Zero Waste Scotland's (ZWS) Corporate Plan for 2025-2030 includes present and future targets beyond the life of this Corporate Plan.

The reference to seeking reduction of Scotland's extraction of raw materials by one third is based on a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report, which stresses the importance of high-income countries reducing their material footprint by bending the resource use curve to achieve economic growth, reduced inequality, improved quality of life and dramatically reduced environmental impacts.

During the lifetime of the current Corporate Plan, Scottish Government will continue to work with ZWS in developing data and policies required to establish a baseline and trajectory for future target setting to measure progress towards a circular economy.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The number of nursery service cancellations and registrations is a matter for the Care Inspectorate. The Care Inspectorate publish data on service cancellations and registrations (available here: https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/statistics-and-analysis, however the published data does not go back as far as 1999.

This is a matter for the individual non-departmental public bodies. You can find links to each body’s website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/pages/executive-non-departmental-public-bodies/ where each body will have their published annual accounts which should cover staffing costs.

As part of the commitment to be an open and transparent government, we promote the disclosure of names and salary details of senior public sector staff. Since October 2010, Scottish non-departmental public bodies have been asked to list the names and salary details of members of their senior leadership teams. You can find links to each body’s website at National public bodies: directory or on the Public Sector pay website at Pay transparency - Public sector pay.

Given the changes in the Scottish Government’s devolved powers over the last decade, it is not possible to apply direct like with like comparisons in Scottish Government funding levels over the past decade, notably due to the addition of around £5.6 billion of funding for devolved social security benefits.

The health and wellbeing of women at work is a key element of Scottish Government’s approach to Fair Work, including supporting women experiencing menopause and those who feel forced from the workforce due to their symptoms.

In the absence of powers on employment legislation the Scottish Government seeks to drive Fair Work by attaching criteria to grants, contracts and other public funding through our Fair Work First principles. Our Fair Work First Guidance provides good practice examples for supporting women and allowing them to maintain their careers, including menopause support, by directing employers to resources produced by NHS Inform and Close the Gap. Access to flexible working is also of vital benefit to workers who may need to balance work with managing health conditions. Since 2020, the Scottish Government has provided more than £1.1 million to help employers improve access to flexible working. Asking employers to offer flexible working from day one of employment has been a principle of Fair Work First since October 2021. Fair Work First criteria has been applied to over £2.6 billion worth of public sector grants between July 2023 and March 2024.

Through the Women’s Health Plan, in October 2023 NHS Scotland launched their National Menopause and Menstrual Health Workplace Policy for their workforce of around 180,000 as an example of best practice. Supporting resources, including line managers and workplace adjustment guides, are intended for use more widely across a variety of employment sectors and are available on the National Wellbeing Hub which is accessible to the public. Since the publication of the Policy, promotional activities have taken place to share the Policy across sectors.

The recently concluded Workplace Equality Fund supported four menopause-related projects, from which lessons learned and resources created will be shared widely with employers across Scotland alongside wider guidance, advice and support on all aspects of Fair Work as part of a fair work resource hub currently being developed with input from employers.

Statistics covering the period up to 31 Mar 2026 are expected to be published by Public Health Scotland on 26 May 2026 as per the usual release schedule.

The highest salary currently paid is £240,000 for the Chief Executive of the Scottish National Investment Bank. This is also the figure published in the Bank’s Annual Report 2024. Senior salary information can be found for individual public body’s on their websites. You can find links to each body’s website at National public bodies: directory.

The 85% funding floor is a key element of the needs-based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities each year.

Funding for all local authorities in Scotland is included in the calculation of the 85% Floor although the contribution of the three island councils and Argyll and Bute to the average calculation, is capped at 115%.

The capping adjustment has no effect on funding actually provided to those four authorities and it only applies for the purpose of calculating the average, in part to mitigate the risk that the Special Islands Needs Allowance (SINA) has a distortive impact on the calculation.

The capping adjustment has been in place since the 85% Floor was introduced in the 2012-13 Settlement (see Annex I of Local Government Finance Circular 11/2011).

Assumed council tax revenues are a key element of the needs-based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities each year.

The inclusion of Assumed Council Tax in the overall distribution calculations reflects structural differences in the housing stock across the country and ensures that local authorities with a greater proportion of houses in band A to C are not disadvantaged, relative to those with a higher proportion of their houses in band E to H.

The absence of an Assumed Council Tax adjustment in the formula would disproportionately benefit more affluent local authorities. By way of illustration, for every £1 raised on a band D council tax bill, more affluent authorities receive 50% more income than the least affluent authorities. Including Assumed Council Tax in the settlement calculations is therefore a critical element of the needs-based distribution by ensuring that the impact of those structural differences are partially redistributed.

Excluding Assumed Council Tax from the 85% floor would remove this partial redistribution and would therefore be incompatible with the concept of a needs-based distribution methodology.

Distribution involves a complex and dynamic calculation with the impact on subsequent years being influenced by prior year calculations, primarily through the operation of the main funding floor.

If Assumed Council Tax were excluded from the calculation of the 85% floor, in the past five years, a hypothetical static analysis would indicate that Aberdeen City would have additionally been below 85 per cent in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and City of Edinburgh would have additionally been below 85 per cent in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.