Chamber and committees

Funding allocations for individual universities for each academic year are managed through the SFC. Allocations are made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

The global transition to net zero offers enormous economic opportunities for Scotland. Our Green Industrial Strategy will set out how the Scottish Government will help businesses and investors to realise these opportunities. We will confirm when our Green Industrial Strategy will be published in due course.

Scottish Government officials and professional advisors are working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify any gaps in training for health professionals working with those who have experienced miscarriage by end summer 2024. The findings from the Miscarriage Care and Facilities in Scotland: Scoping Reports will help inform this work.

There are no specific provisions for veterans with respect to the costs of dental care and treatment, and individuals must meet existing exemption criteria in order to qualify for free care. Free dental treatment is available for people who are under 26 years of age; pregnant or have given birth in the last 12 months; or in receipt of certain benefits. Veterans do have a fast-track service from General Dental Services to secondary care where referrals are made for conditions requiring secondary care, for example facial trauma requiring maxillo-facial surgery. More information on eligibility for free NHS dental treatment is available on the NHS Inform website.

NHS patients who pay for their treatment pay 80% of the treatment costs, capped at a maximum of £384 per course of treatment. Both enhanced and review NHS dental examinations are free of charge for everyone in Scotland, irrespective of exemption status, however the frequency of examinations is determined by the dentist on individual risk factors. People who are not eligible for free NHS dental treatment but still have difficulty paying NHS charges may qualify for help under the NHS Low Income Scheme. More information on Help with Health Costs can be found at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/access/help-with-health-costs#low-income .

Veterans do have a fast-track service from General Dental Services to secondary care when referrals are made, if they have conditions requiring secondary care, for example facial trauma requiring maxillo-facial surgery.

STPR2 (Recommendation 41) recommends that further study work to better understand the benefits, costs and challenges associated with a Sound of Harris fixed link, a Sound of Barra fixed link and a fixed link between Mull and the Scottish mainland is undertaken.

There are currently no plans to revisit any of the fixed link options that did not make it to final consideration during the STPR2 appraisal process. The reason why a particular option did not progress can be found in Appendix G of the Final Technical Report .

Final applications to the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB2) were received in January 2024. An announcement about the outcome of the applications is expected in the near future.

To date, through ScotZEB 1 and the previous two rounds of the Scottish Ultra Low Emissions Bus Scheme, the Scottish Government has provided £113 million capital funding for 548 public service zero emission buses. There are currently no plans to introduce further direct funding programmes for zero emission buses. ScotZEB 2 has been designed to support bus and coach operators, manufacturers, local authorities, financiers and the energy sector to make the market for zero-emission vehicles and infrastructure commercially self-sustaining without further funding from the government.

Unlike previous schemes, school buses, community buses, and tourist and private-hire coaches were eligible for inclusion in ScotZEB 2 in addition to public service buses. ScotZEB 2 was preceded by a market transition scheme in 2022-23 which provided financial support to SMEs to assess their options to decarbonise their vehicles, allowing them to participate in the development of consortia bidding for ScotZEB 2 funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27895 on 28 May 2024. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes can access the care that they need to live their lives well. This includes increasing access to diabetes technologies.

Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million of additional funding to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies.

I am delighted to confirm that this financial year, £8.8 million of funding will be made available to expand access to diabetes technologies in Scotland. The focus will primarily be on providing access to all children that want Closed Loop Systems, but will also allow us to continue increasing access to adults.

This investment will allow us to continue developing innovative care models for diabetes in Scotland that have a focus on digital pathways and peer support.

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 is committed to ensuring that people with diabetes to receive the best care, treatment and support. This year, we are investing £8.8 million of additional funding to support increased provision of Hybrid Closed Loop Systems (CLS) to those living with Type 1 diabetes in Scotland. The focus will primarily be on providing access to all children with Type 1 diabetes who want a CLS but will also allow us to continue increasing access to adults.

For people living with Type 2 diabetes, there is clear evidence on when real-time continuous glucose monitors should be offered. Guidelines for Type 2 diabetes ensure that people are able to access a variety of treatments and where appropriate, this is primarily focused on lifestyle support. We understand that demand for technologies is increasing and we will continue to assess where need is unmet.

On the morning of 6 May 2024 there were 192 people under the age of 21 held in the prison estate, and a further 96 aged 21. This population is broken down by index offence group, age group and legal status as defined in the question in the following table.

The age categories as defined expand the population subgroup previously analysed. We have therefore provided age groups (iii).a) the 19-20 age group and (iii).b) 21-year-olds.

The legal status categories provided differ from our normal presentation as specified in the question. The group "(a) remand" includes only untried prisoners, while group "(b) convicted" includes both those serving a sentence and those convicted awaiting sentencing (which would normally be included in the "remand" category in our statistical outputs).

Where individuals in custody are accused or convicted of multiple offences, these are summarised by index offence. This is the offence for which they have received the longest sentence or, where they are on remand, which would on average receive the longest sentence. Some offences cannot be classified in this way because the charges originate in other jurisdictions or because the data required was not available at the time the snapshot was taken.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27895 on 28 May 2024. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes can access the care that they need to live their lives well. This includes increasing access to diabetes technologies.

Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million of additional funding to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies.

I am delighted to confirm that this financial year, £8.8 million of funding will be made available to expand access to diabetes technologies in Scotland. The focus will primarily be on providing access to all children that want Closed Loop Systems, but will also allow us to continue increasing access to adults.

This investment will allow us to continue developing innovative care models for diabetes in Scotland that have a focus on digital pathways and peer support.

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 .