Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this data centrally.

Public Health Scotland holds information on NHS patients treated in non-NHS healthcare facilities. 14 children and young people received treatment for an eating disorder in non-NHS healthcare facilities in the period from 1999 to 2023.

When broken down by Health Board and calendar year, the numbers involved are small enough to require suppression. This answer therefore does not include these breakdowns and reports only the total number.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39135 on 31 July 2025. 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.

Specific data on staffing expenditure from Pupil Equity Funding in schools, broken down by local authority, is not held centrally.

Since Pupil Equity Funding’s introduction in 2017-18, over £1billion has been allocated to Scotland’s schools, empowering headteachers to take the best approaches that suit the needs of their pupils, including using it to support significant numbers of additional staff, to help close the poverty-related attainment gap. Scottish Attainment Challenge funding, which includes annual Pupil Equity Funding of £130 million to 97% of schools, supports up to 3,000 additional staff, including up to 700 FTE teachers.

Across the country we continue to trust and empower Scotland's headteachers to use this extra funding to support their pupils - whether through extra support staff, family link workers or through support for mental health, for example. The recently published PEF Report highlights some of the ways Headteachers are investing their funding to improve outcomes for children impacted by poverty:- pupil_equity_funding_report_2025_.pdf

Data on how much each local authority spends on agency staff is not held or collected by the Scottish Government. It is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including setting school budgets, on the basis of local needs and priorities, after fulfilling their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Data on local authority expenditure on teachers is available from the Local Government Financial statistics data collection. The latest figures are available from LFR01 at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2023-24-workbooks/.

Teachers in Scotland are employed by local authorities, not agencies. This includes supply teachers and teachers on short term contracts.

Since August 2020 there have been 123 Critical Incidents and 1041 Disruptive Incidents on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass section managed by Transport Scotland. This period covers approximately 1688 days. Critical Incidents cover the most significant incidents where there are full closures. Disruptive Incidents include these closures but also where the road has remained open but there have been significant delays caused, for example by breakdown or collisions. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm the delays associated with these incidents.

To ensure transparency in the reform of the school inspection system, HM Inspectors introduced a revised approach to stakeholder engagement in November 2024. This approach is designed to support continuous improvement and ensure that inspection activity remains purposeful and inclusive of all stakeholders, including children and young people.

A key safeguard is the establishment of a Stakeholder Forum in December 2024. This forum plays a central role in testing ideas and informing the ongoing review of school inspection. Between December 2024 and May 2025, HM Inspectors engaged with over 1,300 adult stakeholders and 500 children and young people through targeted sessions, national online events, and questionnaires, ensuring a wide range of perspectives were considered.

To further strengthen transparency, professional legitimacy, and system-wide ownership, a public consultation will be launched in Autumn 2025. This will provide an open platform for feedback and help shape reform of the school inspection system.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a programme of Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits to Scottish territorial NHS Boards which provides an opportunity to explore the levels of psychological support available for people living with HIV.

Throughout visits we have observed areas of excellent practice in relation to psychological support for people living with HIV, including some Boards bringing clinical psychology pathways into routine HIV care to ensure holistic HIV management and digital solutions for those who live in more rural areas where peer support may be more challenging. We continue to work with NHS Boards and encourage sharing best practices to address any gaps identified throughout these visits.

The Scottish Government is committed to equitable access to HIV support services and we continue to work with NHS Boards who provide targeted community outreach, peer support initiatives and digital health solutions particularly focused on underserved groups.

The landmark anti-stigma campaign had a significant impact and laid strong foundations to challenging HIV-related stigma and reducing barriers to HIV prevention. Building on this successful campaign, we are funding further training for health and social care staff to increase awareness and reduce stigma, particularly for underserved groups.

Recently, in partnership with Scotland’s Migration Service, we have developed tailored information on accessing sexual health and HIV services for new arrivals to Scotland, which can be found here Healthcare in Scotland | Scotland.org.

The Scottish Government has allocated a budget of around £1.7m per year to support delivery of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26. This funding includes a range of projects focused on HIV testing and prevention including Terrence Higgins Trust HIV Self-Test service, three Emergency Department opt-out testing pilots and a workforce education project led by Waverley Care to reduce stigma in health and social care settings.

In addition to this, we are also proving funding for the roll out of blood borne virus opt-out testing in Emergency Departments starting with those NHS Boards with the highest prevalence.

The Scottish Government remain firmly committed to the goals outlined within the HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan, published in March 2024, which includes a commitment to ending new transmissions of HIV by 2030 and ensuring that people living with HIV are able to access the high quality, person-centred care, treatment and the support they need to live well. A mid-plan report is expected to be published in late August which will outline progress made against our goals, as well as proposing next steps and prioritisation of some actions within the plan.