Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to this work and the recent roundtable table discussion with industry, animal welfare organisations and academic representatives was the first steps in finding ways to ensure producer’s viability and improving sow welfare.

The Scottish Government will continue to listen and work with the industry and stakeholders to find ways for producers to transition towards implementing improved animal welfare methods and practices.

Funding allocations within Scottish Enterprise are operational matters for the agency. I am advised by Scottish Enterprise that, through its most recent Letter of Engagement, it has been directed to ensure that it supports social enterprises, co-operatives and employee-owned businesses. Businesses using these models can access wider Scottish Enterprise services, provided they meet the general business criteria for those services.

We continue to work closely with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations, where it is practical and sensible to do so, on how best to achieve measures that improve sow welfare.

This work is ongoing and there is currently no specific timetable for the completion of the consultation.

All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Education authorities are under a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and to review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs, including those who are deaf. They also have duties to employ teachers of deaf children and young people where support for a pupil is required.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the school workforce and the provision of additional support for learning. The 2026-27 Budget provides £186.5 million of additional resource to councils. This includes £28 million investment in the ASL workforce and builds on the £15 million each year for pupil support assistants. Councils have the flexibility to use this funding to increase the number of teachers of deaf children and young people in their area and provide other specialist support such as BSL Tutors and Communication Support Workers. Councils have also continued their record investment in additional support for learning, with almost £1.1 billion spent in 2024-25.

In addition to postgraduate qualifications in deaf education, professional learning opportunities in supporting children and young people with sensory needs are available via the Scottish Sensory Centre, Education Scotland and CALL Scotland.

Notwithstanding the support that the Scottish Government already provides to schools we recognise the need to go further and we have already committed to expanding the provision of BSL training for teachers and to ensuring that a pool of specialist teachers to support those children who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or deafblind. I will update Parliament on these plans in due course.

The Education (Scotland) Act 2025 ensures that the Qualifications Scotland and HMIE will have due regard to the specific needs and interests of those receiving BSL learner education or BSL medium education.

We are committed to making Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, work, visit and learn and will deliver on this through our BSL National Plan 2023-2029. The current National Plan 2023-2029 is ongoing, and Scottish Government will publish a midpoint Progress Report at the end of this year, which will include an overview of achievements and ongoing work.

Action 28 within the BSL National Plan recognises that hard-of-hearing and deafened people should have tools for them to communicate, including learning BSL.

There is currently no specific financial assistance available for hard of hearing and deafened people, funded directly by Scottish Government, to undertake accredited BSL learning.

Additionally, the Equalities, Human Rights, and Civil Justice Committee’s Report on the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 made recommendations, which Scottish Government has either fully or partially accepted. One of which was in relation to exploring the establishment of BSL courses. Work is in progress to scope this recommendation further.

We continue to work with and engage with our partners and stakeholders such as the Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) of the BSL National Plan to better understand the issues impacting on BSL users and their families and to address these issues.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of specialist, gender-responsive support for women who have experienced gender-based violence.

Funding for the Women's Service at Murrays Initiative was provided through the National Drug Mission Fund, administered by Corra Foundation on behalf of the Scottish Government. The grant was awarded for a fixed period from 2021 to June 2026 and concluded in line with the terms of the grant agreement.

We remain committed to supporting women affected by gender-based violence through wider investment in services that prevent and respond to violence against women and girls and through our ongoing commitment to improving support for women affected by substance use and related harms. We will continue to engage with partners across the sector to help ensure that women can access appropriate support.

Six Long Term Conditions Advisory Groups were established under the previous Government in March 2026. Advisory Group 5 focused on Long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/ CFS) and other post-infectious/ post-viral conditions.

The Advisory Groups provided recommendations by 7 May 2026 for the new government to consider. We are grateful for the work of all six Advisory Groups in developing their recommendations.

It is for Scottish Ministers to decide whether and to what extent any of the recommendations become government policy. We are carefully considering the Advisory Groups’ recommendations to inform our way forward for long term conditions. Our Programme for Government for 2026-27 will be put to the Parliament in due course.

Services that provide specialist support to male survivors of domestic abuse, addiction services and mental health services are independent of Scottish Government and as such, responsibility for staff training rests with their boards. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold information on the specific training delivered by individual services.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Men’s Advice Line, SACRO’s FearFree Project, AMIS, The Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline, ASSIST, and the LGBT Domestic Abuse project. We encourage anyone experiencing domestic abuse to seek help.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01615 on 5 August 2026. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01615 on 5 August 2026. 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.