Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government undertook a lessons learned exercise following winter 2025-26 involving NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, national organisations and Scottish Government officials. The review found that planning and partnership working had improved, but that services continued to face significant pressures associated with high hospital occupancy, delayed discharge, workforce challenges and sustained demand across health and social care.

The review also found that many of the pressures experienced during winter reflect wider year-round challenges rather than a short-term seasonal event. Key lessons identified included the importance of whole-system working, improving patient flow, supporting workforce resilience, strengthening preventative approaches and providing earlier and clearer national direction.

These findings are informing current planning for 2026-27, including a refresh of the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness, strengthened governance and assurance arrangements, enhanced regional coordination and improved operational intelligence. They are also informing development of the National Flow Plan, which is intended to improve patient flow, reduce delayed discharge, improve use of available capacity and strengthen whole-system coordination across urgent and unscheduled care services.

The Scottish Government works with NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to support local surge and winter preparedness arrangements through nationally agreed planning priorities and principles. Local systems are expected to develop preparedness arrangements that reflect the needs of their populations and local circumstances.

The Scottish Government is currently refreshing the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness and associated expectations for NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships for 2026-27. This work is aligned with development of the National Flow Plan, which forms part of wider activity to improve patient flow, reduce delayed discharge and make best use of capacity across health and social care services.

Operational preparedness plans are developed and maintained locally. Decisions regarding publication of local planning documents are a matter for individual NHS Boards and partner organisations. The Scottish Government intends to publish national guidance and planning priorities following completion of the current review process.

The Scottish Government's surge and resilience preparedness approach includes established monitoring, escalation and assurance arrangements to support NHS Boards and their partners in responding to periods of sustained operational pressure. These arrangements do not rely on any single intervention to deliver improvements in patient flow or hospital capacity.

Where pressures exceed local capacity, NHS Boards can implement local escalation procedures and access support through existing regional and national coordination arrangements. Alongside these arrangements, the Scottish Government is developing a National Flow Plan to support longer-term improvements in patient flow, occupancy management, delayed discharge and system resilience. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to monitor pressures, support appropriate action and maintain safe and effective services.

It is for NHS Boards to make decisions with regards to the introduction or roll out of service changes or new treatments.

The Scottish Government understands that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence does not recommend focal therapy for routine use for prostate cancer treatment.

The Scottish Government recognise and share the concerns within the RCEM report, particularly around the impact that long waits in emergency departments have on patients and staff. That is why we are implementing initiatives to reduce acute hospital occupancy and stream patients to the most appropriate services to improve patient flow and reduce waiting times.

As part of our first 100 days commitments, we will publish a new national plan to improve hospital flow. Developed in partnership with NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, and other key system partners, the plan will set out actions to improve patient flow across the healthcare system, helping to ensure that people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Improving access to care, reducing waiting times, and easing pressure on hospitals, particularly through strengthening primary and community care, will be central to our plan.

The 2026-27 budget provides almost £22.5 billion investment in health and social care services, exceeding consequentials and providing a real terms uplift to enable more sustainable and resilient services. As part of this, £100 million has been invested to build on the progress made in the 2025-26 Operational Improvement Plan, to release capacity within the system and bolster our urgent care services.

The Scottish Government's approach to surge and resilience preparedness is the year-round process through which health and social care services prepare for, respond to and recover from periods of increased demand and operational pressure.

As set out in the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness in Health and Social Care, there are periods when demand increases beyond the normal levels planned for by health and social care services and there is a surge in the number of people requiring care and treatment. While winter remains the most predictable period of increased demand, similar pressures can arise at other times of the year.

The Scottish Government's approach is therefore to consider winter preparedness within a broader year-round surge and resilience preparedness framework. This supports NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to plan for sustained pressures on services while ensuring people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. This approach is also being supported through development of the National Flow Plan, which aims to improve patient flow, reduce delays and strengthen whole-system resilience across health and social care services.

Under the Marriage (Scotland)Act 1977 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004, there are a number of different systems for religious or belief celebrants to be approved to solemnise marriage or register civil partnership. At the moment, Independent Humanist Ceremonies(IHC) nominate persons to the Registrar General to be registered as celebrants under section 9 of the 1977 Act.

Scotland’s wool industry is an important part of our wider agricultural sector. I know that Scotland benefits from the work of the British Wool Board which works to maximise the value of wool on behalf of its members. Given British Wool works in Scotland, managing the collection, grading, promotion and sale of fleece wool to the global textile industry, I expect that they would lead on any wool strategy.

The recently introduced Scottish Wool Certification Logo gives brands and consumers a clear way to identify products made entirely from Scottish-sourced wool and is an example of where British Wool can take the lead.

We considered both paying Carer Support Payment in full to carers receiving state pension and a recognition payment for those with underlying entitlement, including those receiving State Pension, as part a Multi Criteria Analysis that informed proposals in our 2022 consultation on Scottish Carer’s Assistance. It found that while such payments would have a positive impact on recognising the contribution of these carers, it would require significant investment not targeted at carers on the lowest incomes. Many carers with ‘underlying entitlement’ receive State Pension which is typically paid at a much higher rate than Carer Support Payment.

The 2022 consultation and our response considered a recognition payment for long term carers that could be available to those with underlying entitlement. No decision has been taken on this proposal to date. Any decisions on increasing support for carers will need to take affordability and sustainability into account.

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 provides for an offence of abuse of a partner or ex-partner which criminalises psychological, as well as physical, abuse. The Act defines abuse as behaviour which a reasonable person would consider likely to cause the victim to suffer physical or psychological harm where the accused either intends to cause such harm or else is reckless as to whether their behaviour would be likely to result in such harm.

The Act provides an illustrative definition of abusive behaviour which includes behaviour which is abusive and which has as its purpose, or which a reasonable person would think would be likely to have the effect of:

• isolating the victim from friends, relatives or other sources of support;
• frightening, humiliating, degrading or punishment the victim.

As such, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case, the offence can be used to prosecute someone who engages in smear campaigns or reputational abuse of their partner or ex-partner. In other cases, it may be possible to prosecute such behaviour using offences such as threatening or abusive behaviour with a domestic abuse aggravation where the offence is committed by the victim's partner or ex-partner.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers and are responsible for any guidance in place for police and prosecutors.

Victim support organisations have long-standing experience in dealing with victims who have suffered different forms of coercive and controlling behaviour and can tailor their approaches in offering support depending on the specific circumstances of any given case.