Chamber and committees

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

2,725 officers, over 50% of the retired police officers eligible for the McCloud remedy, were sent their remediable service statement by 31 March 2025. The Scottish Public Pensions Agency has published an extension to the deadlines and all officers will receive their statement by 31 July 2025. The information is available at: https://pensions.gov.scot/sites/default/files/2025-04/2025-04_Police_Circular_McCloud_Remedy_administration_%E2%80%93_Remediable_Service_Statements.pdf

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

The overall programme to deliver the 2015 remedy in Scotland is being managed by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA). This is a complex undertaking as it requires a remediable service statement (RSS) to be sent to eligible members numbering over 200,000 across the four pension schemes administered by the SPPA. Within that number more than 5,000 retired police officers are entitled to receive a RSS and make a choice about their pension benefits.

SPPA has introduced new digital automation processes which have had a positive impact on delivery speed and capability. The statutory deadline for providing a RSS was by 1 April 2025 or at a later date decided by the scheme manager. This discretion has been exercised and dates are set out on SPPA’s website: https://pensions.gov.scot/sites/default/files/2025-04/2025-04_Police_Circular_McCloud_Remedy_administration_%E2%80%93_Remediable_Service_Statements.pdf.

To date more than 3,400 RSS have been sent. SPPA expects to send most of the remainder by 31 May, with a small number of more complex cases issued by 31 July 2025.

The Scottish Government are contributing £9.08 million towards the cost of this project through the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are contributing the remainder. While the cost of the works exceeds the value of the property, the market value of the property does not relate to its importance either as part of the historic environment or its usefulness as a public building.

This building is used to provide a vital local service in the area and will remain in public ownership over the longer term. Therefore, we must invest in it – and our other public buildings – over time to support public bodies, and other building owners, to end their use of polluting heating to reach net zero by 2045. The Edinburgh Crown Office occupies a Category B listed building, situated in the Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city centre of Edinburgh. We recognise it will be more challenging and more expensive for some properties to achieve this, particularly where they are part of the historic environment and are therefore harder to treat.

At a national level, the Scottish Government funds the National e-Learning Offer (NeLO) to provide a range of resources to support learning across the curriculum. This includes the piloting of the i-Sgoil service to provide online support for young people who have disengaged from their school learning.

The Scottish Government has confirmed funding for e-Sgoil for the 2025-26 financial year, which includes confirmation that support for the i-Sgoil service is considered a priority and enables the service to continue.

Decisions around eligibility and waiting lists for i-Sgoil are a matter for e-Sgoil who deliver the service. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the current waiting times.

While the i-Sgoil service clearly supports education authorities in the fulfilment of their statutory functions in relation to delivery of education and support for learning, it cannot fully replace localised arrangements.

The Scottish Government is committed to working together with local authorities and other partners to implement a range of support for local authorities and schools to support them to respond to issues related to school attendance and absence.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding access to diabetes technology. Since 2016, we have invested almost £30 million to support expansion. Last year, we established a national programme aiming to provide over 2000 more people with access to hybrid closed loop technology.

We are pleased to confirm that further funding has been secured for this year and we will continue to expand access to a significant number of people.

Progress made last year means that most children and young people will now have access to Closed Loop Systems(CLS). Funding this year will support a significant number of adults, plus any under 18s that have recently been diagnosed and wish to use a CLS.

After the inaugural ScotWind Leading Round £756 million of ScotWind option fees were received.

In addition, a further £54.2 million of INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas) revenues have now also been generated.

The rateable value of the building is not the only measure of value for money and nor is it an indication of the cost to replace with a new building. There are other relevant factors with respect to looking at alternatives for public sector buildings. For instance, the local property market and availability of alternative properties and land. It is also imperative that public bodies have good quality, efficient premises which reduce energy costs. As well as this, a key consideration for public bodies will be ensuring that they are located in areas that meet the needs of the essential services they provide.

In many cases, public bodies are not looking to unlock the value of the building through a sale and will retain buildings over the long term, necessitating their upgrade over time. Applicants to the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme must therefore evidence that all buildings included in an application will be retained over the blended useful life of all measures installed as part of the project.

In developing the national apology, the Scottish Government engaged with individuals and families affected by historic forced adoption, drawing on personal testimonies and findings from relevant inquiries across the UK and internationally. This included findings from the Truth Recovery Design Panel report for the Northern Ireland Executive and recommendations from campaigning groups such as the Movement for Adoption Apology Scotland on what would constitute a meaningful apology.

Supporting families through access to high quality, affordable and accessible childcare is critical to the First Minister’s mission of eradicating child poverty. That is why, since 2021, the Scottish Government has prioritised investment of £1 billion per year in funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) for all 3- and 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds whose entry to primary school has been deferred, and those 2-year-olds who need it most.

The Scottish Government looks at a range of evidence when it comes to assessing the impact of childcare costs on families. We are evaluating the contribution of the expansion of funded ELC to 1140 hours per year on outcomes for children, parents and families, which will include consideration of the impact of funded ELC on women’s employment. The data we are collecting will allow disaggregation by a range of parent, child and household characteristics. We have focused primarily on gathering data in relation to the Best Start Bright Futures priority families, as well as on gender, age, area deprivation and household income. Our Interim Evaluation Report, published in August 2024, found that uptake of the expanded hours is high, and there are promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements in quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability. Our full evaluation report will be published later this year. In the interim, the 2022 Parent Survey found that 74% of parents using funded ELC said it had enabled them to work or look for work, and 63% of families with a child aged two to five and not yet at school stated said that they had no childcare costs, an increase from 50% in 2018.

Turning to the second point on fertility rates, we know that Scotland is not alone in experiencing falling birth rates. This is a trend being experienced across many high-income countries and which has significant implications for the sustainability of our economies, communities and public services. While deciding to have a child or not is a personal decision, we are identifying and addressing barriers to people starting or expanding their families through the delivery of Scotland’s Population Strategy.

Our 2022 ‘Attitudes to Family Formation’ research highlighted that a range of key factors such as housing, childcare costs and wider economic pressures drive decisions around family formation in Scotland. In mid-2023, the Ministerial Population Taskforce requested that further research be undertaken to increase the Scottish Government’s awareness of family friendly policies which had been developed and implemented in different countries, including interventions implemented in Nordic countries. The next steps for this workstream will include further research into parental leave uptake and its impact on fertility decisions. Outputs from this work will be considered accordingly by Scottish Ministers.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards.