Chamber and committees

In accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, Scottish Government Grants are made subject to legally binding agreements. A model offer template sets out standard terms and conditions, which include standard clauses covering default and recovery of a grant. There is no specific reference to freedom of expression but there is a standard clause requiring grant recipients to ensure that “in relation to the project/programme, they and anyone acting on their behalf shall comply with the relevant law, for the time being in force in Scotland”

Our Domains Management contract provides Scottish Government and other Scottish Public Sector organisations a single set annual cost on a per top level domain basis. The cost per domain is set for the duration of the contracted period and includes the annual renewal, management and enterprise DNS fees.

The ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey is an annual survey of a representative sample (by age and gender) of 11–18-year-olds across Great Britain, which has been running since 2013. The Scottish Government began purchasing a booster sample since 2024 to achieve representativeness by age and gender specifically for Scotland.

In 2025, the total number of participants aged 11 to 18 from Scotland in 2025 was 856. This is a sufficiently large sample to conduct analysis of age-related differences in prevalence and demonstrate clear patterns of use (a).

The sample is not representative in terms of deprivation as it leans towards higher social grades. The data are not weighted to account for this, and this limitation should be considered when interpreting the results. Data are collected on social grade and grouped into ABC1 and C2DE categories, which are not directly comparable with the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Regarding behaviours by regular and never users of tobacco, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches (c), we report on ‘current use’, which includes both regular (once a week or more) and occasional use. This is because the percentages of young people reporting regular use of tobacco, vapes and other nicotine products is very small. This approach aligns with established statistical reporting standards and reflects the low prevalence – particularly for newer products like nicotine pouches – among adolescents.

To ensure transparency, we do not present percentages for subgroups with fewer than 50 respondents. Instead, we report counts and note the small base to minimise the risk of misinterpretation – see our 2024 report Vaping and smoking among Scottish adolescents.

Purchasing data in the ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey enables monitoring of progress against key indicators 4(i) and 4(ii) of the Tobacco and Vaping Framework (i.e. smoking and vaping behaviours in children and young people). It reflects a considered trade-off between cost, analytical value, and timeliness – ensuring prompt delivery of insights to inform policy decisions and interventions.

As the recruitment and deployment of officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, the Scottish Government do not hold this information.

The Scottish Government is investing a record £1.64 billion in policing in 2025-26, an increase of almost £90 million of additional funding from the 2024-25 budget. Our investment in policing has enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in 2024-25 than at any time since 2013, with further intakes planned throughout 2025. Police Scotland has stated that it has a healthy recruitment pipeline

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing organ and tissue donation and transplantation to enable more people who desperately need a transplant to access one. The UK-wide Organ Donor Register (ODR) was established in 1994 and is run by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). As of 1 August 2025, NHSBT reports that there were 3,156,442 people residing in Scotland who have registered their decision on the ODR. The numbers of people in Scotland who have registered in each year since 2021 are as follows:

We expect all NHS Boards to provide high quality prenatal and antenatal education for all pregnant women and their families and to continue to promote and improve early access to antenatal education, tailored to their local populations. Recommendation 9 of The Best Start provided that antenatal education must be available to all and that NHS Boards should promote and improve early access. The focus on quality antenatal education is now embedded in ‘business as usual’ delivery for all NHS Boards in Scotland, as described in the Scottish Government’s Best Start 2017-2024 Report, published in May 2025.

At a national level, the Scottish Government commissions access to the Solihull Approach online antenatal education. This has been available under license through NHS Education for Scotland since May 2020 and the current license period runs to 31 May 2028. The programme is made freely available to all maternity service users across Scotland through their routine midwifery care.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail Trains Ltd. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail Trains Ltd directly to obtain this information.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail Trains Ltd. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail Trains Ltd directly to obtain this information.

In April 2025, the Centre of Expertise for Waters published research into the feasibility of wastewater monitoring for psychoactive substances in Scotland. The research publication is available here: https://www.crew.ac.uk/publications/review-psychoactive-substances-wastewater-monitoring-approaches-and-recommendations

While the research found that there were potential benefits of wastewater monitoring, and recommended piloting this in Scotland, there is further consideration required to understand how this would inform our future policy and enhance existing public health surveillance systems. The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to consider these issues as part of our wider work to extend our surveillance abilities.

During the current regulatory period (2021–2027), Scottish Water plans to invest over £6 billion in maintaining and improving Scotland’s water and wastewater infrastructure, including over £2.5 billion in wastewater investment. Scottish Water have provided an indicative breakdown of investment by local authority area for this period in the following table: