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Further to Parliament’s approval of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget on 25 February 2025, the Scottish Government has been engaging closely with NHS boards to support the allocation of resource for new specialist support for Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and other similar conditions.

Boards told us that having funding only for a single financial year would be a barrier to their ability to develop new support. Therefore, following further assessment in line with Scottish Government spending controls, we wrote to NHS Board Chief Executives on 18 September to confirm that this funding will now be made available on a recurring basis. This commitment provides the longer term assurance necessary to enable boards to plan on a sustainable basis, and support the recruitment and retention of the skilled members of staff required for the delivery of services.

NHS Boards’ shares of the available 2025-26 funding will be allocated in full on an recurring basis. From the financial year 2026-27 onwards NHS Boards will receive the £4.5 million resource annually.

In 2025-26 the £4.5 million funding is being provided in addition to remaining resource of approximately £3 million from the £10 million long COVID Support Fund (established 2022). The £10 million fund will be fully disbursed by the end of the 2025-26 financial year.

A breakdown is as follows:

While this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, it has confirmed to the Scottish Government that the 2024 overflow data publication, published in March 2025, will not be updated.

Scottish Water has confirmed that it intends to publish annual overflow event data for the period January to December 2025 in March 2026. This publication will include annual overflow event data for the Event Duration Monitor (EDM) locations which are included within Scottish Water’s Near Real Time Overflow Map.

VisitScotland provided £180k (£150k + VAT) to the DP World Tour for the Nexo Championship event, for the brand profile opportunity.

VisitScotland provided funding of £180,000 (£150k + VAT) to the DP World Tour for branding and advertising, which in turn provided Scotland with a global platform to showcase its credentials as one of the world’s premier golf tourism and events destinations.

This funding included the delivery of on-course branding and advertising promotion across live broadcast to a global audience. VisitScotland’s investment enabled a channel to market, and a platform to promote Scotland and the North-East as a year-round golf tourism and events destination, with the intention to inspire future visits.

Golf and golf events are important to Scotland and play a key part of our national identity, supporting communities, driving economic growth, contributing to environmental sustainability across the country and promoting Scotland through global profile.

An agreement in principle to support the Nexo Championship was discussed between VisitScotland and DP World Tour at this year’s Genesis Scottish Open, which took place 10-13 July. The final decision to support the event was taken following contract review and negotiations that same month.

The tournament was a late addition to the DP World Tour schedule, announced midway through the season on 6 May 2025. It followed the cancellation in December of a DP World Tour event which had been originally scheduled for the week of 7-10 August 2025.

The Scottish Government has not engaged directly with any UK departments regarding the possibility of the Open Championship being held at Trump Turnberry and it has no future meetings planned.

Although the Scottish Government has a funding relationship with the R&A to support their events in Scotland, all venue decisions are solely at the discretion of the R&A and the Scottish Government is informed of venue selection after the decision has been made. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision-making process.

We are aware of our duties under Section 5 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, and the National Marine Plan 2 is being constructed using a robust and transparent evidence base. The assessment of condition is being informed by existing evidence and date, including but not limited to Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 (SMA2020) and data which informed our 2024 review of the NMP.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40140 on 24 September 2025. The assessment of condition is being prepared in line with our duties, and will include the impact of human activity and pressures on the marine area. 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 intention of National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2), as set out our Planning Position Statement (PPS), is to support the development of spatial management measures through dedicated policies, some specific to fisheries, as well as working to build a stronger evidence base to inform future spatial planning and management where possible.

It is essential that we consider the outcomes from current consultations, the literature review referenced, and issues raised via our PPS consultation. We have therefore made the decision to postpone our consultation on a draft NMP2 to allow for further consideration of the feedback received.

The evacuation of people from their homes in the event of a fire is an operational matter for SFRS. SFRS have appropriate training and equipment in place to evacuate anyone who requires it.