Chamber and committees

I am pleased to advise Parliament that John Wilson, the recently retired headteacher of Broughton High School in Edinburgh has been appointed as an Independent Professional Adviser to Scottish Ministers to lead on this work.

Mr Wilson will provide advice and recommendations to Scottish Ministers on what further reforms of school education could be made following the passage of the Education (Scotland) Act by the Scottish Parliament to ensure that we have an education system fit for the future to deliver equity and excellence for all.

Drawing on his experience of 30 years of working in the education system, Mr Wilson will be focussed on three key areas - education governance, where he will be assessing the areas where further focus and activity is required to support school leaders; school funding, where he will reflect on 10 years of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Fund; and support for improvement, where he will be looking to establish what more could be done to ensure more consistent outcomes for secondary schools.

He will be guided in his work by an advisory group made up of experienced headteachers and other education system leaders; and by headteacher panels which have been set up and which I will chair.

Work is on-going to align the governance and delivery of thrombectomy with similar national programmes. This alignment with wider health service planning aims to support oversight of thrombectomy planning and encourage greater collaboration between NHS Boards in delivering this vital service.

Whilst the Scottish Government cannot currently provide a timeline for expanding the service, Scottish Government officials and NHS planners have been asked to work at pace on developing a plan for the next steps for service expansion.

Scottish Enterprise are continuing to make significant progress to triage and identify credible options to secure investment in Grangemouth’s future. Ministers are receiving regular updates from the Investor Taskforce and the Scottish Government will report on this work in due course.

In accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, Scottish Government Grants are made subject to legally binding agreements. A model offer template sets out standard terms and conditions, which include standard clauses covering default and recovery of a grant. There is no specific reference to freedom of expression but there is a standard clause requiring grant recipients to ensure that “in relation to the project/programme, they and anyone acting on their behalf shall comply with the relevant law, for the time being in force in Scotland”

The information requested on how many consultants have been appointed to NHS Scotland in each year since 2020 can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at:

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

Since 2020, we have increased the Medical & Dental Consultant workforce by 10.9% (from 5,606.4 WTE as at March 2020 to 6,217.5 WTE as at March 2025).

The Scottish Government works with a stakeholder group to undertake annual reviews of the number of specialty training places (for resident doctors) needed across all specialties in order to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need.

In response to the recommendations from these reviews, the Scottish Government has funded the creation of hundreds of additional specialty training places in Scotland across multiple different specialties since 2014.

The Scottish Government is supporting local authorities to address vacant retail spaces in our high streets and town centres through a range of measures and we remain committed to supporting the broader retail sector where possible, using the levers available to us.

This is why Scotland has a competitive non-domestic rates regime, with the Basic Property Rate frozen for 2025-26 and £733 million in reliefs. Additionally, we are supporting the use or repurposing of vacant units through the Fresh Start Relief and Business Growth Accelerator Relief to support the reuse and improvement of long term empty properties. Further significant funding support is available through programmes such as the Place Based Investment Programme and Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is helping deliver community led regeneration. The Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework 4 also promotes the reuse of empty buildings and town centre living to boost local economic activity.

There is no place for antisemitism, Islamophobia or any form of racism or discrimination in Scotland’s education system. Antisemitic statements, behaviour or offensive or threatening material either on line or in person in universities is wrong and not acceptable. Debate on the current conflict must be done in a courteous and respectful manner. We expect universities to have in place measures to safeguard students and staff and continue to build good relations on campus. Jewish students should be able to express their faith and identity openly and without fear.

We are aware of the StandWithUS UK Report and regularly receive reports from the Community Security Trust (CST) which chart the rise in antisemitism since the start of the current conflict in the Middle East.

My officials meet regularly with Universities Scotland, the Union of Jewish Students and the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and, at the end of August, met with a range of stakeholders, including Chaplaincy, Community Security Trust, Jewish Council of Scotland, Scottish Funding Council and Universities Scotland. The meeting provided the opportunity for stakeholders to share concerns on antisemitism on campuses, and the roles of key partners including higher education institutions, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Police Scotland in addressing those.

Any student who has experienced antisemitism should report it to their institutions, the Community Security Trust (CST) and Police Scotland.

The ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey is an annual survey of a representative sample (by age and gender) of 11–18-year-olds across Great Britain, which has been running since 2013.

The total number of participants aged 11 to 18 from Scotland in 2025 was 856.

The sample size is sufficiently large to report overall prevalence and to monitor progress against key indicators 4(i) and 4(ii) of the Tobacco and Vaping Framework (i.e. smoking and vaping behaviours in children and young people).

The sample is not representative in terms of deprivation as it leans towards higher social grades. The data are not weighted to account for this, and this limitation should be considered when interpreting the results.

Data are collected on social grade and grouped into ABC1 and C2DE categories, which are not directly comparable with the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Our Domains Management contract provides Scottish Government and other Scottish Public Sector organisations a single set annual cost on a per top level domain basis. The cost per domain is set for the duration of the contracted period and includes the annual renewal, management and enterprise DNS fees.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing organ and tissue donation and transplantation to enable more people who desperately need a transplant to access one. The UK-wide Organ Donor Register (ODR) was established in 1994 and is run by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). As of 1 August 2025, NHSBT reports that there were 3,156,442 people residing in Scotland who have registered their decision on the ODR. The numbers of people in Scotland who have registered in each year since 2021 are as follows: