Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has renewed its annual employer membership of the Stonewall’s Diversity Champion scheme for 2025. The Scottish Government keeps this under annual review, as with all its corporate memberships, to ensure they are providing value for money.

We have committed £150 million towards the Tay Cities Region Deal, including £8 million towards the Advanced Manufacturing Programme.

Details are as follows regarding how many notices to remove have been issued by landowners with a voluntary wayleave in place in the last five years:

The Scottish Government works to address a wide range of current and potential future impacts of climate change on Scotland. The actions and policies it is committed to delivering to build resilience and adapt to climate change are set out in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3). As established in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2008, this is a five-year cycle, with each new Adaptation Plan responding to the latest climate risk evidence base provided through technical advice and risk assessments published by the Climate Change Committee and UK Government. With regards to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the most recent Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) from the CCC does not factor AMOC into the underlying evidence base of climate risk and opportunities. The CCRA3 notes that a shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is considered very unlikely this century and is therefore not included in the specific evidence base on which SNAP3 has been designed to respond.

The Scottish Government has received advice and recommendations from NatureScot and Scottish Forestry with respect to the proposed Nature Conservation Order to protect the Parallel Roads of Lochaber Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Achnabobane. The NatureScot advice reflected local discussions between The Highland Council, Scottish Forestry and Police Scotland which sought to address damage to the SSSI.

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has funded local authorities through the general capital grant to invest in flood protection and resilience measures. That funding is outlined in the following table.

The majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. 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 flooding protection, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40762 on 9 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40762 on 9 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 Colleges Tripartite Alignment Group, comprised of Colleges Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has been exploring issues in the sector. Informed by the Group’s discussions, the SFC introduced changes to the college funding model for Academic Year 2025-26 in response to requests from the sector.

The SFC has committed to undertaking a fundamental review of the funding allocation model over the coming year.

The Scottish Government continues to support a wide variety of marine science to ensure there is a strong evidence base to support marine management and the Blue Economy Vision. This includes the Scottish Government’s Science, Evidence, Data and Digital Portfolio, as well as directly commissioned science, and collaboration with a strong academic presence in Scotland through the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland (MASTS), other UK administrations and international partners. This is reflected in the Scottish Government’s Marine Science and Innovation Strategy, which was published in 2024, and the appointment of an independent Chief Scientific Advisor Marine. Furthermore, in 2025 following consultation with Scotland’s academic marine science community, the Marine and Freshwater Areas of Research Interest was published.