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Of the £1.8bn commitment made in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, over £1.67bn has been allocated to date, of which, over £886m has been spent to the end of December 2025.

In the early years 2021-22 and 2022-23 demand for schemes was blunted by both covid and cost of living pressures.

The demand for our schemes has continued to grow, with a much reduced underspend in 2023-24 and 2024-25. Underspends are largely driven by the demand led nature of our schemes.

While the new National Fund to Leave is in operation, we do not yet have data on the number of women it has supported.

The evaluation of the 2023 £500,000 pilot fund to leave, managed by Scottish Women’s Aid, showed that 511 women, with 598 dependants, received support. We anticipate that the new £1.5 million fund to leave this financial year will help up to 1,800 women and that the £2 million fund to leave in 2026-27 will help even more women and children to start a new life free from abuse.

The total costs to the Scottish Government, incurred, to date, in relation to the referral of Dundee City Council’s proposal to close St Pius X Primary School and Nursery to the School Closure Review Panel are £5,082.66. This figure reflects the fees for the Convener and two of the three Panel members. A further fee claim from the remaining Panel member is awaited, so the final total will increase once that claim is received.

The Scottish Government provides funding support for Modern Apprenticeships via Skills Development Scotland, who provide a contribution to the costs of training and assessing modern apprentices. This includes hairdressing and barbering at SCQF levels 5 and 6.

In 2024-25, 460 apprentice starts were supported, alongside 700 apprentices in training as on 31 March 2025. Businesses are able to reduce recruitment costs by posting apprenticeship vacancies free on www.apprenticeships.scot and are likely to benefit from enhanced staff morale and retention. The achievement rate for hairdressing and barbering apprenticeships in 2024-25 was 80%, in line with the overall average, which demonstrates the success of our education and training providers.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collect and published college data each year in the College Statistics publication.

College Statistics 2023-24 - Scottish Funding Council

Subject full-time equivalent figures (FTE) are published in background table 6, though data isn’t broken down to hairdressing individually. Detailed data on hairdressing can be requested from the SFC.

As set out in the answer to S6W-42807 on 19 January 2026 and its accompanying questions, the prevention and enforcement of vehicle crime, including engagement with stakeholder bodies is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

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.

From 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 201 men are recorded as completing the Caledonian System Programme.

The campaign will be evaluated via independent post-campaign research to assess performance against SMART objectives (measuring prompted awareness, campaign recognition and claimed action), alongside media analytics and digital metrics.

The position of the Scottish Government has not changed: we support fully dualling the A96 and we are already starting the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including a Nairn Bypass.

I can confirm today that we remain committed to dualling the A96 and are pressing forward steps to make this happen.

The commitment to progressing A96 dualling is included in the Scottish Spending Review 2026 along with the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline 2026, both of which were published on 13 January 2026.

Investment in the trunk road network over the four year Capital Spending Review period to 2029/30 will allow us to make further progress on dualling the A96 between Inverness and Nairn, including the Nairn Bypass, and the adjacent A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton link road.

With the land acquired for both schemes in 2025, funding is included in the 2026-27 draft Budget to commence the delivery of advanced works. This will include vital archaeological investigation works and other key environmental and ecological measures, along with significant work to facilitate complex Public Utility diversions.

In parallel to the advanced works, this investment in 2026-27 will also allow Transport Scotland to continue to take forward the work to determine the most suitable procurement option for delivering these schemes and further develop the Business Cases.

The Scottish Government’s preference would be to deliver the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) as one project. However, due to the continued fiscal challenges, it is planned that we will take forward a phased approach to delivery, starting with the Nairn Bypass, followed by the remaining sections of the scheme, from Seafield, east of Inverness, to Balloch and then on from Balloch to the Nairn Bypass.

Completion of the preparatory work, including approval of the Business Cases, will enable a firm timetable for delivery to be set as part of the annual budget setting process, with a view to commencing procurement of the main works contract for the Nairn Bypass and the A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton link road within this capital spending review period.

The Capital Spending Review allows for the commencement of the construction of the A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton link road in 2028-29 and the Nairn Bypass in
2029-30, subject to business case approval and confirmation of funding beyond the spending review period. We also expect to commence the delivery of advanced works for the Seafield to Balloch section of the scheme during this capital spending review period.

Despite the current fiscal position and following the A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton and A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) schemes, the Scottish Government will continue to progress improvements to the A96 eastwards, including an Elgin Bypass. Next steps in taking forward an Elgin bypass will include further route development and preparatory considerations.

As part of the then Bute House Agreement the Scottish Government agreed to undertake a review of the A96 corridor. The detailed appraisal stage of the A96 Corridor Review was published in November 2024 and Transport Scotland has consulted on the draft outcomes.

The 12-week consultation, which ended on 21 February 2025 with over 1,400 responses received, provided the public and other stakeholders with the opportunity to fully consider and feedback on the findings from the appraisal. The feedback received has been collated and analysed by Transport Scotland with a report summarising this feedback published on 19 June 2025.

The Scottish Government has listened to the important views of the people of the north and north east along with stakeholders on the draft outcomes from the review and that is why a phased approach to dualling the A96 is its response to the Review. It is clear to this government how vital improvements are to the route to improve safety, remove strategic traffic from settlements along the corridor and support economic growth in response to the fiscal challenges this country continues to face.

The cost for the actors was £13,606.30.