Seòmar agus comataidhean

Scotland’s Migration Service publishes performance data on a quarterly basis. This can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-migration-service-performance-data/

987 appointments with individuals took place between April 2024 and October 2025. This is broken down as follows:

Skills Development Scotland publish annual Regional Skills Assessments (RSAs), which provide detailed information on regional labour markets. The latest RSA for the South of Scotland region was published in October 2025.

Through delivery of our Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, £30,000 was provided to Dumfries & Galloway Council with £30,000 in 2024-25 to undertake research into the local drivers of depopulation. The local authority has also received a total of £120,000 across 2024-25 and 2025-26 to scope and deliver locally-led depopulation interventions, including increasing local economic opportunities as a key priority.

We continue to engage closely with local authorities through the jointly chaired SG/COSLA Population Roundtable and our Population Programme Board includes representation from both COSLA and South of Scotland Enterprise, to ensure we are collaboratively addressing local depopulation trends.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41577 on 11 November 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 local authorities who received support to clear their known school meal debt to 31 March 2024 have now reported on the funding they received. While this report will be published in due course, it is clear that local authorities collect data in different ways and therefore it is not possible to differentiate between the number of children and families funding has helped. However, from reports we believe that in excess of 70,000 instances of support were provided to children and families by this fund.

We know that there is a gap in protection for seasonal workers and it is something we are very keen to address as urgently as we can.

As I stated during the Housing Bill debate, I do not think that it is appropriate to require ministers to make byelaws and therefore don’t feel that we should be considering reviewing section 315 of the Housing (Scotland) Act.

Instead, the Scottish Government will look to introduce a set of bespoke statutory accommodation standards, for all seasonal workers, and all routes will be considered for what will be the best path to take when introducing these standards.

Initial meetings with stakeholders took place between 20 November 2024 and 16 January 2025 including with local authorities, farmer representatives, farm employers and regulatory bodies.

Further meetings will be held with the wider sector when officials are in a position to begin consultation. We will be able to offer an update on when these meetings will take place when dates have been agreed.

As part of the scoping exercise, officials reviewed existing evidence on: accommodation conditions; results of engagement with farm employers, local authorities, Scotland’s Rural College, the Workers Support Centre and the National Farmers Union of Scotland, and; the evidence gathered on the main issues. Officials also invited Richard Leonard’s office to feed into this work.

An update on timings for introducing these standards will be offered in due course.

The Construction Accord is a collaborative approach between the public sector and the construction industry to identify the challenges within the sector and the changes needed to improve access for young people, particularly at entry level.

To address these challenges, the Construction Accord Transformation Board has launched the Construction Workforce Mission, a strategic initiative aimed at transforming recruitment and skills development across Scotland’s construction industry, including how to attract new talent into the sector.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40955 on 21 October 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 matter raised falls within the remit of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.