The Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Third Sector Fund has provided core funding to 115 organisations since 2016 to deliver support that tackles inequalities, child and family poverty, improve learning and build skills. Funding to the 115 organisations was awarded following a competitive exercise that was open to all third sector organisations who met the fund’s qualifying criteria. CYPFEI & ALEC funded organisations contribute to our policy priorities to Keep the Promise, tackle child poverty, provide family support, implement Children’s Rights, and promote positive mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Saheylia were awarded £14.7k through CYPFEI & ALEC and they had received their first quarter fund payment for 2025-26 prior to their unfortunate closure. The remaining funding allocated to Saheylia will not be transferred to another organisation, as the reallocation of the remaining funds would require the completion of a competitive exercise, open to all third sector organisations who meet the qualifying criteria for CYPFEI & ALEC funding.

The Scottish Government’s Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland (RCAP) sets out our vision for driving improvement in the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support of respiratory conditions including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease. We continue to work with many types of clinical advisors on delivering improvements to respiratory care and much of this is related to workforce and training of medical professionals.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has a key role in coordinating recruitment to, and overseeing, the quality of postgraduate medical training for both GPs and hospital specialists. The training curricula are written by Medical Royal Colleges and approved by the General Medical Council (GMC), who consider advice from a wide range of stakeholders, including NES. These are subject to regular review and updating, and the training is delivered by territorial NHS Boards.

Scottish Government remains committed to delivering the National Workforce Strategy (Health and social care: national workforce strategy - gov.scot) and achieving the overall vision for “A sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices and fair work where all are respected and valued for the work they do”. Whilst no formal update has yet been published, significant progress has been made in a number of areas and we remain committed to providing a fuller update to the strategy at an appropriate time. Whilst the Strategy does not set out operational workforce planning requirements, it states how we are directing policy to support the achievement of our workforce.

Ministers were not involved in this decision which was considered by ScotRail Trains Ltd as an operational matter

Payments to independent contractors providing NHS dental services, responsible for almost all primary care dental service provision, is funded through a national General Dental Services (GDS) budget. This is a non-cash limited budget where National Services Scotland make payments on behalf of NHS Boards directly to independent contractors. There is no separate budget for each NHS Board for these services. NHS Boards do have budget for the Public Dental Service (a specialist service provided by employees of the Board) as part of their general allocation. Information that is held at NHS Board level.

I can confirm that there has been no reduction in funding for NHS dental services. On the contrary, as part of the 2025-26 budget we have increased funding for primary care dental services by 15%. This takes total funding to over half a billion pounds for the first time and means that over the course of this Parliament, we will have increased investment in primary care dental services by 33%.

A breakdown of GDS spending for the 2024-25 financial year can be viewed at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-dental-data-monitoring-report/nhs-dental-data-monitoring-report-quarter-ending-march-2025/

The food environment, including promotions, significantly influences the food choices people make, both in and out of home. This report adds further to (the evidence base and) our understanding that promotions can encourage impulse spend and can lead to people buying more than they need, overlooking cheaper and healthier alternatives.

The Scottish Government is taking forward wide ranging action to support people make healthier choices in the out of home sector.

On 17 June, the Scottish Government confirmed that it will introduce regulations to restrict the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt to the Scottish Parliament this autumn. These regulations will, amongst other things, restrict unlimited refills for a fixed charge of non-prepacked soft drinks with added sugar in qualifying out of home businesses. Further detail on the final scope of the policy is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/restricting-promotion-food-drink-high-fat-sugar-salt-hfss-consultation-detail-proposed-regulations-scottish-government-response/.

We are working with Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland to develop our Eating Out Eating Well Framework https://eatingouteatingwell.publichealthscotland.scot/, one of the actions from our Out Of Home Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/diet-and-healthy-weight-out-of-home-action-plan/. The new Framework is designed to help businesses serving food out of home, such as restaurants and cafes, to provide healthier options for customers, and includes developing a Code of Practice for children’s menus. Further detail is set out in the answer to question S6W-39402 on 8 August 2025. 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/questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government will consider further action to improve the food environment, including in out of home settings, under the Population Health Framework.

The Scottish Government welcomes Kidney Care UK’s recently published report and its important findings and recommendations. These will be carefully considered and reflected as appropriate in future policy planning for long term conditions like chronic kidney disease.

While there are no current plans to conduct a national audit, we expect all NHS Boards to adhere to existing guidelines and best practice in delivering psychosocial care. Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, MentalHealth Core Standards and the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions set out clear expectations for the delivery of high-quality, person-centred support across Scotland.

More broadly, the Scottish Government recently consulted on a Long Term Conditions Framework, which will help inform future approaches to prevention, diagnosis and care, including support for mental health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring people living with kidney disease can access safe, effective and person-centred care, including appropriate psychosocial support.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published its most recent independent forecasts on 25 June 2025, which sets out its latest five-year economic and fiscal forecasts, and includes forecasts of Social Security benefits expenditure to 2030-31.

The publication can be found on the SFC’s website: Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025 | Scottish Fiscal Commission

Based on the latest SFC’s forecasts, the Scottish Government anticipates to spend £9.3 billion on Social Security Assistance in 2030-31.

The SFC will publish its next set of five-year economic and fiscal forecasts alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget later this year.

As of year-end 2024 there were 4,648 new Electric Vehicles (EVs) registered in Scotland through the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment (AVE) Scheme. This represents 16.9% of EVs registered in Scotland in 2024, although this figure may not include cars purchased through brokerages based outside of Scotland.

We are proud that the Accessible Vehicles and Equipment Scheme is delivering much-needed support for disabled people and contributing towards a Just Transition in Scotland.

The £2 million investment in 2025-26 through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) to support local authorities to return more privately owned empty homes to use is a new investment. It is part of a two-year fairer funding pilot, with a further investment of £1.3 million in 2026-27.

The £2 million is funding:

• additional empty homes officers across Scotland (£750,000),
• innovative local and national projects (£700,000) such as the Dundee project referenced in the answer to question S6W-39184 on 7 August 2025,
• SEHP core functions, such as its advice line and support for local authority empty homes officers, as well as enhanced support to deliver the additional work above in conjunction with local authorities (£550,000).

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.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government as in-work benefits such as Universal Credit are reserved to the UK Government. Additionally, the recording of personal data relating to police officers with additional jobs or business interests are matters for the Chief Constable.

The Scottish Government values the dedication shown by police officers in Scotland. That’s why our police officers remain the best paid in the UK recognising the hard work and valuable contribution they make daily as well as our commitment to investing in policing.