Chamber and committees

The NHS complaints handling procedure, which applies to independent contractors and NHS Board managed GP practices, allows people to raise complaints about primary care services with the relevant NHS Board. However, GP practices should take every opportunity to resolve complaints quickly and locally, and at the point of contact wherever possible.

If an NHS Board recognises that it would not be appropriate, or possible, for a person to complain directly to a Primary Care service provider, they will contact the provider to agree the way in which the complaint will be managed. Where agreement cannot be reached, it is for the NHS Board to determine how the complaint is managed. The person making the complaint must be kept informed of the decision.

I meet regularly with Education Scotland and local authority representatives to discuss a range of education policy and delivery matters.

As per answer to Parliamentary Question S7W-03170 on 21 September 2026 Education Scotland has published strengthened national guidance Learning to Read in the Early Years. That guidance makes it clear that systematic phonics, including synthetic approaches, is an essential and evidence-based method to promote decoding.

In addition, Education Scotland is strengthening the Literacy and English curriculum through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. This will include a period of engagement and feedback in autumn 2026, providing an opportunity for a wide range of stakeholders to provide comment on that framework.

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 has no plans to commission a feasibility study around the restoration of Holyrood Abbey as a national memorial chapel.

Holyrood Abbey is a Property-in-Care managed by Historic Environment Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The Properties-in-Care are part of the national estate of historic monuments and sites that are cared for to ensure their long-term preservation and deliver public benefit.

Decisions regarding the conservation, maintenance and management of Holyrood Abbey are therefore made by Historic Environment Scotland.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the teaching profession, young people, parents and carers and other stakeholders on priorities relating to education in Scotland through strategic engagement and governance programmes, with their views listened to and acted upon.

The 2025 Medium Term Financial Strategy forecast a potential resource fiscal gap of £2.6 billion by 2029-30 and a potential capital spending gap of £2.1 billion by 2029-30.

Alongside this, the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan set out the actions and efficiencies required across government over the five years to 2029-30 to resolve this, including £2.6 billion of efficiencies and other savings.

In January, Portfolio Efficiency and Reform Plans to 2028-29 set out more detailed plans to deliver £1.5 billion of efficiencies against resource spending forecasts. On Capital, the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline set out an affordable and deliverable pipeline of capital investment to 2029-30, underpinned by the decisions and capital spending plans set out in the January Spending Review.

The safety of firefighters, along with any safety-critical training, are matters for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer.

The Field Readiness Hub is not a healthcare facility and does not provide clinical care or treat patients. It is a specialist facility based in Dundee that allows healthcare infrastructure to be assembled, tested and refined before deployment into complex humanitarian setting. This includes testing clinical layouts, power and water systems, biomedical equipment integration, staff workflows and maintenance arrangements, helping to identify and resolve issues before facilities are deployed overseas.

This step is critical as problems with infrastructure and equipment are exponentially harder to resolve once deployed into complex settings. Therefore, testing them in advance helps ensure teams are provided with facilities that are safe, practical and ready to save lives as soon as possible.

Therefore there are no patients treated at the Hub

However, the purpose of the Hub is to improve the safety, quality and operational readiness of healthcare facilities that will subsequently deliver care to patients elsewhere.

It may be helpful to explain that the investment is already contributing to several healthcare projects, including:

• A modular paediatric surgical facility in Jericho, West Bank.
• A modular paediatric surgical facility in Juba, South Sudan.
• Further projects at early development stages in Syria, Kenya and Bangladesh.
• The ongoing Gaza HOPES hospital programme, for which the Hub was originally established to support testing, configuration and operational planning.

The impact of the Hub should therefore be assessed through the healthcare capacity and patient care it enables in deployment settings, rather than by the number of patients treated within the Hub itself.

The Glasgow Airport Express Service 500, operated by First Glasgow, is included in the Strathclyde £2 Bus Fare Cap scheme. For eligible journeys, operators are reimbursed at 90% of the difference between £2 and the standard single fare, subject to checks and validation. This reimbursement rate applies to all participating operators, although Grant Agreements contain a comfort clause which may adjust the percentage reimbursed in exceptional circumstances.

Those eligible for free bus travel through the National Concessionary Travel Schemes may also use this bus service. The reimbursement rates for all participating operators for the current financial year are:

• Older and Disabled Persons’ Scheme – 53%
• Young Persons’ Scheme (aged 5-15) – 48.1%
• Young Persons’ Scheme (aged 16-21) – 72.5%

The Hub is an initiative developed and operated by Kids Operating Room from its Centre for Global Operations in Dundee, drawing on the charity’s existing team of specialists in areas including healthcare infrastructure, biomedical engineering, logistics and operations. This means the Hub builds on skilled jobs and specialist expertise already based in Dundee, with staff contributing to its work as part of their wider roles. No staff are employed exclusively by the Field Readiness Hub.

Ensuring people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are supported is a priority for this Government. Whilst the Member will be aware that the responsibility for the content and delivery of undergraduate medical education rests with individual medical schools, the Scottish Government funded development of an educational resource on ME/CFS. The resource was reviewed by the Scottish Deans Medical Education Group (now LUMES) who advised that integrating ME/CFS learning outcomes across existing teaching better aligns with current educational approaches than introducing separate stand-alone modules.

LUMES has advised that ME/CFS learning outcomes will be incorporated within broader teaching on areas such as:

• General practice;

• Neurology;

• Chronic conditions;

• Person-centred care;

• Clinical assessment and diagnosis.

This reflects the approach used for many other conditions within undergraduate medical education. More generally the General Medical Council (GMC) sets the overarching standards and outcomes for graduates through Outcomes for Graduates. Individual medical schools determine how learning outcomes are delivered within this framework.