Seòmar agus comataidhean

I met Alex Norris, UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum, on 4 November and 15 December 2025 to seek clarity on Home Office plans to use Cameron Barracks as asylum accommodation.

The Scottish Government has pressed for clear and timely communication with delivery partners, including a timeline for arrivals, public information for the local community, and assurances that any additional costs incurred by NHS Highland and The Highland Council will be met by the UK Government.

An Operational Working Group has been established by the Home Office, involving the Scottish Government, NHS Highland, The Highland Council, and Police Scotland.

Despite repeated requests, the Home Office has not provided a timeline for arrivals, nor confirmed that a final decision on the use of the site has been taken.

The Scottish Government does not intend to conduct a review of traps, but will bring in licensing for relevant spring traps and live bird capture traps as set out in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Scotland Act 2024 in due course.

We will also consider the findings of the UK Government’s review of wildlife traps.

The Draft Scottish Budget 2026-27 confirmed that, having supported the delivery of 141,000 affordable homes since 2007, we will invest £926 million next year, to maintain progress towards our target of delivering 110,000 by 2032 - with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas. The Scottish Spending Review 2026 also set out our plans to invest up to £4.9 billion over the next four years – including a record £4.1 billion of public sector funding – to support delivery of 36,000 affordable homes and help meet our wider all-tenure housing ambitions.

Our plan to deliver 36,000 homes over the next four years did not specifically assume a cost per unit for a new build home. The Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) comprise homes for social rent, for mid-market rent and for low cost home ownership. These homes take various forms including; new build homes, rehabilitation projects, conversions and off-the-shelf purchases of both new and second hand homes.

The Scottish Government completely understands concerns around women travelling to England to access abortion services and has been working urgently to establish an abortion service to the legal limit in Scotland. A task and finish group produced a Target Operating Model to inform the process, and work to implement the service is now being led by National Services Scotland.

The current stage of the process is focused on identifying and putting in place requirements for service delivery. This will involve recruitment of relevant staffing, including nursing and theatre workforce; the development of training pathways; establishment of governance arrangements and clinical protocols; and identification of the most appropriate host Board(s). It will also consider funding and service planning.

The Scottish Government will continue to offer any support we can to ensure a full service is delivered as quickly as possible. The Scottish Government is pleased to have provided funding to additional clinicians, helping them to access training to deliver these services.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of continued access to specialist services to support Scotland’s deaf community. I am due to meet with members of the Cross Party Group on Deafness next month to learn directly from stakeholders and those with lived experience on access to audiology and wider services.

In addition to meeting with stakeholders, Scottish Government has published a number of plans which underline its commitment to providing support to those who are deaf in Scotland, including the British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan (2023-29) which has ten priority areas to address barriers to transport, justice and democratic participation which BSL users have highlighted.

A list of national support organisations for people with hearing loss and deafness can be found online at www.all-ears.nhs.scot/. Details of localised support services can be obtained from local authorities and health and social care partnerships.

Table 1 shows estimated non-domestic rates income from onshore electricity generators in 2023-2024, and Table 2 in 2024-2025.

As we cannot reliably identify electricity generators, or specifically renewable electricity generators, Tables 1 and 2 do not present a total for each council area.

We have identified electricity entries in the valuation roll by the ‘core’ variable listed therein, and classified energy sources by the ‘description’ variable. In most cases, the description shows the energy source or type of subject (where the subject relates to transmission or distribution). Where the description identifies a subject as an electricity generator, but does not clarify the energy source, this is listed under ‘other generators.’ Electricity entries which do not specify whether they relate to generation or not are listed as ‘other electricity,’ and this category may also include distribution and transmission subjects.

Under the Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Order 2005, South Lanarkshire Council is responsible for the billing of designated electricity utilities (generation, distribution, and transmission). As a result, the figures presented for South Lanarkshire include estimates of non-domestic rates income for designated generation entries located across Scotland.

Figures are rounded to the nearest £10,000. Where a figure is greater than zero, but would round down to zero, this is marked as “[low]”.

Table 1: Estimated non-domestic rates income from electricity generators in 2023-2024, by council area (£)

We have allocated more than £135.5 million over 2025-26 to cut waits and the latest figures show our plan is delivering for the people of Scotland.

A further £20 million funding has been made available to support waiting times for the last quarter of the year, with the focus on Boards and specialities with long waits. This year’s funding includes over £500,000 for Cardiology services.

Our plan is working and delivering for the people of Scotland, and we are now seeing the tangible impact of our significant investment. The latest data shows NHS waiting lists have fallen and waits of more than a year have reduced for the seventh month in a row for New Outpatients.

The total list size for Cardiology New Outpatients has reduced by 12.5% from 31 July 2025- 31 December 2025 and waits over 52 weeks for Cardiology New Outpatients have reduced by 58.7% from 31 July 2025- 31 December 2025.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with Health Boards to maximise capacity and reduce the length of time people are waiting for appointments and treatment.

Details of Section 36 applications in each local authority area currently live and awaiting determination by the Scottish Ministers are as follows:

Non-domestic rates income is notionally pooled at a national level in the Rating Account or ‘non-domestic rates pool,’ and redistributed to local councils. The Scottish Government guarantees the overall sum of non-domestic rates income and General Revenue Grant funding available to each council.

In addition, the Non-Domestic Rates Incentivisation Scheme (NDRIS) allows councils which meet targets for growth in the tax base to retain the additional income associated with that growth (excluding designated utilities), over and above the total guaranteed amount. We are unable to separately identify amounts related specifically to renewable energy installations.