Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-43037

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 29 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government by how much the capital budget for colleges will increase in 2026-27.

In 2026-27 the proposed Budget increases core funding into the college sector by £70m, with an additional £61.4 million in resource funding and an extra £8.2 million in capital funding. For clarity, those figures do not include college specific infrastructure projects, such as Dunfermline Learning Campus.

The total budget for colleges increases from £694 million in last year’s budget to £764 million in 2026-27, with the aim of providing stability for the sector and space to consider reforms which will help deliver sustainability in the future.

Work is underway by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) with the sector - including with Dundee and Angus College, Forth Valley College and West College Scotland - to consider future infrastructure needs and funding for specific infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S6O-05458

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Status: Due to be taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Cities Outlook 2026 report and the performance of Scottish cities.

Question reference: S6W-43341

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to minimise the risk of delays in the consenting appeals process for critical grid infrastructure.

Question reference: S6W-43342

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that it is on track to deliver the timely consent decisions for the critical grid upgrades that are needed to unlock Scotland’s offshore wind potential.

Question reference: S6W-43039

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500 million committed to the offshore wind supply chain over five years has been allocated to date.

Over the past two years, we have made £200 million of capital funding available and allocated £100 million, leveraging up to £370 million of private investment, with the potential to support over 2,000 jobs. Delays to progress on key UK-level policy and system enablers – including Contracts for Difference, transmission charging, electricity grid connections and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan – have affected short-term investor confidence. The fact that it was necessary to alter the spend profile clearly demonstrates the continued challenge posed by unfair and disproportionate transmission charges, which severely undermine a level playing field for Scottish projects. It is now more important than ever that the UK Government takes decisive action to ensure the Scottish project pipeline can be deployed quickly in order to deliver the thousands of offshore wind sector jobs that can support a just transition.

Question reference: S6W-43038

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Just Transition Fund has been spent to date.

The following table provides a summary of the spend to date for each the Just Transition Projects. The 2025-26 figures include spend for the year to date, with further spend anticipated before the end of the financial year.

