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The Scottish Government supports the full range of businesses primarily through its enterprise agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. As such the allocation of this direct funding to the size of businesses is held by each agency along with the number of businesses supported outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please email Scottish Government Enterprise Sponsorship team on enterprisesponsorship@gov.scot if you would like to contact the agencies directly.

The Scottish Government provides direct funding for Business Gateway but does not hold information on how that funding is spent within each hub. Please contact Business Gateway on hello@bgateway.com if you would like to address this question to them directly.

We recognise the importance of the shipbuilding sector for Scotland’s economy including its strategic importance in shaping Scotland’s future workforce. That is why we are already undertaking a major programme of reform to the skills system to ensure that it meets Scotland’s needs, including investing up to £2 million to develop engineering skills in the Glasgow City Region, designed by the Clyde Maritime Cluster in partnership with Skills Development Scotland. We are also actively engaging with the UK Government on the development of its forthcoming Industrial Strategy and its planned review of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, emphasising Scotland's strengths in shipbuilding and maritime technology. However, the Scottish Government’s long-standing policy position is that neither the Government nor its agencies use public money to support the manufacture of munitions.

Local authorities have duties under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 to provide adult carer support plans or young carer statements for any carer that wants one and to provide support to carers according to their eligible needs. These responsibilities and carers’ associated rights are set out in the Carers’ Charter.

We are working to extend these rights by establishing a right to breaks from caring by amending the 2016 Act through the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, to support people to protect their wellbeing and sustain caring relationships. The Bill also gives Ministers a new duty to make regulations setting timescales for local authorities to prepare adult carer support plans and young carer statements to help ensure carers can access support in a timely fashion and reduce differences between areas.

Our National Carers Strategy sets out our intentions regarding carers’ rights and support which takes a cross-government approach to carers’ issues including through social care policies, social security and supporting carers in employment and education. It recognises that carers come from all walks of life and many of their needs overlap with those of other groups.

There is a wide range of support available to unpaid carers, as summarised at Help if you're a carer - mygov.scot,

This information is available from the Office of Rail and Road statistics portal, published on its website. The Member may wish to access the following link, which will provide the information requested: Passenger rail usage | ORR Data Portal

The Scottish Government does not provide full funding for the provision of affordable homes. Homes are funded through a mixture of Scottish Government grant through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) as well as borrowing or other investment by grant applicants.

Through the AHSP, we deliver a range of housing including new build, off the shelf purchases and rehabilitation projects. The Scottish Government publishes quarterly figures on all homes delivered through the programme by tenure and build form, which can be found online here: Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot

Details on the number of homes that have been approved, started or completed that have received funding through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) each year since 2007 by local authority are also published here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot. This includes information on grant levels which are also published in our annual out-turn reports.

The 2025-26 budget delivered record funding of over £15.1 billion for Local Government, a real terms increase of 5.5 per cent, as confirmed by the Accounts Commission.

As part of the record funding package for Local Government, in 2025-26 North Ayrshire Council will receive £383.8 million to support day to day services, which equates to an extra £21.2 million or an additional 5.8 per cent compared to 2024-25. Taken together with the decision to increase Council Tax by 7 per cent, North Ayrshire Council will have an additional £25.7 million to support front line services in 2025-26.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets.

However, the record funding settlement for Local Government in 2025-26 was the result of early and meaningful engagement between Scottish Government, COSLA and Councils. We remain committed to ensuring the sustainability of local services going forward and budget engagement ahead of the 2026-27 Scottish Budget has already commenced.

We do not have the specific information requested. However, we know that people who are neurodivergent can find it more difficult to secure and maintain employment. Some of the barriers were highlighted in responses to the public consultation on the proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill. The Scottish Government wants to ensure that neurodivergent people are supported to work and that our economy can benefit from their skills and talents as much as possible.

In 2016, we committed to halving the Disability Employment Gap, outlining the initial steps that would be taken to achieve this by 2038 in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan, published in 2018. To improve employment opportunities for those who face many structural barriers on the labour market, we have carried forward several actions into our refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: Becoming a Fair Work Nation by 2025, published in December 2022. Input was provided by disabled people and their representative organisations.

Local Government have the statutory responsibility for education so this information is not held centrally.

Data are available on the number of SMEs operating in Scotland, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, broken down by Scottish parliamentary constituency. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Number of registered SMEs operating in Scotland, by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency, 2024