Chamber and committees

The Total Operating Cost (TOC) budget for 2025-26 is set at £801.7 million, accounting for 1.3 percent of the overall Scottish Budget, as measured by Total Managed Expenditure.

In 2019-20, a change in approach to operating costs was implemented, which means a comparable figure for 2013 cannot be provided. Previously, costs, including staffing, were held centrally as part of the administration budget and also as part of portfolio budgets for staff who were implementing and delivering specific public services. Since 2019-20, Total Operating Costs have been aligned with the portfolio budgets they support, replacing the dual system where both administration and portfolio budgets funded operating costs.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all NHS facilities, including mental health units, provide a safe and therapeutic environment that complies with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) standards, though the size, age and complexity of the NHS estate means this is a challenging issue to manage. The Scottish Government believe that current levels of capital and maintenance funding allocated to NHS boards are adequate to meet these essential requirements, as it is allocated on a risk-based approach and is there to support boards in maintaining their existing estate, addressing backlog maintenance, and investing in necessary upgrades and new developments for mental health services.

At 1 December 2023:

• the total number of people registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections was 4,241,800;
• just under 189,500 qualifying foreign nationals resident in Scotland were registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections.

Updated information on the electoral register at 1 December 2024 is due to be published on the National Records of Scotland website: People registered to vote - National Records of Scotland (NRS) at 9.30am on 24 April 2025.

Using the supplier registration address information from Public Contracts Scotland, the following table shows the total number of awarded procurement frameworks and contracts over the last two years:

As the name suggests, England is piloting a Quota Application Mechanism (QAM). The QAM initiative commenced in 2024 and included three of the roughly 100 stocks which Fisheries Administrations distribute. In 2025 they have expanded the pilot to include five stocks.

The Scottish Government has implemented an initiative for application for quota in 2025 for West of Scotland cod. In allocating this quota, we seek to incentivise vessels which can evidence a reduced environmental impact and/or greater selectivity of catch in their fishing operations.

Fixed Quota Allocation units (FQAs) are used to apportion the larger portion of the UK’s quotas (roughly 85% in 2025) between the four fisheries administrations. Therefore, any discussion as to the Fixed Quota Allocation system being fit for purpose would require to be held between the devolved administrations, UK Government, the fishing industry (and associated stakeholders) and through public consultation.

The Scottish Government has been clear, since the publication of its outcomes to public consultations in 2021 and in 2024, that it will not use FQAs to distribute a defined share of its quotas. That equates to 15% of Scotland’s total quotas in 2025; this is roughly analogous to the methodology by which the UK distributes these fishing opportunities between the devolved administrations.

Our future decisions around the terminology to be adopted in proposed Scottish Government legislation will be made in the light of all relevant matters. This will include matters such as the proposed legislation’s operation in conjunction with existing law, or any need to maintain consistency when the proposed legislation would textually amend provisions in another enactment.

There is published information on the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting proposed Acts of this Parliament in the second edition of the Parliamentary Counsel Office drafting manual, Drafting Matters!: https://www.gov.scot/publications/drafting-matters/pages/1/.

The 38% previously referred to was the sustainability indicator, as outlined in the Scottish Sustainable Fishing Indicator (SFI). This indicator tracks the status of Scotland’s commercial fish stocks and is based on the estimated percentage of commercial stocks that are fished at sustainable levels. It provides a sliding scale for how sustainable fishing levels are.

An updated version of the SFI will be published in the near future, this will provide up to date sustainability indicators for all available stocks.

The full list of stocks assessed in 1995 are outlined below.

