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Numerous Scottish public bodies deliver support and tailored strategic investment into Scottish businesses including Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish National Investment Bank, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Business Gateway and the Scottish Government’s £42m national Techscaler programme.

The Scottish Government-backed investment funds deployed by these organisations are designed to fill gaps in the supply of capital available to businesses and at the same time crowd in private capital to create a busier ecosystem of investors active in Scotland. Underpinned by Techscaler offering online education, expert mentoring, and a network of 14 hubs across seven regions in Scotland, these funds support tech startups from creation through to scale, ensuring support is accessible and rooted in communities across the country.

Examples of this funding and support include:

• Over £118m capital raised by founders since the inception of Techscaler in 2022 and in November 2024 Techscaler, in partnership with Focused for Business launched the Funding Accelerator programme designed to help Scottish startups secure their first or second equity funding round, with investments ranging from £100k to £1m.
• In 2024/25, Scottish Enterprise made 125 investments totalling £42.5m in early-stage companies, with 52% of these investments in companies located out with Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• South of Scotland Enterprise has supported 391 individuals in the South of Scotland as part of a Pathways pre-start pilot for under-represented groups, providing start-up grants of £1,000 to eligible participants.
• Highlands and Islands Enterprise IMPACT30 programme has supported 301 young entrepreneurs across its region and the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Techscaler Kickstart Grant Scheme offers grants ranging from £5,000 to £10,000 to ambitious tech founders and entrepreneurs in developing their business ideas.
• Through our Ecosystem Fund, we have supported various in-person and remote projects specifically focussed on access to finance, resulting in over 700 individuals growing their investment network.
• Scottish Government has consistently provided support for the Scottish EDGE business competition, including £1.4m in 2024-25, with an aim of identifying and supporting Scotland’s innovative, high growth potential entrepreneurial talent. This recently included a pilot Regional EDGE competition to specifically target support to different regions.
• To support the establishment of a network of entrepreneurial campuses, the Scottish Government allocated Converge with £100k to provide early-stage business microgrants. These microgrants have enabled 55 projects, run by university students and staff, to test their initial business idea. Microgrants were awarded to every university in Scotland to ensure all parts of the country have educational institutions that support entrepreneurial activity.

The Scottish Government reviews studies on the economic modelling of the impact of proposed US tariffs for Scotland, including from the Office for Budget Responsibility and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.

These studies suggest that UK GDP will be lower with US tariffs in place. The economic impact will be dependent on the level of tariffs that are ultimately imposed by the US and the response of other countries to the US tariffs.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36532 on 29 April 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 collect this data.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

The Scottish Government have also established the National Autism Implementation Team, in partnership with Queen Margaret University, to support Health and Social Care Partnerships to consider best practice and support improvement through the redesign of autism diagnostic services.

The National Implementation Team is supporting NHS Boards to examine diagnostic pathways for autism and establish regional experts to assist with improving tiered autism specialisms across health boards.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36532 on 29 April 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 information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has information on the proportion of 16-24 year olds who are economically inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled from the National Records of Scotland Census 2022 results and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS).

The National Records of Scotland Census results show there were around 11,700 people aged 16-24 who were economically inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled in 2022, 5.6% of all economically inactive 16 to 24 year olds.

The latest data from the ONS Annual Population Survey, which continues to be subject to increased volatility due to lower survey response rates in recent years, reports that an estimated 12.7% of economically inactive 16 to 24 year olds in Scotland gave their reason for being inactive as long-term sick or disabled for the period January to December 2024.

Applications for fishing gear, which is the subject of assistance through the Marine Fund Scotland, are considered against the aims of the Fisheries Management Strategy with further input where required from Marine Directorate fishing technology and science leads. Projects are also subject to Post Project Monitoring, where applicants are asked to confirm whether the gear has achieved the intended outcomes such as greater selectivity & sustainability.

In recent years the Scottish Government has invested significantly in manufacturing support infrastructure. The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) represents a £75 million investment by the Scottish Government and its agencies and has a mission to make Scotland a global leader in advanced, sustainable manufacturing. The Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund also led to the establishment of a range of facilities across Scotland with either a regional or sectoral focus. These include the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre based at Heriot Watt University, Smart Hub Lanarkshire based at New Lanarkshire College and the Advancing Manufacturing Centre at West Highland College

Meanwhile, we continue to work with the UK Government and local partners on the delivery of tailored regional projects in support of the manufacturing economy. These include the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland and Investment Zone projects within the Glasgow City Region and The Manufacturing Innovation Centre for Moray within the Moray Growth Deal. We also anticipate that our Green Freeports package will have a catalytic effect on advanced manufacturing in the two regions affected.

Scottish Government Marine Directorate has two main fora for fishing industry engagement on inshore fisheries such as lobster. The first is the Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) network which has existed in its current form since 2016. This network gives inshore fishers a strong voice in matters which affect them, while providing an environment for co-management of fisheries improvement projects. The second is our Fisheries Management and Conservation (FMAC) Group, this group and associated sub-groups provide a national platform for marine stakeholders to feed into strategic fisheries management discussions.

There is regular engagement with fishing industry stakeholders to discuss a variety of fisheries management issues, including technical measures such as the minimum landing size of lobster. For example, engagement through these two fora helped inform the introduction of interim measures for improvement of crab and lobster fisheries from May 2024 in response to stock assessment advice indicating that these fisheries were under pressure in the majority of areas. We expect this close engagement to continue as we develop our Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement (IFMI) Programme during 2025 and 2026.

Details of meetings conducted by the RIFG network as well as the FMAC Inshore Subgroup are hosted on the RIFG website at www.rifg.scot.