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The Scottish Budget provides a further real-terms increase in the Local Government Settlement, delivering record funding of £15.7 billion, including a quarter of a billion pounds of unrestricted General Revenue Grant.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads and associated infrastructure in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

The vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government with the Scottish Budget also providing Councils with full discretion over decisions on Council Tax. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on the maintenance of roads and bridges, on the basis of local needs and priorities.

An official-level Operational Working Group meeting chaired by the Home Office takes place regularly and is attended by Scottish Government officials and local delivery partners, most recently on 16 March. Notes of these meetings are held by the UK Government.

The Scottish Government has spent approximately £80m on A96 Dualling. This figure comprises expenditure on the vast range of technical and specialist advisory services required to appropriately inform the design, development, assessment, preparation and promotion of major trunk road improvements to the A96.

£261.3m has been spent on consultancy fees on the A9 Dualling Programme out of an estimated total scheme cost for the Programme of £3.97 billion, at April 2025 prices. This figure is inclusive of VAT where applicable and includes spend for taking the various component projects through design and statutory process stages, acquisition of land, demolition and preparatory works, procurement of contractors to construct the works, as well as costs of administering construction works contracts and monitoring construction works activities undertaken to date.

The UK Government is solely responsible for decisions relating to the location of accommodation for people seeking asylum and for ensuring the suitability of these. The Scottish Government is clear that the UK Government’s asylum proposals will not deliver a controlled and humane asylum system but will undermine integration and push more people, including families with children, into poverty, destitution and homelessness; leaving our local authorities to pick up the pieces. The Scottish Government has raised our significant concerns with the UK Government.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with Home Office officials and the Minister for Border Security and Asylum to seek clarity on the projected timelines for arrivals at Cameron Barracks. It has also been repeatedly requested that sufficient notice be provided to local delivery partners, enabling them to plan effectively and mitigate any potential risks to both site occupants and the surrounding community. Despite this regular engagement, to date, substantive responses to the questions raised have not been provided.

I have written to UK Government ministers on multiple occasions since September 2025 to request clarity on proposed use of Cameron Barracks, most recently on 13 February 2026.

Only last month I provided a substantive update to Parliament to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to dual the A96 and provide assurance we are pressing forward steps to make this happen. This update on 3 February 2026, followed the commitment to progressing A96 dualling included in the Scottish Spending Review 2026 along with the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline 2026, both of which were published on Tuesday 13 January 2026.

Investment in the trunk road network over the four year Capital Spending Review period to 2029-30 will allow the Scottish Government to make further progress on dualling the A96 between Inverness and Nairn, including the Nairn Bypass. With the land acquired for the scheme 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, 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. 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 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.

Given this recent and substantive update, no further announcements on the A96 are anticipated before the end of this parliamentary session.

The UK Government retains sole responsibility for selecting asylum accommodation sites. However, we acknowledge there will be concerns as to the site being centrally located in the community and the impact that it may place on local services.

The Scottish Government has not been informed by any public body of any delays or disruptions to Royal Mail postal deliveries.

On 6 March, the Scottish Government wrote to the UK Minister for Small Business & Economic Transformation in relation to the Future of the Post Office Green Paper, and made clear that postal services are a vital lifeline for communities across Scotland, particularly rural and island communities, and for vulnerable or digitally excluded consumers. Post offices, for example, often act as a community hub.

Scotland has many communities and small businesses in rural and island areas, as well as an ageing population, all of whom rely on receiving mail in a timely fashion. That is why work continues to make the case for maintaining the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and ensuring that post office services are available across rural and island parts of Scotland.