Chamber and committees

Ministerial pay is set and administered by the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government has no role in this. It is the Scottish Government's understanding that new mandate letters were issued to Ministers, including the Law Officers, by the Scottish Parliament on 8 April 2025. The Scottish Government was not copied into these mandate letters and does not hold them. Any request for the letters to be published should be put to the Scottish Parliament.

The Bank makes commercial investments in businesses or projects in line with the three strategic missions set for it by Scottish Ministers:

• Achieving a Just Transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2045
• Extending equality of opportunity through improving places by 2040
• Harnessing Innovation to enable our people to flourish by 2040

The Bank has operational and administrative independence over its investment decisions, and is represented on the Grangemouth Investment Taskforce.

In Scottish waters, Loligo forbesi have a spawning period extending from January to May, with the most intensive period from February to March. Loligo vulgaris are a rare sight in Scottish waters, being more commonly found in southern North Sea and the English Channel, and they spawn during December to April (with a peak between December and February).

Sources:

Graham J. Pierce, Peter R. Boyle, Lee C. Hastie, Linda Key (1994) The life history of Loligo forbesi (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) in Scottish waters. Fisheries Research, 21(1–2,) pp. 17-41, ISSN 0165-7836.

Vladimir Laptikhovsky, A Louise Allcock, Leigh Barnwall, Christopher Barrett, Gavan Cooke, Christian Drerup, Christopher Firmin, Sophie Lozach, Eleanor MacLeod, Daniel Oesterwind, Michael Petroni, Jean-Paul Robin, Edel Sheerin, Anne-Marie Power, Graham J Pierce (2022), Spatial and temporal variability of spawning and nursery grounds of Loligo forbesii and Loligo vulgaris squids in ecoregions of Celtic Seas and Greater North Sea, ICES Journal of Marine Science,79 (6), 1918–1930, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac128.

We are not able to provide you with this information as no stock assessments have been undertaken for squid in recent years.

We want patients to be treated as soon as possible. However, we know many are facing unacceptable waits and we are determined to do more. That is why we are targeting an additional £200 million to reduce waits and enhance capacity. Funding of £106m has already been agreed with Boards to improve waiting times during 2025-26.

We are also looking to optimise the full force of the £21.7 billion committed through the Scottish Budget to health and social care to improve performance.

We will continue to target resources to reduce waiting times, particularly for those waiting longest for treatment, through maximising productivity and additional resources.

This is all part of our programme to drive up productivity and tackle waiting lists, supported by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. Together, our actions will further enable NHS Scotland to maximise capacity, build greater resilience and deliver reductions in the number of patients who have waited too long for treatment.

Scottish Ministers have asked the Marine Directorate to undertake a limited trial and pilot project with a number of inshore vessels to help gather further information to support a longer-term policy development on fishing for squid under the North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan (NCAP).

The squid pilot project will assess the likely impact of any future squid fishery through the collection of scientific data related to cod and other non-target stocks. Scottish Government will publish findings following evaluation of the pilot project.

Public Health Scotland publish annual information on cataract procedures in our Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual) publication.

The publication does not have weekly figures but annual figures for cataract procedures between financial year 2019-20 to financial year 2023-24 can be found within the ‘Eye’ grouping in table 7 of our publication. This table includes splits by admission type and by health board of treatment and can be downloaded here.

The Scottish Government is considering the Soil Association’s review of their farmed salmon organic standards and is engaging with them in dialogue.

In response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee inquiry on salmon farming in Scotland, we set out a broad range of actions we are taking alongside industry and regulators to enhance the development and sustainability of the sector. The Scottish Government is disappointed there was very limited consultation on the outcome of Soil Association’s review and proposals, in light of our work programme.

The Scottish Government recognises the crucial role innovation plays in enabling the sustainable development of Scottish aquaculture. We continue to work with our enterprise agencies, regulators and stakeholders to encourage innovation addressing challenges and creating opportunities for Scottish businesses.

For example, our Marine Fund Scotland awarded over £4.5 million to aquaculture projects in the year 2024-25, facilitating over £17 million of investment across the sector. In May 2024 the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council invested £1.5 million for the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) to deliver applied innovation projects to March 2026. We are also working with stakeholders to develop long term arrangements for innovation support.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role the livestock sector plays in supporting rural communities. We do not have a policy to reduce livestock numbers and fully recognise the value that livestock plays in Scotland's rural communities, maintaining bio diversity and our food sector. In order to understand what is happening within the sector we are committed to assessing, through engagement with stakeholders, the potential social and economic impacts of any changes in the size of the beef herd - whether driven by market trends, consumer behaviour, or technological change - on rural areas across Scotland.

This assessment will be carried out through ongoing engagement with farmers, crofters, industry representatives and rural stakeholders, alongside analysis of rural economies and land use. In stark contrast to the UK Government we continue to demonstrate our commitment to the beef sector through a range of support schemes, including the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS), which provides targeted, coupled support for livestock producers In addition, the retention of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in Scotland is helping to maintain income stability for many beef producers. This reformed direct support reflects the unique challenges facing our farming and crofting communities and underlines our determination to deliver a sustainable future for rural Scotland.

The Scottish Government is focused on delivering for people across the country and making the case for taking decisions in Scotland for Scotland with independence.

The Scottish Government will publish further material on independence to give the people of Scotland the information they need to make an informed choice about their constitutional future. We are not planning an independence convention this summer.