Chamber and committees

As set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, Scottish Ministers have a statutory duty to promote take-up of devolved benefits across the Scottish social security system. Reserved benefits remain the responsibility of the UK Government and the Scottish Government has no formal role in the administration of these payments. We continue to urge the UK Government to more actively promote reserved benefits and to follow Scotland's example by developing a Benefit Take-Up Strategy.

Welfare rights advice services, supported by Scottish Government investment, continue to assist people to take up benefits they may be entitled to, including reserved payments. In 2025-26, we are allocating over £15 million for provision of free income maximisation support, welfare and debt advice services.

Responsibility for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance, which includes planned jobs and supply chain impacts for involved projects, rests with Scottish Enterprise. The independent EY Attractiveness Survey and the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) annual inward investment results provide an additional performance indicator for inward investment. Collectively, the results provide robust estimates of Scotland’s inward investment activity and performance.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is not a classification that the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise nor EY use when measuring the performance of inward investment projects into Scotland.

Scotland has a strong record in attracting foreign direct investment and our Inward Investment Plan (IIP) plays a central role in supporting our ambitions to be a destination of choice for global inward investors. Information on how Scotland has performed in terms of attracting inward investment projects is available via the EY attractiveness survey (the latest results can be found here: ey-uk-attractiveness-survey-scotland-06-2025.pdf) and the Department for Business and Trade Inward Investment Results (the latest results can be found here: DBT inward investment results 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK). Scottish Enterprise results will be published in the Autumn.

Scottish Development International (SDI) is the international arm of Scottish Enterprise (SE). The SDI teams in overseas offices are made up of staff employed by FCDO on behalf of Scottish Enterprise. The breakdown by location of these FCDO employed staff is included in the following table. There are also Scotland and London based staff working in the international arm of SE. SE's international teams based in Scotland currently employ 150 staff; and 8 in London.

According to the Employee-Owned Business Census Scotland 2024, undertaken by Co-operative Development Scotland, there were a total of 286 employee-owned businesses operating in Scotland as of 31 March 2024. This represents a 47% increase since 2022. A new Economic Democracy Group has formed to drive growth in social enterprises, co-operative business and employee owned firms. The Group held its first meeting in April and will take stock of the journey to the 2030 target, examining what action may be required.

The Endometriosis Pathway was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) in January 2023. Following changes to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance a review of the pathway will be part of the 2025/26 workplan for the CfSD Gynaecology Specialty Delivery Group. CfSD have confirmed that the current pathway is clinically safe and should be used until the revised version is published.

The Scottish Government issued a Medicine Supply Alert Notice (MSAN) relating to supply disruption of the medicine naloxegol on 25 April 2024. The anticipated resupply date for the medicine has since been moved to 15 August 2025 and the medicine is unavailable throughout the UK. The Scottish Government appreciates the frustration and concern that this continued shortage will be having on patients prescribed this medication and while medicines supply continues to be reserved matter for the UK Government, we continue to press for a lasting solution in our engagement with the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care.

The Scottish Government has already provided reassurances to independent hospices that the funding will be allocated as soon as practically possible, based on the analysis of financial data provided by the hospices.

The supply of medicines and the associated legislation are a reserved matter for the UK Government and the Scottish Government continues to engage with them on all medicine supply issues. The UK Department of Health and Social Care have stated that while the medication is currently unavailable, the anticipated resupply date is mid-august 2025. An alternative medication named Naldemedine (Rizmoic) remains available in 200 microgram tablets and can support increased demand. Those affected by the shortage are encouraged to discuss alternative treatments with their clinical team.

Scottish Government officials continue to monitor the situation for any further developments and are maintaining a close dialogue with all Health Boards to help manage this medicine supply disruption.

In 2023-24 the vast majority (95.8%) of young people who left school at S4 achieved qualifications or units under the All SCQF measure. Less than 43.0% of S4 leavers left school without obtaining at least one qualification at SCQF Level 5 or above. However, many of these young people did leave with qualifications. Of the 3,476 S4 school leavers in 2023-24 without an SCQF Level 5 or above, 2,828 left with a qualification at SCQF Level 3 or 4 (81.4%), 48 left with other qualifications or units, 262 left with units only and 338 left with no qualifications or units (9.7%).

It is important to recognise that many of these young people will have gone on to apprenticeships, to study at college or otherwise remain in education or training, reflecting the strengths of our approach, in creating and supporting a range of pathways and qualifications for young people in Scotland. This is reflected in the statistical evidence which shows consistently high initial and follow-up positive destinations for young people leaving school. For example, the Follow-up Destination Statistics published on the 17th June show that 93.1% of school leavers were in a positive destination. This is the second highest figure since 2009/10.

The information requested on how many clinics offer dermatology services, broken down by NHS board is not held centrally.