Chamber and committees

The table below contains the requested data concerning the number of children and young people who have received treatment for an eating disorder in each year from 1999-2023, broken down by NHS Board. The latest year in the time range is 2023, which is the most recent year for which data has been finalised.

The Scottish Government has not directly convened or held a Citizens’ Assembly since May 2021.

The Scottish Government has provided a £50,000 grant to support a pilot Citizens' Assembly in Dunfermline, which is being run in a partnership between Electoral Reform Society Scotland and Fife Council. This grant letter was issued on 15 April 2025.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this data centrally.

Public Health Scotland holds information on NHS patients treated in non-NHS healthcare facilities. 14 children and young people received treatment for an eating disorder in non-NHS healthcare facilities in the period from 1999 to 2023.

When broken down by Health Board and calendar year, the numbers involved are small enough to require suppression. This answer therefore does not include these breakdowns and reports only the total number.

Social Security Scotland is committed to delivering services with dignity, fairness and respect for all people, including veterans and service members. This includes activities to advance its equality outcome to improve the service and experiences of diverse clients, including veterans. Progress will be formally reported in the organisation’s Mainstreaming Equality Report in 2027.

I have asked Alison Byrne, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland to respond. Her response is:

Table 1 shows the number of deaths where sepsis was mentioned in the cause of death, either as the underlying cause or a contributory cause, which occurred in Scotland in each month of the past 10 years.

Table 1: Deaths which mention sepsis by month of occurrence, Scotland, 2014 to 2023 [note 1]

Since launch in 2017, over 92,000 people have now been referred to our world-leading Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme. DBI is now live in every Health and Social Care Partnership area across Scotland, providing timely support to those in distress and easing pressures on frontline services.

A breakdown of Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) referrals by NHS Board level area for the financial years 2020-21 to 2024-25 is included in the following table. This data is not held at local authority level.

Table 1 – DBI Level 2 Local Referrals Across Scotland by Health Board for Financial Years 2020-21 to 2024-25

There are currently no plans to conduct a review of the 2018 Oral Health Improvement Plan (OHIP).

The OHIP, which was developed in close collaboration with the dental sector, remains a relevant and important cornerstone of NHS dental services policy in Scotland. Significant progress has been made on the commitments from the OHIP since its publication, including through the introduction of payment reform in November 2023.

We are committed to improving the number of NHS dentists across the country, which is why our Operational Improvement Plan sets out a package of actions to improve the NHS dental workforce, supported by new funding in 2025-26.

Within this we will support the dental workforce pipeline through both the immediate expansion of domestic dental student numbers and the development of an innovative new training package to support international dentists in joining the NHS Scotland workforce.

The Scottish Government is working with Forth Valley College, UK Government, Skills Development Scotland and Petroineos to track workers affected by the closure of the Grangemouth refinery as part of our jointly funded Refinery Skills Intervention which is currently ongoing. Ministers have persistently requested this information from Petroineos but this has not been received despite the business previous commitments to do so.

Our initial evidence shows that workers are being supported into new employment in in-demand industries, including roles with Scottish Power, Forth Ports and Syngenta. However, we do not have exact figures despite asking PetroIneos to share any data on destinations they may have.

The Scottish Government is continuing to do all it can to support workers at the Grangemouth refinery through the funding of training, tailored specifically to their future career needs.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of emergency mental health assessment units available nationally or in each Health Board.

This notwithstanding, we can report that all Health Boards have a 24/7 mental health unscheduled care pathway in place for anyone in need of urgent mental health assessment or urgent referral to local mental health services. These pathways enable local mental health clinicians to receive referrals from the national NHS 24 Mental Health Hub and provide advice and support to frontline services such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service. They also avoid the need to attend the Emergency Department unless that is where the person needs to be cared for.

The NAIT guidance has not been reviewed since publication.

However, we have begun work to look at the issue of shared care agreements for adults with ADHD which would simplify the process for medication to be prescribed by GPs following a private diagnosis.

We will review NAITs’ guidance to reflect the outcome of this work.