Chamber and committees

The planning, commissioning and delivery of mental health services is the responsibility of local territorial Health Boards and Integration Joint Boards (IJBs), working through Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). We expect local partners to assess the needs of their communities and ensure that appropriate mental health services are available, including services that effectively engage and support men.

While the Scottish Government does not directly commission specific local mental health service models, we continue to invest in and support approaches that have been shown to engage men effectively. This includes funding peer support initiatives through Creating Hope Together, Scotland's suicide prevention strategy, and continued investment in programmes such as SAMH's The Changing Room: Extra Time, which uses football-based engagement to support men's mental health.

We have also invested £99 million in the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults since 2021. Delivered through local Third Sector Interfaces, the Fund supports community-based mental health initiatives, including projects and groups that engage men, based on locally identified needs and priorities. One example of this is Dads Rock, which received £8,755 in Year 4 of the Fund to support the mental health and wellbeing of new fathers.

The A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement Scheme is currently included in the Development Pipeline as set out in Annex B of the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline 2026. Annex C of the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline 2026 sets out that projects in Annex B, which includes Laurencekirk, will be added to the Delivery Pipeline once the statutory authorisation process has been completed and the project Outline Business Case and funding are agreed.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of babies delivered in neonatal wards in Scotland since 1999, either nationally or broken down by ward and year, nor is there any national dataset that records this information.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail directly for this information.

The quality of equipment is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS has provided reassurance that it has the equipment required to support firefighters in carrying out their duties safely and effectively. Specialist wildfire equipment continues to be deployed as part of SFRS’s Wildfire Strategy, whilst structural firefighting vehicles, equipment and PPE can also be safely deployed to a wide range of operational incidents, including wildfires.

SFRS continues to invest in operational capability through programmes including the replacement of self-contained breathing apparatus, the expansion of integrated firefighter communications capability and the development of lightweight PPE suitable for wildfire and other operational activities. Investment decisions continue to be informed by operational risk, firefighter safety and relative priorities between estate, fleet and equipment.

The provision of training is an operational matter for SFRS. HMFSI conducted a thematic review of the SFRS training function and this was laid before Parliament in June 2026. SFRS accepted all of the recommendations and continues to make improvements and additional investment in its training function. A recent example of this is the investment of £3 million in a new Compartment Fire Behaviour Training (CFBT) facility and a Contaminants Control Unit (CCU) at Perth Training Centre. The objectives of the Service Delivery Review included freeing up resources to allow more firefighters to be deployed in the training function.

Decisions on capital expenditure on estates, fleet and equipment is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Information on individual items of SFRS equipment purchased over the last 10 years is not held by the Scottish Government. SFRS is investing £1.6 million as part of the roll out of its Wildfire Strategy.

The SFRS Board provides governance and oversight of the workplace and management culture of SFRS. SFRS has provided assurance that there are no fundamental issues with culture within the organisation. In addition, His Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate is conducting a thematic review into workplace culture at SFRS. Part one of this review was laid before Parliament on 18 June 2025 and the second part is expected to be published later this year.

The retention of staff is a matter for SFRS as the employer. There are challenges with both the recruitment and retention of on-call firefighters. A new more flexible structure for on-call periods was introduced in 2025 and SFRS is seeking to address the wider issue of on-call firefighter availability through its on-call improvement programme.

The Scottish Government and key partners are currently reviewing the Wildfire Strategic Action Plan to ensure it continues to reflect the increasing wildfire risk, and to identify if further measures are required.

The review is being undertaken alongside continued delivery of the existing action plan and a number of priority areas, including aerial firefighting support, public awareness and prevention communications activity, wildfire danger assessments, and strengthened multi-agency communication and operational arrangements have been identified for increased focus.

It is expected that progress will be delivered on a number of the priority areas ahead of the 2027 wildfire season, with further updates to be provided as the review progresses.