Chamber and committees

The budget allocated to each of Scottish Government’s nine international offices is published in the Level 4 budget tables for the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26, and these figures are available at the following URL:

The majority of the budget for each office in the international network is staffing costs. This comprises both Scottish Government civil servants posted on diplomatic assignment, and country-based staff employed by FCDO on terms appropriate for the local labour market. The small component for programme delivery is considered through annual budgeting procedures taking into account priorities in each country and elsewhere in the portfolio.

The Scottish Government welcomes IBD UK’s latest report, Crohn’s and Colitis Care in Scotland: A Vision for Change and is grateful for their work in this area.

We are committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Scottish Government workforce planning guidance requires NHS Boards to take a demand-led approach by determining future staffing requirements in line with healthcare needs within their locality.

We expect Boards to follow best practice and adhere to current guidelines and standards when providing psychological and nutritional support for people with IBD.

Driving testing is a fully reserved matter to the UK Government but it is clear the consequences of years of delays and backlogs have been acutely experienced in Scotland. The previous UK Government undertook a consultation in early 2023 proposing changes, which have taken until December 2024 to implement.

On 18 December 2024, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) announced a 7-point plan to reduce driving test waiting times, which includes recruiting 450 driving examiners in Great Britain. As this is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government has had no input into the development of this plan. The DVSA did agree to meet with Transport Scotland officials in November 2024 but then cancelled these meetings.

Transport Scotland officials are currently seeking a meeting with DVSA to discuss the plan and to understand what implications there may be for Scotland.

All of ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper carriages are leased from private sector companies. The locomotives for Caledonian Sleeper trains are provided and operated by GB Railfreight Ltd. The cost of these leases and service provision is funded by passenger revenue and the Scottish Government subsidy.

The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.

This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.

Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.

In line with data protection legislation the personal data processed by the SPCB is minimised to only that which is necessary, and there is no business reason to hold spousal information of those who work for MSPs in an unpaid capacity.  The average annual licencing cost to provide email and productivity applications to Parliament network users is approximately £280 per user.

The total cost of maintaining the Parliament’s bees on-site for the last five years in total is £20,219.68. This includes the installation and maintenance of 15 beehives since March 2020.

The costs per year are given in the table below:

In the last 5 years, from January 2020 – January 2025, 144 jars of honey have been received and sold in the Parliament shop, each weighing 227g. The shop was completely closed from March 2020 – April 2022 and no honey was received or sold in that period. No honey was received in 2023.

The beeswax isn’t harvested by the Parliament, it remains the property of our beekeepers, and therefore, we do not have the cost information.  The beeswax is harvested by the beekeepers who provide the wax for the Great Seal of Scotland under a separate contract.