Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 10 September 2025
10 Sep 2025 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Portfolio Question Time
Edinburgh Biomes Project
Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
The cabinet secretary will be aware of the risk to that globally important living collection of plants if the heating system were to fail, which reinforces the importance of delivering the project. The uncertainty of funding each financial year makes planning the project even more challenging. What assurance can the cabinet secretary give the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh that it will receive the necessary funding to complete the project? Will she agree to visit the site with me and other Edinburgh MSPs to see the global importance of the project?
In the same item of business
7. Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
To ask the Scottish Government at what stage the current funding application is for the Edinburgh biomes project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. (S6O-...
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands (Mairi Gougeon)
SNP
The Scottish Government has already committed £58 million to the Edinburgh biomes programme over the past five years, to the end of 2025-26. We will continue...
Miles Briggs
Con
The cabinet secretary will be aware of the risk to that globally important living collection of plants if the heating system were to fail, which reinforces t...
Mairi Gougeon
SNP
I am more than happy to commit to that meeting. I absolutely agree with Miles Briggs on the overall importance of the project. I emphasise, and offer assura...
Foysol Choudhury (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
How exactly does the Scottish Government plan to protect vital carbon mitigation research at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in the interim period while t...
Mairi Gougeon
SNP
I would like to say how much we value the work that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh undertakes through its research and in relation to its collections. I ...