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The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring Scotland’s pathway networks are accessible and safe by investing in high-quality active travel infrastructure and supporting behaviour change programmes. We are investing £188.7 million in 2025–26 to support high-quality active travel and bus infrastructure, sustainable travel integration, and behaviour change programmes.

This year over £11 million is being provided to maintain and improve the National Cycle Network, alongside support for the Places for Everyone programme and the Iain Findlay Path Fund. In addition to these programmes, the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund and our tiered funding model, enable local authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Authority’s to deliver safe, inclusive walking, wheeling and cycling routes.

The Scottish Government has not had any recent discussions with UK Ministers regarding whale and dolphin hunts in the Faroe Islands, although officials do have engagement on this and other matters.

International negotiations and membership of organisations such as IWC are a reserved matter for the UK Government. However we fully support the UK Government and International Whaling Commission (IWC) in seeking to secure a permanent worldwide ban, and in continuing to call on all countries who practice any form of whaling, to cease these operations and enforce the worldwide ban.

The Scottish Government commissioned the James Hutton Institute 2024 report, Rapid Evidence Review: Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Scotland. The report notes that evidence of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Scotland is more focused on the social, community and environmental benefits of community growing (eg. allotments and community gardens) and that most community gardening in Scotland is currently not commercially viable.

The Scottish Government continue to fund on-going research as part of the 2022-27 ENRA Strategic Research Programme which explores the means, barriers and drivers for increasing the production and use of Scotland’s fruit and vegetables (Incentivising resilient and innovative food supply chains and sustainable consumer choices | SEFARI). Part of the focus of this research is to identify interventions for supporting the sustainable expansion of small-scale, agro-ecological producers as a contributor to Scotland’s food system’s resilience. Final research outputs are not yet available. Priorities for future research in the ENRA portfolio were consulted upon earlier this year in the research strategy (Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) research strategy 2027-2032: consultation - gov.scot)

Research outputs from the rapid evidence review and future outputs of research in this area provide a valuable resource in contributing to on-going policy making.

Wildfire, as we saw this summer, is very damaging to our precious peatland carbon stores and the Scottish Government is incredibly grateful to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, gamekeepers, land managers, volunteers, partners, landowners, the extended local community, the wider land management sector and indeed to everyone who played a part in getting these under control.

Scottish Ministers held a wildfires summit on 14 October to consider how we can together to improve our preparedness for wildfires in the future. The increased wildfire risk in Scotland cannot be ignored and muirburn is a tool we cannot afford to lose.

Delaying the muirburn licensing scheme is a difficult but necessary decision to ensure there are no unintended consequences in regards to muirburns role in wildfire mitigation.

The Scottish Government has previously released the following information regarding court fees, counsel's fees and judicial expenses paid in relation to court action in which the Scottish Information Commissioner, as regulator for Freedom of Information law, was the opposing party:

Similar information to that in the above table has previously been published by the Scottish Government on our website and is accessible through the following links:

• Cumulative costs of Scottish Government legal fees from 2020
• External legal fees for Court of Session appeal XA10/23
• Scottish Government legal fees contesting Scottish Information Commissioner

The Scottish Government’s long-term vision, as set out in the Active Travel Framework, is that by 2030 Scotland’s communities will be shaped around people and place, enabling walking, wheeling, and cycling to be the most popular modes of travel for short, everyday journeys.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the aims of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 which includes introducing a licensing scheme and associated training requirements for muirburn so that it can be undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner.

We are hopeful that the delay to the implementation of the licensing scheme until Autumn 2026 will provide us with the time and opportunity to carefully consider the upcoming changes to muirburn practices and how these changes can be brought forward in a way which does not adversely affect our ability to prevent and respond to wildfires.

As per Historic Environments Scotland’s (HES) established annual approach, a number of sites across the HES estate are currently closed for the winter season, or will close in November, in line with sector best practice. Further information on closures can be found at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/check-for-closures/.

As indicated in my earlier reply day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any repair and maintenance works of any specific site, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

The Scottish Government is keen to learn, along with others, about the impact of wildfires to develop a better understanding of fire risks and fire resilient landscapes.

NatureScot will be reporting and monitoring the impact of the fire, which affected a relatively small area, on the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve. They will also look into assessing the impact on Culbean Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI) and learning about the impact on the other SSSIs.

The Scottish Government has not considered the potential impact of removing Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) on the purchase of a primary residence and has no plans to remove any element of the tax.

Removing any element of LBTT would result in less funding being available to support public services in Scotland. In 2024-25 for example, £899m was raised from total LBTT, resulting in a net positive contribution to the Scottish Budget of £274 million.