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The Scottish Government has not held any discussions with the operator on the subject of crew accommodation standards on MV Helliar and MV Hildasay.

The Scottish Government is investing more than three quarters of a billion pounds in our 24 colleges to support apprenticeships and a wide range of skills and qualifications. The most recent Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocations provide increases of 2.6% to teaching funding and almost 5% in capital maintenance. This will help colleges’ future investment in students' learning experiences and in meeting Scotland’s skills.

Coupled with this, the SFC College Transformation Framework offers bespoke funding option arrangements between colleges and the SFC, enabling colleges to plan their future long-term curriculum more effectively.

Through its Outcomes Framework and Assurance Model (OF&AM), SFC engages with colleges to ensure they are engaging with employers to respond to industry and sector needs. Modern Apprenticeships are one form of provision that colleges provide to meet those needs.

The Scottish Government is providing £185 million this year to support 25,500 new Modern Apprenticeships, 5,000 new Foundation Apprenticeships and over 1,200 new Graduate Apprenticeships. This is in addition to the funding for 37,000 apprentices already in training.

It is our ambition to grow our apprenticeship offer and to increase opportunities for people to ‘earn as they learn’, in response to demand. The Tertiary Education (Scotland) Bill supports this ambition by simplifying the funding landscape and better aligning support for apprenticeships and work-based learning.

While apprenticeships remain a vital part of Scotland’s skills landscape, they are one of many high-quality pathways available. Our investment in colleges and universities supports a broad spectrum of learning routes, including work-based learning, so people can access the skills and qualification that best suit their ambitions and Scotland’s economic needs.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all college students—regardless of their background or circumstances—have the opportunity to succeed in their studies. We recognise the concerns raised in Audit Scotland’s Scotland’s Colleges 2025 report, particularly regarding the higher non-completion rates among students from more deprived communities, care-experienced students, and disabled students.

We are taking a number of steps to address the issue which include additional funding to colleges to support students facing barriers to learning, including those from deprived backgrounds and those with disabilities. This includes the Disabled Students Premium and funding for student support services.

We have expanded the Care-Experienced Bursary and are working with colleges to ensure that care-experienced students receive tailored support throughout their learner journey.

We are working with stakeholders to embed inclusive practices across the college sector, including mental health and wellbeing support, accessibility improvements, and staff training.

We are enhancing the use of data to better understand the factors contributing to non-completion to inform targeted interventions at both institutional and national levels. The SFC has introduced refined performance indicators, including a new measure of non-completion that distinguishes between early withdrawals and students who remain enrolled but do not complete their course. This will allow for more nuanced analysis of student outcomes and help identify where interventions are most needed.

We are committed to working collaboratively with colleges, students, and sector partners to reduce inequalities and improve retention and outcomes for all learners.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role that Additional Support Needs (ASN) staff play in ensuring that all learners can access and succeed in college education.

In light of financial pressures across the sector, we are working with colleges and the SFC to ensure that strategic workforce planning includes consideration of ASN provision, so that reductions in staffing do not disproportionately affect the most vulnerable learners.

Colleges are required to demonstrate how they support students with additional needs. They are required to submit a Self-Evaluation Action Plan (SEAP) annually to the SFC to demonstrate how inclusive practices and support for ASN learners are embedded and improved. Institutions are encouraged to co-produce the SEAP with student associations to ensure it reflects student priorities.

We continue to provide targeted funding to support inclusive education, including the Disabled Students Premium and other resources aimed at improving accessibility and support for learners with ASN. Colleges receiving Disabled Students Premium funding must demonstrate how it is used to:

• Improve accessibility.
• Enhance support services.
• Maintain inclusive learning environments.

This is part of the Main Teaching Grant and is monitored through funding allocation reviews.

We are supporting colleges to embed inclusive practices through staff training, digital accessibility initiatives, and cross-sector collaboration. This includes promoting professional development for ASN staff and ensuring that colleges have the capacity to meet diverse learner needs.

The Scottish Government values and supports all those who work in Further and Higher Education. Despite the challenging financial climate our last budget allowed the SFC to provide a 2.6 per cent increase in teaching funding for 2025-26 and an increase of almost 5 per cent in capital maintenance to help colleges to invest in the learning experience of students.

The job evaluation project is an outcome of national bargaining; therefore, the Scottish Government has no role in determining its progress. College Employers Scotland and trade unions (UNISON, GMB and Unite) have joint ownership of the project and are responsible for its completion.

The Scottish Government has committed to meeting the costs associated with the outcomes of the job evaluation project. Once detailed and evidenced-based costings have been provided, funding requirements will form part of budget considerations at the relevant time, in line with established public spending processes.

My visit to COP30 will include engagement with Regions4 and Under2. This will deliver on our Programme for Government commitment to lead on climate action internationally, using our leadership roles in Regions4 and Under2 to bring devolved governments together to agree ambitious actions.

The Scottish Government will be sending a delegation to Brazil led by myself, alongside three supporting officials. The Scottish Government’s key priorities include engaging with partners to strengthen subnational climate cooperation, promoting Scotland’s domestic climate and energy achievements as well as our successful climate justice and loss and damage programming and advocating for greater recognition of states, regions and devolved governments within global climate policies and processes and for the scaling up of good quality climate finance that meets the needs of the most vulnerable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40861 on 28 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 ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) is a crucial part of delivering Scotland’s net zero ambitions and in line with Committee for Climate Change advice. It will come into force on 31 December this year.

Significant efforts and investment have been made by local authorities and commercial waste operators to prepare for the ban. The overwhelming majority of local authorities have ban compliant solutions in place and there has been a significant expansion of energy from waste facilities in Scotland in recent years.

However, due to a temporary shortfall of energy from waste capacity in Scotland, some parts of the waste sector have identified challenges in fully complying with the upcoming ban.

Taking account of these challenges, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has today published a Regulatory Position Statement outlining its approach to enforcing the ban.

As set out in answer S6W-41307 on 13 October 2025, improving access to primary care is a key priority for this Government. We recognise the vital role that GPs, community nurses, pharmacists, dentists and other members of the primary care team play as the foundation of healthcare in our communities.

We are committed to strengthening the whole primary care system, building on our ongoing commitment through the Service Renewal Framework to shift more care into community settings and make services more accessible for patients.

As part of this, we will develop options for new and innovative ways to improve access to primary care, including local walk-in models which will provide more flexibility for patients. It is our intention to develop proposals for a model would see these services open Monday-Sunday. We will develop these proposals first as a pilot model which will complement current core general practice and provide a range of same-day assessment and small-scale diagnostics. To do this we will work in collaboration with NHS Boards and primary care delivery partners to ensure they strengthen, rather than duplicate, existing primary care services.

The Scottish Government will set out further details as these plans develop.

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.