Fund	Recipient / Organisation	Project	Description	Year	Total Award	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Just Transition Fund	Robert Gordon University	Digital Innovation Lab	Digital Innovation Lab initially supporting the construction sector to decarbonise before addressing challenges across a range of sectors.	2022 - 2024	£1.34 million	£313,982	£1,026,495	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	The James Hutton Institute	HydroGlen	Green hydrogen farming pilot to acquire new knowledge to switch from increasingly high levels of fuel poverty to self-reliant, net-zero carbon energy producers in rural communities.	2022 - 2026	£6.96 million	£262,270	£1,248,413	£1,987,031	£3,470,490
Just Transition Fund	The James Hutton Institute	Just Transition Hub	Net zero innovation hub with a land-use and agriculture focus, located within the grounds of the James Hutton Institute (Hutton) campus in Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen.	2022 - 2025	£7.192 million	£243,601	£667,000	£6,281,399	£0
Just Transition Fund	Moray Council	Just Transition Masterplan – Moray Council	Five interlinked projects to support Moray’s journey away from fossil fuels, including projects to support offshore renewables, creation of a local hydrogen economy, natural capital approach to offsetting, and redeveloping derelict land and premises.	2022 - 2024	£638,984	£250,545	£215,968	£172,471	£0
Just Transition Fund	Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, and Moray Councils	NESS Carbon Capture Feasibility Study	Study to determine if there is a viable project to retrofit carbon capture systems to the NESS energy facility.	2022 - 2023	£96,750	£96,750	£0	£0	£0
Just -Transition Fund	The Food Hub (NES)	SeedPod	Seedpod aims to be the go to centre for innovation and growth in the net zero food & drink industry. The Just Transition Fund has contributed £3.1m towards the cost of building and fitting out the £27 million project.	2022 - 2024	£3.1 million	£500,000	£2,600,000	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Social Investment Scotland	Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund	Delivery of a blended finance approach(part loan/part grant) focused on supporting charities and social enterprises to transition to net zero.	2022 - 2024	£1,016,085	£488,085	£528,000	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Energy Transition Zone Ltd	Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	Supporting companies to enter new energy markets, and delivering capital investment grants to help energy supply chain companies take advantage of low carbon sector opportunities.	2022 - 2026	£9.8 million	£1,299,598	£2,841,000	£2,839,913	£2,840,000
Just Transition Fund	Energy Transition Zone Ltd	Energy Transition Skills Hub (formerly Advanced Manufacturing Skills Hub)	The Skills Hub will be a focal point of the Energy Transition Zone Skills Campus and will aim to deliver the skills and training needed to support net zero transition.	2022 - 2024	£4.5 million	£1,180,000	£470,000	£2,850,000	£0
Just Transition Fund	VSA	Easter Anguston Farm	Feasibility study setting out plans for a centre of excellence focusing on 4 areas: STEM, Farm-to-Fork, woodland adventures and linking people to services to help their health and wellbeing.	2022 - 2023	£504,447	£504,447	£0	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	OPITO	Energy Skills Passport	Development and deployment of a digital offshore energy skills passport to support the transition of skills and jobs across the rapidly changing industry.	2022 - 2024	£3.7 million	£1,871,968	£1,831,642	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	National Energy Skills Accelerator (NESA)	Pilot Energy Transition Skills	Assessing the net zero energy transition skills landscape from now until 2030, identifying gaps/ demand and designing and delivering pilot training to address these.	2022 - 2024	£1 million	£39,960	£960,040	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI Moray)	Moray Net Zero Bottlenecks	Collaborative study focused on the current and future skills requirements and labour supply chain bottlenecks in Moray as it transitions to Net Zero.	2022 - 2024	£181,789	£41,596	£140,193	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Net Zero Technology Centre	Hydrogen Offshore Production (HOP2)	Project to demonstrate that offshore hydrogen production and storage is feasible through the repurposing of existing assets to produce green hydrogen.	2022 - 2026	£2.12 million	£126,000	£514,000	£680,000	£800,000
Just Transition Fund	Ripcell	Sustainable Solvent Recovery/EV Battery Recycling	Pilot to test technology using pot ale (whisky waste product) to deploy a “green solvent” to be used in recycling batteries.	2022 - 2024	£627,274	£457,559	£169,715	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Shine Engineering	Tidal Rotor Generator	Pilot to develop tidal rotor generators to create a source of green energy in the region.	2022 - 2024	£167,200	£71,200	£96,000	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Seaweed Energy	Wave Energy Converter	Pilot to develop wave energy converters to create a source of green energy in the region.	2022 - 2024	£100,100	£70,000	£30,100	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub	Just Transition Communities Project	This pilot study aims to address the question of how communities can be involved in and help to drive the process of designing, creating and delivering a Just Transition through a range of participative approaches, including Climate Assemblies.	2022 - 2026	£804,096	£240,000	£172,096	£250,000	£142,000
Just Transition Fund	Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce/Campaign for North East Rail (CNER)	Buchan Sustainable Transport Study	Study to examine possible travel interventions in Dyce, Ellon, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh to accelerate the region’s transition to net zero.	2022 - 2024	£250,000	£0	£250,000	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Park Ecovillage Trust and Findhorn Innovation Research and Education	Findhorn Ecovillage	Four feasibility studies looking at shifting from conventional housing to net zero housing and transportation within the context of the ecovillage and beyond.	2022 - 2023	£226,775	£226,775	£0	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	Findhorn, Nairn, and Lossie Rivers Trust	Findhorn Watershed Riverwoods Pilot	Habitat restoration of the Findhorn watershed, beginning with an unbroken network of riparian woodland along its riverbanks, supporting the restoration of Wild Atlantic Salmon populations.	2022 - 2025	£969,972	£139,972	£434,098	£316,838	£0
Just Transition Fund	tsiMoray, Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations, Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action, NESCAN Hub and Money4Moray	Just Transition Participatory Budgeting	£1 million of the Fund will be allocated to participatory budgeting every year over the lifetime of this parliament.	2022 - 2025	£4 million	£1,000,000	£1,000,000	£1,000,000	£1,000,000
Just Transition Fund	Opportunity North East	North East Adventure Tourism	Project to transform the region into a world class destination for adventure tourism by facilitating the development of high quality, sustainable facilities and low carbon infrastructure.	2022 - 2024	£1,690,67	£397,000	£1,293,674	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	The Cabrach Trust	The Cabrach Distillery	Development of distillery, a Community Interest Company for the Cabrach region that will use its revenues for rural regeneration and a community led regeneration master plan.	2022 - 2023	£361,767	£361,767	£0	£0	£0
Just Transition Fund	North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub	Capacity Support	Staff resource costs to support delivery of the Just Transition Communities Project.	2022-2026	£324,193	£23,968	£48,892	£94,527	£156,806
Just Transition Fund	ORE Catapult	Large Scale Synthetic Mooring Line Test Rig	Build and design of large scale synthetic mooring line test rig.	2025-2026	£500,000	£0	£0	£0	£500,000
Just Transition Fund	Maritime Developments Ltd	Cable Handling Facility	Purchase and installation of 10,000 tonne offshore carousel and product highway package to support OW industry.	2025-2026	£2,914,916	£0	£0	£0	£2,914,916
Just Transition Fund	Verlume Ltd	Orah Assembly and Deployment	Subsea battery storge and energy management system.	2025-2026	£2,593,400	£0	£0	£0	£2,593,400
Just Transition Fund	Fraserburgh Harbour Commissioners	Enabling Renewable Energy Infrastructure	Support the Ground Investigation required to unlock Phase 1 (North Breakwater Extension) of the Fraserburgh Harbour Development.	2025-2026	£2,471,712	£0	£0	£0	£2,471,712
Just Transition Fund	Moray Council	Development of a Strategic Outline Case for Moray Growth Deal Skills & Development Project	The programme supports six linked projects in Moray, advancing renewable energy, nature restoration, low-carbon housing, and green enterprise to drive economic, social, and environmental benefits.	2025-2026	£40,000	£0	£0	£0	£40,000

Question reference: S6W-43199

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees within the devolved civil service are currently on a development programme for underperformance.

Question reference: S6O-05400

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the new Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline means for a replacement eye hospital for Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6W-42551

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) NHS Lothian, (b) the City of Edinburgh Council and (c) housing developers regarding ensuring that new housing developments in the south of Edinburgh are supported by adequate GP provision, in light of reports that Edinburgh is short of more than 10,000 GP places.

Question reference: S6W-42313

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40488 by Ivan McKee on 2 October 2025, and in light of the publication of the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan 2025-2028, whether it will provide an update on the number of self-sufficient information and communications technology (ICT) structures with dedicated data centres and professional staff that exist within the Scottish public sector, including non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), NHS boards and local government.

Seòmar agus comataidhean