Chamber and committees

All pharmacies in Great Britain, including those providing on-line services, must be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and meet their standards for registered pharmacies. These standards cover areas such as governance arrangements, safeguarding, environment and conditions, service delivery, premises and equipment. Not meeting the GPhC’s standards could result in them taking enforcement action and investigating the fitness to practise of all the pharmacy professionals involved.

In addition, in Scotland Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) regulates independent, on-line services, and as part of its role provides information to the public on how to keep safe when getting medicines or treatment online. Unfortunately many prescription medicines obtained online originate from outside the UK and are not regulated by the GPhC, HIS or other UK regulatory authorities. However, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has overall responsibility for medicine safety, regulation and licensing and the Scottish Government works in close partnership with them to raise awareness of the risk of buying prescription-only medicines online without consulting a suitable NHS healthcare professional.

Specifically in schools, children and young people learn about a variety of substances including alcohol, medicines, drugs, tobacco and solvents as part of Curriculum for Excellence and the Scottish Government is working with the MHRA and Education Scotland to strengthen medicines safety information in the Scottish curriculum. Universities have a responsibility to ensure that students can engage with student support, wellbeing and/or learning support services.

Scottish Ministers will be considering options with the Scottish Ambulance Service to increase the availability of this service across Scotland, this will be informed by an evaluation of the current three sites funded by the Scottish Government in Glasgow, Inverness and Dundee. We expect the evaluation to be available by the end of summer 2026.

There are a number of public sector reform programmes currently underway in justice, including Summary Case Management (SCM) and the Digital Evidence Sharing Capability to reduce police time spent at court. The national rollout of SCM across all sheriffdoms was completed in January 2026. A report published in May 2026 estimates that, during the rollout period, over 100,000 fewer police officers were cited to give evidence. These reforms are improving efficiency across the system by reducing unnecessary trials, minimising witness citations, and helping to address court backlogs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00342 on 5 June 2026. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00472 on 8 June 2026. 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.

Qualifications Scotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body and acts as a data controller in relation to the personal data it processes, including exam candidates’ access to their marker comments.

The Scottish Government expects all public authorities to comply with their statutory duties under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published the Coming Home Action Plan in March 2026. The action plan is backed by Scottish Government funding of up to £20m to support implementation. The majority of this funding will be distributed via the Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland through the creation of a new Coming Home fund.

ILF Scotland are currently designing the new fund in collaboration with stakeholders with a view to formally opening to applications during Summer 2026. The fund will provide flexible, person-centred support and transitions will progress at an appropriate pace for each individual, to ensure safe and supportive care.

The UK Government launched a Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) from 1 April 2026, replacing English Discretionary Housing Payments and the Household Support Fund. The CRF also now incorporates elements similar to Scotland’s Scottish Welfare Fund. The CRF is discretionary in nature and designed to meet a broad set of short-term pressures.

The approach to Discretionary Housing Payments in Scotland differs in both purpose and delivery. Our policy is to fully mitigate the bedroom tax and provide targeted support so that low income households are protected as far as possible from the impacts of other UK welfare reforms, including the benefit cap and the freeze to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.

Given these different policy objectives and delivery mechanisms these schemes are not directly comparable.

However, Scotland’s investment represents a significant commitment to protecting low income households, with spending per head notably higher than that in the rest of the UK.

This year alone the Scottish Government is investing £115 million in Discretionary Housing Payments, supporting up to 92,000 households and nearly 20,000 children impacted by the bedroom tax; up to 3,000 families impacted by the benefit cap; and up to 15,000 families affected by the freeze to LHA rates. In addition, £41 million is being invested in the Scottish Welfare Fund to provide vital crisis support and help people establish independent living.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00342 on 5 June 2026. 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.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water teams have reviewed telemetry data, pump station monitoring and operational records and have identified no operational incidents. I am told that discharge events were recorded from one of the four Portobello (Central) combined sewer overflows (CSOs), Portobello Joppa SPS CSO, and were part of normal operations related to rainfall.

CSOs are an integral part of a sewage network and are designed to discharge highly diluted wastewater during periods of heavy rainfall to avoid overloading the sewer system, which could result in flooding of homes and businesses. Such discharges do not necessarily result in pollution incidents, and any suspected environmental pollution incidents should be reported to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00342 on 5 June 2026. 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.