Chamber and committees

Information on the number of pupils accessing colleges courses is collected by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Data on the number of enrolments by category of student, which includes school based students in S4, S5 and S6, is published in the SFC annual College Statistics publication.

Latest publication: College Statistics 2023-24 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Available in background table 13. No data is published by local authority.

Further information can be requested directly from the SFC.

Information on the number of carers at Scottish universities and colleges is published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in their report for widening access.

Latest publication: Report on Widening Access 2022-23 - Scottish Funding Council

Carer information can be located in the background tables, for universities (table 16) and for colleges (table 17).

Further information can be requested directly from the SFC.

I am pleased to confirm that the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024-27 progress report was published today:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914686

The progress report sets out actions that have been taken to support relationships and behaviour in schools between November 2023, when I announced my intention to develop an action plan, and March 2025.

The Programme for Government 2024-25 committed to publishing annually on progress against the action plan. Further progress reports will be published in 2026 and 2027.

Unlike the NHS App in England, which is currently just for the NHS, our planned service is for both health and social care. The development is also linked into wider digital developments for Scottish public services overall, particularly in relation to a common approach to how the people of Scotland receive official communication digitally. Officials have, however, engaged extensively with NHS England to explore both whether we could use the NHS App and to take learning from the approach to the development of the NHS App.

The information requested on how many consultants specialising in endometriosis there are, broken down by NHS board is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government recognises the distress caused by crime on its victims and is fully supportive of activity to reduce this harm. Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime. This is in addition to an investment next year of a record £1.62 billion for policing.

Retail workers must be safe at work, abuse and violence are unacceptable. Strong legal protections are in place, including specific offences for assaulting or threatening retail staff.

Police Scotland remain focused on keeping communities safe from harm and bringing offenders to justice.

The following table provides information on the number of patients under 18 years admitted to hospital where a diagnosis of tooth decay was recorded, from April 1999 to March 2024, in Scotland, by financial year.

Table 1: Number of patients under 18 years admitted to hospital where a diagnosis of tooth decay was recorded, from April 1999 to March 2024, in Scotland, by financial year.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on maintenance costs for imaging equipment held by NHS Boards. As holding bodies, NHS Boards are responsible for the management of their infrastructure assets and for identifying maintenance requirements. Maintenance costs are usually met from Boards’ delegated budgets.

More frequent and meaningful engagement with COSLA and Councils, in the spirit of the Fiscal Framework with Local Government, was fundamental to the decisions that led to record funding of over £15 billion for Local Authorities in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget.

All new policy or changes to existing policy that have a financial cost for local government are routinely considered through the formal financial governance processes including assessment through the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group prior to political endorsement from Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders.

As independent corporate bodies, it is then for individual councils to manage their own budgets and workforce.

Health boards such as NHS Highland are autonomous institutions responsible for their own recruitment, employment and deployment of staff.

The Scottish Government supports Boards in these matters through the setting of policies and frameworks at a national level, with initiatives across rural and islands health boards including:

• Scottish Government funding for ScotGEM, a unique four-year programme tailored to meet the current and future needs of NHS Scotland with a focus on rural medicine, healthcare improvement and developing interest in General Practice. ScotGEM students are eligible to apply for and receive a ‘Return of Service’ bursary of £4,000 per annum which commits them to working for NHS Scotland for the corresponding number of years following graduation. The Scottish Government also pays the tuition fees for eligible students, offering an attractive package for potential applicants.
• A range of grants and allowances including the recruitment and retention allowance, which allows new trainee dentists practicing in eligible areas, to qualify for a ‘Golden Hello’ payment of up to £37,500 in the first three years of practice.
• Delivery of a Rural GP Fellowship by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). The fellowship provides qualified GPs with direct experience of working in rural and island areas for a year, including two fellowship posts in Skye.
• Going forward, in collaboration with NES’ Centre for Workforce Supply and National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, the Scottish Government will be developing a sustained model of direct support that will provide the long-term whole-system approach which is necessary to provide rural and island employers the help they need to recruit successfully. To improve attraction, this includes supporting employers to design roles that fit their organisations’ needs, ensure that job adverts speak to the right audience and helping employers in welcoming new recruits and providing effective pastoral support.