Chamber and committees

Our position is unchanged on waiting times – by March 2026 no one will wait more than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment or inpatient/daycase treatment.

We are investing more than £110 million this year to cut waits, and we expect to see the full impact of our targeted funding in the coming months. This targeted funding is expected to deliver more than 213,000 additional procedures and appointments this year.

Our plan is clearly working with a record number of hip and knee operations last year and the highest level of operations performed in July since February 2020.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security. By bringing together women activists from a range of conflict affected countries the Fellowship facilitates sessions focussing on conflict resolution, mediation, reconciliation and dialogue methodologies with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainable conflict resolution. The Fellowship also includes workshops on personal self-care strategies for those living in conflict areas and involved in conflict-based work.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The Fellowship is delivered by Beyond Borders, with grant funding from the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund. Applications were recently sought by Beyond Borders for their October 2025 Fellowship Programme, with the requirements being experience or interest in working on conflict and peacebuilding. Applicants were asked to (a) complete an online form submission on the Beyond Borders website, which seeks to test applicants’ motivation, experience, knowledge, and to assess their understanding of the Women Peace and Security agenda in their own countries, and (b) submit a CV/Resume/Professional Biography, copy of passport, and Letter of Recommendation. There is no definition of a “woman” included within the criteria at this time.

The Scottish Government has been clear since the April 2025 judgement of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers that it accepts the judgement of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers that it accepts the judgement.

The Scottish Government has increased the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) capital budget by £10.5 million in 2024-25 and by a further £4 million in 2025-26, bringing the total annual budget to £47 million. SFRS is currently conducting a Service Delivery Review to ensure that investment in its estate, fleet and equipment is focussed where it is needed most.

Programming decisions are the responsibility of individual cultural organisations - the Scottish Government does not and should not have any role. All cultural organisations, whether in receipt of public funding or not, must operate within the wider framework of the law, including equalities legislation.

All cultural organisations in receipt of public funding must ensure that funding is not used for party political purposes. They must also operate within the wider framework of the law, including equalities legislation.

All Scottish Government staff are subject to SG Terms & Conditions and are managed & supported via our internal policies and processes. This is currently in a live legal process and we do not comment on any individual staffing matters or circumstances.

Prior to the implementation of Oracle Cloud, the Scottish Government’s previous HR Information System did not require Job Title to be a mandatory field for completion. This meant that individuals could be operational in substantive posts, but with missing or out of date job titles recorded on the system.

There are 45 civil servants, directly employed by the Scottish Government, whose Job Title does not appear on the organisation’s HR Information System, Oracle Cloud, when a report is downloaded. Further information on Scottish Government workforce numbers is available here Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot).

A Professions Strategy is in operation within Scottish Government. This enhances workforce management by adopting a classification system that links all jobs to a profession and a related job family and job type. While the majority of jobs have been through this classification system in preparation for Oracle Cloud going live, there is a small minority of roles (~7%) still to be formally classified which Scottish Government are currently progressing.

To grow Scotland's economy, we must make full use of our potential workforce and remove barriers to employment.

In my statement to Parliament on 2 September, I set out a suite of urgent actions to be taken in response to the housing emergency. Some of the measures to reduce homelessness include:

• Committing to a multi-annual, multi-billion pound affordable housebuilding project worth up to £4.9 billion over the next four years, capable of delivering up to 36,000 affordable homes or put another way, providing 24,000 children with a safe, warm and affordable home.
• Doubling investment in our immediate acquisitions fund from £40 million to £80 million this year. This will support the acquisition of at least 1,200 homes over the 18 months of the fund, helping families move out of temporary accommodation and into permanent tenancies without waiting on the construction of new homes.
• Investing a £3 million capital grant to expand Housing First and create new tenancies, alongside a £1 million uplift to local authorities to accelerate existing Housing First programmes.
• Extending rapid rehousing transition plan funding to 2026-27 to enable local authorities to prioritise settled housing for homeless households.
• Rolling out a £1 million new national ‘fund to leave’. This could help up to 1,200 women and their children to leave abusive relationships.
• Investing up to £2 million through the discretionary housing payments scheme to support households currently in temporary accommodation to find settled homes in the private rented sector. This is in addition to £97 million already being invested in discretionary housing payments in 2025-26 including £79m to mitigate the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax.

I called on partners across the housing sector and beyond to support work to accelerate the delivery of high-quality homes of all tenures, with a focus on the delivery of affordable and social homes. I have also set out the government’s expectation that local authorities, in compliance with ALACHO guidance, should contact every family in good quality temporary accommodation to explore opportunities to convert those temporary tenancies to permanent tenancies.

The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill includes an exemption for new homes intended for social or affordable use, defined as homes let under Scottish secure or short secure tenancies and those funded under the Housing (Scotland) Acts of 1988 or 2001. The Bill also includes an exemption for developments occurring on islands.

The Scottish Government recognises that smaller developers can face proportionately higher development costs compared to others operating in the sector. Therefore, section 12 of the Bill enables Scottish Ministers to introduce a levy-free allowance. This is an annual number of units that will not be subject to the Levy, which will apply over and above any units covered by other exemptions. The Scottish Government is working with developers and industry stakeholders to gather evidence to inform the decision on where to set the allowance, which will be legislated for in secondary legislation.

The Bill as introduced includes build-to-rent developments within the scope of the Levy, consistent with the arrangements in place for the Building Safety Levy in England. The Scottish Government will continue to engage stakeholders throughout the legislative process to gather evidence and assess whether exemptions should be extended to include, for example, build-to-rent and mid-market rent properties.