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The Scottish Government does not hold information on the registration of additional support needs professionals. Information on the registration of teachers is managed by the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

As outlined in the Programme for Government this year, we are considering how best we can empower regional partnerships, so that local authorities can work together more with enterprise agencies, businesses, and the third sector at regional scale to drive growth.

Scotland hosts world-class research and innovation, with each of our unique universities conducting cutting edge, collaborative research across a broad range of disciplines. A suite of innovation activity occurs within Scottish research organisations and businesses. This generates a wide range of economic, societal and environmental impacts, and means we are highly successful in leveraging competitive funds from other sources. Recent analysis was undertaken by Elsevier on Scotland’s research and innovation performance.

The Scottish Government remains committed to research, which sits at the heart of a number of our key policies and strategies, such as NSET, the National Innovation Strategy and the International Education Strategy. We continue to support high-quality research and innovation across Scotland, increasing the investment in HE capital (which includes funding for research) to over £368m – an increase of 3.2% (or over £11m) for AY 25-26. We also continue to fund a portfolio of knowledge exchange and innovation investments, including the Innovation Centres, Interface and Alliances for Research Challenges (ARCs), and funding supporting international research collaboration.

Decisions around the Scottish Government’s Budget are being considered over the coming months. The Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with Universities Scotland on developing a framework for the sustainability of universities, including research activity.

The allocation of just £28m of the £360 million Fishing and Coastal Fund is a hammer blow for our fishing sector. Scotland accounts for over 60% of the UK’s fishing capacity and seafood exports, with Scottish vessels landing over 75% of UK quota species. Scotland’s allocation should be at least 46%, reflecting our share of the UK’s EU fisheries funding.

We understand from the UK Government that the funding will not be provided until the financial year 2026-27, and that it will be spread over 12 years. The Scottish Government will make funding decisions for 2026-27 and future years in the upcoming Scottish Budget and Spending Review. When that process concludes we will be able to provide more detail on future years of marine funding in Scotland. However, this unfair allocation severely restricts our ability to support our industry which faces mounting pressures, and the very small allocation will do little to address these. I am strongly urging the UK Government to reconsider this decision.

Meanwhile, our Marine Fund Scotland (MFS) has been supporting new entrants into Scotland's Fishing industry and innovation withing the sector since 2021. Since the MFS's launch, a total of over £40 million in grant funding has been awarded to the fishing sector, supporting 45 new entrants into the sector and enabling £85 million investment. The Scottish Government remains committed to working with industry, coastal communities and stakeholders to ensure a sustainable and thriving future for Scotland's Fisheries. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41725 on 13 November 2025 which sets out the Scottish Governments full response to the 2024 Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics.

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.

We remain committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions to make meaningful progress towards the implementation of the reduction as swiftly as possible.

While we respect union members’ right to withdraw their labour, we are disappointed that the teacher unions, including EIS, have announced they plan to take this action while these constructive discussions are ongoing.

The 2021 SNP manifesto included a commitment to give teachers more time out of the classroom to prepare lessons, undertake professional development and tackle the challenges of closing the attainment gap.

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering a reduction in teacher class contact time of 90 minutes per week, which we believe will create the conditions to achieve these improvements.

That is why we are working with teacher unions and COSLA through the SNCT to make meaningful progress towards delivering the reduction.

In October 2025 we were pleased that the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers subgroup on Reducing Class Contact Time agreed with our proposals to develop a workplan to deliver a route map towards reducing class contact time, at pace.

My officials are continuing work with COSLA and the teacher unions to achieve our joint objectives.

The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP). Scottish Government’s grant conditions include a requirement that all funded youth organisations must have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place to protect vulnerable adults and children which comply with current national guidance in Scotland and that, upon request, they provide copies of their policies and procedures. The SYP safeguarding policies can be found here on its website: https://syp.org.uk/safeguarding/.

I also refer the member to the SYP Board statement from 2022. The statement provides details of action taken to strengthen safeguarding policies to ensure they are in line with legislation and also meet national standards. That statement can be found here: https://syp.org.uk/statement-from-syp-board/.

The organisation continues to review their safeguarding polices annually to ensure they are as comprehensive as possible.

The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP) to become confident and resilient young people and develop the skills they need to influence change and reach their full potential. They also receive £30,000 for their role in supporting MSYPs to meet with the Scottish Cabinet and Executive team once a year.

My officials have sought reassurance from the SYP about its child protection and safeguarding procedures in the context of the management of these grants. In September 2025, SYP provided reassurance that they work continuously to strengthen their safeguarding guidelines and procedures in line with evolving national child protection policies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41771 on 24 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.

As outlined in the Programme for Government, we are committed to further regional devolution through Regional Partnerships. We see empowering regions as a key lever to strengthen Scotland’s economy – and we will provide more detail on how we plan to do that before the end of this parliament.