Chamber and committees

The Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) is a multi-agency partnership which works across all Police Scotland divisions to deliver the SPARC strategy’s key rural crime priorities. The service’s National Rural, Acquisitive and Business Preventions Team (RAB-PT) has trained over 100 officers across North, East and West on rural machinery thefts. Through this partnership working, 12 officers will shortly enter through a stolen vehicle examiners accreditation course which is dovetailed with rural machinery theft training giving Police Scotland additional capacity for such investigations across Scotland. RAB-PT have also developed metal theft training with partners and will deliver this in areas most affected by renewables and metal thefts in the coming year.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Police Scotland have advised that they are currently exploring how this information could be extracted and collated from their systems. My officials will advise on progress with this project, as and when it moves forward.

In June 2023, as Minister for Higher Education, Further Education & Minister for Veterans, I was gifted a framed piece of ceramic artwork of the Hotel de Ville from the Mayor of Arras. The value of the gift was estimated to be in the region of £80 of which was declared on my proactive release entry available on the Scottish Government website at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts-june-2023/

In May 2025, I also received a limited edition (2/20) Nicolaus Widerberg lithograph – liberation convoy from Dag Lee CEO, the Chairman and Board Member Entrepreneurial VC and PE Investor. The value of the gift was estimated to be in the region of £340 of which will be declared on my proactive release entry for May 2025 due to be published late September.

Gifts under the value of £140 are not recorded by the Scottish Government or published. However, on this occasion the gift from June 2023 was recorded and published.

As Minister for Higher Education, Further Education & Minister for Veterans, I was gifted a framed piece of ceramic artwork in June 2023 and a lithograph in May 2025. The framed ceramic artwork was included in my proactive release entry for June 2023, and the lithograph will be included in the May 2025 release, which is due to be published in late September. These can be found on the Scottish Government website at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/

Scottish Government policy on genetic modification has not changed and our position is clear: we are opposed to the cultivation of GM crops in Scotland. We are aware of the current debate around new genomic techniques, such as gene editing, and how these relate to existing genetic modification legislation. Ministers will continue to monitor developments in the EU as they consider any next steps.

Since my appointment to this post in June I have not had a meeting with the Interim Chief Executive of NHS Grampian. I last met with Integration Authority Chief Officers, including the Chief Officer of Health and Social Care Moray, on 7 August 2025.

APS Group (Scotland) have never had to issue a product recall of any of the items contained in Scotland’s Baby Box. As detailed in response to PQ S6W-40091, out of over 352,000 Baby Boxes issued since August 2017, APS have only received reports of 190 faulty or damaged items. These individual items were from 14 different lines of items provided within Baby Box and not across a complete line, which would have necessitated a product recall.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university and domicile, have been provided in the following table.

The table only covers those entering pre-clinical medicine and do not include other students entering medical schools on clinical medicine or students on continuing years of study.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine at Scottish Universities, by domicile, 2020-21 to 2023-24

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects data on the destinations of graduates 15 months after graduation via the Graduate Outcomes Survey. The survey is voluntary and hence does not represent the outcomes of all graduates from each year.

Scottish NHS Health Board of Clinical Medicine graduates, from Scottish providers, who said they worked in the NHS 15 months after graduating, 2020-21 to 2022-23