Chamber and committees

All public bodies, including Police Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service, are expected to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and other relevant legislation.

Compliance with the Act is a matter for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC operates independently and cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

The EHRC publishes statutory Codes of Practice and associated guidance on the Equality Act 2010 to assist bodies to better understand and comply with their legal obligations under the Act.

The Task and Finish Group was established by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Planning and Delivery Board. In line with other Task and Finish Groups, NHS Board regional lead Chief Executives were asked to nominate regional representatives with a range of experience to sit on this Group. Therefore the Scottish Government was not directly involved in determining who should join the Group.

However, the Scottish Government expects that the Group members will engage with a range of staff in their region and other stakeholders where appropriate. Task and Finish groups may create subgroups of the main group, including inviting clinicians with specific training and/or experience, where they require specific clinical expertise or knowledge to help inform the final model.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, the statutory responsibility for delivering, commissioning and providing appropriate social care services at a local level lies with local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships. This includes the responsibility to reduce the number of people being delayed in hospital unnecessarily.

Since 2015-16, the Scottish Government has provided additional funding for social care and integration. This annual investment has risen to almost £2.2 billion in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget.

However, decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities are ultimately for Health and Social Care Partnerships and locally elected representatives to make.

The Scottish Government has provided specific funding to NHS Boards for the development of a thrombectomy service to treat ischaemic stroke: £6.6 million in 2021-22; £7.2 million in 2022-23; £10.1 million in 2023-24 and £12.1 million in 2024-25. 2025-26 thrombectomy funding allocations will exceed the funding provided in 2024-25.

In addition, the Scottish Government has provided funding to support the delivery of the Stroke Improvement Plan and wider stroke improvement work: £182,980 in 2021-22; £174,489 in 2022-23; £185,507 in 2023-24 and £175,150 in 2024-25.

While we know thrombectomy procedures are not currently available overnight, stroke care is available and we expect NHS Boards to provide safe, effective and person-centred care for those who have experienced a stroke, at all times.

The Scottish Government values the input of clinicians in informing any recommendations regarding abortion services. The Scottish Government works closely with services through the Scottish Abortion Care Providers network in particular to identify contributors with suitable clinical backgrounds to be involved in any groups convened by the Scottish Government regarding abortion services.

Typically an experienced primary care dentist seeing mainly NHS patients will have a list of around 2,000 – 2,500 patients. While the total number of dentists includes those in Public and Hospital Dental Service settings, published figures indicate that there are no Board areas with less than 1 dentist per 2,000 of population.

As at 31 March 2025, there are 59.2 primary care dentists per 100,000 of the Scottish population, compared to 56.8 at 31 March 2024. This equates to 0.6 dentists per 1000 patients.

The Scottish Government introduced payment reform changes from 1 November 2023 which has been well received by the profession. This is the main intervention designed to ensure dentists continue to be incentivised to both remain and increase their NHS provision.

Workforce:

2.Payment reform was introduced in November ’23 reducing treatment items from 700 to 45, with almost 4 million courses of treatment delivered between November 2023 and September 2024.

3.A second stage of reform will focus on workforce. Under the First Minister’s NHS Renewal priorities for 25-26 student intake to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery/BDS courses at Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow universities will increase by 7%; a new training scheme will support overseas-qualified dentists, who are GDC-registered as dental therapists, to convert to full dentist status at a cost of £1.5M and redesign of a rural incentive scheme funded via the GDS budget.

4.I will continue to lead on renewing four-nation discussions on Provisional Registration, which would allow overseas-qualified dentists to enter the UK NHS workforce immediately while awaiting qualification.

5.The Scottish Government is addressing building capacity, by adopting a multi-disciplinary team approach, giving patients direct access to care via dental care professional (i.e. hygienists, therapists, dental nurses).

6.We continue to offer financial support through the recently revised Scottish Dental Access Initiative and Recruitment and Retention Allowance, supporting NHS dental provision in designated geographic areas to address unmet patient need.

7.The Programme for Government sets out a package of actions to improve the NHS dental workforce now and into the future, and is supported by new funding in 2025-26.

8.We will support the dental workforce pipeline through both the immediate expansion of domestic dental student numbers and the development of an innovative new training package to support international dentists in joining the NHS Scotland workforce.

9.Alongside this, we are also working with NHS Boards to refine the financial incentives in place to support dentists moving to work in rural areas, supporting sustainable access across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has safeguarding guidance on child protection and working with vulnerable adults, etc. Public bodies are expected to ensure any partner organisation aligns with this framework, particularly when working with vulnerable groups.

Public bodies are therefore expected to carry out due diligence, include safeguarding compliance, in funding and partnership agreements and ensure regulatory oversight, risk management and safeguarding policies are in place. This will support public bodies to assess any safeguarding concerns and enable appropriate action to be taken.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator may, where necessary, inform relevant public authorities where there are concerns about a charity.

In 2025-26, applications will be assessed on their ability to support the ambitions set out in Scotland’s Destination Scotland – inward attraction of international students, staff, and researchers - Scotland's international education strategy - gov.scot and a separate strand will be assessed against Community Learning and Development priorities.

Projects within this criterion are able to provide opportunities for both staff mobility and vocational training exchanges.

Since SEEP began in 2003, opportunities have been provided for staff mobility and vocational training. Further information on funded projects can be found at: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

This issue has not been raised with relevant Ministers or officials by the Chief Constable, Scottish Police Federation or the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents. I would further refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37841 on 5 June 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

It is at the discretion of the institutions to select the specific students who should participate in the SEEP test and learn projects.

Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education are a priority for the Test and Learn Project. The Test and Learn Project supports initiatives that promote social inclusion for individuals with fewer opportunities—such as people with disabilities, migrants, rural residents, and those facing socio-economic hardship or discrimination.

Funded projects should help reduce access barriers and foster inclusive, equitable environments that reflect the needs of diverse communities.