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The Scottish Government is supportive of the introduction of shipping services that remove freight from Scotland's roads.

The Scottish Government and Transport Scotland have engaged with port and haulage stakeholders to explore options to increase trade moved through Scottish ports and we continue to work with Scotland’s main ports to explore the possibility of new services.

The Scottish Government committed in July 2024 to provide £2 million of support for the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect project feasibility study, which successfully concluded in March 2025. The conclusions are commercially sensitive and will not be published.

It will not be known how many vessels that engage in any future squid fishery will have an Inshore Vessel Monitoring System (I-VMS) installed until after the parameters of the project have been established.

The Scottish Government published Scotland’s Play Vision Statement and Action Plan 2025-2030 in March 2025, which emphasises our commitment to play and our vision for the future of play in Scotland. It reinforces our commitment to children’s rights and mitigating the impacts of poverty through the promotion and access to free outdoor play spaces and opportunities.

Within the Vision Statement and Action Plan document we have published a Play Theory of Change which can be used by partners as a framework for further local and community improvements to play opportunities. The Theory of Change identifies place as one of three primary drivers, alongside parents and practitioners, that influence play opportunities for children.

The Vision Statement and Action Plan are designed to reflect the vision of play for Scotland for the next 5 years and the steps we will take within that time to achieve our vision and aim. The Scottish Government will lead on the ten actions in the plan and will collaborate with key partners in their delivery.

Additionally, as part of Planning Reform introduced through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, we have made ensuring the sufficiency of outdoor play opportunities a statutory planning duty through the Play Sufficiency Assessment Regulations 2023.

Local authorities may choose to make use of this information to inform their future planning for outdoor play provisions.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring the provision of a safe, sustainable and high quality healthcare service that best meets the needs of their patients. The whole general practice team is being strengthened significantly and we are committed to increasing investment in primary care and GP services over the course of this Parliament. We remain committed to the GP contract and the delivery of extended multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) making it easier for patients to see the right person, at the right time, in GP practices and the community.

Following receipt of the Climate Change Committee (CCC)’s report, work is ongoing to consider the advice carefully and at pace. My intention is to lay regulations to set Scottish carbon budgets in legislation as soon as possible following Scottish Ministers’ consideration of both the CCC’s advice and the target-setting criteria contained in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. On the same day as laying the regulations, I will publish an accompanying statement providing further detail on the proposed carbon budgets and the Scottish Government’s position.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37973 on 12 June 2025. 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 does not hold information centrally on the number of play parks that have been removed or closed since 2021. Responsibility for the management and maintenance of play parks rests with individual Local Authorities.

The Scottish Government has not commissioned a formal evaluation of the play park renewal programme. The Scottish Government will provide a report on the play park renewal programme once all renewals have been completed by Local Authority partners.

The Scottish Government has not conducted a formal assessment of the economic and cultural impacts disaggregated to the sub-level of grassroots music venues.

However in August 2024 the Scottish Government Industry Statistics Database estimated the overall Creative Industries sector GVA in 2022 (including digital) as £5,724 million.

Considering cultural attendance at a general level, the latest data from the 2023 Scottish Household Survey shows us that cultural attendance in Scotland is high and has increased since 2022. Attendance at a live music event (at 36 per cent) was the second most common type of event for adults to attend. Within that, attendance at live music events (in venues of all sizes across Scotland) was over four in ten for 16 to 24 year olds (46 per cent), compared with 11 per cent of those aged 75 or over.

As with other sectors in Scotland’s Creative Industries, the Scottish Government also pays careful attention to external, illustrative research undertaken by partners and stakeholders, such as the April 2025 report from the Music Venues Trust.