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There have been no comparative analyses undertaken of spending relative to similar devolved administrations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32606 on 14 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

In 2019 the Scottish Government and COSLA agreed to adopt the Place Principle to help overcome organisational and sectoral boundaries, to encourage better collaboration and community involvement, and improve the impact of combined energy, resources and investment.

It promotes a shared understanding of place, and the need to take a more collaborative approach to a place’s services and assets to achieve better outcomes for people and communities. The principle encourages and enables local flexibility to respond to issues and circumstances in different places.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) embeds and promotes the Place Principle, to ensure all land-use planning decisions take account of place and local circumstances, including flooding. The NPF4 also encourages the use of the Place Standard tool in the early stages of planning, to ensure that the needs and priorities of local communities are incorporated, and for developers to demonstrate how the Place Principle has been incorporated into their proposals.

Details of decarbonisation of the Scottish rail network will be outlined in the refreshed Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Our fourth National Planning Framework (NEF) is a long-term plan looking to 2045 that guides spatial development, sets out national planning policies, designates national developments and highlights regional spatial priorities.

Planning authorities are preparing new local development plans, which will be to take forward NPF4 in a way which responds to local challenges and opportunities. NPF4 Policy 22, flood risk and water management, sets out the need to strengthen resilience to flood risk by promoting avoidance as a first principle and reducing the vulnerability of existing and future development to flooding. NPF4 Policy 22 exception iv states that redevelopment of previously used sites in built up areas will only be supported where the LDP has identified a need to bring these into positive use and where proposals demonstrate that long-term safety and resilience can be secured in accordance with relevant SEPA advice.

Under the Flood Risk Management Planning process introduced as part of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009, SEPA, local authorities, Scottish Water and others to work together to deliver actions to increase our flood resilience.

Scottish Government also supports the Scottish Flood Forum to work with communities and local authorities across Scotland to reduce the impacts of flooding on individuals and communities.

The Scottish Government international network offices complement the work of trade specialists in Scottish Development International (SDI) in supporting Scotland’s export industries, as well as working alongside UK officials in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Business and Trade. This includes supporting introductions to market opportunities through trade missions and exhibitions, advising on and addressing market access barriers including regulatory issues, and undertaking government-to-government and government-to-business engagement to promote Scotland’s interests. This economic diplomacy activity contributes to Scotland’s export performance measured quantitatively in figures produced by SDI. The Scottish Government’s annual report on the international network supplements this with qualitative reporting on the contribution made by these teams to delivering priorities identified in Scotland’s International Strategy.

The budget allocated to each of Scottish Government’s nine international offices is published in the Level 4 budget tables for the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26, and these figures are available at the following URL:

Consultation for railway electrification projects with affected communities is undertaken by Network Rail as the infrastructure owner and operator, and by ScotRail as the provider of services.

Information on passenger numbers is publicly available on the website of the Office of Rail and Road.

The subsidy for rail services has been published in TS accounts. This can be found here: