Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government engages with Local Authorities on a wide range of education-related issues.

In Scotland, the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 place a duty on an employer and other dutyholders who have control of safety obligations in respect of non-domestic premises, which includes educational establishments, to carry out a fire safety risk assessment, take adequate fire safety measures and keep the assessment under review. Fire safety measures include formulating an emergency fire action plan with evacuation arrangements for all people likely to be in the premises, including disabled people.

For staff and children in educational premises who may not be able to self-evacuate, a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) should be discussed and developed as part of their enrolment and subsequently practiced, to ensure any necessary amendments to the plan are made.

Scottish Government guidance on Practical fire safety guidance on the evacuation of disabled persons from buildings is well established and is available on the Scottish Government website for those who seeking further information and guidance on this issue. Scottish Government Education officials have highlighted this important guidance again to Local Authorities through their Scottish Heads of Property Services and Association of Directors of Education in Scotland networks.

Good deer management is about achieving balance, what that looks like in different local areas will vary depending on the immediate environment and the impact deer may be having. That is why we have introduced new purposes for deer management in our Natural Environment Bill. We recognise, however, that we need to use both regulation and incentive to support our deer management aims.

Three pilot incentive schemes led by NatureScot and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) ran in 2024/25 to financially support deer managers to control numbers of deer in specific parts of Scotland in response to the climate and nature emergencies. Pilot schemes are expected to return in these areas for the 2025/26 season as well as expand to further locales including within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

In addition to this, in the lowlands specifically we are supporting deer management through the Low Ground Venison Supply Chain Project which will explore ways to help low ground deer managers improve the infrastructure for handling and chilling venison carcasses and increase throughput. 13 applicants have been issued grant funding to date.

As set out in our 2025-26 Programme for Government, we are committed to working with stakeholders on “the development of local pilot projects on deer management programmes, including an implementation plan and funding models deer management”.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) routinely publish ongoing waits for all planned care specialities, including dermatology, detailing the median wait (days) and 90th percentile (days). This information is published via the Stage of Treatment Publication.

Table 1. New Outpatients: Dermatology (Ongoing Waits) as of 31 March 2025

The information requested on how many dermatology service staff are employed by each NHS board is not held centrally.

Information requested on how many dermatology consultants are employed by each NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The information requested on how many clinics offer dermatology services, broken down by NHS board is not held centrally.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials regularly meet with the leadership of all NHS Boards to provide support and scrutiny whilst reinforcing national priorities, including further action to reduce waiting times.

In addition, the Scottish Government commissioned the ‘National Planned Care Team’ – part of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) - to support both scheduled and unscheduled service delivery, meeting with all Health Boards either monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or as needed.

The National Planned Care Team supports NHS Boards to address their waiting times through engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, and supports various strategies to reduce the number and length of waits, minimise clinical risk, and ensure capacity is maximised.

Scottish Government officials and the National Planned Care Team meet monthly with Chief Operating Officers and/or Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including General Surgery (the speciality that covers hernia operations).

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times data mart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case under the Treatment Time Guarantee. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait the procedures that was planned may not always reflect the procedure actually performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the national data mart. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

More detailed information on the procedures that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS boards.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care. More than £106 million additional funding has been allocated to Health Boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations, including more than £5 million targeted funding for General Surgery (the speciality that covers hernia operations).

Roads Authorities in Scotland, such as local authorities and Transport Scotland can, under existing legislation, restrict the type of vehicular traffic that can be used on roads within their remit.

The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 allows for the making of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) for specific reasons and these can have various types of restrictions such as access restrictions, time-limited restrictions or vehicle class based restrictions.

It is for each Road Authority to ensure their TROs are appropriate and fit for purpose.

Roads Authorities in Scotland, such as local authorities and Transport Scotland can, under existing legislation, restrict the type of vehicular traffic that can be used on roads within their remit.

The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 allows for the making of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) for specific reasons and these can have various types of restrictions such as access restrictions, time-limited restrictions or vehicle class based restrictions.

It is for each Road Authority to ensure their TROs are appropriate and fit for purpose.