Chamber and committees

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.

A study by the Competition and Markets Authority on the housebuilding industry noted that small and medium housebuilders face higher costs, in per-plot terms, than larger competitors, due to the small-scale nature of their developments. The Scottish Government recognises that this could lead to smaller developers being disproportionately impacted by the introduction of the Scottish Building Safety Levy.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. More detailed information on cancelled appointments will be held locally by NHS boards.

There is no available data on the number of prosecutions for online child sexual abuse that have taken place in each of the past five years.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. The database is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis, and the information within it is structured accordingly.

The Scottish Government is working hard to crack down on scammers and deliver better support for those targeted by scams.

We provided funding of £500,000 in 2021-22 to various members of Scotland’s Scams Prevention, Awareness & Enforcement Strategy Group to carry out targeted scams prevention and awareness work.

Our supported work includes the roll out by Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) of nearly 1,000 free call blocking devices to vulnerable individuals who were most at risk from scammers and rogue traders. The Scottish Government has also supported a project carried out by Advice Direct Scotland (ADS) to enhance the referral pathways available for connecting victims of scams to appropriate sources of support, and has provided separate funding to ADS to raise awareness of romance and companionship scams.

Since 2023, Consumer Scotland, which is funded by the Scottish Government, has been working with consumer organisations such as TSS to fund scams awareness campaigns, including the yearly Shut Out Scammers campaign. In April 2025, Consumer Scotland formally assumed responsibility for scams prevention and awareness work, supported by £175,000 of funding for this financial year.

The Scottish Government also funds the national consumer helpline, delivered by ADS and contactable at consumer advice or on 0808 164 6000. Suspicious activity can be reported to ADS or, where appropriate, to Police Scotland by calling 101.

Since the publication of the Stroke Improvement Plan, each NHS Board now has a named individual with responsibility for stroke care. The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health chaired a roundtable meeting with these individuals in October 2024, outlining the Scottish Government’s priorities and expectations regarding stroke care.

A National Stroke Engagement Forum, which met for the first time on 2 October 2024, has been established. This forum, attended by stroke service representatives from every NHS Board, is helping to drive improvement work and facilitate the sharing of best practice across NHS Board boundaries.

An increased focus on rehabilitation is a key component of our Stroke Improvement Plan. We are now asking stroke services in all NHS Boards to offer a formal review to everyone who has had a stroke, taking place six months after the stroke event and allowing re-referral into stroke services where required. In addition, empirical measures of rehabilitation and stroke-specific Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMS) are being developed and these will further enhance our ability to gauge the delivery of stroke care and rehabilitation.

Since the publication of the Stroke Improvement Plan, NHS Boards are now required to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support for those who have suffered a stroke, and this is assessed via NHS Board reviews.

In terms of stroke prevention, the Scottish Government has launched the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme to improve CVD outcomes with an aim to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. This work focuses on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking. We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

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 Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment published alongside the Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill sets out Scottish Government’s assumptions on the likely impact of a Building Safety Levy in Scotland.

New build house sales make up just 9% of all Scottish residential sales in 2024-25. This, in addition to the existence of the secondary market for housing, means that residential housing developers do not have significant price setting power over the market as a whole. The Scottish Government’s assessment is, therefore, that the likelihood of the costs of the Levy leading to increased house prices is low.

With limited scope for developers to pass through the cost of the levy onto house buyers, the more likely scenario is that developers will seek to pass on the costs of the Levy on through paying a lower price for the land to be developed. This reflects evidence from the Competition and Markets Authority and the Scottish Land Commission, and was underlined in feedback provided by stakeholders as part of the consultation and engagement undertaken prior to the introduction of the Bill.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Treatment outcomes for people on medication assisted treatment are recorded on the Drugs and Alcohol Information System.

Public Health Scotland uses its DAISy system as the basis for many regular reports.

The Scottish Government holds no information on long term recovery outcomes.