Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to driving change through our Post-School Education and Skills Reform Programme. Recent progress includes the passing of The Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Bill on 20 January, which will simplify the system by giving responsibility for funding national training programmes and all apprenticeships to a redesigned Scottish Funding Council. We have also reached agreement on a new model for skills planning with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland. In the period ahead, this work involves identifying a manageable number of sectors for national Skills Needs Assessments (SNAs). This will focus assessment capacity where national level insight can add the greatest value, rather than attempting to assess the whole economy in depth at once.

Once we have enhanced understanding of the skills needs in these sectors, the Scottish Government will identify priority skills and set expectations for the system in addressing these, whereas SFC will ensure planning and reporting is in place for delivery of post-school provision for the priority skills. This is being tested with partners across industry, regions and providers before any decisions are finalised. In all of this we continue to engage closely with businesses and employers. The Scottish Government hosts an employer roundtable which provides an opportunity for strategic engagement with employers. In addition, officials have set up a national reform employer network to engage employers at project level. I have also led extensive engagement with employers, businesses and business representative organisations on specific proposals including the TET Bill and the new model for Skills Planning. We will continue to engage closely with them as we progress this work.

The Scottish Government expects all Health Boards to follow national guidance and employment law when considering the suspension of employees. The NHS Scotland Guide to Suspension advocates a risk-based approach to assess whether the employee poses a clinical or financial risk, or is a risk to themselves or others. It also encourages the use of early-resolution approaches prior to suspension, where safe and appropriate, as a means of minimising both disruption and associated costs.

As part of this year’s additional investment in Planned Care, we have allocated over £500,000 to Health Boards to reduce long waits for cardiology. Between 31 July 2025 and 31 January 2026, new outpatient waits over 52 weeks for cardiology reduced by 70%, while waits of over 12 weeks have reduced by 17%.

We want to maintain that momentum which is why our budget for next year includes a record figure of almost £22.5 billion for health and social care. We will scale up productivity and efficiency programmes to create additional capacity, as we work towards achieving the 12 week new outpatient standard. Health boards will also take forward a new collaborative subnational planning approach - working together to optimise capacity for all specialities, including cardiology, so that patients receive the care that they need as soon as possible.

Our budget for next year includes a record figure of almost £22.5 billion for health and social care. We will scale up productivity and efficiency programmes to create additional capacity and health boards will take forward a new collaborative subnational planning approach - working together to optimise capacity for all specialities and diagnostic tests, including echocardiogram, so that patients receive the care that they need as soon as possible.

Last year our Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme (SCAP) published cardiology diagnostic data, including waiting times statistics, for the first time. This is an important step forward to support monitoring and improvement of echocardiograph services in Scotland.

Data on echocardiography will be incorporated into future SCAP reports. Monitoring of performance through SCAP allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high quality cardiac care and work closely with clinical and operational teams to address issues. Health Boards are also expected to identify issues and work to improve performance locally.

The Scottish Government’s intention is that the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020 will be commenced by December 2026. Work is progressing with necessary partners towards this deadline.

FGM has been illegal in Scotland since 1985 and there is no evidence to indicate that it is taking place in Scotland. The Act will strengthen the existing legislative framework offering extra protection to women and girls through statutory guidance and protective orders, which allow the courts to impose conditions which will prevent someone from taking a girl abroad for FGM.

While the Act is not yet in force, existing legislation and measures and child protection orders, remain available to protect any child who may be at risk.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for individual NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government is focused on driving innovation and has already taken significant steps to harness the use of digital technology in the NHS. We expect Health Boards to embrace the latest tools for but also understand that fax machines may remain practical and necessary at present in some departments as Boards move forward with plans for service transformation.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for individual NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government is focused on driving innovation and has already taken significant steps to harness the use of digital technology in the NHS. We expect Health Boards to embrace the latest tools but also understand that pagers may be more practical and preferred in some cases to best serve the needs of patients.

Following an amendment raised by the member, this matter has already been debated in Parliament. I provided a response to this debate in the Chamber on 11 February 2026.

I will provide an update to Parliament later this month on the progress we have made against the Operational Improvement Plan commitments.

The ‘Support for Active Travel’ budget line was re-named ‘Support for Active and Sustainable Travel’ when the Bus Infrastructure Fund was launched at the start of financial year 2025-26 and brings together programmes and investment designed to facilitate and encourage greener alternatives to car use. In 2026-27 that budget continues to deliver the Active Travel programmes and the Bus Infrastructure Fund, which has been increased to £60 million for the next financial year.

This change was made to better reflect the Scottish Government’s policy intention and approach, so that we could show and encourage everyone with an interest in active and sustainable travel that like them, we see how our funding and interventions can and should work better together. We are investing to support high quality active travel and bus infrastructure, sustainable travel integration and behaviour change investment to promote walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday shorter journeys.