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VisitScotland provided £180k (£150k + VAT) to the DP World Tour for the Nexo Championship event, for the brand profile opportunity.

VisitScotland provided funding of £180,000 (£150k + VAT) to the DP World Tour for branding and advertising, which in turn provided Scotland with a global platform to showcase its credentials as one of the world’s premier golf tourism and events destinations.

This funding included the delivery of on-course branding and advertising promotion across live broadcast to a global audience. VisitScotland’s investment enabled a channel to market, and a platform to promote Scotland and the North-East as a year-round golf tourism and events destination, with the intention to inspire future visits.

Golf and golf events are important to Scotland and play a key part of our national identity, supporting communities, driving economic growth, contributing to environmental sustainability across the country and promoting Scotland through global profile.

An agreement in principle to support the Nexo Championship was discussed between VisitScotland and DP World Tour at this year’s Genesis Scottish Open, which took place 10-13 July. The final decision to support the event was taken following contract review and negotiations that same month.

The tournament was a late addition to the DP World Tour schedule, announced midway through the season on 6 May 2025. It followed the cancellation in December of a DP World Tour event which had been originally scheduled for the week of 7-10 August 2025.

The Scottish Government has not engaged directly with any UK departments regarding the possibility of the Open Championship being held at Trump Turnberry and it has no future meetings planned.

Although the Scottish Government has a funding relationship with the R&A to support their events in Scotland, all venue decisions are solely at the discretion of the R&A and the Scottish Government is informed of venue selection after the decision has been made. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision-making process.

The Scottish Government’s position on the introduction of a potential traffic congestion charge by the City of Edinburgh Council remains the same as the one referenced in my response to S6W-38195. Local authorities have existing discretionary powers to introduce local road user charging schemes under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which was brought into statute by a previous Parliament. Once the necessary regulations and guidance are in place, it will be a decision for local authorities, including City of Edinburgh council whether and how to implement schemes.

Where residents are notified that their home may contain RAAC, we expect their local authority to provide advice on the next steps they can take. It is the responsibility of local authorities to deal with these matters.

Clackmannanshire council assessed the status of RAAC in the blocks and its decision was to decant three of the blocks affected by RAAC.

I recognise that would have been a stressful time for residents. However, Clackmannanshire Council’s primary concern is the safety of all those affected.

Scottish Government officials were and have been in contact with the council as it takes forwards the support it was providing to residents. The Council have recently completed an options appraisal for the affected buildings which are currently subject to dangerous building notices. They are engaging with owners with the outcome of that options appraisal and on the next steps regarding remediation of their properties, which includes repairs or voluntary acquisitions. In the meantime, we expect the local authority to keep those affected up to date, provide them with advice and where possible, facilitate access to allow residents to collect personal belongings.

I convened the first meeting of the RAAC in Housing Leadership Group on 4 September 2025 which brings together senior leaders and officials of local authorities and registered social landlords that are affected by RAAC.

We are aware of our duties under Section 5 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, and the National Marine Plan 2 is being constructed using a robust and transparent evidence base. The assessment of condition is being informed by existing evidence and date, including but not limited to Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 (SMA2020) and data which informed our 2024 review of the NMP.

The Scottish Government currently employs four civil servants in its AI Policy Team, with plans to increase this number in the coming weeks. However, this Team does not represent the full range of staff who currently work on, or have an interest in AI. This complement extends across the Scottish Government and its agencies to other publicly funded organisations and beyond. That is why the Scottish Government has committed to launching AI Scotland, a new national transformation programme founded on a partnership of business, academia, agencies and government, to operate as a focus for our collective effort to harness the full potential of AI to drive sustainable economic growth.

We are currently working with all NHS Health Boards to identify investment priorities across Scotland, that includes NHS Fife.

Historic real terms cuts to our block grant from the UK Government have put pressure on our capital budget and we have only recently received clarity from the UK Treasury for our capital and FT funding up to 2029-30.

As part of our own Scottish Spending Review, we are undertaking a full review of our capital spending to prioritise available funding towards projects that drive progress against our priorities. We will provide clarity over which projects will receive funding in the medium term when we publish this review, alongside our new Infrastructure Pipeline.

We are currently working with all NHS Health Boards to identify investment priorities across Scotland, that includes NHS Fife.

Historic real terms cuts to our block grant from the UK Government have put pressure on our capital budget and we have only recently received clarity from the UK Treasury for our capital and FT funding up to 2029-30.

As part of our own Scottish Spending Review, we are undertaking a full review of our capital spending to prioritise available funding towards projects that drive progress against our priorities. We will provide clarity over which projects will receive funding in the medium term when we publish this review, alongside our new Infrastructure Pipeline.