available to them on water management through the Farm Advisory Service. This includes: events, peer-to-peer groups, videos, podcasts, technical notes, advice line support and up to £5,860 funding for bespoke consultancy support.

In 2019 the Scottish Government and COSLA agreed to adopt the Place Principle to help overcome organisational and sectoral boundaries, to encourage better collaboration and community involvement, and improve the impact of combined energy, resources and investment.

It promotes a shared understanding of place, and the need to take a more collaborative approach to a place’s services and assets to achieve better outcomes for people and communities. The principle encourages and enables local flexibility to respond to issues and circumstances in different places.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) embeds and promotes the Place Principle, to ensure all land-use planning decisions take account of place and local circumstances, including flooding. The NPF4 also encourages the use of the Place Standard tool in the early stages of planning, to ensure that the needs and priorities of local communities are incorporated, and for developers to demonstrate how the Place Principle has been incorporated into their proposals.