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The Scottish Government is publishing its updated Offshore Wind Policy Statement later today. Significantly, this statement updates the Scottish Government’s offshore wind ambition to up to 40GW by 2040, which will further reaffirm Scotland’s leading position in the offshore wind development globally.

Offshore wind presents an era-defining opportunity to grow our green economy for the benefit of communities across Scotland, while supporting our energy security and journey towards net zero.

The updated offshore wind ambition reflects and firmly underlines our commitment to delivering our existing pipeline of offshore wind projects at scale, including ScotWind and INTOG projects, and capitalise on the truly transformational economic opportunities they offer.

In determining the updated ambition, we have considered consultation feedback, potential strategic benefits for Scotland, measures to address issues raised, and the rapid growth in power demand expected over the 2030s and 2040s.

The Scottish Parliament’s catering service partner has recently reviewed its beverage range and is expanding its Scottish offering. This includes introducing Scottish wines alongside a wider selection of Scottish-produced alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages.

With regard to retail, the Scottish Parliament Shop product range is currently under review, and the suggestion to consider Scottish wines will be taken under consideration.

The Scottish Government recognises and values the importance of social workers and social work education. I am pleased to announce that we are investing, through the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in a Local Learning Partnership (LLP) approach.

Additional funding of up to £600,000, will support key sector partners to work collaboratively to help address some of the challenges around social work workforce recruitment and retention. We will be trialling this model across a small number of areas, with an initial focus on strengthening quality practice learning arrangements for student social workers.

This investment will support collective efforts to improve the design, structure and delivery of practice learning opportunities, underpinning improvements in professional knowledge and skills. Over time, the Partnerships will provide greater insight for educators on local employer needs and a space within which people with lived experience can meaningfully participate in the development and evaluation of qualifying programmes.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32369 on 8 January 2025. The Aberdeen to Central Belt Service Improvement Project arose from an agreement between Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeen City Council, and the Scottish Government which committed to invest an initial £200 million additional funding to help improve journey times and increase capacity on key rail links between Aberdeen and the Central Belt.

A timetable reference group was then established with stakeholders to agree the outputs and scope of the project thereafter.

Cost estimates will be developed through further design and subsequent agreement of the final scope of infrastructure enhancement works selected.

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.

The Scottish Government works through established national and regional governance structures to ensure that freight-related infrastructure investment aligns with wider economic and industrial priorities. Regional Economic Partnerships and City Region and Growth Deals provide coordinated engagement between local authorities, industry, and national agencies, supporting investment in freight corridors, ports, and logistics assets. This approach is guided by National Planning Framework 4, which sets clear spatial priorities for development, including regeneration areas and energy transition zones where improved freight connectivity is essential to unlock economic opportunity. Local Development Plans are also required to align with these national and regional strategies.

The draft Infrastructure Strategy, published for consultation on 13 January 2026, further strengthens this alignment, highlighting the role of national developments such as Green Freeports, where public and private investment in transport and enabling infrastructure is coordinated. As part of the Green Freeports Programme bidders were required to show how seed capital proposals aligned with regional and local transport plans, regional Economic Strategies, Local Development Plans, and skills plans.

In addition, the second Strategic Transport Projects Review(STPR2), published in 2022, provides the evidence base for future transport infrastructure investment. It highlights the economic importance of safe, efficient, and resilient movement of goods to Scotland’s economy and the predominance of road freight. It also notes the need for the freight sector to support Scotland’s 2045 net zero ambitions, identifying opportunities to increase rail freight and reduce dependence on road haulage alongside advances in low-maritime, rail and road technologies.

The largest part of the ending homelessness together fund goes to local authorities to support the transition to rapid rehousing, including the roll out of housing first. The Scottish Government carries out monitoring to understand from local authorities how that investment is helping them to prioritise settled housing and reduce the use of temporary accommodation. We report to parliament annually on progress against actions in our homelessness strategy – most recently in December 2025 - and this captures the impact of our continued investment in prevention, rapid rehousing and housing first and other initiatives.

The Scottish Government is committed to full and successful implementation of the new homelessness prevention duties. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 includes a provision that Part 5 (homelessness prevention, including ask and act) should be commenced no later than three years from Royal Assent (given November 2025). However, we are clear that relevant bodies named in the Act do not have to wait for the duties to come into force to adopt the ask and act approach.

We provided targeted funding of £4 million this financial year for 15 homelessness prevention pilots, which will run until December 2026. Learning from the pilots will help inform the development of guidance and secondary legislation on ask and act and support smooth implementation of the new duties.

A further £4 million is included in the 2026-27 homelessness budget and we are working with stakeholders to identify the most effective use of this funding.

Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is still to go through a further amending stage (Stage 3), before MSPs are asked to vote on whether or not to pass the Bill. The guidance that will constitute statutory guidance will depend on the final text of the Bill, should it be passed.

The Scottish Government continues to maintain a neutral position on the Bill. The Government will of course comply with the law and therefore if the Bill is passed and the resulting Act requires statutory guidance to be issued on a matter the Government will do so. Decisions around the content of any statutory guidance which the resulting Act permits or requires to be issued will only be made as part of implementation if the Bill passes, as it will need to be in accordance with the final text of the Act and informed by stakeholders’ views.

MyCare.scot remains on track for whole-population rollout from April 2026, with the national plan (published September 2025) setting the strategic direction. Timelines may adjust based on evidence from the initial NHS Lanarkshire launch, with further details on national scaling to follow in Spring 2026.

We have funded NHS Education for Scotland to develop three training modules for the health and social care workforce, to help them to identify, include and support unpaid carers. This includes highlighting carers’ right to involvement in hospital discharge decisions. These were launched in January 2024.

We have also funded Healthcare Improvement Scotland to improve practice on carer involvement across health, with a focus on carer involvement in hospital discharge.

The Discharge without Delay and the Home First approach is based on the Discharge without Delay Discussion Best Practice Guidance. This is the foundational document outlining how key interventions like Planned Date of Discharge should be implemented, and specifies the requirement to include unpaid carers in discharge conversations.

This is further demonstrated in our publicly available guidance on our Home First approach (https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/access/home-first/), developed in collaboration with the DWD National Steering Group in 2024, makes clear that discharge conversations and assessments should include unpaid carers to ensure both the patient and carers are prepared for the next stage of the patient’s journey.