Decisions on the care and treatment of patients are always matters of professional judgement for the responsible practitioner having considered the needs of their patient and relevant clinical guidelines.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines in March 2022 which stated that the current available evidence on the safety and efficacy of liposuction for chronic lipoedema was inadequate and that more research was required.

In an update on August 2025, NICE stated it is aware of the LIPLEG trial taking place in Germany and confirmed that a review of the current guidance will be undertaken following the publication of the trial results.

The Scottish Government have required the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to undertake visits to slaughter facilities since 2022 to monitor operations and ensure welfare of salmon at time of killing. The Scottish Government’s guidance on Welfare at the Time of Killing in Salmon Farming is based on the recommendations made by the UK Government's Animal Welfare Committee and developed in partnership with the Scottish farmed salmon industry, APHA, and animal welfare organisations. Any suspected incidences of poor welfare would be reported to the Animal and Plant Health Agency which would investigate and take action if required.

The delivery of the McCloud Remedy is the key priority for the SPPA, balancing the significant and complex work associated with delivery alongside routine administration of public service pensions - those for teachers, police, firefighters and health service workers.

The scale of challenge that SPPA has faced in delivering the McCloud Remedy cannot be overstated and is one shared by other public sector pension scheme managers across the UK. Although progress is being made, SPPA took the difficult decision to extend the target date of 31 July 2025 for delivery to retired police officers to the end of 2025.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond to specific points. His response is as follows:

The delivery of RSS facilitates the choice of benefits members may take, and they have a period of 12 months to make it. When that election is made, SPPA aim to make any necessary adjustments to pension benefits as soon as reasonably practicable. Any pension arrears payable to members includes interest calculated from the date the arrears arose.

With the large number of individuals in scope of the McCloud remedy, it has been necessary for communications to retired members to be managed through the SPPA website rather than being targeted but communications plans are being refined following engagement with stakeholders.

SPPA has published timelines for the delivery of RSS. These are available on the SPPA website and will be kept up to date.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit. This remit is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research on novel treatments, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, for long term conditions, including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

The Scottish Government recognises that hyperbaric oxygen therapy may offer benefits for some individuals living with long-term health conditions. Decisions about treatment are made by clinicians in consultation with patients, based on clinical need and the best available evidence.

NHS Boards are responsible for determining which therapies to provide, taking into account national policy, local priorities, and the needs of their populations. We expect all care to be safe, effective, person-centred, and sustainable.

The preferred source for data on business closures is the annual Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Demography series, the latest edition is available at: Business demography, UK - Office for National Statistics. Business closures are a proxy for the number of businesses closed down. Business closures are measured as businesses removed from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a database of all businesses registered for Value-Added-Tax (VAT) and/or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) income tax. A business is removed from the IDBR if its turnover and employment are zero for several periods, or if the ONS is notified that the business has ceased trading through an administrative or survey source.

Note that the annual publication does not include data for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector. However, business closures for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector are included as part of the quarterly ONS Business Demography series – these data for Scotland are provided in table 1. We don’t have access to disaggregated quarterly data for the agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors separately.

It is important to note that the quarterly ONS Business Demography series is classed as official statistics in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are in the testing phase and are not yet fully developed, and will potentially have a wider degree of uncertainty. In particular, the last four quarters of the ONS series are provisional and are subject to future revision. Revisions can arise due to business reactivations as later information on business turnover or employment is received.

Table 1: Business Closures – Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing – Scotland

The Scottish Government expects that any decisions on treatment for people affected by Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) or long COVID should be informed by current clinical guidelines.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidance exists for the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS and for managing the long-term effects of COVID-19. These comprise NICE guidelines NG:206 and NG:188 respectively. Further information on the process by which NICE guidelines are developed can be accessed at How we develop NICE guidelines | NICE

The following table shows the number of offences involving the alleged use of an air weapon (where identified) between 2009-10 and 2021-22. This has been split into two time periods, 2009-10 to 2014-15 and 2015-16 to 2021-22. The reason for this specific split is the introduction of an improved methodology for collating these statistics from 2015-16 onwards. As such the two time periods are not directly comparable as the earlier one is likely to contain a small degree of underestimation.. Further information on the change in methodology and the presentation of data by single years is available at Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2020-21 and 2021-22 - gov.scot.

The latest Crimes and offences involving a firearm Official Statistics relate to 2021-22. Future updates will follow the conclusion of a further review by analysts from Scottish Government and Police Scotland into the methodology for producing this data. Unlike other crime-based official statistics, the current approach relies on the manual review of crime records to identify relevant cases, which is resource intensive and requires significant time to complete. An update on the outcome of this work is planned for early Autumn, and users can register for this through the SCOTSTAT network (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotstat-register-guidance/)

Crimes involving the alleged use of an air weapon 2009-10 to 2021-22

Rail accessibility is reserved to the UK Government.

The number of stations that are currently classed as not step free is 68 which is 19% of stations on the Scottish rail network.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving access at rail stations, over and above UK Government programmes, which is evidenced by STPR2 Recommendation 19.

The data requested is gathered by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and is provided in the following table.