Seòmar agus comataidhean

Decisions concerning future Scottish Government funding programmes will be considered and addressed through the Scottish Budget and Scottish Spending Review processes.

The Scottish Government provides an annual grant to Scottish Mountain Rescue, which they distribute onwards to all of Scotland’s individual volunteer teams. This distribution follows an agreed and established formula that takes into account relative changes in team activity levels, alongside a range of other relevant factors. Scotland is the only part of the UK in which volunteer mountain rescue teams are supported in this way. While the overall budget for this grant is determined on an annual basis, the Scottish Mountain Rescue grant has, for this year, been included in the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding pilot. This inclusion offers increased assurance that funding will be maintained at no less than the current level until at least March 2027.

Climate change is clearly driving more extreme weather, and this summer has brought very dry conditions across Scotland, particularly in the east, resulting in eight catchment areas now experiencing significant water scarcity. In response, we are implementing Scotland’s National Water Scarcity Plan in collaboration with SEPA and Scottish Water to support those affected.

Since spring, we have worked with SEPA and partners to communicate water scarcity risks to producers. SEPA has also contacted all impacted abstraction license holders directly to offer advice and is working closely with affected businesses. While this is a challenging time, SEPA are reporting encouraging levels of compliance on the ground.

To reduce the impact on agriculture, the Scottish Government’s Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) promotes sustainable land management, including water-use efficiency and water management measures such as irrigation lagoons.

Since 2024, AECS has raised the grant ceiling for irrigation lagoons to £40,000 and enabled applications to be made as either a simplified standalone item or as part of a wider application. Additionally, the Future Farming Investment Scheme launched this year, offering £14 million in capital funding to support improvements in efficiency, nature restoration, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Recognising the increasing challenges posed by climate change, we remain committed to continuing with reformed direct payments. These provide farmers with vital financial stability, helping them to plan and continue producing food sustainably in the face of more frequent and severe weather events.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) offers support for targeted land management options such as Moorland Management, which benefits a range of moorland habitats including peatland and upland heath. This option can complement the capital works delivered through Peatland ACTION. This enables land managers to access support for preparatory and post-restoration activities that safeguard long-term outcomes.

In addition to the £250 million committed to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2030, primarily through Peatland ACTION, over £3.8 million capital funding is estimated to have been provided through 327 contracts to benefit peatland restoration since AECS launched in 2015.

Additionally, from 1 January this year, new requirements have been added to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) which farmers and crofters must meet to receive agricultural funding. This has prohibited a range of activities on peatlands and wetlands to prevent damage, in recognition of the important role they play in storing carbon.

The realisation of the Vision for Agriculture and the new four-tier framework will seek to strengthen alignment between our outcomes of nature restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a just transition, alongside continued high-quality food production.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40144 on 10 September 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-40144 on 10 September 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.

Whilst the Scottish Government does not provide direct funding to create community growing sites, since 2012 we have awarded nearly £2.5 million to expand and encourage food growing skills and access to community growing sites across the country. This includes £100,000 awarded to Green Action Trust annually since 2021 to deliver the Growing Food Together Fund. On average, around 9 to 10 groups or projects are supported by this funding each year.

To best utilise the funding available and maximise the number of groups it can support, the fund has understandably prioritised expanding existing growing spaces (such as through the addition of new planters, polytunnels or other similar infrastructure) rather than providing funding to establish entirely new sites.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the specialist third sector services that provide crucial support to survivors of violence against women and girls.

That is why the Delivering Equally Safe Fund has been extended into 2025-26, allowing for the continuation of vital support to survivors of violence against women and girls across Scotland. The fund has benefited from a £2.4 million increase, bringing the total investment in the Delivering Equally Safe Fund to £21.6 million for 2025-26.

Our Equally Safe Delivery Plan commits to the development of a flexible and stable funding model that reflects the ambitions of Equally Safe.

The Scottish Government is currently developing plans for how the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund allocation will be used to support digital inclusion in Scotland. We will work with stakeholders to ensure that delivery complements existing programmes and supports those most at risk of exclusion.

Further details on how we plan to allocate this funding will be announced in the coming months.

The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the source of the Businesses in Scotland publication, is not a public register. The IDBR is a statistical register, built from a range of survey return data, administrative data and estimated data.

The IDBR data are held by the Scottish Government on behalf of the United Kingdom Statistics Authority and are classified as ‘personal information’ according to the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The 2007 Act requires that the Scottish Government must not disclose the personal information, held on behalf of the United Kingdom Statistics Authority, unless directly authorised by the UK National Statistician. Authority will only be given in exceptional circumstances.

Asking businesses permission to publish the information they return on a named basis would very likely result in reduced overall response rates. Additionally it may affect the quality of the data response.

Information on businesses in Scotland is publicly available from the Companies House register. A downloadable snapshot containing basic data for live companies on the Companies House register is available at:

https://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html