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The Scottish Government has provided funding to Save a Life Scotland to purchase and deploy the equipment. Save a Life for Scotland will work with partners on decisions regarding defibrillator placement. All defibrillator placement as part of the scheme will be evidence-based and ensure they are placed in areas of greatest need.

Scottish domiciled students studying higher education courses in the rest of the UK can access a tuition fee loan of up to £9,535 (rising to £9,790 in academic year 2026-27) a year to cover their tuition fee costs. These students are also eligible to receive the same living cost support package that Scottish domiciled students studying in Scotland can access. This provides a maximum support of £11,400 through a combination of bursaries and student loans for the most vulnerable students. Full details of the funding available can be found on the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) website - Undergrad Funding - SAAS - Higher Education - Student Loan - Bursary.

The Scottish Government does not generally provide support for Scottish domiciled students studying outside of the UK. However, Scottish domiciled students who study abroad for a year as part of their degree are eligible to access the same living cost support package as students studying in Scotland. Eligible students can also apply for the Study Abroad Grant if the study abroad year is a compulsory part of the course. Further information on this can be found on the SAAS website - Study Abroad Grant.

The following table sets out the total number of premises currently contracted to receive connections through the R100 North contract by 2028, the number of premises connected as of 31 January 2026 and the number of premises yet to be connected as of the same date. Further information can be found on the Scottish Government’s Data Insights webpage at https://digitalconnectivity.campaign.gov.scot/data-insights.

Our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available for those not expected to benefit from superfast broadband through R100 contract or commercial build plans.

Decisions on any future national strategy will be for the new administration to consider after the Scottish Parliament election in May.

Under the current administration, we have been working to improve prevention of young sudden cardiac death (SCD) through delivery of the Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) and the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy (2021-2026).

We funded the West of Scotland Inherited Cardiac Conditions Service to strengthen the SCD pathway, including screening first-degree relatives affected by SCD. This project has received national scale-up funding from the British Heart Foundation.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Ambulance Service, which holds the licence for the GoodSAM app in Scotland may be able to provide this information.

The Scottish Government confirmed to the higher education sector in November 2025 that tuition fee loans available to Scottish domiciled student studying in the rest of the UK would increase to match the maximum rate of tuition fees announced by the UK Government. This will take effect from the start of the 2026-27 academic year to align with the increase in tuition fees for students in England that are set by the UK Government. A further increase to the tuition fee loans for Scottish domiciled students will also be introduced for the start of the 2027-28 academic year for the same reason.

Scottish domiciled students studying in the rest of the UK are entitled to the same package of living cost support available to students studying at Scottish higher education institutions. This provides a maximum support of £11,400 through a combination of bursaries and student loans for the most vulnerable students. This includes a £2,400 uplift in the form of a Special Support Loan that was introduced for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. Full details of the funding available can be found on the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) website - Undergrad Funding - SAAS - Higher Education - Student Loan - Bursary.

The First Minister announced that the Scottish Government has allocated £14.25 million to a second round of the Future Farming Investment Scheme for the 2026-27 financial year. This builds on the £21.4m delivered through the first round of FFIS. The Scottish Government will take into account industry feedback from the 2025 round and work with stakeholders to ensure any appropriate changes are made. Details of any changes will be outlined once stakeholder engagement has been completed.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are an integral part of Scotland’s sewer networks, ensuring sewers don’t back up and flood homes, streets and sewage works during periods of heavy rainfall. However, CSOs will operate more often in light of increased rainfall due to climate change. Therefore, whilst continuing to invest in sewage networks, it will also be necessary to ensure that rainwater is not drained to sewer.

Scottish Water’s current Surface Water Policy requires alternative means for managing surface water for new developments out with the combined sewer network. Local Authorities also have a role to play through working in partnership with Scottish Water to support the development of surface water management plans, deliver blue-green infrastructure and tackle urban creep to limit the impact of climate change on the sewerage system.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

This information is not available by parliamentary region; however Scottish Water has provided the closest equivalent which includes the local authority areas of: Shetland, Orkney, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Highland, and the whole of Moray and Argyll and Bute.

Scottish Water currently has 306 event duration monitors (EDMs) installed in this region. This includes 198 installed with information already available on its website, 100 installed but not yet onboarded or quality assured (QA), and 8 installed and onboarded/QA due to be added to the website shortly.

Scottish Water’s approach in 2026 is to focus on getting as many of the already installed EDMs live on its online map rather than installing more new EDMs.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

This information is not available by parliamentary region; however Scottish Water has provided the closest equivalent which includes the local authority areas of: Shetland, Orkney, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Highland, and the whole of Moray and Argyll and Bute. Scottish Water has 826 combined sewer overflows in this region.