Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer provided in S6W-38036 on 13 June 2025. The reporting information provided by Local Authorities is collated and held centrally and provided on request.

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

Scottish Government grant funding is subject to standard terms and conditions, which state that:

“No part of the Grant shall be used to fund any activity or material which is party political in intention, use, or presentation, or appears to be designed to affect support for a political party.”

Grant managers are expected to maintain strong relationships with grantees, with regular monitoring and reporting to ensure funding delivers agreed outcomes.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator provides detailed guidance on how charities can engage on political issues appropriately.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that the child’s best interests are at the centre of any contact case and that the voice of the child is heard. Family circumstances can vary considerably and so, beyond those general principles, there is no single approach which will fit every contact case.

Contact orders are made by courts under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Through these orders, courts can regulate the arrangements under which non-resident parents maintain personal relations or direct contact with children under the age of 16.

When the court is deciding whether, and in what terms, to make a contact order under section 11 the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration. The court must also – taking into account the child's age and maturity – have regard to any views the child wishes to express and have regard to matters such as the need to protect the child from the risk of abuse.

Those with parental responsibilities and rights (including in relation to contact) are also expected to exercise these in the interests of the child and, where appropriate, to have regard to the views of the child. If the arrangements provided for in a contact order are no longer considered appropriate the matter could, in appropriate cases, be brought back to the court (including by or on behalf of the child themselves) for the order to be varied or recalled.

The court may order contact to take place at a child contact centre. We expect child contact services to take a child-centred approach, using trauma-informed approaches. We would not expect a child who is distressed to be forced into contact.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Relationships Scotland who are the largest provider of child contact services in Scotland. Child contact services have practices in place to help support facilitation of contact orders, for example: familiarisation visits; gradual build-up of time in contact; signals if child wants contact to end; family support workers to support parents and children.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 March 2024 by Liam McArthur MSP (Liberal Democrats). As such, this is a Member's Bill, not a Scottish Government Bill.

Alongside the Bill, Mr McArthur submitted a Financial Memorandum, setting out an assessment of the projected costs of implementing the Bill. He also wrote to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 17 June 2024, and again on 14 October 2024, to provide updates to the figures in the Financial Memorandum.

A Scottish Government memorandum was provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 30 September 2024. This advised that the Scottish Government considered that the costs provided by the member responsible for the Bill were likely to be underestimates. This same memorandum also set out the Scottish Government’s view that the Bill, as introduced, is outside of the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, and that the Scottish Government would be taking a neutral position on the Bill.

A further letter was sent to the Committee on 27 February 2025, following the Scottish Government’s oral evidence session, to provide estimates of the costs associated with providing initial and refresher training to NHS staff. This noted that all cost estimates provided at this stage are purely indicative, and that this is something that will need to be kept under careful review as the Bill moves through the Parliamentary process.

Significant issues were raised about various aspects of the Bill in the Committee’s Stage 1 report, and during the Stage 1 debate. As highlighted in the Stage 1 report, the Committee made a number of recommendations in relation to the detail of the Bill including about areas for further debate and potential amendment. As such, we are considering our own position moving forward, in light of Parliament's decision to support the general principles of the Bill, and we will be paying close attention to any amendments put forward by non-Government MSPs to consider the practical, financial and legal implications of these.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing delayed discharges and addressing the variation in delays across the country and this remains a priority for this Government. However, it is important to reflect that 97% of all discharges happen without delay.

The latest published delayed discharge figures show some progress in reducing the number of people delayed, and we continue to work to drive that number down further. Statistics show that during April 2025, on average 1,854 people were delayed in hospital each day, 3% fewer than in April 2024, the lowest level since October 2023, and a 9% reduction from the peak in October 2024.

The progress comes off the back off intensive work that is being done on a whole system basis, with Health and Social Care Partnerships, the National Health Service, Local Government and community and voluntary sector partners – to ensure that capacity is there to support them.

Furthermore, our budget for 2025-26 set out a clear plan to reduce waiting times, delayed discharges and improve hospital flow, supported by £200 million in targeted investment. Underpinning this is the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan which was published on the 31st of March this year. This is a plan to improve access to treatment, shift the balance of care from acute services to the community, and improve access to health and social care services through digital and technological innovation and prevention.

I am confident that this improvement can continue, delivering better outcomes for patients so that they are cared for in the right setting and hospital beds are there for those who need them.

My statement to the Scottish Affairs Committee on 4 June 2025 is based on operational data and the clinical interventions of the Thistle Safer Drug Consumption Facility team.

By the end of April 2025, staff had managed 30 medical emergencies requiring urgent intervention. These incidents involved overdose responses, including naloxone and oxygen administration, in situations where lives were at immediate risk. The evidence underpinning this statement is drawn from Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s published service data and the professional assessments of clinical staff on-site to attend to medical emergencies

The Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland an attractive destination for investors. Our Programme for Government committed to increasing private capital investment in Scotland through delivering a co-ordinated programme to attract investment in priority areas of net zero, housing, and infrastructure.

This programme of activity includes intensifying our targeted engagement with key investors, developing the ‘InvestScotland’ portal to showcase investment opportunities, and exploring more co-investment from public and private pension funds into Scottish projects and businesses.

It is a matter for Glasgow City Region to determine their engagement priorities.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 March 2024 by Liam McArthur MSP (Liberal Democrats). As such, this is a Member's Bill, not a Scottish Government Bill.

As with all Bills, at Stage 2 of the Bill’s passage through Parliament it is for the Convener of the lead Committee to make a decision on the admissibility of any amendment put forward.

At Stage 3, it would be for the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer to make decisions on admissibility.

The number of consultants employed by NHS Scotland has increased by 71% since September 2006 and now stands at 6,217.5 whole time equivalents (31 March 2025).

Despite this increase, NHS Scotland’s medical workforce remains under pressure due to steady, long-term increases in demand. This increase in demand is strongly linked to Scotland’s aging population profile and increasing epidemiological rates for some health care conditions.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible care and support and that they benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective, and put people at the centre of their care.

We are aware of the findings of Kidney Care UK in their 2024 report, and Ms Minto met with the group shortly after publication. In 2024 we published the transport to health plan to support work across Scottish Government, Health Boards and Transport partners.

Following engagement between Scottish Government and NHS Boards, a Short Life Working Group is set to be established across NHS Boards to consider in more detail the issues relating to transport access for patients attending for kidney care treatment. We look forward to the outcomes of this work.