• Anglerfish (North Sea, Rockall and West of Scotland, Skagerrak, Kattegat)
• Greater silver smelt (Northeast Arctic, North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat)
• Greater silver smelt (Faroes grounds and west of Scotland)
• Blue ling (Celtic Seas, western Hatton Bank, and Faroes grounds)
• Brill (North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, English Channel)
• Cod (North Sea, West of Scotland, eastern English Channel, Skagerrak) NW substock
• Cod (North Sea, West of Scotland, eastern English Channel, Skagerrak) SO substock
• Cod (North Sea, West of Scotland, eastern English Channel, Skagerrak) VK substock
• Spurdog (Northeast Atlantic and adjacent waters)
• Greenland halibut (Iceland and Faroes grounds, West of Scotland, North of Azores, East of Greenland)
• Haddock (North Sea, West of Scotland, Skagerrak)
• Haddock (Rockall)
• Herring (the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic Ocean)
• Herring (North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, eastern English Channel)
• Hake (Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, northern Bay of Biscay)
• Horse mackerel (Northeast Atlantic and adjacent waters)
• Megrim (northern North Sea, West of Scotland)
• Megrim (Rockall)
• Mackerel (Northeast Atlantic and adjacent waters)
• Norway lobster (West of Scotland, South Minch)
• Norway lobster (West of Scotland, Firth of Clyde, Sound of Jura)
• Norway lobster (northern North Sea, Fladen Ground)
• Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) i(North Sea) and (Skagerrak)
• Saithe (North Sea, Rockall and West of Scotland, Skagerrak, Kattegat)
• Pollack (Celtic Seas, English Channel)
• Golden redfish (Iceland and Faroes grounds, West of Scotland, North of Azores, East of Greenland)
• Sole (North Sea)
• Turbot(North Sea)
• Blue whiting (Northeast Atlantic and adjacent waters)
• Whiting (North Sea, eastern English Channel)
• Whiting (West of Scotland)
• Witch (North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, eastern English Channel)

The Thistle operates like any other NHS facility, working closely with community safety partners to prevent and address antisocial behaviour, including the abandonment of drug paraphernalia. While the Scottish Government does not directly collect data on this, local partners such as Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland monitor and report on related public safety concerns. For example, the Council records incidents of discarded needles, and in 2024 Police Scotland reported the disposal of approximately 5,000 needles across two city locations. This data is used by local agencies as part of a coordinated approach to ensure safety.

Reducing health inequalities and supporting people to live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives remains a clear ambition for this Government.

Health inequalities in Scotland have widened in recent years in part due to the impact of austerity, Brexit, COVID and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis.

In order to tackle this mounting challenge, Scottish Government and COSLA, in collaboration with our wider partners, are developing a Population Health Framework to take a cross-government and cross-sector approach to improve the key building blocks of health.

These include: good early years and education; good work and income; healthy places; and equitable health care. Its purpose is to accelerate the recovery and improvement of population health in Scotland with a focus on whole system preventative action.

The Scottish Budget for 2025-26 sets out wide-ranging investment to continue supporting people with the cost of living and deliver progress on our national mission to eradicate child poverty, including:

• £768m to boost delivery of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme,
• up to £90m for the delivery of devolved employability services,
• continuing to invest around £1bn per year in delivering 1,140 hours of funded ELC to all eligible children, and
• committing more than £6.9bn for benefits expenditure including the Scottish Child Payment, almost £1.3bn more than the UK Government gives to the Scottish Government for Social Security.

In terms of planned care waiting times specifically, we are undertaking an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) as part of the refreshed NHSScotland waiting times guidance: November 2023, which will be published later this year.

The development of the EQIA has been informed by the public sector equality duty which requires the Scottish Government to pay due regard to the need to meet its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 when developing new and revised policies.

The EQIA will evaluate how the updated NHSScotland waiting times guidance may affect different segments of the population both positively and negatively, considering the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

Concurrently, our Women’s Health Plan, published in August 2021, aims to reduce health inequalities and improve health outcomes for girls and women across their life course. We recognise women are disproportionately affected by gynaecology waiting times, and timely access to gynaecology services will be a priority as we continue to develop our Women’s Health Plan.

As part of our Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), the Scottish Government encourages NHS employers to support the development of staff networks for all nine protected characteristics.
However, as individual employers, Boards are responsible for upholding their obligations under the PSED. Staff networks are just one way in which staff under the protected characteristic of sex are supported, including through the development of equality policy, training, and guidance.