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At RAI Committee, on 17 December, I answered directly that the Rural Support Plan would not be laid in Parliament or published in December 2025.

The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 requires Scottish Ministers to prepare, lay and publish a Rural Support Plan and sets out requirements on the role, content, scrutiny, reporting and monitoring and evaluation of plans. Scottish Ministers are clear that we have a duty to lay a Rural Support Plan in Parliament as soon as practicable.

On 9 September, in answering S6W-39888, I set-out that it was our intent to lay and publish the Rural Support Plan in December 2025. That answer was provided in good-faith. Unfortunately the uncertainty caused by the much-delayed UK Government budget has impacted this process.

As a result of the choices made and the delays caused by the UK Government, the 2026-27 Scottish Budget process has rightly been moved into 2026. This budget process will inform the shape of the Plan and must be completed first.

Laying the first Rural Support Plan after the Scottish Budget is the right course.

CalMac Masters are permitted to depart ahead of the advertised departure time if (a) all the necessary safety checks and procedures are complete, and (b) all passengers (who have checked in within the advertised check-in times) are onboard.

Following the Stakeholder review of the Sea Eagle Management Scheme in 2024, the Scheme was revised for 2025 with an uplift of £300 for all holdings in receipt of Standard Measures support, meaning a new minimum payment in this support tier of £800 per annum and maximum payment of £1800, with a sliding scale based on holding size.

The previous Enhanced Measures annual support cap of £5,000 was doubled to £10,000 per annum. The rates used to inform Enhanced Measures support calculations were also updated with Farm Management Handbook 2024-2025 costings used for 2025 Enhanced Measures Management Agreements.

The Sea Eagle Management Scheme was the focus of review work in 2024-2025. In 2026 the White-Tailed Eagle Action Plan review will be one of the priority areas of work for the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Panel, which is chaired by NatureScot.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42494 on 5 January 2026. 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 is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.

Our approach to addressing the shortage of planners is tailored to the Scottish context and pre-dates the Autumn Statement. We are directly investing £850,000 in new talent.

We have secured a path into planning for 48 new student planners through our award winning Future Planners Programme and an additional 30 students are being supported by our bursary scheme as they undertake professionally accredited planning degrees.

In addition, the National Planning Hub is directly supporting planning authorities in the short term to increase capacity. It is providing surge support, expert brokerage and sharing learning and knowledge to bridge any skills gaps. The approach is agile, and designed to be responsive to issues identified by authorities. The National Planning Improvement Champion is also supporting authorities on planning performance.

We will continue to work in partnership with planning authorities and other stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions to increase the capacity and resilience of the Scottish planning service.

The Scottish Government is committed to making it safer and easier for people of all ages and abilities to choose active and sustainable travel.

The focus of active travel delivery at a local level is a matter for each Local Authority, but funding from the Scottish Government comes with a requirement to demonstrate delivery against the First Minister’s priorities.

Through a variety of programmes, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund, the People and Place Programme and Bikeability, Transport Scotland provides access to funding for Local Authorities that to support safer journeys to and from school.

The effectiveness of these programmes are monitored through individual project monitoring and evaluation at a national level through publications such as the Children’s Walking and Cycling Index, and the Hands up Scotland Survey, that since 2008 has presented information on how pupils across Scotland travel to school and nursery. Earlier this year, Cycling Scotland also published a three year independent evaluation of Bikeability.

Subject to the budget receiving parliamentary approval, in 2026-27 we will continue to work in partnership with Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to deliver active travel investments in our communities, including through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund to improve infrastructure, and through our regional People and Place behaviour change programme and Bikeability to provide the skills and knowledge for school pupils to make safe journeys to and from school.

Our funding for active travel infrastructure does not have as a specific condition the requirement to evaluate the impact of reducing accidents involving cycling, and so it is not possible to provide figures related to the full active travel investment in North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.

There were 395 pedal cycle casualties in 2024, 10 less than the previous year. The number of seriously injured pedal cycle casualties in 2024 was 158. There were 3 pedal cycle fatalities in 2024, 4 less than 2023. Since 2014 there has been a 56% decrease in all pedal cycle casualties.

However, since 2023-24, Local Authorities have received funding from Transport Scotland through the Road Safety Improvement Fund (RSIF) for targeted road safety schemes to reduce road-related risks and casualties. £2m of the funding (provided from the Sustainable and Active Travel budget) is dedicated to promoting safe active travel journeys on the local road network.

This is the third year of the RSIF and the amounts allocated to both North and South Lanarkshire can be found in the following table:

The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.

The steps to increase speed limits for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) apply only to vehicles weighing over 7.5 tonnes and these changes do not affect speed limits for cars or vans towing caravans. There is no evidence to suggest that these changes will have any impact on caravan users, including on dual carriageways.