Chamber and committees

NHS Boards submitted formal proposals for walk-in services in their Board area in response to a formal commission from DG Health and Social Care on behalf of Scottish Ministers. Proposals – and pilot walk-in centres – are at different stages of readiness and on that basis have varying levels of clarity and certainty on the Whole Time Equivalent number of staff, and staffing required.

Work is ongoing to identify the number of staff employed at all bands across the 13 phase one sites when they are up and running. As proposals for phase two sites have not yet been finalised, total numbers of staff are not available for all of the walk-in services.

No specific analysis has been conducted by the Scottish Government on the number of Scottish-domiciled students who have enrolled in undergraduate courses in (a) other UK nations or (b) overseas because their course of choice was not available in Scottish universities.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own course provision

Data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) shows that there are fewer Scottish domiciled students leaving Scotland to enter undergraduate study in the rest of the UK in 2024-25, than there were in 2021-22.

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb273/figure-9

The Techscaler programme does not directly invest in businesses as it is our national platform for creating, developing and scaling tech startups. The Highlands and Islands has 91 members in the region, who can access the national network of tailored education, mentorship, investment access, community infrastructure, and international opportunities available through the programme. A fuller breakdown of regional participation has recently been published in the Techscaler Annual Report 2025.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own operational decision making, and this includes determining which courses to run.

The Scottish Government has committed to leading skills planning nationally, whilst strengthening regional approaches. We have agreed a high-level, skills planning model with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to deliver this commitment. The skills priorities we will collectively identify with stakeholders will be able to inform decisions that universities make about the courses they offer.

NHS Boards submitted formal proposals for walk-in services in their Board area in response to a formal commission from DG Health and Social Care on behalf of Scottish Ministers. Proposals were generated that considered the needs of local populations, taking into account local issues and circumstances.

There will be 3 pilots located in NHS Grampian, one in each of their Health and Social Care Partnership areas. NHS Grampian intend to open the Moray site in Summer, however they are not in a position to confirm the location. Further details will be announced when possible.

The Scottish Government welcomes the commitment made by the UK Government on 13 March 2026 to disregard payments under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme. Correspondingly, reflecting our position that compensation payments can be disregarded where appropriate in the consideration of means-tested entitlements, work can progress in Scotland to consider specific disregards in respect of the Scheme.

Responsibility for assessing grid stability, system inertia and generational adequacy rests with the UK Government and the National Energy System Operator (NESO), as electricity security of supply is a reserved matter.

The Scottish Government is confident that NESO, as the body responsible for system operability, will ensure that grid stability and security of supply are maintained as the energy system transitions. The Scottish Government remains engaged to plan for any challenging scenarios that might emerge and meet regularly with NESO colleagues to discuss how they are ensuring a secure and resilient energy system.

The requested information is not held centrally as the data received from Police Scotland for production of the recorded crime statistics is a simple count of the number and type of crimes and offences recorded. We do not in general hold further details as to whether any of these crimes included a knife.

There are two exceptions to this. The first are crimes of homicide, where information is held on method of killing (including by sharp instrument and more specifically since 2013-14, a knife). Table One below presents the number of knife-related homicide victims in North Ayrshire from 2013-14 to 2024-25.

The second are those types of crime that specifically reference the presence of a knife or bladed/pointed article. The only crime category of this type where data is available prior to 2017-18 is Weapons possession involving a bladed or pointed article that was not used in other criminal activity. Table Two presents the number of these crimes in North Ayrshire from 1999-00 to 2024-25.

Due to changes in recording practices for 2017-18 onwards, data is also available on the number of recorded crimes of Weapons possession involving a bladed or pointed article that was used in other criminal activity (see Table Three).

Finally, data is available on the number of recorded crimes of Possession of certain dangerous knives in a private place since 2022-23, following the implementation of Part 4 of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 on 27th March 2023. There were no recorded crimes of this type in North Ayrshire up to 2024-25.

Table One: Number of knife-related homicide victims, North Ayrshire, 2013-14 to 2024-25

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) to ensure we have a robust independent oversight body to secure public confidence in policing.

The 2026-27 Scottish Budget provides funding of £8.5m for PIRC, an additional £1m (a 13.5% increase) compared to the 2025-26 ABR budget, in recognition of the additional demands being placed on the organisation.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with PIRC to understand the demands on the organisation and any requirement for additional resources, to ensure that it can continue to deliver a high level of service and fulfil its statutory responsibilities.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-44120 on 10 March 2026.

A copy of the report can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806439737

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.