Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-04710

Asked by: David Torrance, MSP for Kirkcaldy, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential impacts of the EU-UK agreement on Scotland’s rural economy.

Question reference: S6O-04713

Asked by: Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, NHS Lothian, the City of Edinburgh Council and any other relevant organisations regarding any impact on patients, communities and statutory services of reported reductions to preventative initiatives and services.

Question reference: S6O-04707

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Crown Estate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland being granted borrowing powers so that it can, for example, invest in energy infrastructure, what its position is on similar powers being granted to Crown Estate Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04714

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-37531

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on rural entrepreneur funds in the current parliamentary session to date; how much it plans to spend by the end of the current parliamentary session, and whether it is its policy to create a £20 million rural entrepreneur fund.

This Government is committed to building a vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive rural economy.

We are widening participation in entrepreneurship, giving more people the opportunity to start, grow and scale their business. To date we have supported a range of programmes, including the South of Scotland Enterprise regional Pathways Pre-Start programme and the Pathways Funds. We are investing a record £6 million to support further Pathways implementation in the current financial year, transforming the number of women who start and scale businesses and widening participation in entrepreneurship.

Alongside this, we are supporting rural entrepreneurs through our Ecosystem Fund, which has invested a total of £2.6 million across 75 innovative projects since 2021, through our Techscaler network, through our wider support for our enterprise agencies, and through delivery of our National Innovation Strategy.

The Rural Entrepreneur Fund was a 2021-22 Programme for Government commitment to invest £20 million over the lifetime of the current parliament. However, in light of the challenging financial environment, the Scottish Resource Spending Review prioritised investment plans to ensure that they were deliverable, impactful and affordable. Consequently, there has been no money invested in the Rural Entrepreneur Fund to date.

Question reference: S6W-37527

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to businesses to enable them to pilot a four-day week in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it estimates it will have provided in total by the end of the current parliamentary session.

No funding has been provided to any private business this parliamentary session to pilot a 4 day working week and there is currently no planned funding for Private Sector Pilots. The Scottish Government recognises the environmental, health and wellbeing benefits, and efficiency gains that a four-day working week could bring and have taken forward unique pilots in public sector organisations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-37530

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to develop Scotland as a tech start-up hub in the current parliamentary session to date, and how much it plans to provide by the end of the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government has set the goal of establishing Scotland as one of Europe's leading start-up economies, fostering an environment where innovation and high-growth businesses flourish. Within this parliamentary term it has spent over £60 million to aide these ambitions with at least a further £23 million committed by the end of the Parliamentary term.

These figures do not include spend from our Enterprise Agencies or Entrepreneurial Education. In addition this does not include spend for financial year 2026-27 due to our single year budgeting process.

Question reference: S6W-37525

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) monitors and (b) estimates the number of jobs supported by its infrastructure spending.

Our current Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) which was published alongside the last Capital Spending Review, estimated that annually, around 45,000 construction and maintenance jobs would be supported through the associated total capital investment. This information is not centrally monitored, however as part our annual reporting on the progress of the IIP, we include information on major capital projects and their contribution to local economic development.

Our annual IIP Progress Reports are published on the Scottish Government website and can be found by way of the following link www.gov.scot/infrastructure-investment-plan

Question reference: S6W-37532

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it (a) spent in Session 5, (b) has spent in the current parliamentary session to date and (c) estimates it will spend in total in Session 6 on private sector-led research and development projects.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes an annual report on Research and Development (R&D) expenditure by government departments. The latest report was published on 9 April 2025 and can be found at: Research and development expenditure by the UK government - Office for National Statistics. Please see Table 14 for data on Scottish Government purchased R&D (or funding provided for R&D) by receiving organisation for the 2023 financial year.

Comparable data for the 2022 financial year and the 2021 financial year are available at the following links. Earlier years data are not strictly comparable due to the reclassification of a research performing organisation.

2022 data:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/datasets/scienceengineeringandtechnologystatisticsreferencetables/current/previous/v11/goverd2022.xlsx

2021 data:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/datasets/scienceengineeringandtechnologystatisticsreferencetables/current/previous/v10/rftgoverd2021.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-37571

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will launch the consultation on the necessary secondary legislation needed for the implementation of the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 to enable distributed heat provision to benefit from the same statutory undertaker rights as any other licenced utility in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the imperative to put heat network developers on a similar statutory footing as other utility providers, and our Heat Network (Scotland) Act 2021 enables this.

My officials have been developing proposals for the requisite regulations and guidance to implement this part of the Act. However, we have not yet proceeded to consultation as we consider the implications of the UK Government’s developing plans for heat network regulation, as well as ensuring that the licensing authority can perform its functions in practice.

As such, my officials have been examining potential opportunities to amend proposals – and possibly the Act – to ensure we deliver a regulatory system which is proportionate, and which interoperates with related UK Government legislation to ensure the right networks are built where they can have most benefit and are operated in the right way.

Notwithstanding this, the intention remains to implement the special rights and powers which our Act foresees for Scottish heat network developers. My officials continue to carry out stakeholder engagement on proposals to implement this part of the Act.

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