Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 established the framework for integrating health and social care services in Scotland. It required local authorities and NHS boards to create Integration Authorities responsible for the governance, planning and funding of integrated services.

Integration aims to improve care and support for people who use services, their carers and their families. It does this by putting a greater emphasis on collaboration, joining up services, and focussing on anticipatory and preventative care. We support Integration Authorities to do this through regular dialogue between officials, myself, the Cabinet Secretary and the networks of Integration Authority Chief Officers, Chairs and Vice-chairs.

For 2025-26, we provided £144,812.30 in Scottish Government funding to Health and Social Care Scotland (HSCS) for their work supporting key networks, including IJB Chief Officers. HSCS work closely with IJBs and Chief Officers to promote good practice, strengthen IJB leadership networks, support meaningful engagement with communities and the third sector, and enhance independent sector involvement in local governance.

More recently I met with the leadership of the IJB Chief Officer network to discuss current priorities and challenges facing integration authorities, and to support continued collaborative working across the health and social care system. I look forward to continued engagement with them.

Scottish Ministers are assured that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has the appropriate governance, assurance and decision-making arrangements in place for the management of its resources and assets, consistent with its statutory responsibilities and the ministerial expectations set out in the Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland 2022.

The Scottish Government maintains regular engagement with SFRS on a range of strategic, operational and corporate matters. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss issues relating to service delivery, performance, governance and organisational assurance as appropriate. Responsibility for the governance, approval and delivery arrangements for individual procurements rests with SFRS, who follow the Scottish Procurement Journey to ensure best practice.

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

Operational deployment of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) vehicles is a matter for the Service. Scottish Government officials have previously engaged with the SFRS regarding these assets in order to seek assurance regarding the Service’s ability to respond to incidents. SFRS previously advised officials of the circumstances affecting the deployment of these units and provided assurance that appropriate arrangements were in place to maintain operational response capability while the vehicles were being brought into service.

The decision on whether care payments should be backdated due to processing backlogs rests with the relevant local authority. Where an assessment has been completed and a decision has been made on a person's eligibility and support needs, local authorities should consider the circumstances of any delay in implementing support. This includes considering whether support was provided within a reasonable period following the assessment and, where appropriate, whether backdating of payments is justified.

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

The number of unpaid carers who receive short breaks or respite is reported in the Scottish Government’s Carers Census. This collection covers unpaid carers of all ages who have a support plan and/or those receiving support from local services, rather than the total caring population.

Information from the Carers Census is collected on a local level, however local-level figures are not published as, despite the increase in the number of organisations returning data, coverage remains incomplete across Scotland. Differences in local carer support arrangements and recording practices also mean the data is not sufficiently robust to allow direct local comparisons.

National-level data is reported in the Carers Census publications, however the results likely represent an undercount of the true number of unpaid carers being supported by local services in Scotland, given that not all organisations are able to provide submissions, and there is no non-response estimation. This is noted within the publications, where figures are framed as representing carers included in the Carers Census from submitting data providers, as opposed to being estimated Scotland-level totals.

Table 1: Number and percentage of people who received short breaks or respite in 2019-20 to 2023-24 (all areas submitted) (Source: Carers Census, Scottish Government)

Under the Marriage (Scotland)Act 1977 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004, there are a number of different systems for religious or belief celebrants to be approved to solemnise marriage or register civil partnership. At the moment, Independent Humanist Ceremonies(IHC) nominate persons to the Registrar General to be registered as celebrants under section 9 of the 1977 Act.