The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data (for operational, statistical and research purposes) that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

Vermin infestation in hospital sites is a matter for local NHS Boards to deal with. The Scottish Government is not aware of any hospital site in Scotland being reported to a regulatory or statutory body for vermin infestation within the last five years.

We continue to support and work in partnership with Police Scotland and Local Authorities in tackling vehicle nuisance and related safety issues.

Police Scotland have a range of existing powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation and common law to prevent and tackle vehicle misuse. They have also pursued educational awareness campaigns and highlighted that 442 vehicles had been seized in 2024 comprising of 327 e-bikes and 115 e-scooters.

We welcome the development of innovative tools such as the recent use of SelectaDNA tagging spray, which provides a forensic link, by officers in Hawick as part of ongoing work to combat antisocial behaviour connected with off-road bikes.

Ministers met recently with MSPs and Police Scotland about this issue and as a result of that, options are being explored including liaising with the UK Government, and on its legislative proposals, as part of a cross-party approach. We will also continue to liaise with the UK Government where there are reserved matters relating to road safety, including vehicle licencing, off-road vehicles and legal use of both e-scooters and e-bikes.

The additional £100 million investment contained in the Budget to reduce waiting times will create 150,000 extra appointments and procedures for elective services. This does not include mental health or neurodevelopmental services.

Improving mental health remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government and whilst we recognise the ongoing pressures facing the NHS, long waits are unacceptable and we remain committed to supporting Boards to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies (PT). Currently Psychological Therapies (PT) services are responding well to demand, with one in two people referred starting treatment within three weeks. And in CAMHS, the national performance against the 18-week standard is the best performance ever reported since the standard was introduced in 2014 with 89.1% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral in the last quarter.

We do not have a treatment time target for neurodevelopmental services. Our key focus is on improving support. The Neurodevelopmental specification aims to ensure that children and families receive the support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity.

Despite the progress made across the system, we are not complacent and we remain committed to supporting all Boards to meet the standards and to clear long waiting lists. Performance does still vary across Health Boards, and we continue to provide enhanced support to those Boards not on track to meet the standard, providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation.

The Scottish Law Officers are not members of the Scottish Cabinet. Consistent with long standing practice, the Lord Advocate (or, in their absence, the Solicitor General) attends Cabinet meetings whenever it is required. In practice this means when Cabinet is discussing a matter with a legal aspect, or to represent their own Ministerial interest, in particular as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland.

The following table sets out, for each of the previous 10 years, the number of occasions on which the Scottish Law Officers have attended meetings of the Scottish Cabinet.

Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.

We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.

We expect all healthcare professionals to follow best practice and adhere to current guidelines and standards when providing care and support for people with suspected IBD, including the use of faecal calprotectin tests, to help improve diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

A national IBD pathway for NHS Scotland was published in January 2025: inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-pathway.pdf. This pathway is intended to be used for primary and secondary care health care professionals who are concerned that a patient may have undiagnosed IBD.

Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.

We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.

This information is not held by Scottish Government.

The University of Glasgow (UoG) is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the Childsmile programme. Since 2013, UoG has published annual national headline reports on the Programme, which includes data on a range of Childsmile activity in multiple settings. The reports can be accessed via the Childsmile website: https://www.childsmile.nhs.scot/professionals/resources/research-publications/

Information on the Programme prior to this may be available from individual NHS Health Boards.

Officials are undertaking work with the chair of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and Hospice UK to fully understand the requirements to provide pay parity to those delivering frontline services in line with NHS Agenda for Change levels. Officials are also continuing to explore the mechanisms for providing this funding, while respecting local commissioning arrangements.

This funding does not bring hospice staff under AfC terms and conditions and is only intended to provide pay parity with NHS Agenda for Change levels. Independent hospices will have their own terms and conditions for the staff they employ.