Chamber and committees

Officials are engaging with UK Government counterparts with regard to the legislative competence of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill and discussions on proposals to resolve the issues the Scottish Government has raised are ongoing.

The Scottish Government will continue to keep the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee informed of progress. A copy of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care’s most recent correspondence with the Committee is publicly available on the following webpage under 'Stage 2 Correspondence': Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website.

Scottish Government decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of any legal considerations. All legal advice is confidential. It is a long-established convention that legal advice provided to the Scottish Government is not disclosed, and that the Scottish Government does not disclose the source of legal advice other than in the most exceptional circumstances.

The Scottish Government would like to see this site open and accessible for the public to enjoy, however it is vital that this only happens when it is safe to do so. Since Duddingston Low Road was closed in February 2025, there have been six instances of rockfall which have impacted the site.

Any further questions regarding operational matters of sites managed by Historic Environment Scotland, including queries relating to access in Holyrood Park, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to write to the member with a full reply to his question.

We recognise the distress and pain that migraines cause and we take the issue of migraine seriously.

The Scottish Government funded £221,176 to the Migraine Trust across 2022-2024 to work upskilling community, primary and secondary care pharmacists across NHS Grampian to help people with migraine manage their condition more effectively. This included funding to partner other health boards to extend the reach of this model and increase care and support for people living with migraine.

An eLearning programme for NHS Education for Scotland’s (NES) platform TURAS was developed through the project, comprising a suite of training materials available for all pharmacists and pharmacy teams in Scotland to access.

A commitment to a round-the-clock thrombectomy service was set out in our Stroke Improvement Plan and this remains our aim for the thrombectomy service.

Work is ongoing to align the governance and delivery of thrombectomy with similar national programmes. This alignment with wider health service planning aims to support oversight of thrombectomy planning, for the NHS Chief Executive Group and encourage greater collaboration between NHS Boards in delivering this vital service.

This work will inform the future expansion of the service, including angiography capacity, and will support consistency across thrombectomy services in Scotland, ensuring the service maximises use of existing resources.

We expect NHS Health Boards, including NHS Lothian, to identify aspects of their stroke services which do not meet the Scottish Standards and to work to improve their standards of care locally.

Every NHS Board now has an accountable senior individual responsible for standards of stroke care. I met with these leads in October last year and will be meeting them again in November to review progress.

Social Security Scotland does not hold information regarding the financial cost of conducting reviews of awards at this level.

Social Security Scotland is committed to transparency and accountability and routinely publishes statistics on its benefits, including Adult Disability Payment reviews in its quarterly Adult Disability Payment Official Statistics publication.

As of 30 April 2025, 345,955 people had their benefits transferred from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment. Social Security Scotland has completed reviews for 142,100 of these awards:

• 20% of awards resulted in an increase in award (28,145 cases)
• 2% resulted in a decrease in award (2,365 cases)
• 79% stayed the same (111,590 cases)

It is not possible to directly calculate the percentage of clients who have had a review, as a small number have had more than one review since their benefit was transferred.

The initial review date for transferred Adult Disability Payment awards is based on the Personal Independence Payment review date set by the Department for Work and Pensions, so many transferred Adult Disability Payment awards are not yet due to be reviewed. The next Adult Disability Payment statistics will be published on 16 September 2025, covering up to 31 July 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing all elements of the Bail and Release (Scotland) Act 2023 (“the 2023 Act”).

The sections of the Act are being commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, including engagement with stakeholders around resource and readiness, whilst taking account of the wider priorities in the justice landscape.

We have already commenced various sections of the 2023 Act. This includes all of part 1 of the 2023 Act which relates to bail and bail decision making. Section 11 (Emergency Early Release), Section 14 (Prescribed Victim Support Organisations), and Section 15 (Reporting on the operation of Part 2: Release) have all been commenced.

This Government has been leading justice partners in efforts to manage the complex and high prison population, for an extended period of time. Resources within SG, the SPS, justice social work and other partners have been focussed on delivering changes in legislation and prison operations related to safely managing and reducing the prison population in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing all relevant elements of the 2023 Act. Section 8 of the Bail and Release From Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 will be implemented as soon as is practicable.

The sections of the Act are being commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, including engagement with stakeholders around resource and readiness. Delivery of implementation work has been impacted by the need for collective work to safely manage the complex and high prison population in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39898 on 5 September 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.