Chamber and committees

Operational deployment of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) vehicles is a matter for the Service. Scottish Government officials have previously engaged with the SFRS regarding these assets in order to seek assurance regarding the Service’s ability to respond to incidents. SFRS previously advised officials of the circumstances affecting the deployment of these units and provided assurance that appropriate arrangements were in place to maintain operational response capability while the vehicles were being brought into service.

Scottish Ministers are assured that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has the appropriate governance, assurance and decision-making arrangements in place for the management of its resources and assets, consistent with its statutory responsibilities and the ministerial expectations set out in the Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland 2022.

The Scottish Government maintains regular engagement with SFRS on a range of strategic, operational and corporate matters. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss issues relating to service delivery, performance, governance and organisational assurance as appropriate. Responsibility for the governance, approval and delivery arrangements for individual procurements rests with SFRS, who follow the Scottish Procurement Journey to ensure best practice.

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

The provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for firefighters is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS is responsible for ensuring that appropriate PPE is available to support firefighters in carrying out their duties safely, including when responding to wildfire incidents.

The Chief Fire Officer has provided assurances to the Scottish Government that firefighter safety is an absolute priority and that both the specialist wildfire PPE and the existing standard PPE available to firefighters are safe for operational use when responding to wildfires.

Scottish Ministers expect SFRS to keep its operational equipment and PPE requirements under review and to have appropriate arrangements in place to assess the suitability of equipment for the risks faced by its workforce. This includes considering any requirement for additional or enhanced PPE in response to emerging operational risks such as wildfires.

Launched in 2023, SFRS’s wildfire strategy is supported by a £1.6 million investment in vehicles, equipment, and training to help respond to wildfire incidents around the country. SFRS remains committed to continual improvement of wildfire capability, informed by operational learning, staff feedback, evolving risk and technological development.

The decision on whether care payments should be backdated due to processing backlogs rests with the relevant local authority. Where an assessment has been completed and a decision has been made on a person's eligibility and support needs, local authorities should consider the circumstances of any delay in implementing support. This includes considering whether support was provided within a reasonable period following the assessment and, where appropriate, whether backdating of payments is justified.

The latest Public Health Scotland statistics show that 4.4 million courses of treatment were delivered under the new dental payment system in the year up to 31 March 2026, highlighting that our significant and continuing investment in NHS dentistry is supporting access at a national level. However, we recognise areas of challenge remain, including rural and island areas such as Shetland. The 2025 NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan therefore committed to reviewing and refreshing existing financial incentives for the dental sector, to better support patient access in areas like Shetland, and this work is progressing well. The Scottish Government’s National Islands Plan also includes a commitment to explore alternative models of care and workforce incentives to further support the role of the Public Dental Service (PDS) in island areas. Additionally, in 2025-26, the Scottish Government provided £265,000 of extra funding to NHS Shetland to provide a temporary dental therapist and locum dentist support.

The number of unpaid carers who receive short breaks or respite is reported in the Scottish Government’s Carers Census. This collection covers unpaid carers of all ages who have a support plan and/or those receiving support from local services, rather than the total caring population.

Information from the Carers Census is collected on a local level, however local-level figures are not published as, despite the increase in the number of organisations returning data, coverage remains incomplete across Scotland. Differences in local carer support arrangements and recording practices also mean the data is not sufficiently robust to allow direct local comparisons.

National-level data is reported in the Carers Census publications, however the results likely represent an undercount of the true number of unpaid carers being supported by local services in Scotland, given that not all organisations are able to provide submissions, and there is no non-response estimation. This is noted within the publications, where figures are framed as representing carers included in the Carers Census from submitting data providers, as opposed to being estimated Scotland-level totals.

Table 1: Number and percentage of people who received short breaks or respite in 2019-20 to 2023-24 (all areas submitted) (Source: Carers Census, Scottish Government)

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of robust evidence in understanding any relationship between domestic abuse against men, substance use and recovery. However, limitations in the available data mean it is difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding potential correlations or causative relationships between these factors.

Existing data sources that provide some insight into these issues include:

• National Drug Related Death Database – records, by sex, whether individuals who have died a drug death were victims of domestic violence prior to death. It also records details of social circumstances including who they were living with and whether individuals were a parent/parent figure. The database also records whether the individual had a psychiatric condition (including depression).
• Drug and alcohol information system (DAISy) – collects data on those presenting for specialist treatment for drugs/alcohol in Scotland. The data set includes some (limited) information on living situation, dependents, and existing medical conditions.

While these data sources can provide information on the circumstances of people affected by substance use, they do not currently provide a comprehensive picture of the relationship between men’s experience of domestic abuse, substance use and recovery outcomes. The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners across the health, justice and research sectors to strengthen the evidence base where appropriate and make the best use of available data to inform policy development and service delivery.

In Partnership with NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government produce regularly reviewed condition focused Quality Prescribing Guides to support prescribers in their decision making.

We have recently published our updated Polypharmacy Guidance: appropriate prescribing, making medicines safe, effective and sustainable 2026 - 2029, which contains a series of recommendations for medication review for people receiving care at home and in care homes.

In addition to the recommendations, the guidance includes practical advice and options for tailoring care for specific conditions which may affect people in care homes. This includes hot topics on Parkinson’s disease and on managing dementia and cognitive enhancers, as well as case studies produced in collaboration with care home providers on addressing the use of psychoactive medication for people living with dementia through non-pharmacological techniques.

New tailored indicators for care homes have been developed within the updated suite of National Therapeutic Indicators (NTIs) accompanying this guidance. These open access NTIs support boards and practices with identifying appropriate areas to target for patient review and benchmarking at local and national level.

A remote sale is any sale where the seller or a person acting on the seller's behalf is not in the presence of the buyer at the point of sale. Section 33 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (2026 Act) makes changes to the current requirements falling on remote sellers of bladed products found within the Criminal Justice Act 1988. Section 35 of the 2026 Act makes changes to the current requirements arising for the delivery of bladed products purchased remotely found within the Offensive Weapons Act 2019.

Royal Assent for the 2026 Act was received in late April 2026 and the relevant changes in sections 33 and 35, most of which also apply across the UK, will be commenced in due course further to engagement with UK Government and justice agencies.