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Our Operational Improvement Plan is clear that the Scottish Government will support an additional 10,000 National Treatment Centre (NTC) procedures in 2025-26.

In 2024-25 cataracts represented 36.5% of the total NTC capacity allocated. This year, this has increased to 44.9% of the total NTC capacity allocated. All of this ophthalmic activity is cataract procedures.

The proposed national Good Food Nation Plan must be laid in Parliament on or before 29 June 2025. The date on which the expiry of the 60 day scrutiny period will fall will depend on the date on which the proposed national Good Food Nation Plan is laid before Parliament. A minimum of 30 of the 60 days must be days on which the Parliament is not in recess or dissolved.

Forestry in Scotland is guided by the principles of sustainable forestry management set out in the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) requirements and guidelines and must also operate within the legal requirements regarding biodiversity and wider environmental impacts. Scottish Forestry is the Scottish Government’s agency tasked with regulation and policy advice for forestry. Any felling must either comply with a felling permission granted by SF or be carried out as part of an approved long term management plan. Techniques, such as whole tree harvesting, are only suitable on certain sites and guidance is available to ensure that it is carried out in a sustainable manner. All new woodland creation projects are assessed against the evidence-based UKFS which represents the governments approach to sustainable forestry.

When finalising the plan, the Scottish Ministers must have regard to any representations that are made during the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny, which starts on the day the proposed plan is laid before Parliament. Therefore, the deadline is the end of the 60th day of this period.

Resource Planning Assumptions (RPAs) support the delivery of local authority priorities as identified in their Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP). Due to the challenging post-Covid delivery climate, delivery partners were not able to use the £724.268 million available capital allocated through resource planning assumptions in 2021-22, and actual spend was £613.169 million. In 2025-26 we are making available £660.064 million through resource planning assumptions for local authorities. Affordable Housing Supply Programme: resource planning assumptions - gov.scot

Information on actual spend by local authority compared to RPA is available in Table 2 of our 2021-22 annual out-turn report: Affordable Housing Supply Programme: out-turn report 2021-2022 - gov.scot. Whilst the published RPA for Glasgow City in 2021-22 was £120.578 million, in the 2021-22 out-turn report it is recorded as £129.030 million as this included £3.741 million for the Govanhill Acquisition Programme and £4.711 million for the Glasgow Housing Association Wheatley Bond.

The 2025-26 Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget of £768 million represents an increase of more than £211 million (38%) when compared to the 2024-25 original published budget of £556 million. This is an increase of more than £181 million capital (44%) and an increase of more than £30 million (63%) in financial transactions. The 2025-26 budget more than reinstates the affordable housing supply programme to 2023-24 levels, with £15.8 million more being available to invest when compared to 2023-24.

We continue to work with partners to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including meeting the existing commitment to the targeted use of £40 million for acquisitions.

The deliverability and value for money of different options to achieve our climate change targets are assessed through the climate change planning and budgetary processes.

The Scottish Government has committed to make available £80 million to support the Acorn Project and Scottish Cluster, subject to the UK Government providing a full funding package and timeline towards a Final Investment Decision. This funding commitment is subject to the guidance provided in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Scotland is firmly committed to woodland creation, planting 75% of all new woodland across the UK in the past five years. This amounts to 55,000 hectares of woodland, approximately 40% of which is native. The Government will continue to use the Forestry Grant Scheme and other levers such as the Woodland Carbon Code to maximise the resources available for woodland creation.

Scottish Ministers remain firmly committed to peatland restoration and have pledged £250m to restoring 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030.

Coastal and marine projects that aim to protect and restore important habitats for climate change and biodiversity received support from restoration and enhancement funds, including the Scottish Marine Environment Enhancement Fund (SMEEF).

Project Willow sets out what could be possible at Grangemouth if the public and private sectors work together. Scottish Enterprise is triaging proposals from private sector developers and investors. As set out in their 2025- 2028 operating plan, Scottish Enterprise is driving investment at Grangemouth with a view to creating up to 800 direct jobs in low carbon fuels and sustainable manufacturing across the industrial cluster by 2028.

Section 6 of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 will be commenced in autumn 2025. This will ensure the SSI on specified functions made under section 6 of the Act, can be laid and in force in time for the final plan being published.

The Scottish Government and UK Government have made a joint investment commitment of £90.2 million to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal over a ten year period until the end of March 2030.

The Deal, now in its 6th year of delivery, has spent £34.68 million of this available funding up to the end of quarter 4 of financial year 2024-25. This has resulted in completion of the following five projects:

• restoration of the Japanese Gardens at Cowden;
• a digital hub in Cowie, offering training and business development opportunities;
• Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling active travel project, providing two high quality walking and cycling routes;
• A Regional Energy Masterplan, supporting a strategic whole systems approach to energy across Stirling and Clackmannanshire; and
• transfer of land from the Ministry of Defence to Stirling Council to enable wider regeneration at Forthside.

Meanwhile, the following four projects are in delivery:

• a flexible skills project, providing skills development opportunities to improve the employability of up to 500 individuals;
• an inclusion workers and investment fund, providing tailored employability support to 245 people from traditionally excluded groups;
• Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC), offering research and collaboration opportunities to protect and enhance natural resources; and
• the National Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Hub (NATIH), a research facility and business development hub for sustainable aquaculture food production that is due to open in November 2025.

The reapplication process is required by the legislation, with the maximum period of issue for a Blue Badge being 3 years. This mitigates the potential for fraudulent applications being submitted and ensures that local authorities meet the needs and demands of future audits.

At a minimum of every 3 years, local authorities need to be satisfied that existing Blue Badge holders continue to reside in the same local authority area and still meet the eligibility criteria. This helps to ensure that the Blue Badge, an extremely valuable concession, is protected from misuse and fraud.

Transport Scotland recommends that applicants who have previously been assessed by a regulated healthcare professional and have been deemed as requiring no further assessment for future badge applications should be able to experience a quicker and easier process when they come to re-apply for a blue badge.

It is recommended that the local authority or regulated healthcare professional should make eligible applicants aware of their ‘not for reassessment’ status after the assessment process has been completed. Following this process, eligible applicants can reapply by completing the ‘Not for Reassessment’ (NFR) application form issued by their local authority.