Chamber and committees

In the period since 24 June 2025, Scottish Government officials have held a series of discussions with HM Inspectorate of Education, COSLA, ADES, Local Government Home Education Leads and with parent and carer representatives of home educated children and young people. As referenced in our reply to PQ S7W-00574 on 1 June 2025 this review is in its discovery phase, including an initial focus on data scoping and investigation. With regards to the evaluation elements of the review, officials are currently liaising with HMIE and others to prepare further advice and options for Scottish Ministers on next steps.

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 works collaboratively with a broad range of rural and island stakeholders on a number of housing-related issues. This includes engagement on the development of the Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, published in October 2023, and on affordable housing delivery more generally.

In February 2026 we announced our intention to develop a Rural and Island Housing Grant Scheme. The development of the scheme will be taken forward with close engagement with rural and island housing partners.

School counselling services are available to all pupils aged 10 and over, including primary and special school pupils, funded by our investment of £16 million per annum to local authorities.

The Scottish Government engaged with professional counselling bodies prior to establishing counselling services who advised that therapeutic counselling is not appropriate for younger pupils.

School counselling is just one part of a wider package of mental health and wellbeing support available to school-aged children and young people. We provide local authorities with baselined funding of £15 million per annum to deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports for children and young people aged 5 to 24 (or up to age 26 for care-experienced young people), including age-appropriate interventions for younger children such as play-based therapies and family support.

It is important to note that the situation relating to maintenance is dynamic; as NHS Boards address and eliminate items of maintenance, new items will emerge. It is therefore expected that there will be ongoing requirement for maintenance across the NHS estate and in particular across high use areas and older buildings.

We are currently working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland. This supports continued safe and effective use of existing facilities, through ongoing business continuity planning, as well as informing future investment priorities based on assessment of need across the whole of Scotland.

The first phase, Business Continuity Planning, is focussed on priority investment in the existing estate to support service continuity. Boards have completed risk-based assessments and received confirmation of items which can be progressed with additional funding from the Scottish Government. Future Business Continuity Plan submissions will be on a two-yearly full submission cycle, with interim years only requiring ‘by-exception’ reporting of new essential maintenance or equipment replacement items not previously reported.

The second phase is focussed on the longer-term development of the estate to meet national, regional and local needs.

All Health Boards have been asked to undertake strategic needs assessments for three local investment priorities. In determining local investment priorities, Boards should also consider aspects of infrastructure resilience, capacity constraints and population-based service changes. Returns will be considered on a whole of Scotland basis. This approach aligns with the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework.

Further detail on NHS Whole System Infrastructure Planning is set out in DL 2025-15.

We have already invested an additional £100 million this year to build on the progress made in the 2025-26 Operational Improvement Plan.

We are working closely and at pace with Boards to identify where additional funding can most effectively increase capacity and support further reductions in waits, with a particular focus on those waiting the longest.

From 2027-28 onwards we will be investing £200 million in planned care, supporting our target of nobody waiting longer than 26 weeks by the end of this Parliament.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

In Public Health Scotland's report published on 09 December 2025 they state that 998 Scottish residents started a residential rehabilitation placement in 2023-24 and that "... the data submissions suggest that the Scottish Government has already come close to meeting, and possibly has already met, its 2026 target in financial year 2024-25 (at least 993 individuals)." We look forward to the publication of the statistics for 2025-26.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that our health and social care system operates as efficiently and effectively as possible. Our National Flow Plan, which we will publish within the first 100 days of government, will aim to ensure our care system works more smoothly and supports better outcomes for individuals accessing services.

The requirement for individual social work assessments is set out in legislation. Under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships have a duty to assess the social care support needs of individuals and, having given due regard to the results of those assessments, decide whether those needs call for the provision of any service. These assessments are an essential part of our health and care system, ensuring that the most vulnerable people can access the care and support they need.

Work continues towards the implementation of the first phase of a national targeted lung screening programme. It is anticipated that the initial roll out will focus first on inviting eligible individuals in areas experiencing the highest levels of socio-economic deprivation, as evidence shows that they are at higher risk of lung cancer, and have poorer outcomes.

Screening Oversight and Assurance Scotland (SOAS) has established a multi-disciplinary Programme Board to provide subject matter expertise to the planning process. Formal workstreams have been established to consider delivery models for each element of the programme including call-recall, risk assessment, smoking cessation, CT scanning, image reporting and downstream assessment and treatment services. The Reference Group will meet again this month (June 2026) to review the work that has been undertaken so far.

It is expected that implementation of a national screening programme will take a minimum of 7-10 years, in line with the establishment and roll-out of similar programmes by NHS England and Public Health Wales. A screening programme of this size and scale must be implemented in a way which allows careful management of the impact on wider NHS services.

This information is not held centrally and we are unable to answer this question.