Chamber and committees

Scottish Government will deliver an additional £20 million in funding for culture in 2026-27 as the next major step in honouring its commitment to provide an additional £100m annually for culture by 2028-29. This takes the total annual increase in the culture budget to £70 million since 2023-24 and follows the record increase of over £34 million in 2025-26 which is the biggest rise in culture funding in the history of this Parliament after COVID-19 recovery support.

Creative Scotland, our arts development body, distributes the majority of direct cultural funding in line with Ministerial priorities while operating at arm's length from Ministers which means Ministers cannot intervene in those decisions. Comedians and those working in similar creative roles in the comedy sector are welcome to apply to Creative Scotland's Open Fund, providing they also meet the other criteria for the fund.

The Open Fund for Individuals is designed to support creative activity such as a specific project, production or a period of research and development. It cannot support the general running costs of creative businesses.

The 398,714 citation and re-citation events referred to comprises both summary and sheriff and jury proceedings. Of those, 337,090 related to summary proceedings and 61,624 to sheriff and jury proceedings.

Improvements to case preparation and management of summary criminal cases as a result of roll-out of the Summary Case Management (SCM), including earlier disclosure of evidence, early engagement between the Crown and defence, and active judicial case management, have enabled cases capable of resolution to be identified at an earlier stage and reduced the number of cases in which a trial requires to be assigned.

Where a trial does take place, earlier and more focused preparation has provided greater opportunity for evidence to be agreed and for those witnesses whose attendance is necessary to be identified before citations are issued, avoiding their citation.

The joint inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland recognised that the Summary Case Management model, which commenced in January 2025, has been successful in significantly reducing the number of witnesses, including police witnesses, requiring to be cited or re-cited to court in summary proceedings from the period 2025-25 to 2025-26.

Work is underway to consider how the principles and learning from SCM can inform similar improvements to case management in solemn criminal proceedings.

While the Thirlwall Inquiry examined circumstances and systems in England, the Scottish Government recognises the importance of its findings. NHS Scotland already has a range of governance, patient safety and whistleblowing arrangements that support the identification and escalation of serious concerns.

NHS Boards are responsible as employers for managing individual cases and must do so in line with relevant employment, professional, clinical governance and patient safety procedures.

Under the National Whistleblowing Standards, NHS staff and those providing services to the NHS can raise concerns about patient safety or wrongdoing. The standards set out a clear procedure that must be followed when concerns are raised. received, considered and responded to by NHS organisations. In addition, every NHS board has a designated Whistleblowing Champion who seeks assurance that staff are encouraged and supported to speak up.

The Scottish Government is carefully considering the findings and recommendations of the Thirlwall Inquiry and their relevance to NHS Scotland. As part of that process, we will consider whether any changes to existing policies, guidance or contractual arrangements are required to strengthen safeguards and ensure the continued protection of patients.

Any decisions regarding changes to NHS Scotland employment, bank or agency staff contracts will be taken following engagement with NHS Boards, staff representatives and other relevant stakeholders.

Responsibility for identifying, providing for and reviewing the additional support needs of individual children and young people rests with education authorities. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places duties on education authorities to identify and make provision for the additional support needs of pupils for whose education they are responsible, and to keep those needs and the adequacy of provision under review.

Assessment is an ongoing process and should be proportionate to the individual child or young person’s circumstances. It may draw on information from the pupil, their family, teachers and other relevant professionals. An assessment by an educational psychologist is therefore not required for every pupil with an additional support need. Educational psychology is one of a range of services that may contribute where this is appropriate to the pupil’s individual needs.

The appropriateness of the support provided to an individual pupil is therefore determined locally through the assessment, planning and review of their needs and progress. There is no requirement for all pupils with additional support needs to have their support assessed by educational psychology services.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The annual pupil census records whether pupils have an additional support need and the type of support recorded for them but does not collect information on whether an individual pupil has received an assessment by an educational psychologist.

Education authorities are responsible for identifying, providing for and reviewing the additional support needs of children and young people in their area. Education authorities can request input from a range of agencies to support them in meeting their duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.

While educational psychologists play an important role in helping children and young people learn and develop, not all children with additional support needs will require an assessment by an educational psychologist. Additional support needs can arise from a wide range of circumstances and the nature of the assessment and support required will depend on the individual needs of the child or young person.

The following table provides the details requested, where available.

It is not possible to distinguish between full-time and part-time employment so a single row has been included for employment.

Initial Destinations of male school-leavers with White Scottish ethnicity, residing in SIMD Quintile 1, 2015-16 to 2024-25

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-03746 on 15 October 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Education authorities are responsible for identifying, providing for and reviewing the additional support needs of children and young people in their area. Local authorities are responsible for the provision of educational psychology services and for determining how those services are deployed to meet local needs. Information on waiting times for assessment by an educational psychologist is not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

No such advice has been issued. Through the notification direction we issued during the summer we are actively monitoring live applications and their intended timescales for determination. We do not anticipate any applications will be determined by planning authorities before our planning guidance on data centres is issued later this year.