Chamber and committees

The cost of waking watch measures implemented in buildings affected by unsafe cladding are as follows:

1.The total cost to date has been circa £6.5m.

2.The total budgeted costs for the 2026-27 Financial year are £1.2m.

3.The average monthly cost is £166,948.

(Period covered in relation to total cost (1) and average cost (3) is from March 2023 to July 2026. Budgeted costs for 2026-27 (2) could be subject to change as part of the annual budget process).

Scottish Government has directly met all of these costs.

NHS Grampian has advised that no detainees were transferred between Inverness and Kittybrewster custody suites in the last 12 months specifically to access methadone or other opioid substitution therapy. While such transfers may be considered where clinically necessary, this has not been required during this period.

NHS Grampian has further advised that information on transfers to accident and emergency departments is not routinely collated centrally and could only be obtained through a manual review of individual clinical records.

Decisions to transfer detainees to secondary care are made on the basis of clinical need where this cannot be safely managed within the custody setting.

Scotland is uniquely positioned to support delivery of the AI Hardware Plan, with globally competitive strengths in photonics, semiconductors, novel architectures, low-power and edge AI systems. These are areas specifically identified in the Scottish government’s AI Strategy (2026).

Scotland is home to a £4.4bn critical technologies supercluster, with over 160 companies, 11,500 jobs and >80% export revenue. The Scottish Government is directly supporting the industry ambition to grow to £10bn and 17,500 jobs by 2035.

The Scottish Government provides long-term core funding to Technology Scotland as the Cluster Management Organisation and industry body for these sectors, and to the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics, arguably the UK’s strongest translational assets in this field. Other assets include Glasgow’s James Watt Nanofabrication Centre, the National Advanced Semiconductor Packaging and Integration Centre, and Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport has written to the UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to urge the UK government to ensure Scotland’s strengths are recognised and that opportunities are not solely flowing to elsewhere in the UK.

Our Long Term Conditions Advisory Group 1 focused on cardiometabolic and renal conditions, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. We are carefully considering the recommendations made by all six of the advisory groups, established under the previous government, to inform our way forward for long term conditions. Our Programme for Government for 2026-27 will be put to the Parliament in due course.

A press release regarding the upcoming ban on rodent glue board traps in Scotland was issued on 24 June 2026 to the Press Association and included our main national media, local media and environment lists. Stakeholder organisations were notified as referenced in the answer to question S7W-01330 on 13 July 2026. 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.

Information on the ban has been published on the Scottish Government’s website: https://www.gov.scot/news/glue-trap-ban-comes-into-force/.

Promotional materials, including flyers highlighting the ban were displayed and distributed from the Scottish Government’s Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland Stand at the Royal Highland Show and GWCT Scottish Game Fair.

Furthermore, Scottish Government officials met with the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) in the months prior to the ban, which enabled the BPCA to produce communication material for their members in advance of the ban.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43793 on 26 February 2026. 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.

We are now carefully considering the recommendations made by the advisory groups, established under the previous government, to inform our way forward for long term conditions. Our Programme for Government for 2026-27 will be put to the Parliament in due course.

Individual colleges in Scotland are responsible for their own operational decisions, such as ensuring systems are in place to assess and manage health and safety risks, and working with the relevant bodies to ensure they meet their legal responsibilities. The Scottish Government understands that City of Glasgow College has accepted the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) findings in full and are implementing all corrective actions identified, which has resulted in the HSE’s intervention being closed.

As part of its ongoing monitoring and assurance processes, the Scottish Funding Council will continue to monitor the college’s progress to ensure improvements are followed through and that staff concerns are addressed.

British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland chaired Long Term Conditions Advisory Group 1 on cardiometabolic and kidney conditions. We are grateful to all the third sector organisations, including BHF Scotland, who have engaged with our work to date and welcome continued engagement with BHF Scotland as our work on long term conditions develops.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 to extend statutory animal welfare protections to decapod crustaceans.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) is currently carrying out a review of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, with the report scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. The Scottish Government will give full consideration to SAWC's report in due course.

The Scottish Government notified key stakeholder organisations of the upcoming commencement of the ban on using, supplying or possessing rodent glue traps on 2 March 2026.

Follow-up correspondence was issued to Amazon, Ebay and the Post Office to confirm receipt of the notification. Further notification was sent to Scottish Wholesale on 20 May 2026 asking them to issue a reminder to Scotland’s wholesalers to ensure the removal of their stocks of rodent glue board traps, prior to the ban coming into force in Scotland on 1 July 2026.