Chamber and committees

a) There is no specific workforce data collected for neuropsychiatrists in Scotland or the rest of the UK. This is not a specialty or sub-specialty of psychiatry and would usually be a special interest of doctors trained in Old Age or General Adult Psychiatry. As part of higher psychiatry training programmes resident doctors are able to undertake additional training in this area such as a masters degree and placements in liaison psychiatry.

b) Neuropsychologist is not a recognised job role within NHS Scotland. Postgraduate Applied Psychologists (mainly Clinical Psychologists) may undertake further training to various levels in neuropsychology. NHS employing Boards make decisions about what additional training may be required to meet the needs of their population. Every year NHS Education for Scotland (NES) undertakes an annual commissioning process with Boards to discuss their psychological workforce development and training needs. NES supports the provision of Neuropsychology training at the University of Glasgow which is highly valued by Boards.

Clozapine is available to NHS Health Boards in Scotland to prescribe as appropriate to patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

It is for Health Boards to implement treatments within services, and the decision to prescribe Clozapine would be a clinical one based on an individual patient’s symptoms and condition.

The Scottish Government actively promotes and supports the natural regeneration of woodland through the work of Scottish Forestry and the funding provided through the Forestry Grant Scheme.

Scottish Forestry actively encourages land managers to consider natural regeneration when developing woodland management plans and woodland creation proposals.

The Forestry Grant Scheme provides financial support for land managers to create the conditions necessary for natural regeneration and contributes to the costs of protecting natural regeneration. This includes reducing deer numbers and encouraging co-operative deer management without fences.

Support is also available for the management of existing native woodlands and reducing deer populations in the surrounding landscape.

The Forestry Grant Scheme has already supported over 9,000 hectares of new native woodland through natural regeneration with significant further projects in development.

The Forestry Grant Scheme is continually evolving to meet the needs of land managers in Scotland and as part of recent enhancements the grant rate offered for natural regeneration was doubled in 2023 to address increasing costs and encourage land managers to consider creating woodland through natural regeneration.

a) There is no specific workforce data collected for neuropsychiatrists in Scotland or the rest of the UK. This is not a specialty or sub-specialty of psychiatry and would usually be a special interest of doctors trained in Old Age or General Adult Psychiatry. As part of higher psychiatry training programmes resident doctors can undertake additional training in this area such as a masters degree and placements in liaison psychiatry.

b) WTE Applied Psychologists working in Neuropsychology in NHS Scotland as of 31st December 2024*:

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

My officials met with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), an agency of the UK Government, on 5 February 2025. Topics discussed included actions being taken to alleviate driving test waiting times and issues surrounding the use of bots to book and upsell driving tests to learners.

These issues are unacceptable and I welcome the actions announced on 23 April 2025 by the Department for Transport’s Secretary of State, Heidi Alexander MP to rectify the situation.

My officials met with officials from DVSA again on 6 May 2025 to discuss further the actions announced, and will be meeting with them quarterly going forward.

Council tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities, who had full flexibility in setting rates for 2025-26. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. It is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26).

To date, we have never received a request from the business for such an intervention therefore no discussions have taken place.

The Scottish Government is clear that abuse, violence, including gender based violence, and harassment of any kind, will not be tolerated in our schools. Misogynistic behaviour was identified as an emerging concern in the 2023 Behaviour in Schools Research, and we are taking forward a range of actions to tackle it.

In 2024, we published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence. It was developed by a working group, jointly chaired by Scottish Government, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Zero Tolerance. The framework provides guidance on how schools can address the underlying causes of gender-based violence, particularly gender inequality, and ensure appropriate action is taken in response to specific incidents.

Our Equally Safe Delivery Plan builds a robust and joined up approach to the prevention of violence against women and girls across all education settings in Scotland. In addition, we provide funding to Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme which engages young people to consider different forms of violence, including negative attitudes and behaviours to help them understand and speak out against gender-based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as being able to safely challenge the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

The Scottish Government has considered the Grangemouth Refinery’s historical financial performance and, from the information available, has concluded that the asset is loss-making with significant capital investment required to retain operations.

Noting the fiscal constraints within which Scottish Ministers are required to operate, such an intervention would require the UK Government to intervene.

I continue to call on UK Government to leave no stone unturned to ensure a long term and sustainable future is secured for those who work and live at Grangemouth.