Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s supplementary Financial Memorandum, to reflect the scaled-back care reform proposals for the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, was published on the Health, Social Care & Sport Committee’s website on 25 March 2025.

The following table sets out the number of determined planning appeals in each of the last five years which have been recalled for a decision by Ministers, instead of being delegated to a reporter. These planning applications were appealed after having been refused or undetermined by the local planning authority. Information is provided on the number of recalled appeals allowed (granted) by Ministers and for comparison the number of recalled appeals dismissed (refused) by Ministers or withdrawn by the applicant.

The Scottish Government has not received any formal proposals for additional sites for additional SDCF beyond the Glasgow pilot therefore no budget is currently allocated for this.

Any future consideration on funding will be contingent on the submission of robust, locally led proposals that demonstrate strong community engagement, comply with legal and operational requirements set out by the Lord Advocate and align with national public health priorities.

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 does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. However, we have been able to access the data held by National Records of Scotland (NRS) for the years 2010 and 2015. (Please see table attached). As at
31 March 2025, there are 2,938 GDS dentists, up c.5% over the last year and there are 3,249 primary care dentists, an increase of 4.2% over the last year.

Now in its third year (2025-2026), the SEEP Test and Learn project has been expanded to include Scottish Community Learning and Development (CLD) providers.

In year three, the SEEP Test and Learn Project budget for Scottish college and universities projects is £400,000. It is £100,000 for Scottish Community Learning and Development led projects. The total budget is £500,000.

Additional details are available here Scottish Education Exchange Programme: Test and Learn project - gov.scot

In 2024-25, the Scottish Government invested £535,000 in college and university led SEEP projects.

Additional information on the year 2 projects can be found on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

Currently there are 110 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Civil Servants in the NCS Programme working on wider social care reform. Within the 110 (FTE) we have four staff working on the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill.