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The Minister for Public Finance has no role in decisions relating to funding, financing or financial guarantees for electricity transmission infrastructure projects that are subject to Electricity Act 1989 consents.

Legislation and regulations relating to electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government, with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) responsible for the strategic approach to the development of the electricity system across Great Britain.

Regulation of the electricity network including approval of investment in infrastructure is carried out by the independent energy regulator Ofgem.

The third sector continues to play a key role for families in providing access to perinatal mental health support. In 2019, the Scottish Government established the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) Fund, administered by Inspiring Scotland.

Between October 2024 and March 2026, we are investing £1.5 million through this fund to support third-sector organisations delivering vital (non-clinical) mental health support during pregnancy and the early years. This funding has been distributed to 16 organisations, geographically spread across Scotland, including rural areas such as the Scottish Borders, Western Isles and Dumfries and Galloway. Inspiring Scotland’s most recent reporting PIMH Progress Update: April - September 2025 - Inspiring Scotland shows that the Fund continues to have a resoundingly positive impact.

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the 2026-27 Scottish budget, we have committed to continue to fund these vital supports in the coming financial year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that people living with dementia and their families have access to consistent, high-quality care and support throughout every stage of their condition.

To support these ambitions, the 2026-27 budget includes record funding of £22.5 billion to health and social care, including supporting the pay uplift for our valued adult social care workforce. The budget also delivers a real terms increase of £700m in the Local Government Settlement between 2025-26 and 2026-27, taking this to over £15.7 billion. This includes an investment of over £2.3 billion for social care, exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by the end of this Parliament.

As part of the national Dementia Strategy and first two-year Delivery Plan, which is jointly being taken forward with COSLA, the voices of lived experience, local and national delivery partners, we have prioritised efforts to ensure the right supports are available in our communities. This helps people living with dementia to access care in the setting of their choice and helps reduce the need for more intensive health and social care interventions for any longer than is clinically necessary. To support these ambitions, we have invested across the lifetime of the Delivery Plan around £1.45 million to increase direct support to dementia community groups and settings nationally, and £7 million via Health and Social Care Partnerships to increase the number of people who benefit from our commitment to a minimum of 12 months’ Post-Diagnostic Support.

The Scottish Government also recognises the invaluable role of care partners and unpaid carers, including those supporting people living with dementia. To help sustain and improve the health and wellbeing of carers across Scotland, we are progressing the Carers Act to further enhance and extend the rights of adult and young carers by investing £88.4 million per year in local carer support through Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 funding; £600,000 in 2025-26 for local carers centres in addition to local authority funding; and £13 million this year for the voluntary Short Breaks Fund.

While the commissioning of local services appropriately sit with local authorities, so that they can best respond to and meet local need, we are focused on wider social care reform and the National Care Service to improve people’s lives. The Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 and the new National Care Service Advisory Board, alongside other national programmes including GIRFE, Coming Home, the Self-directed support improvement plan and Support in the Right Direction funding, are all playing a part to improve services across Scotland and will be vital pillars in the National Care Service going forward. These programmes all work towards ensuring that people living with dementia receive the support they need.

At National level, the Scottish Government is working closely with partners, including the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland, to deliver the 2025-26 Programme for Government commitment to a new national skills planning approach for skills needs at national and regional levels. New or improved processes will be designed with stakeholder engagement, including employers, colleges, universities, training providers, Enterprise Agencies, and regional partners.

Apprenticeships are a key pathway to careers in the freight sector. Collaboration with employers and other key stakeholders is an integral part of the development, design and re-design of apprenticeships, with organisations strongly encouraged to get involved in apprenticeship development and to help identify demand.

Specifically for freight, Modern Apprenticeship pathways are currently available for Freight Logistics at SCQF levels 5, 6 and 7 via Skills Development Scotland. In 2024-25, Transport and logistics apprenticeship starts were among the top ten starts by occupational grouping in 2024-25, comprising around 3% of total starts. The achievement rate for freight logistics apprenticeships in 2024-25 was 80%, in line with the overall average, demonstrating the success of our education and training providers.

Our 2025 Draft Transport Just Transition Plan highlighted opportunities for workers in decarbonising transport, including the freight sector and, to date, we have invested just over £1.2 million to support Scotland's colleges to move at pace to prepare for the transition and provide relevant training.

In 2023, in collaboration with industry, the Scottish Government established the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, who published a Decarbonisation Pathway including actions on workforce skills development HGV Decarbonisation - Pathway for Scotland - Zero Emission Truck Taskforce | Transport Scotland.

Following on from this, in 2025 Transport Scotland set up a zero-emission heavy duty vehicle skills forum to help share knowledge among industry and other stakeholders. This covered various topics related to skills and workforce challenges, including attracting and retaining talent.

In 2019, the Scottish Government established the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund (PIMH), administered by Inspiring Scotland. Between October 2024 and March 2026, we are investing £1.5 million through this fund to support third-sector organisations delivering vital (non-clinical) mental health support during pregnancy and the early years.

Inspiring Scotland’s most recent reporting PIMH Progress Update: April - September 2025 - Inspiring Scotland shows that the Fund continues to have a resoundingly positive impact. Subject to Parliamentary approval of the 2026-27 Scottish budget, we have committed to continue to fund these vital supports in the coming financial year.

The Scottish Government intends to publish the Cervical Cancer Elimination Action Plan in spring 2026.

In the meantime, progress is already under way towards our goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040. This includes the upcoming launch of a cervical screening pilot for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling, which is expected to begin in March. Self-sampling will be offered in selected GP practices within some of Scotland’s most deprived areas to women who have never, or rarely have, been screened. This pilot will inform the planning of a national roll-out of self sampling, and increase uptake within the cervical screening programme.

Following the parliamentary question asked on 24 January 2022, Public Health Scotland (PHS) published a statistical report in May 2022 on inpatient deaths for patients with learning disabilities and autism at the request of the Scottish Government. The full report can be found on the PHS website:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/psychiatric-care-inpatient-deaths-for-patients-with-learning-disabilities-and-autism.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43267 on 29 January 2026. 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 Scottish Government has today published its analysis report and response to the Heat in Buildings Bill Consultation, available at this link Delivering net zero for Scotland's buildings - Heat in Buildings Bill: consultation analysis.

The consultation responses have directly informed the development of the draft Buildings (Heating and Energy Performance) and Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill, which I intend to introduce as early as possible in the next Parliament, subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election and UK Government action to reduce the cost of electricity. We will also shortly consult on proposals for heat network installation and maintenance licences.

The Scottish Government recognises that councillors are elected representatives and that local authorities are independent, statutory bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government.