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The application window for the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) in scheme year 2025 does not open until 1 September 2025.

Payments under the SUSSS for scheme year 2024 commenced in May 2025, as set out in the 2024 Payments Strategy timetable.

As per the payment strategy timetable, there are no delayed payments and as at 9 June 2025, 98% of eligible applicants have been paid with 17 applicants still to receive a 2024 SUSSS payment. There are various reasons why a payment has not yet issued, for example, information has still to be provided by the applicant or application processing has still to complete. All remaining payments will be processed and paid as soon as is possible.

The citation of witnesses is a matter for the independent Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Scottish Government is, however, supporting justice partners to drive reforms to improve our criminal justice system to make it more efficient and ensure that it works better for everyone.

That will include reducing the number of police witnesses who are required to attend court and reducing the length of time that cases take. It will also mean enabling more cases to be concluded earlier, and fewer victims and civil witnesses needing to come to court.

Two key programmes being rolled out across Scotland are the judicially led summary case management programme, which provides a new approach to summary criminal cases, and the digital evidence sharing capability programme, which allows digital evidence to be shared at the earliest opportunity including the evidence from Body Worn Video technology which is being rolled out by Police Scotland this year. It is anticipated that combined these will deliver benefits for both civil and professional witnesses.

Ministers have no plans to consider business travel under the Air Discount Scheme, as this would be in breach of current State Aid compliance.

Ministers are currently considering the scope and structure of the Air Discount Scheme review, including how the views of stakeholders can best be taken into account.

A key priority for the Scottish Government is to encourage apprenticeship delivery in island and rural communities to support inclusive growth. Through Skills Development Scotland we introduced a rural uplift for Modern Apprenticeship delivery which is an increased payment to training providers to encourage provision in island and rural areas.

Travel and Subsistence (including accommodation) funding is also available to support Apprentices who must attend structured and formal off-the-job training (outwith normal daily travel requirements) where this is required by the Modern Apprenticeship Framework.

Section 259 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 gives people with a mental illness, learning disability, dementia and related conditions a right of access to independent advocacy. It confers a duty on each relevant local authority and relevant health board to secure the availability of independent advocacy services and to take appropriate steps to ensure that those persons have the opportunity of making use of those services.

The Code of Practice Volume 1 for the 2003 Act states that independent advocacy organisations may provide individual or collective advocacy, but notes the Act is not specific about the type or types of independent advocacy services to which an individual should have a right of access. It goes on to acknowledge that any or all of the various types of independent advocacy may be appropriate depending on the circumstances and personal preferences of the individual concerned.

The total cost of work considering and progressing misogyny legislation by the Scottish Government was £143,668.13. This includes:

• The fee paid to Baroness Helena Kennedy KC in her role as Chair of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland;
• Costs associated with Working Group;
• Publication of the Scottish Government consultation paper on draft legislation to implement the Working Group’s recommendations;
• Analysis of the responses received to the consultation; and
• Publication of consultation analysis.

This does not include the cost of time spent by Scottish Government civil servants as the work was carried out by staff working on a range of different areas including but not limited to misogyny legislative policy. As such, it is not possible to quantify the cost of staff time involved.

Project Willow sets out a truly transformative future for Grangemouth and will be possible if the public and private sectors work together. The current 10 year Deal was signed in November 2024, so our focus is on delivering the Growth Deal, which commits £50 million of Scottish Government funding over ten years to projects in the area. The Deal will complement the aims of Project Willow and we will work with partners to progress both the Deal and Project Willow. As previously stated, there are no plans for a further Deal.

The Scottish Government, along with the other UK nations, relies on advice about screening programmes from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group.

We welcome research on the further improvements that can be made to our screening programmes. The UK National Screening Committee is reviewing this evidence as it becomes available. Should a recommendation be made to introduce changes to the screening programme, the organisations that oversee screening will advise Scottish Ministers on how to take that recommendation forward.

The data for 2024-25 is not yet available; the Mental Welfare Commission is currently in the process of extracting and validating this data. It will be included in the Commission’s Mental Health Act Monitoring report 2024-25 which is due to be published this Autumn.

The Scottish Government recognises that while Scotland is ranked among the top OECD countries and top performing UK regions in Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) spend as a percentage of GDP, Scotland’s Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) spend as a share of GDP is below the OECD average. While Scotland outperforms the EU27 average, the Scottish Government published its National Innovation Strategy in 2023 to increase innovation levels across Scotland, including business R&D spending.

The ten year strategy sets out actions to make Scotland one of the most innovative small nations in the world and will use innovation as a productivity driver to grow the economy and create jobs in areas of strength such as: energy transition; health and life sciences; advanced manufacturing; and the application of data and digital technologies. Specifically, the strategy’s commercialisation programme will support our world-class universities to consistently and effectively convert cutting edge research and technologies into scaling companies.

Scotland’s Innovation Strategy sets out actions to make Scotland one of the most innovative small nations in the world. We will use innovation as a productivity driver to grow the economy and create jobs in areas of strength.

Scotland’s Enterprise agencies; Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, support Scotland’s businesses to innovate and develop new products and services through several programmes including SMART:SCOTLAND grants.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has recently launched a competitive £2.9 million proof of concept fund to support researchers from Scotland’s universities develop innovative ideas into new products and services.