Chamber and committees

The Information requested on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards since 2009, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence. These workforce statistics are updated on a quarterly basis: Official Statistics on the workforce of NHS Scotland.

Community Nursing Review: from March 2015 the community review of nursing sub job families was finalised. The following sub job families were added/changed definition: community children’s nursing, district nursing, sexual and reproductive health nursing, health visiting, specialist nursing, practice nursing, public health nursing, school nursing, training and administration and treatment room nursing. Data prior to March 2015 are not be comparable to data after March 2015 at this level.

Information on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards since 1999 to 2006, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found on the following link: [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Workforce | Historic Data | Health Topics | ISD Scotland

Data on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards from to 2007 to 2008, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found in the following table:

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role of kinship care in providing safe, loving and stable homes for children and young people who cannot live with their parents.

The Young Patient Family Fund (YPFF) is designed to support the families of all babies, children and young people under the age of 18 who require inpatient care in Scotland. While there are no plans at this time to introduce a cash-first approach through the YPFF, we recognise the importance of ensuring that families can access support without undue financial hardship.

Health Boards are asked, where possible, to pre-book travel and accommodation for families. In addition, to ensure that families can access support while their child is receiving inpatient care, free meals from hospital catering services, patient meals, or meal vouchers and tokens that can be used in hospital catering facilities may also be available.

As funding for the Better Surfaces Fund was not factored into the 2026 Scottish Spending Review, the funding approach and profile to deliver this multi-year commitment will be considered as part of the 2027-28 Scottish Budget.

As with all areas of Local Government funding, substantive details around funding allocations and accountability will be considered through the joint COSLA and Scottish Government Settlement and Distribution Group (SDG) prior to recommendations being provided to COSLA Leaders and Scottish Ministers.

The Programme for Government includes commitments to address the issue of potholes, improve key road links in rural areas and support progress on the Clyde Metro proposals.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publish a wide range of college and university statistics in various Official Statistics publications, including the Report on Widening Access (RoWA). The content of statical publications, including the RoWA, undergo reviews in order to ensure they continue to meet the core pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value as outlined in the Code of Practice for Statistics and remain valued by users of SFC’s publications.

The RoWA was recently consulted on with the latest report available on the SFC website: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/rowa-consultation-report/

The SFC continue to work with users of statistics and will consider all requests for new statistics in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The SFC can be contacted via their website: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/about-us/contact-us/

Import and export control law and policy are reserved to the UK Government, and the Scottish Government has no plans to undertake a separate review of the importation of vape products into Scotland. We have worked closely with Trading Standards and Four Nations officials to support compliance with vaping legislation, including the introduction of the ban on single-use vapes.

Marine Directorate targets determination of offshore wind applications within 12 months, excluding periods where Additional Information is being prepared and consulted on in accordance with Environmental Impact Assessment regulations, and recognising that some applications are particularly complex.

MD-LOT is currently processing 14 applications. Receipt of all statutory consultee responses does not mean an application is ready for a determination. Of the 3 applications which exceed the 12 month target, engagement with statutory consultees is ongoing on Marine Protected Area Assessments, Appropriate Assessments and Derogation Cases until shortly before a recommendation is provided to Ministers.

The Scottish Government’s Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 commits to develop further measures to tackle consumption of problematic single-use items and promote uptake of reusable alternatives (including consideration of environmental charging), prioritising action on single-use drinks cups.

The independent analysis of responses to Scottish Government’s public consultation on initial proposals for how a charge on single-use disposable cups could work was published in June 2025. Ongoing consideration is being given to potential next steps, taking account of the consultation findings and available evidence, to ensure that any future measures are effective, proportionate and fair.

The Scottish Government has also commissioned research through ClimateXChange to quantify market data for a range of single-use food and drink items used in Scotland. This research, in addition to evidence gathered from stakeholders, will help inform measures to tackle the consumption of problematic single-use items and help the transition towards a circular economy.

The Young Patient Family Fund (YPFF) is designed to support the families of all babies, children and young people under age 18 who require inpatient care in Scotland. There are no plans to expand eligibility of the YPFF at this time.

In the last two years, the Scottish Government has provided over £3.1m per year in financial support to eligible families under this scheme.

In addition to support available under the YPFF, financial support for travel to hospital appointments is available through the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under these schemes, patients and authorised escorts can reclaim reasonable travel costs associated with attending a hospital appointment, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

Scottish Government officials met with representatives of the Scottish Human Rights Commission last year, ahead of the publication of its report on the OLR sentence, to discuss the report's key findings.

For Scotland’s most senior judges in the High Court to impose an OLR, it must be satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the nature of the offence or the circumstances in which it was committed, whether considered in isolation or as part of a pattern of behaviour, demonstrate that the offender is likely, if at liberty, to seriously endanger the lives, or the physical or psychological wellbeing, of members of the public.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to review the OLR sentence and consider them to be a long-standing valuable sentencing option for courts to use for the highest risk offenders.