Chamber and committees

The veterans budget for this year will cover:

• The Scottish Veterans Fund, covering 12 projects which support the Armed Forces and Veterans community.
• The Unforgotten Forces Consortium, to support their work connecting older veterans to services, help and advice.
• Veterans Scotland for their role in coordinating support for veterans across Scotland.
• The National Education and Transitions Officer, which is a role jointly funded with the Scottish Government’s Additional Support for Learning team which aims to improve policy and practice affecting service children and veterans children in Scotland.
• Legion Scotland’s national commemorative event in Scotland to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
• Miscellaneous spend throughout the financial year, including wreaths, medal replacements and various publications of Scottish Government documents.

It is worth noting that while this budget represents the dedicated spend of the Scottish Government's Veterans Unit, there is other funding to support veterans across different areas, such as the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Pathway.

The Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 began as a private members bill which received Government and cross-party support in England and Wales.

The legislation seeks to prevent and deter criminals from targeting items of plant and machinery, the theft of which can have a major financial and personal impact on owners and rural communities.

While the legislation only applies to England and Wales, the Scottish Government will continue to monitor its implementation and impact, working closely with Police Scotland, industry partners and rural stakeholders to assess any implications for Scotland’s approach to tackling rural crime. The Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) will also consider any learning from the Act that could help inform prevention and enforcement activity here.

The 2022 Census represents the most current comprehensive snapshot we have of the veterans population in Scotland. It estimated there were 2,700 unemployed veterans at that point in time. This equated to 3.6% of economically active veterans, which compared favourably to economically active non-veterans at 4.4%.

However, it should be noted that caution is needed when making comparisons between veterans and the rest of the population. For example, Scotland’s Census showed that the structure of the veteran population differed substantially to the non-veteran population in relation to age and sex, with the veteran population being older and predominantly male.

The Scottish Government greatly values the skills and experiences that veterans can bring to employers and to their communities across Scotland when they leave the Armed Forces. Employability services are provided by a mixed economy of public, third and private sector providers and we do not currently collate information on the number of veterans specifically helped into employment through our employment support services.

The NHS Scotland Armed Forces Talent Programme (AFTP) is a recent example of specific employment support to Veterans. It is an NHS Scotland-wide recruitment initiative for the armed forces community, which supports service leavers, veterans, spouses, partners, dependants, reservists, cadets, and cadet forces adult volunteers to enter the NHS Scotland workforce. The AFTP maps key workforce needs and existing pathways to the available skills, experience and aspirations of the Armed Forces Community in both clinical and non-clinical roles alike.

The Scottish Veterans Fund continues to fund projects supporting veterans into employment. We are currently funding the Forces Employment Charity to help Early Service Leavers find employment; Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company to run enhanced manufacturing traineeships for veterans; and Salute my Job’s Career Jumpstart project which aims to reskill veterans into high demand areas of employment.

We continue to make progress in increasing the number of veterans employed within the Scottish Government and recently carried out a successful recruitment exercise of veterans under the Civil Service's Going Forward into Employment scheme.

Since 2018, the Scottish Government has provided over £6 million to Health Boards to support specialist services for veterans, including the Veterans First Point service. Over £9 million has also been awarded to Combat Stress since 2018 to provide complex clinical mental health care to veterans across Scotland.

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided £20,000 of funding to See Me to develop a bespoke veterans campaign which promoted the importance of mental health services, and challenged stigma around the issue.

Through the Scottish Veterans Fund, we have provided over £450,000 to projects which have made a positive impact on the mental health and wellbeing of ex-service personnel and their families. The latest round of funding is for £500,000, and the Fund is open for applications until 5 December 2025. More information is available here .

There have been significant developments in the data collected on veterans in recent years, offering enhanced insight into the size, nature and circumstances of the veterans community in Scotland.

Scotland’s 2022 Census included for the first time a question on former Service in the Armed Forces. It was found that 176,100 people across Scotland had previously served in the UK Armed Forces, representing 3.9% of people aged 16 and over. The Scottish Government published a report in November 2024 outlining differences between Scotland’s veteran and non-veteran population and providing high-level statistics on veterans’ demographic characteristics. This can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-characteristics-of-uk-armed-forces-veterans-scotlands-census-2022/.

Alongside the November release, National Records Scotland published a Flexible Table Builder to support further analysis of the veteran population, including a wider range of variables such as ethnic group, religion and disability, as well as health, housing and employment. Scottish Government analysts have been examining this detailed data to better understand veterans’ demographic characteristics and explore key differences between the veteran and non-veteran population.

Another key development has been the inclusion of the veterans question from the Census in the three Scottish Government major household surveys (Scottish Household Survey, Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, and the Scottish Health Survey). Findings from these sources have started to emerge, including chapters outlining headline results for veterans compared to non-veterans, as can be found here: Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2023/24: Main findings - gov.scot

Scottish Government officials also worked with ONS, OVA and the other Devolved Governments to develop and facilitate the first UK-wide Veterans’ Survey, which aims to understand current access to and perception of services in addition to veterans’ experiences and circumstances. Findings on a range of topics from the survey include information on whether patterns seen in results at UK level were replicated amongst respondents in Scotland.

Scottish Government analysts will continue to work with the UK Government to robustly analyse, collate and make use of emerging data to better understand veterans’ demographic characteristics and explore key differences between the veteran and non-veteran population.

The Veterans In Service Injury Network is a Scottish Government National initiative available to all UK veterans living in Scotland. NHS Highland has been asked to host the network, but UK veterans residing in any NHS Board in Scotland can be referred to the Network.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland (PHS), as Scotland’s national public health body for the purpose of intelligence and analysis, is responsible for sourcing waiting times data from hospital administrative systems.

PHS publish regular statistics relating to the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. This data can be used to identify the volume of long waits and the median waiting time by the specialty of treatment, including ophthalmology. The latest publication can be found here: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 June 2025 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland.