The number of vaccinations and percentage of uptake for each of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority groups is available via the Public Health Scotland (PHS) Surveillance website PHS Vaccination Surveillance.

This information is correct as of 26 January 2025.

The PHS surveillance dashboard is updated monthly.

In 2022 the Scottish Government published the Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Once for Scotland Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation in a Post-COVID Era. Which sets out a framework for delivering innovative and inclusive rehabilitation for all.

It supports rehabilitation service providers to identify ways to deliver individualised, cross-sector rehab utilising existing services. It also supports community-based services and supported self-management.

The approach outlines Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation that can be applied across rehab services which are universal principles for delivering good and accessible rehabilitation for all, at the point of need.

We also have a specific work plan aiming to improve access to Pulmonary Rehab across Scotland and provided recommendations to NHS Boards in 2024.

The Respiratory Care Action Plan has another year left in its current lifespan. We will continue to implement the commitments in the Plan over the coming year, alongside our work to explore a new long term conditions strategy to ensure equitable and sustainable access to the services that all people with long term conditions need, while still allowing for targeted action on condition-specific care and support where appropriate. We will take the progress of this work into account as we consider the best way to continue work to improve care and support for people with respiratory conditions in the future.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government are progressing a range of actions to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population, including:

• The passage of the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, which changes the point of release for most prisoners serving short-term sentences of under four years from following 50% of their sentence, to following 40% of their sentence.
• Increasing community justice funding by £14m this year to a total of £148m to further strengthen alternatives to custody.
• Introducing regulations that enable GPS technology to be used to monitor individuals being released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC).
• SPS continue to optimise the appropriate use of HDC which allows certain prisoners who have met the requirements of a risk assessment to spend up to 180 days in the community.
• We intend to bring forward secondary legislation to amend the use of HDC with the intention of increasing the period of time individuals can spend on release under licence conditions.
• We have increased the use of electronically monitored bail which is now available in every local authority and its use is at record levels.
• The establishment of an independent review of sentencing and penal policy which will focus on reducing reoffending and ensuring custody is used at the right time, for the right individuals.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The needs and welfare of all those who live and work in our prisons remains a key priority for SPS, as we continue to manage our highly complex population with a person-centred approach.

Supported centrally by SPS Headquarters, establishments have specific arrangements in place to manage their regime during periods of a high prison population. These arrangements include additional staff on shift to support both operations and residential areas and the application of local staff shortage protocols if there are insufficient staff to run a full regime safely.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) on risks and contingency plans for the prison estate, including HMP Barlinnie.

In response to recommendations made by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, SPS took forward HMP Barlinnie Programme of Works which significantly improved facilitates within the prisoner reception and healthcare areas. These works concluded in April 2023.

The Scottish Government published ‘Migration - Meeting Scotland's Needs’ in January setting out the economic benefits of migration to Scotland.

Scotland’s has distinct demographic challenges. While the UK’s working population is projected to increase by 0.5% between 2025-75 Scotland’s is projected to fall by 14.7%. Positive net migration increases the size of the working-age population, which is crucial for economic growth as well as fiscal sustainability. The UK Migration Advisory Committee has found that a 1% increase in the migrant share of the workforce is associated with a productivity improvement of between 1.2% and 3%. Research has shown that migrants contribute more to government revenue through taxes than they receive in public services. Migration can help meet the needs of our economy, public services and communities.

This was a 2-stage procurement process, and 4 contractors bid at the 1st stage Pre-construction phase of the process. These bidders were Balfour Beatty Group, Graham Construction, Kier Construction and Laing O'Rourke.

The Scottish Government commitment to increase the number of GPs by 800 does not include commitments at Health Board level.

NHS Education of Scotland (NES) are responsible for the publication of GP workforce data. The most recent data including a breakdown of GP numbers by Health Board can be found here. NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence