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The Scottish Government is investing around £198 million this year to support 25,000 new Modern Apprenticeships (MAs), alongside 5,000 new Foundation Apprenticeships and over 1,200 Graduate Apprenticeships. Our investment enables continued support for over 39,000 apprentices already in training.

SDS provide a range of useful information and resources on their website for employers on how to take on apprentices and work with training providers. There is also some business support available through Find business support in Scotland | Find Business Support and local employability services Local Employability Services | Employability in Scotland. A continued key priority as we reform the skills system will be to encourage greater participation from small and micro businesses.

We remain committed to working with employers and industry leaders to make sure that employers across Scotland, particularly in areas of skills shortage, can continue to access the talent they need to succeed.

Councils have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads and footways in their area; and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic and people using their roads and footways.

Councils are entirely separate entities from the Scottish Government. Their powers are set out in statute and, it is up to each local authority to manage its own day to day business, including the maintenance of pavements. If pavements are of an unacceptable condition, complaints should be made directly to the council in question. Thereafter, if the matter remains unresolved, the complaint may be able to be referred to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the cost to each NHS board of treating injuries, such as hip fractures, resulting from falls on poorly maintained or untreated public footways. Individual health boards/ambulance services may hold this data but, likely only in relation to the types of injuries treated and not the reasons for them.

Local authorities are responsible for managing their school estate in line with statutory duties and ensure that capacity assessments reflect modern educational design requirements. The Determining Primary School Capacity guidance recognises evolving approaches to school design and supports authorities in assessing planning and working capacity accordingly.

It is for individual planning authorities to determine whether to seek developer contributions towards infrastructure delivery to enable development, whilst also considering the level of contributions and the potential impact on the viability of development. Developer contributions sought via Section 75 planning obligations should comply with the tests set out in National Planning Framework 4 and Circular 4/2025.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility to manage their school estate, and determining appropriate Pupil Product Ratios (PPR). The Scottish Government does not hold national data comparing pupil yields with PPR assumptions, however, the Determining Primary School Capacity guidance supports local authorities in using locally derived evidence within their planning models. Any review of PPRs in light of future census data remains a matter for each authority.

Any changes to existing funded early learning and childcare arrangements will be a matter for an incoming government to address.

There has been no specific modelling carried out on how this proposal would support the retention of multiple-birth parents in the workforce.

The Northern Isles Ferry Services 4 will be competitively procured via the restricted procedure in accordance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Transport Scotland has no plans to publish the names of interested parties before the issue of the invitation to tender.

The latest calendar year estimates available from the Office for National Statistics Annual Population Survey, which we use to measure the disability employment gap, are for January to December 2024. The January to December 2025 estimates will be published on 29 April 2026 as part of the Scottish Government’s Scotland’s Labour Market Insights publication.

Screen Scotland’s Film Development and Production Fund has awarded the following sums to filmmakers based in the Highlands and Islands region, in each year since 2021:

2021-22 - £639,158

2022-23 - £84,000

2023-24 - £0

2024-25 - £0

2025-26 – data not yet available

Breakfasts in Scotland are currently being delivered through a range of provisions, including Scottish Government, Local Authority and schools funded services as well as private and third sector services. Mapping carried out by the Improvement Service in 2024 demonstrates that almost 50% of primary schools in Scotland already deliver a breakfast offer.

This builds on our Programme for Government 2021 commitment to “develop plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children and to start pilot provision.

The school age childcare Programme has invested in delivery of funded breakfast clubs, after school clubs, and holiday clubs across this Parliamentary term to learn and understand what parents need to support work, and what children need to thrive with a strong focus on tackling poverty.

In 2025-26, we invested £3 million in our Bright Start Breakfasts fund which is currently supporting 20,000 children access breakfast across 490 clubs. In our 2026-27 Scottish Budget, we confirmed that we will continue to invest in the Bright Start Breakfasts Fund for delivery across the 2026-27 academic year.

As part of that delivery we will provide an additional £15 million in 2026-27 to expand breakfast club provision and help schools, councils and third sector partners prepare for the introduction of a national breakfast club offer. Further, from 2027-28, we will invest £44 million each year to ensure that there is a free breakfast club universally available to all children in primary and special schools across Scotland from August 2027.

The number of full-time equivalent teachers is shown in the statistics from the annual teacher census as published on the Scottish Government website, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/