Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. This would need to be requested from the NHS Boards directly. It is for NHS Boards to ensure best use of available resources to support service delivery whilst prioritising patient safety and care.

A number of incentives and programmes are in place and have been prior to 2018 to encourage healthcare professionals to work in remote and island healthcare settings. These include the Scottish Government funded ‘Golden Hello’ scheme, administered by Health Boards, which provides up to £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a rural and island area.

Information on the number of pupils accessing colleges courses is collected by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Data on the number of enrolments by category of student, which includes school based students in S4, S5 and S6, is published in the SFC annual College Statistics publication.

Latest publication: College Statistics 2023-24 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Available in background table 13. No data is published by local authority.

Further information can be requested directly from the SFC.

Information on the number of carers at Scottish universities and colleges is published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in their report for widening access.

Latest publication: Report on Widening Access 2022-23 - Scottish Funding Council

Carer information can be located in the background tables, for universities (table 16) and for colleges (table 17).

Further information can be requested directly from the SFC.

The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities and partner organisations to embed the principles of The Promise in their policies and practices.

I regularly meet with Councillor Tony Buchanan, the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, to discuss progress and how we can work together to recognise and share good practice.

There is a large amount of positive work underway across Scotland through local authorities, partnerships and across the public and third sector. During my time in office I have had the honour to meet with children, young people, families and workforce across the country to see and hear of the impact of the projects and initiatives that are underway.

This includes work supported by our multi-year commitment to funding Children’s Services Planning Partnerships to transform family support in their local areas which was recently raised from £32 m to £38 m a year.

Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and local authority Promise teams capture local progress that they are undertaking and for example, I am aware that Renfrewshire recently published their Promise Report for 2025 which highlights all of the activity that they have undertaken over the past 5 years.

Understanding both good practice and the barriers and challenges to change is essential to support the next stages of national and local progress. While there is excellent work happening at local authority level, I am aware that there needs to be more consistency with progress across the country. I continue to encourage local authorities to share and learn from each other to make this happen.

I have asked The Promise Scotland to provide a picture of the activity underway in localities across Scotland to keep The Promise. This will draw on a range of sources as well as being informed by insights.

The Promise Progress Framework, which was published in December, will be instrumental in understanding how we are keeping The Promise and I welcome the recent recognition from the Promise Oversight Board of the important role that this will take.

The Framework has been developed by COSLA, The Scottish Government and The Promise Scotland, with input from key stakeholders including local authorities, Public Health Scotland, the Improvement Service, CELCIS, Who Cares? Scotland, the Care Inspectorate, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on Corporate Parenting sets out how local authorities and public bodies consider their contribution towards providing safe, secure, stable and nurturing homes for young people leaving care. As corporate parents, all public bodies have a collective responsibility to help shape lives and provide opportunities for our children living in care and care leavers.

In January, the Scottish Government published the third statutory corporate parenting report which outlines the activity across Scotland by the Scottish Government and Executive Agencies, as well as other public bodies, to help uphold the rights and secure the wellbeing of children and young people in care and care leavers.

The Scottish Government provides Who Cares? Scotland with grant funding to deliver support and training to Corporate Parents.

Throughout our engagement with COSLA, Councils, and opposition parties ahead of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget, there was a clear consensus that Councils should have full flexibility for decisions on Council Tax rates. The Scottish Budget delivered that ask in full, as part of a record Local Government Settlement worth over £15 billion including real terms protection of General Revenue Grant, another key ask of COSLA and opposition parties.

Council Tax is a local tax, and decisions on rates are therefore a matter for local authorities to take in consultation with local communities.

The most financially vulnerable will continue to be protected through the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme. The CTR scheme exists to ensure that nobody in Scotland should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford, and reduces a household’s liability based on an assessment of their income, capital, and other circumstances. Over 460,000 households receive some level of CTR, and on average recipients save over £850 a year.

Household water charges in Scotland are set by Scottish Water’s Board within the charge cap set for the regulatory period 2021-27, with approval from the independent economic regulator. Ministers do not have the powers to directly intervene in the process to set annual charges.

Charge increases in the first half of the regulatory period were significantly less than the charge cap, reflecting the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis on households. The average bill for 2025-26 is expected to be £490 (£446 in 2024-25), which we expect to remain lower than the average in England and Wales (expected to be £603 as published by Discover Water).

Support for households with their water charges is linked to the exemptions, discounts and reductions they receive on their Council Tax. 52% of households receive some form of discount or reduction on their water charges, automatically applied by local authorities alongside reductions in council tax. One such scheme is the Water Charges Reduction Scheme (WCRS) which is available to customers in receipt of full Council Tax Reduction – we’ve already increased the maximum reduction from to 25% to 35% and the estimated value of the reduction provided is £74m in 2025-26. Consumer Scotland’s October 2024 report on affordability of water charges report shows that the number of households in water poverty has remained largely unchanged over the current regulatory period. We will be working with Consumer Scotland to look into affordability measures for the next regulatory period starting in 2027.

Unlike the NHS App in England, which is currently just for the NHS, our planned service is for both health and social care. The development is also linked into wider digital developments for Scottish public services overall, particularly in relation to a common approach to how the people of Scotland receive official communication digitally. Officials have, however, engaged extensively with NHS England to explore both whether we could use the NHS App and to take learning from the approach to the development of the NHS App.

The information requested on how many consultants specialising in endometriosis there are, broken down by NHS board is not centrally held.

Those working in our retail sector should be lauded for the important work they are continuing to do during such challenging economic circumstances. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse.

Retail workers (as well as all other workers) are protected by a wide range of criminal laws (i.e. the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour; the common law offence of assault; and the common law offence of breach of the peace).

In addition, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021(“the 2021 Act”) came into force in August 2021 and created a statutory offence of threatening, abusing, or assaulting a retail worker, adding to the offences that can already be used to prosecute those who abuse retail workers.

Scottish Government partners, like the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), share best guidance and resources, such as the free GroceryAid helpline, and Victim Support, for victims of violence and abuse in a retail setting.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on maintenance costs for imaging equipment held by NHS Boards. As holding bodies, NHS Boards are responsible for the management of their infrastructure assets and for identifying maintenance requirements. Maintenance costs are usually met from Boards’ delegated budgets.