Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has committed to expanding childcare support to children from nine months through to the end of primary school over the course of this Parliament. We are at the early stages of developing our plans for expansion and, as this progresses, we will work with all parts of the childcare sector, parents, carers and children, to ensure that any expansion delivers a system which meets the needs of children and families across Scotland and supports a sustainable, resilient and high quality childcare sector. We will set out a detailed programme in due course, to enable Parliament and the public to monitor progress.

While we develop those plans, we are continuing to support families most in need, for example through our £15 million childcare support fund which helps with childcare costs, specifically targeting low-income households and families living in, or at risk of living in poverty. We are also continuing to invest £3 million in 2026-27 to fund breakfast clubs through the Bright Start Breakfasts Fund alongside an additional investment of £15 million to phase delivery of a national breakfast club offer from August 2027.

These measures, which we are putting in place now, will help to address the affordability and flexibility of childcare, helping families to manage costs and support participation in education and training, with wider benefits including supporting access to work.

A national programme of work to address recommendations of the Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland (IRASS) was concluded in 2025. A final report was produced which sets out how recommendations have either been implemented and completed, or embedded in longer term work programmes within the health and social care system.

This report is available at: Implementing-the-Recommendations-from-the-IRASS-March-2025.pdf.

Our 100 days prospectus includes a commitment to convene government, NHS Heads of Service, community audiology providers and stakeholders to set out an agreed plan to enhance community audiology services. This reflects our ongoing commitment to working with partners to determine how best to shift audiology care into the community.

The Scottish Budget for 2026-27 includes £9.4 million of investment to support independent hospices to provide pay parity with NHS levels for staff who deliver essential palliative care services.

We are working with the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group (SHLG) to gather relevant information from hospices to help ensure our governance and approval procedures are correctly followed prior to any allocation of funding being agreed.

This funding will be provided to hospices via allocations to NHS boards, with the clear expectation set that this funding should be immediately paid onward to the hospices.

We will continue to engage with SHLG and NHS boards to ensure that all independent hospices receive the funding as intended.

A range of different stakeholder organisations are reflecting shared concerns about the nature and extent of protest activity, disorder and incidents of hate, prejudice and intimidation and their impact on faith communities, adversely racialised communities, people seeking asylum and refugees. This has been independent of government and there is not a formal or constituted body as such called the Anti-Racism Coalition.

A range of different stakeholder organisations are reflecting shared concerns about the nature and extent of protest activity, disorder and incidents of hate, prejudice and intimidation and their impact on faith communities, adversely racialised communities, people seeking asylum and refugees. This is independent of government and there is not a formal or constituted body as such called the Anti-Racism Coalition.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving outcomes for people living with dementia, their families and carers through Dementia in Scotland: Everyone's Story, Scotland’s Dementia Strategy.

In April 2026, new wildfire prevention byelaws came into force in the Cairngorms National Park to help address the increasing risk of wildfires.

The Scottish Government has not identified any Barnett consequential funding specifically linked to the introduction of the Places of Worship Renewal Fund in England.

Under the Barnett formula, changes to the Scottish Government’s funding are calculated at the level of overall UK Government departmental spending, rather than individual programmes or schemes. UK Government ministers have confirmed that the funding for the Places of Worship Renewal Fund is included within the wider Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) settlement, and that Barnett consequentials are applied to the total departmental allocation rather than to specific funding lines.

Decisions on how to allocate funding received through the block grant are a matter for the Scottish Government, in line with devolved responsibilities.

The final decision to end the UK-wide scheme was also only confirmed to the Scottish Government after the 2026-27 Scottish Budget was set, further limiting Scottish Ministers' options. However, Ministers will continue to seek options.

Relational care, or relational continuity aims to ensure the same healthcare professional provides treatment and care for a person over time, allowing development of trust and understanding.

Relational continuity is discussed in more detail in the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland's 2024-25 Annual Report Realistic Medicine: Critical Connections.

The Chief Medical Officer has again promoted the need for greater relational continuity of care in his latest annual report Our Path Ahead.

We are exploring options to increase the focus on relational continuity of care as part of this year's Frailty Directed Enhanced Service in general practice.

Our record investment package of £310 million over 3 years to expand the general practice workforce is supported by guidance which recognises the importance of relational continuity of care and advises practices to consider how best to assure GP capacity in ways that actively provide relational continuity of care for patients where this is in their interests.

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

The numbers of prison officers employed by SPS at the end of each financial year from 2015-16 to 2025-26 are set out in the following table: