As stated in the answer to question S6W-38508 on 18 June 2025, whilst Scottish Ministers are responsible for determining the strategic policy of the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for delivering their services, including making decisions to outsource NHS contracts to the independent sector where appropriate to meet the Board’s needs.

Scottish Government has committed to reduce the radiology backlog so that 95% of referrals are seen within six weeks by March 2026, through expanding to seven-day services, recruitment, and using mobile scanning units. More than £106 million has been allocated to NHS Boards in 25-26 to help address waits for procedures and operations, with £21 million for imaging.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is aware of the report and the (then) Minister for Employment and Investment held a roundtable meeting with the STUC and Creative Industries trade unions on 3 June, where a discussion on the report formed part of the agenda.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role that trade unions play in providing effective worker voice and continues to highlight trade union recognition as a key example of good practice within the Fair Work First guidance.

Our Fair Work First policy has been designed to apply to, and be adaptable across, all organisations and sectors. It recognises the different mechanisms for achieving an effective voice will vary at collective and individual levels, and according to sectoral practices and worker choice. The guidance promotes trade union recognition as good practice, and also supports a range of worker voice mechanisms to reflect the diversity of workplaces across Scotland, and the different ways workers can choose to be represented.

There are no immediate plans to revise the Fair Work First guidance which was updated in November 2024 to streamline administrative processes and address points of clarity following consultation with key stakeholders, including the STUC.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Since 2020 SPS has paid 753 compensation payments to prisoners, resulting in a total expenditure of £1,443,627, broken down as follows:

The member might be aware that on Thursday 26 June 2025 the Secretary of State for Transport announced Project Reach deal signed to boost connectivity and remove mobile signal blackspots on the rail network. ScotRail has engaged with Network Rail to improve connectivity in some tunnels and areas of subsurface connectivity. The member may wish to contact ScotRail for further details.

The Scottish Government does not currently have plans to introduce specific measures to train and upskill NHS kidney care teams in relation to psychosocial support.

NHS Boards are expected to follow current guidelines and best practice in delivering safe, effective, and person-centred care. Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023 sets out a long-term vision for improving mental health, supported by the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions and the new Mental Health Core Standards, introduced in September 2023. Workforce planning and training are led locally, aligned with national frameworks.

The UK Government’s failure to fully fund their increase to employer National Insurance contributions has left Scotland’s public services, including Police Scotland, with a total bill running into hundreds of millions of pounds which will undermine investment in the Scottish Government’s priorities.

Despite this, we are providing an additional £15.2 million in-year funding to support the impact on Police Scotland, as part of the record £1.64 billion investment in policing in 2025-26.

The Scottish Government is stimulating early-stage entrepreneurship through a range of measures. In 2024, South of Scotland Enterprise led a £1.5m regional pilot of the pre-start approach set out in the recommendations of Ana Stewart and Mark Logan Pathways report. This work is widening access to entrepreneurship and supporting new businesses to start and grow. Discussions are underway on an extension of the South of Scotland Pre-Start pilot and expansion to other regions of Scotland.

In addition, as set out in the Programme for Government, and building on 2024’s Pathways and Entrepreneurial Education Funds, further rounds of competitive funding will support our entrepreneurial ecosystem to widen entrepreneurial participation and develop the conditions needed for entrepreneurs to thrive.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38863 on 3 July 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Scotland has a strong record in attracting foreign direct investment and our Inward Investment Plan (IIP) plays a central role in supporting this by targeting key sectors such as high-value manufacturing and energy transition.

Responsibility for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance, which includes planned jobs and supply chain impacts for involved projects, rests with Scottish Enterprise. The independent EY Attractiveness Survey and the DBT annual inward investment results provide an additional performance indicator for inward investment. Collectively the results, though based on different methodologies and published at different intervals during the year, help the Scottish Government build a broader understanding of Scotland’s inward investment performance.

Whilst the Scottish Government nor Scottish Enterprise holds specific data on manufacturing jobs created through inward investment at local authority level, information on how Scotland has performed in terms of attracting investment in key sectors is available via the EY attractiveness survey (the latest results can be found here: ey-uk-attractiveness-survey-scotland-06-2025.pdf and the Department for Business and Trade Inward Investment Results (the latest results can be found here: DBT inward investment results 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK). Scottish Enterprise results will be published in the Autumn.

All information relating to determinations made by Scottish Ministers under the Electricity Act 1989, including any conditions, are publicly available on our Energy Consents website: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx

NPF4 is a material consideration in the determination of applications, and it is read and applied as a whole. It is for the decision maker to determine what weight to attach to policies within NPF4 on a case-by-case basis. The weight to be applied to all material considerations and the need for conditions to be attached to any consent is a matter for the Minister taking the decision to consider on a case-by-case basis.