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We will update parliament in due course on the progress made against the recommendations set out in Project Willow.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to take forward a Dundee Northern Bypass or Relief Road. The A90 is an important part of Scotland’s Trunk Road network and passes through suburban Dundee, thus serving both strategic need through traffic and the need for local accessibility.

Creative Scotland assesses all applications made - irrespective of theme, subject matter or artform - in accordance with the published criteria and guidance for each funding stream. This guidance states explicit restrictions on the use of funding provided by Creative Scotland for party political activities. The terms and conditions of the agreements entered into with successful applicants further support this position, making clear that funding awarded cannot be used for such activities.

I agreed the remit of the Review of Creative Scotland with the independent Chair, Angela Leitch, and it is available on the Scottish Government’s website at the following link: Independent Review of Creative Scotland: remit - gov.scot

The review will include consideration of Creative Scotland’s finances and distribution of funds.

The Review is independent of the Scottish Government and will deliver its recommendations in November.

The Scottish Government and UK Government have made a joint investment commitment of £90.2 million to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal over a ten year period until the end of March 2030.

The Deal, now in its 6th year of delivery, has spent £34.68 million of this available funding up to the end of quarter 4 of financial year 2024-25. This has resulted in completion of the following five projects:

• restoration of the Japanese Gardens at Cowden;
• a digital hub in Cowie, offering training and business development opportunities;
• Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling active travel project, providing two high quality walking and cycling routes;
• A Regional Energy Masterplan, supporting a strategic whole systems approach to energy across Stirling and Clackmannanshire; and
• transfer of land from the Ministry of Defence to Stirling Council to enable wider regeneration at Forthside.

Meanwhile, the following four projects are in delivery:

• a flexible skills project, providing skills development opportunities to improve the employability of up to 500 individuals;
• an inclusion workers and investment fund, providing tailored employability support to 245 people from traditionally excluded groups;
• Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC), offering research and collaboration opportunities to protect and enhance natural resources; and
• the National Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Hub (NATIH), a research facility and business development hub for sustainable aquaculture food production that is due to open in November 2025.

The reapplication process is required by the legislation, with the maximum period of issue for a Blue Badge being 3 years. This mitigates the potential for fraudulent applications being submitted and ensures that local authorities meet the needs and demands of future audits.

At a minimum of every 3 years, local authorities need to be satisfied that existing Blue Badge holders continue to reside in the same local authority area and still meet the eligibility criteria. This helps to ensure that the Blue Badge, an extremely valuable concession, is protected from misuse and fraud.

Transport Scotland recommends that applicants who have previously been assessed by a regulated healthcare professional and have been deemed as requiring no further assessment for future badge applications should be able to experience a quicker and easier process when they come to re-apply for a blue badge.

It is recommended that the local authority or regulated healthcare professional should make eligible applicants aware of their ‘not for reassessment’ status after the assessment process has been completed. Following this process, eligible applicants can reapply by completing the ‘Not for Reassessment’ (NFR) application form issued by their local authority.

In 2022-23, Transport Scotland undertook a desk-based review of each Scottish local authority’s application process. Based on the findings, Transport Scotland provided local authorities a list of recommendations, including improved signposting, considerations for applicants requesting paper applications, regular updates on estimated waiting times and publicising the consequences of Blue Badge misuse.

Transport Scotland continues to work closely with local authorities, DfT and Social Security Scotland to continually improve the online application process. More recently, this has resulted in the successful introduction of new Social Security Scotland benefits and their eligibility towards Blue Badge.

The Scottish Government’s plans for woodland creation will also raise woodland cover to 23% by 2045. Scotland is leading the UK, planting 75% of all new woodland in the past 10 years. The Government will continue to use the Forestry Grant Scheme and other levers such as the Woodland Carbon Code to maximise the resources available for woodland creation.

Information on the types of planned NHS operations that have the highest current average waiting times is not held by Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day-case under the Treatment Time Guarantee.

This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

The table below shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the top five specialties that have the largest median wait across NHSScotland for all specialties covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.

The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average. The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.

Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at specialty level broken down by sex for the top five specialties (that have the highest median wait) across NHSScotland, at 31 March 2025

The following table shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.

The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average.

The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.

Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at all specialty level broken down by sex, at 31 March 2025