Chamber and committees

The citation of witnesses is a matter for the independent Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Scottish Government is, however, supporting justice partners to drive reforms to improve our criminal justice system to make it more efficient and ensure that it works better for everyone.

That will include reducing the number of police witnesses who are required to attend court and reducing the length of time that cases take. It will also mean enabling more cases to be concluded earlier, and fewer victims and civil witnesses needing to come to court.

Two key programmes being rolled out across Scotland are the judicially led summary case management programme, which provides a new approach to summary criminal cases, and the digital evidence sharing capability programme, which allows digital evidence to be shared at the earliest opportunity including the evidence from Body Worn Video technology which is being rolled out by Police Scotland this year. It is anticipated that combined these will deliver benefits for both civil and professional witnesses.

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 Scottish Government does not hold this information. 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.

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

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.

When applying for funding, colleges and universities submit a projected budget which provides a detailed breakdown of costs relating to the implementation and delivery of the project. However, the information is not recorded in the manner requested.

An external evaluation due to be published later in the summer will provide an analysis of the SEEP projects which will include costs associated with the development and delivery of projects and funding allocated to student mobility.

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 information requested is not held centrally.

Information on university retention rates is published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in the statistics publication Report on Widening Access. There is no breakdown by those with teacher assessed grades.

The latest publication is available on the SFC’s website: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/report-on-widening-access-2022-23/.

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) Test and Learn Project was launched in 2023. In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of partnerships between Scottish institutions and their international partners.

In year 2, the Scottish Government invested £535,000 in SEEP enabling students from Scottish institutions who would not meet the criteria for Turing Scheme funding to participate in a mobility project. In year 2, 14 projects contained a student mobility element.

An external evaluation of the SEEP is currently underway which will contain further detail on funded projects. The report is due to be published late summer.

Data relating to the Turing scheme is provided by the UK Government. The year 1 (2021-22) figures have been published:

Turing Scheme funding outcomes 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK.