Chamber and committees

I suspect that Kate Nevens was going to ask me about a specific section of the 2016 act, and I will refer her query to officials. We can pick that up offline to ensure that she gets a good answer to her question, which she is right to raise.

I, too, have heard concerns from constituents about the length of burial and the changes that have come in, so I am more than happy to pick up those issues and work offline on them.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that burial provision reflects the diverse religious and cultural needs of all communities. Under the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016, local authorities are responsible for ensuring burial provision, including through joint arrangements with other local authorities, where appropriate.

The Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 enable burial authorities to designate parts of burial grounds for particular faith or belief groups. Decisions on the provision and designation of burial grounds rest with individual burial authorities, reflecting local needs, and burial authorities are encouraged to engage with all faith communities to understand demand.

Local authorities, which manage the majority of burial grounds in Scotland, must also comply with the Equality Act 2010, including the public sector equality duty, which requires them to have regard to religious needs when delivering services, including bereavement services.

The requirement of the 2016 act is that every local authority must provide burial space, but the 2016 act does not address burial space for any specific faith. Each local authority has to consider its obligations under the 2016 act, alongside equality legislation, and has to consider the potential indirect discrimination in relation to the provision of burial space for its residents. The burial fees are set by each burial authority—the Scottish Government has no role in setting or regulating those prices.

The issue that Mr Linden describes has arisen because people in his area are being charged extra to bury folk in Glasgow. Many local authorities charge a lower fee for residents, partly to recognise their indirect contributions to the provision and upkeep of burial grounds through the council tax system. Mr Linden has identified a challenging area for his constituents. I have asked officials to engage with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers on the issue to get a better understanding of the provision of burial space by local authorities for different faiths.

As I said in my earlier answer, I have asked officials to engage with SOLACE on that issue to get a better understanding of local authorities’ provision of burial space for different faiths. The onus is on local authorities to work with their communities and it is perfectly possible under the legislation for part of a burial ground to be designated for a specific faith. Local authorities whose areas include communities that have specific burial requirements should absolutely work with those communities to ensure that their needs are met.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to, and recognises the importance of, ensuring that burial provision reflects the diverse religious and cultural needs of all communities. We would be more than happy to update members on the ongoing work on that and any outcome from the engagement between my officials and SOLACE.

I recognise the issues that Donald MacKinnon describes, not least because I, too, represent the area that he represents and I come from a rural part of the Highlands.

We are working hard to improve the identification of those patients who would benefit from thrombectomy. The issue then becomes about how we quickly transfer them to areas where the thrombectomy service is available. Thirdly, we must make sure that that service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are working on all those issues to maximise the opportunities for that transformative care to happen all over Scotland.

We want people to be able to access thrombectomy treatment across Scotland, no matter where they live. That is why, in our election manifesto, we committed to providing a further £25 million, on top of the more than £51 million that we have already invested, to deliver a 24/7 thrombectomy service with national coverage. We have now commissioned Public Services Delivery Scotland to work with national health service boards to develop detailed resource and cost modelling for a 24/7 thrombectomy service.

We have already provided funding for thrombectomy nurses in spoke sites to maximise the access to thrombectomy. NHS Dumfries and Galloway received £115,936 in 2025-26. Evidence from stroke services suggests that those hyperacute stroke nursing roles are already having a positive impact on the delivery of acute and hyperacute stroke care. We have funded an education package to help staff in general practices, emergency departments and the Scottish Ambulance Service to recognise stroke symptoms. In 2025, more than 1,600 NHS staff attended those education sessions. We are also procuring a national artificial intelligence solution for NHS Scotland to help all NHS boards to identify rapidly those patients who would benefit from thrombectomy.

As I said in my earlier answer, we are still committed to having a 24/7 thrombectomy service and Public Services Delivery Scotland is working with NHS boards to establish fully the resource that is required to deliver that. Once that has been established, we will work at pace to develop a delivery plan with timescales for service expansion.

I want to reassure families that we are making that change for the very best reason: to save babies’ lives. The evidence is clear that the outcomes for the smallest and sickest babies will be improved by the change. The outcomes for those babies are best in units with a high throughput of cases, where support services such as surgery and cardiac care are co-located.

The change brings Scotland into line with existing neonatal intensive care service models across the UK. It will affect a very small number of babies—those born at less than 27 weeks’ gestation, those weighing less than 800g, and the very sickest babies, who need multiple complex life support or surgery.

To put that in context, around 470 babies are admitted to neonatal care in Ninewells every year. The change will affect about 10 of those babies, who will be moved to be cared for in one of the three specialist units until they are fit to return to Ninewells.

I must be absolutely clear: the vast majority of sick babies will continue to be cared for in their local neonatal units.

The first thing to say is that the vast majority of babies who need additional care after birth will continue to get that care in their local area. The intention with the new model of care is that mothers in suspected extreme pre-term labour—those mums who are expected to give birth before 27 weeks—are transferred before they give birth, when the baby is in utero, to maternity units in the hospitals that have neonatal intensive care units.

It is recognised that it will not always be possible to transfer mothers before they give birth. In those cases, our Scottish specialist transport and retrieval service—ScotSTAR—teams will transfer those babies in specialist ambulances that are equipped to care for neonates, as has been the established practice for many years.

Babies who receive care in one of the three intensive care units in Scotland will be transferred back to their local neonatal unit for ongoing care as soon as possible.

I am more than happy to discuss that issue with Jackie Baillie and other interested representatives. Jackie Baillie will understand that I am new to my role. My understanding is that the initial recommendation was to move to five units, then to three.

The change is already under way. In the east of the country, Fife babies already go to Edinburgh to receive that level of care; in the west, Ayrshire babies go to Glasgow. The next phase will take on board the learning from those initial pathways before we move on. I am more than happy to work with local members on that. However, as I understand it—I must be absolutely clear—the recommendation was for three units nationally, and that is about saving babies’ lives.