Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has funded 1,173 Foundation Year 1 training posts in Scotland for 2026-27, which includes the additional 72 posts announced previously. These posts have been made available through the national allocation process.

No additional places have been created in Scotland for applicants on the UK Foundation Programme reserve list. The Scottish Government has funded the number of Foundation Year 1 posts required to support medical training capacity in Scotland, while meeting the requirements of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026.

The final number of posts for the 2026-27 training year will not be confirmed until after the August start date, as applicants continue to complete pre-employment checks and General Medical Council registration requirements.

The Scottish Government has not realised a direct financial return from NHS NPD projects, as these projects were procured to deliver infrastructure and services rather than generate investment returns. Any project-specific surplus sharing, refinancing gains or other contractual receipts are managed in accordance with the relevant project agreements and do not result in a direct financial return to the Scottish Government.

While CalMac continue to monitor the performance of new and older vessels, a direct comparison is not available at this time. This is due to MV Glen Sannox operating on different routes/timetables compared to existing vessels while actions are progressed to enable the redevelopment of Ardrossan Harbour.

NHS workforce planning is undertaken through established national and local workforce planning processes. Health Boards are responsible for workforce planning and ensuring they have the staffing required to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations.

As set out in our recent consultation, Water services: investing in and paying from 2027, the Objectives for Scottish Water for 2027-33 require it to provide public-facing access to data on overflows from all intermittent discharges in its network, taken from monitors and supplemented by hydraulic modelling, by 2033.

Scottish Water has co-created a monitoring prioritisation methodology with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) which can be found at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/scottishwater/document-hub/key-publications/improving-urban-waters/edmmethodology.pdf.

Scottish Water currently has over 2,000 overflow monitors in place (some 50% of overflows). It publishes near real-time spill data online and has provided monitors on all its sewer overflows within 2km of a designated bathing water. During the bathing season SEPA makes daily bathing water quality predictions at selected bathing waters across Scotland. These are available online and from electronic information signs at certain bathing waters. There is also advice on How to Swim Safely in Scotland’s Outdoor Waters on NHS inform.

Backlog maintenance within the NHS estate is assessed and reported at the level of individual maintenance items rather than buildings. Consequently, individual buildings are not assigned an overall risk rating, as they may contain multiple backlog maintenance items with different risk ratings.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) plays in keeping communities safe. The 2026-27 budget provides an additional £23.8 million from the previous year, taking total funding to £436 million, demonstrating our continued support for SFRS to deliver the high standard of services required to keep Scotland safe.

The operational response and procedures relating to any fire is a matter for SFRS however, they have provided reassurances that all necessary training is provided to staff, to ensure they appropriately manage any incident, including those at waste recycling centres.

SFRS has set up a New and Emerging Risks Group that will consider, amongst other matters, lithium-ion batteries. The lithium-ion sub-group is made up of multiple internal and external partners (including Scottish Government officials) to identify any issues or concerns rising from this technology.

The Scottish Government does not hold an estimate of how many clinical breast cancer patients have undergone chemotherapy from which they derived no clinical benefit.

We are committed to ensuring that people with cancer receive the treatment most appropriate to their individual circumstances. The Scottish Government has commissioned the NHS Scotland Cancer Collaborative (NSCC) to develop National Clinical Management Pathways (CMPs). CMPs outline the patient with cancer journey from diagnosis onwards and support consistent decision-making across Scotland on optimal treatment options at the various points in a patient’s pathway. They help clinicians and patients to work in partnership to consider the likely benefits and risks of treatment options and allow people to make an informed choice about their care, as well as reducing waste, potential harm and regret about treatment decisions, in line with the principles of Realistic Medicine.

The process for the development and review of CMPs has been previously described in S6W-42977 on 20 January 2026.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering equitable access to genomic testing and precision medicines and continue to work with NHS Scotland partners to explore opportunities to expand our genomic testing provision in Scotland, in line with our strategy and resources.

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.

The Scottish Government’s current policy on the use of bilingual signing provides an affordable and cost effective way of providing bilingual signs coverage on the network within available funds, and ensures that the Gaelic language is included on road signs where it is most relevant to communities.

The Scottish Languages Act, 2025 requires Scottish Ministers to prepare Gaelic Standards and Requirements. When prepared, these will shape the commitments which Scottish public authorities include in any Gaelic Language Plans they may produce. It is expected that the Standards and Requirements will cover Gaelic signage and visibility in certain areas.

Condition and Functional Suitability assessments are undertaken and recorded for individual buildings within the NHS estate. However, the Scottish Government does not routinely hold information on the number of buildings assessed as category C or D for either Condition or Functional Suitability.

Based on the latest available NHS estate data, 34% of the estate by floor area was assessed as being in Condition C or D, while 26% of the estate by floor area was assessed as having Functional Suitability rated C or D.