For the 2025-26 financial year, the Scottish Government have invested a further £125 million to enable adult social care workers in the third and private sectors to be paid at least the Real Living Wage rate, £12.60 per hour, which takes the estimated total investment to deliver this policy up to £950 million annually. This rate is already 39p higher than the National Living Wage rate of £12.21 per hour, which applies to many social care workers in England and Northern Ireland.

Uplifting pay in Scotland to £2 per hour above the National Living Wage rate would mean raising the Scottish minimum hourly rate of £12.60 by £1.61 per hour to £14.21. It is estimated that this would cost an additional £335 million annually.

The Scottish Government is proud to have led the way in supporting enhanced minimum hourly rates of pay for the adult social care workforce among the four UK nations. However, we are always happy to listen to serious proposals about how increases in pay for the social care workforce could be achieved in an affordable way.

The Scottish Government will continue to look at what we can do to increase rates of pay for social care workers, and our work to introduce sectoral bargaining arrangements for the sector is progressing. However, there has never been greater pressures on public finances, and we must balance the books while demand for government support and intervention is increasing.

NHS Boards continue to work towards to 3% recurring savings target in 2025-26, and Scottish Government officials continue to work with all NHS Boards to enable savings where appropriate. Whilst the 3% recurring savings target is expected to continue, the level of savings required will depend on the budget settlement in each year.

The Scottish Government’s Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan confirms that efficiency and improvement is a key focus for the Health and Social Care portfolio and reflects the commitment to ensure use of core resources is optimised and best value is delivered across NHS Scotland.

Spending decisions are an operational matter for individual NHS Boards to consider within the overarching financial framework of governance and accountability set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM).

The Chief Executive of each NHS Board is designated as the Accountable Officer, responsible in leading the Board to promote the efficient, economic and effective use of resources, whilst ensuring patient outcomes are protected. However, Scottish Government are consistently clear that NHS Board savings should be sensible, proportionate, and minimise the impact on frontline services.

The Scottish Government’s Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan confirms that efficiency and improvement is a key focus for the Health and Social Care portfolio and reflects the commitment to ensure use of core resources is optimised and best value is delivered across NHS Scotland.

Spending decisions are an operational matter for individual NHS Boards to consider with the overarching financial framework of governance and accountability set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM).

The Chief Executive of each NHS Board is designated as the Accountable Officer (AO). They are responsible in leading the Board to promote the efficient, economic and effective use of resources, this includes decisions regarding areas in which to make savings, whilst ensuring patient outcomes are protected.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring public bodies deliver services that are high-quality, provide best value and contribute to economic growth.

The Scottish Government has not exercised a statutory power of direction in respect of NatureScot, SEPA, or Creative Scotland in the past decade. A directive was given to the SQA in 2020 in regards to how exam appeals should be handled during the pandemic.

Ministers retain oversight of these bodies and provide strategic direction, but the use of statutory powers of direction would be for the most exceptional circumstances.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) published its most recent independent forecasts on 25 June 2025, which sets out its latest five-year economic and fiscal forecasts to 2030-31.

The publication can be found on the SFC’s website: Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025 | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

Based on those forecasts and Scottish Government’s estimates of Young Carer Grant and Job Start Payment, expenditure on the range of Social Security Assistance provided by the Scottish Government is forecast to increase from £6.8 billion this year, to £9.3 billion by 2030-31, as shown in the following table.

Social Security Scotland is committed to recovering overpaid benefits wherever it is reasonable and economical to do so, in accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Since 2018, approximately £7.7 million in overpaid benefits has been written off, which represents an estimated 0.1% of the total lifetime expenditure on benefits administered by the agency. For comparison, the equivalent figure for write-offs relating to Scottish debt managed by the Department for Work and Pensions stands at £42.2 million or 0.3%.

These write-offs have occurred for a range of reasons, including bereavement, where there is no equity in the client’s estate to enable recovery, and small overpayments under £65, which are not economical to pursue.

Social Security Scotland has a statutory responsibility under the Scottish Public Finance Manual to ensure public resources are used economically, efficiently and effectively. The agency has developed a Debt Management Strategy to guide its approach to recovering overpaid benefits, with respect for clients’ dignity at its core.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Bowls Scotland, the Scottish Governing Body for the sport, is responsible for the development of the sport in Scotland and you may wish to contact them for the requested information.

Due to concerns over patient confidentiality a single length of delay figure cannot be provided.

A delayed discharge occurs when a hospital patient who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the date they are ready for discharge. Official Statistics on delayed discharges in NHS Scotland are available here: About this release - Delayed discharges in NHSScotland monthly - Figures for July 2025 - Delayed discharges in NHSScotland monthly - Publications - Public Health Scotland. This publication includes the number of people delayed at each monthly census point by length of delay at census point. A person’s length of delay at census is calculated as the time from their latest ready for discharge date to the monthly census point.