The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that the NHS in Scotland delivers high-quality, safe and effective, person-centred care. The Phenylketonuria (PKU) service in Scotland is part of the Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMD) service commissioned by NHS National Services Scotland through NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The service operates under an established Standard Operating Policy (SOP) designed to ensure compliance with recognised clinical standards and best practice across the UK and Europe. It is for clinicians, in consultation with patients, to discuss and agree the best treatment options, based on clinical guidance and individual circumstances and needs.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that the NHS in Scotland delivers high-quality, safe and effective, person-centred care. The Phenylketonuria (PKU) service in Scotland is part of the Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMD) service commissioned by NHS National Services Scotland through NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The service operates under an established Standard Operating Policy (SOP) designed to ensure compliance with recognised clinical standards and best practice across the UK and Europe. It is for clinicians, in consultation with patients, to discuss and agree the best treatment options, based on clinical guidance and individual circumstances and needs.

The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) who is the lead provider for Phenylketonuria (PKU) services as part of a nationally designated Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMD) Service.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to publish a national audit of diagnostic pathways for paediatric diabetes.

Diagnosis of diabetes in children is a clinical responsibility and is carried out in line with national clinical guidance. Current NICE guidance recommends that any child displaying symptoms of type 1 diabetes is referred immediately to paediatric diabetes services for assessment and diagnosis.

Scotland has a system-level approach to quality improvement in diabetes care. Rather than relying on standing national audits, this approach is based on a single national clinical information system in the form of SCI-Diabetes, annual national reporting through the Scottish Diabetes Survey, and improvement led through Managed Clinical Networks with national oversight provided by the Scottish Diabetes Group. This model embeds data collection within routine clinical care and supports continuous improvement and local accountability.

Quality improvement activity, including review of diagnostic practice and local pathway effectiveness, is best led by NHS Boards and clinicians who are responsible for service delivery and can take account of local population need and service challenges.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the Scottish Diabetes Group and Managed Clinical Networks to support early diagnosis, consistent application of clinical guidance, and reduction of avoidable harm, through education, data-driven improvement and national oversight.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that parents and carers receive clear and consistent information about symptoms that may indicate type 1 diabetes in children.

Responsibility for providing advice and discussing symptoms lies with clinicians, who are expected to follow established clinical guidance and ensure families receive accurate information tailored to individual circumstances. We encourage parents and carers to urgently contact their GP if their child is displaying symptoms of diabetes, as they are best placed to provide specific advice and support.

To support this, we fund and promote a range of trusted resources:

• NHS Inform, Scotland’s national health information service, provides accurate and up-to-date information on identifying, treating and managing diabetes. The diabetes pages were reviewed by clinicians in 2025 and updated where appropriate.
• My Diabetes My Way, Scotland’s interactive self-management platform, offers NHS-accredited eLearning resources and personalised tools to help families understand diabetes care.
• DigiBete, a digital tool designed for children and young people which provides age-appropriate educational videos, milestone-based learning modules, and practical tools in multiple languages.

We also work closely with Diabetes Scotland and other third-sector partners to promote awareness and peer support, ensuring families have access to practical advice alongside clinical guidance.

Through the Scottish Diabetes Group and its subgroups, we continue to deliver the commitments set out in the Diabetes Improvement Plan, including improving knowledge and confidence in primary care teams to ensure consistent messaging across Scotland.

We recognise the impact of technology in helping children and young people manage their type 1 diabetes. This is why we have invested over £50 million in diabetes technology since 2016, prioritising access for children and young people.

The funding we are providing ensures that every child or young person in Scotland with Type 1 diabetes who wants to use a hybrid closed loop system can access one. As of September 2025, 77% of under-18s with Type 1 diabetes have access, and every child or young person should have received at least a referral. This paediatric focus helps prevent complications early and get the most out of this life changing technology.

The Scottish Government Executive Committee, settled on implementing 40% in-person working over a working month, for staff in core directorates. This target was settled on following an internal review of evidence from a number of sources. The aim is to spend 40% of contracted hours working in-person with colleagues and/or stakeholders or other settings from 27 October 2025. The 40% target is averaged over a four-week period and is a target not a mandate.

I am proud that we continue to provide Care Experienced students with unparalleled support through the Care Experienced Bursary (CEB).

The Scottish Government gather data on the uptake of the CEB in both Further and Higher Education each Academic Year. The £225 per week rate is for Further Education students. The most recent data we hold is from Academic Year 2023-24 and shows that a total of 3,050 Further Education students accessed the bursary.

The age breakdown of those students highlighted that around a third of the total number were under the age of 18. Based on the information we hold, we cannot confirm if those of school age were incentivised by the CEB to leave school early.

Colleges provide education and training for a wide group of learners with different backgrounds, experience and levels of prior attainment; giving them the opportunity to achieve their potential and obtain recognised qualifications required for a skilled workforce.

It is important to the Scottish Government that those Care Experienced students looking to enter or remain in Further Education have access to consistent levels of support irrespective of their age. This ensures parity in the support available and works to remove any barriers, evidenced by the Commission on Widening Access report, that Care Experienced students may face when progressing in their education.

The Office of the Public Guardian is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). As a non-ministerial public body, decisions on the allocation of the SCTS budget are a matter for the judicially led SCTS Board.

In recognition of the ongoing pressures on SCTS, including the Office of the Public Guardian, in each of the last three years additional funding has been provided by the Scottish Government.

In addition to the funding allocation in the Budget Bill, the SCTS receives income primarily from civil court fees and retained fines; in-year funding from the Scottish Government related to non-baseline areas; and through the Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) budget.

Within the 2023-24 Budget, the Scottish Government provided additional funding through RRT to SCTS totalling £26.8m which included £0.3m for OPG recovery. The Scottish Government also provided SCTS with £4.7m in additional capital funding, on top of their £8m baseline capital allocation. The additional £4.7m was to support a number of priority SCTS capital projects, including towards the costs in 2023-24 of the replacement of the Office of the Public Guardian IT system.

In the 2024-25 Budget an additional £9.7 million resource funding and £3.9 million additional capital budget was provided to SCTS.

In the 2025-26 Budget an additional £11.5m resource funding and £2.0m capital funding has been provided to the SCTS (compared to the 2024-25 budget bill allocation).

To date, the only costs associated with developing a unique learner number relate to staff resource to consider options to ensure best use of public funds. As work progresses, a range of options will be fully assessed and evaluated to ensure any future spending represents good value for public funds.

Whilst we recognise the potential long-term benefits of a unique learner number (ULN), it is a wide-ranging issue requiring careful consideration and we continue to explore how this could be delivered for Scotland. This is complex work which is inherently cross-cutting in nature, and potentially involves sharing the personal, sensitive data of millions of individuals, primarily children and young people. It is right that this work is done properly and thoroughly.