Chamber and committees

To accelerate the processing of Remediable Service Statements (RSS), the Scottish Government has increased the SPPA's budget from £25.1 million in 2022-23 to £38.1 million in 2026-27. This investment has enabled SPPA to increase staffing capacity, expand the automation of pension calculations, improve operational processes and strengthen governance arrangements.

The original statutory timescales have been extended to reflect the significant complexity of the McCloud remedy programme. SPPA has delivered RSS to nearly 87% of current NHS employees and to 37% of retired members entitled to the McCloud remedy. SPPA remains focused on issuing the outstanding RSS to all member cohorts as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government recognises the unique value of Scotland's semiconductor manufacturing capability and the opportunity presented by world leading companies such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to integrate into global supply chains.

I recognise the concerns raised by Environmental Standards Scotland regarding the potential impact of parliamentary timetables on opportunities for effective scrutiny of major environmental policy proposals.

In developing biodiversity targets under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, the Scottish Government is supporting scrutiny and engagement throughout the policy development process, rather than relying solely on the formal parliamentary stage. This includes ongoing engagement with Environmental Standards Scotland, alongside statutory consultation and wider stakeholder input.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage constructively with Environmental Standards Scotland to help ensure that biodiversity targets are robust, evidence-based and informed by independent scrutiny.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor workforce pressures across NHS Scotland, including within anaesthetics and maternity services.

The consultant anaesthetics workforce has increased by 23.5%, from 729.3 WTE staff in June 2016 to 900.9 WTE in June 2026. As at June 2026, the consultant anaesthetics vacancy rate was 4.6%, lower than the overall medical and dental consultant vacancy rate of 6.4% across NHS Scotland.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring services are staffed safely and appropriately. Under the Health and Care (Staffing) Act 2019, Boards are required to ensure that suitably qualified and competent staff are available in numbers appropriate to support safe, high-quality care, taking account of patient need, local circumstances and clinical advice. The Scottish Government will continue to work with NHS Boards and national partners to monitor workforce requirements and support recruitment, training and retention across key specialties.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on procurement expenditure awarded to firms headquartered in Scotland. However, using data published in the “Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland”, the proportion of the total public sector procurement spend with suppliers with a Scottish registered invoice address in each of the last five financial years, where the data is available, is set out in Table A. This data is derived from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub, Scottish Government’s spend analytics shared service, which captures data from over 100 public sector organisations. Further breakdowns from this source are available in the Scottish public sector procurement spend 2023 to 2024 report.

The Scottish Government has not provided funding to HOPE not hate in this financial year or the previous financial year.

The Scottish Government has looked at the data centre experience of many countries with similar climates and demographics, including Ireland. This has helped shaped the Scottish Government’s response to data centres to ensure that developments in Scotland are sustainable, protect our natural resources and deliver tangible benefits for communities and the wider economy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-03916 on the 29 October 2026. 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 has interpreted part (a) of this question as referring to licences authorising the use of hydraulic suction dredges. No specific licence authorising their use exists and therefore no such licences have been issued since 2021. No commercial licences for fyke nets have been issued since 2021.

The Scottish Government recognises the need to ensure a sustainable model of funding in the context of wider financial pressures facing Scotland’s universities, and acknowledges that international students make an important and valuable contribution to our society, culture and economy.

While international dental student recruitment has been not identified as a specific mechanism for addressing wider university financial pressures, the Scottish Government is engaging constructively with the university sector to secure the financial sustainability of higher education through the Future Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland’s Universities.