Scottish Ministers recognise the crucial role the port sector plays in supporting the Scottish economy. Ports ownership in Scotland is a diverse mix of mainly private, local authority and trust operated. We recognise that a diverse and successful ports sector contributes significantly to the national, regional and local economies in which they operate.

Regardless of the ownership model, ports in Scotland are deemed commercial entities. Therefore, the Scottish Government has no say in the day-to-day running of their business, nor can it dictate business decisions made by a company on how to best to utilise its resources. This remains the responsibility of the statutory harbour authority.

We are committed to ensuring that people living with respiratory conditions such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease can access clinically appropriate, safe and effective care.

The Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year has now been passed by Parliament and will invest a record £21.7 billion in Scotland’s health and social care services, including £200 million to reduce waiting lists and improve capacity.

By March 2026, we expect no-one to wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment or day case treatment with more than 150,000 extra patients seen as a result.

We have already provided £30 million additional funding this year which will deliver around 24,000 additional new outpatient and inpatient/day-case appointments and over 40,000 diagnostic tests.

We know single use items made from PET and similar thermoplastics have a damaging effect on our natural environment and biodiversity from litter to harming wildlife. The Scottish Government’s policy is to reduce the consumption of single use materials regardless of composition, rather than to target specific material types or to displace one single use material with another. This is in line with the waste hierarchy, which prioritises reduction and reuse over all other interventions. That is why we have banned single use plastic items such as cutlery and straws and are introducing a deposit return scheme to reduce the number of single use drinks containers being littered.

The Scottish Government’s policy is to reduce the consumption of single use materials regardless of composition, rather than to target specific material types or to displace one single use material with another. This is in line with the waste hierarchy, which prioritises reduction and reuse over all other interventions.

The Scottish Government has not researched the impact of PET on public and children’s health. The Scottish Government’s policy is to reduce the consumption of single use materials regardless of composition. This is in line with the waste hierarchy, which prioritises reduction and reuse over all other interventions.

A scheme was developed in 2017 in conjunction with the Armed Forces in Scotland to enable Members to visit defence bases in Scotland to help Members better understand the range of social and welfare issues relevant to armed forces personnel, and their families, within their community.  These visits are open to all Members and are arranged through the different service secretariats based in Scotland.   

It was agreed that this scheme would be a better fit for the Parliament than the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme that operates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and there are no plans to review the scheme at this time. 

Since 2017, many Members have taken part in the Armed Forces Visits Programme, visiting defence bases across Scotland.  In 2018 and 2024, the Scottish Parliament hosted a reciprocal inward visit for representatives from the armed services in Scotland, providing them with an opportunity to meet and shadow Members.  There have been a number of outward visits this session and parliamentary officials are currently liaising with the Armed Forces to arrange the next series of outward visits before the end of 2025.

In addition, the Presiding Officer and Clerk/Chief Executive regularly arrange events at the Scottish Parliament for the armed forces to brief Members on current issues and parliamentary officials are currently looking to arrange another event in a few months.

Thank you for your question to the SPCB. We will provide a response to your question as soon as possible.

Public Health Scotland's (PHS) Stage of treatment (Sot) Publication provides statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case The latest publication release contains data to quarter ending 31 December 2024

Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:

New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31761/newop_mar25.xlsx

Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31760/ipdc_mar25.xlsx

Public Health Scotland's (PHS) Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication provides statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 31 December 2024

Statistics relating to the total number of ongoing waits and the number of waits with a wait length over 52 weeks by specialty from 31 December 2019 can be found in the ‘Waits over 52 weeks’ data table in sheets ‘Table 3.1.1’ for new outpatient appointments, and ‘Table 3.2.1’ for inpatient or day case admissions:

Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 December 2024 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:

New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31761/newop_mar25.xlsx

Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31760/ipdc_mar25.xlsx

The requested statistics are collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS).Published statistics on the length of time patients wait for a first outpatient appointment at Allied Health Professional (AHP) led Musculoskeletal (MSK) services are available at: https://publichealthscotland.scot