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The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in the Scottish Government’s capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

The result of this cut is that new health capital projects have currently been paused. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement. However we are in active discussions with NHS Lanarkshire on the impact of this budget settlement on the proposal to replace University Hospital Monklands.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25429 on 4 March 2024. 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 .

Government does not fund North East Edinburgh Counselling Service directly from its mental health programme budget, therefore no objectives have been set.

Plans for decarbonisation of the Fife Circle are in development. It is expected this will be one of the next parts of the Scottish network to be decarbonised, after the current work to electrify the East Kilbride line. The scope of the work in Fife will be developed and appraised alongside consideration of new battery-electric trains.

No economic assessment has been carried out in regard to any potential delay to the Aberdeen – Central Belt Enhancement Project. An economic assessment of the impact of the proposed delivery, including cost and programme, of the Aberdeen – Central Belt Enhancement Project will be undertaken as part of the Outline Business Case assessment for the project.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water has published its Improving Urban Waters Routemap ( https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Urban-Waters-Improvements ) which outlines the process to identify and plan future investment for the highest priority Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges (UIDs). This planned approached is agreed in conjunction with the environmental regulator SEPA.

Each financial year (Apr-Mar) it reports UID figures within an Annual return to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) and as at March 2023 the figure was 776. This number is revised each year as improvement projects address UIDs and on-going studies identify new UIDs. The figure for 2023-24 will be published later this year.

Engagement between Scottish Enterprise and Gibson's Engineering Ltd led to a Business Gateway referral in 2022. In addition, the Find Business Support website ( findbusinesssupport.gov.scot ) provides information on the advice and funding offered by Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway and I would encourage Gibson’s Engineering to consider the full range of support available.

Specialist support is also available through the Rail Cluster, an initiative designed and funded by Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland which is being delivered by Scottish Engineering. The aim is to connect Scottish SMEs with the country’s top manufacturing innovators and supply chain partners to help deliver the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railways. I understand that Gibson’s Engineering has already engaged with the Rail Cluster.

A significant amount of work is still required to make Section 8 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 law. Transport Scotland Officials are currently progressing work to determine the scope of the required public consultation which will help inform the secondary legislation required to bring this into force.

Further to the answer provided to PQ S6W-23536, the timeline and development of the governance review of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership (CMPP) is a matter for the CMPP. While it is the role of Scottish Government to provide support to regional partnerships in development of their draft regional marine plans, changes to the membership, governance and constitution of the CMPP is the subject of paragraph 1 in the Schedule of the Clyde’s Ministerial Direction. When and if changes are finalised by the partnership, they will notify Scottish Ministers of these as soon as reasonably practicable and without delay as per Schedule 1 of the Delegation of Functions (Regional Marine Plan for the Scottish Marine Region for the Clyde) Direction 2017.

We are monitoring progress against this commitment through the Annual Delivery Plan’s being provided by Health Boards and the Public Health Scotland annual Scottish Health Service Costs Publication. We are providing support to individual NHS Boards towards meeting the target via our routine engagement and in-year/end-year reviews. We are also developing additional guidance and advice to NHS Boards on the criteria to report against the target with the aim of providing a consistent benchmark nationally.