Chamber and committees

I am pleased to confirm that 17 local authorities applied to partner with the Scottish Government on the Test of Change phase of the Free School Meal programme.

While considering these applications we have been able to maximise the spread of this phase across Scotland. The 8 proposed partner local authorities identified are: Aberdeen, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Fife, Glasgow, Moray, North Ayrshire, Shetland, and South Lanarkshire. We will be engaging with the local authorities on their plans in the coming weeks.

These local authorities will deliver meals to those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in S1 to 3 for a full school year from August 2025 to July 2026. This work will be independently evaluated and we are currently undertaking an exercise to appoint the researchers.

The Scottish Government is considering the Soil Association’s review of their farmed salmon organic standards and is engaging with them in dialogue.

In response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee inquiry on salmon farming in Scotland, we set out a broad range of actions we are taking alongside industry and regulators to enhance the development and sustainability of the sector. The Scottish Government is disappointed there was very limited consultation on the outcome of Soil Association’s review and proposals, in light of our work programme.

The Scottish Government recognises the crucial role innovation plays in enabling the sustainable development of Scottish aquaculture. We continue to work with our enterprise agencies, regulators and stakeholders to encourage innovation addressing challenges and creating opportunities for Scottish businesses.

For example, our Marine Fund Scotland awarded over £4.5 million to aquaculture projects in the year 2024-25, facilitating over £17 million of investment across the sector. In May 2024 the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council invested £1.5 million for the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) to deliver applied innovation projects to March 2026. We are also working with stakeholders to develop long term arrangements for innovation support.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This information would therefore need to be requested from the Health Boards. There have been no national tenders since the pandemic, during which time private hospitals supported with cancer treatment. Whilst the Scottish Government works with Health Boards through planning to make best use of existing NHS resources and capacity, it is for Health Boards locally to determine how they use the private sector and to agree any contractual arrangements. The Scottish Government no longer provides direct funding for planned care for private providers.

Health Boards are encouraged to improve waiting times through engaging with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, a national unit designed to sustainably improve and transform Scotland's health care system through innovation, collaboration and clinical leadership.

The Finance and Public Administration Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into the cost effectiveness of Scottish Public Inquiries. I wrote to the Committee on 30 May 2025 providing a detailed response to their request for information from Scottish Government in relation to its role as sponsor of current and previous public inquiries. This response noted that Section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005 confers responsibility for the procedure and conduct of an inquiry on its Chair, independent of Ministers, and that this includes a statutory requirement for a Chair to act 'with regard to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost (whether to public funds or to witnesses or others)'.

Assessment of value for money would therefore be a matter for a Chair of an inquiry to consider as they deem appropriate within the overall duty to avoid unnecessary cost, and those inquiries which are currently ongoing have responded independently to the call for evidence received from the Committee on costs. Responses are published on the Committee pages of the Scottish Parliament website.

The findings and conclusions of the Committee's inquiry will be considered once known.

Guidance to clinicians to support prescribing medicines off-label is provided by the General Medical Council (GMC) . The guidance states that doctors should usually prescribe licensed medicines in accordance with the terms of their licence but they may prescribe medicines off-label where, on the basis of an assessment of the individual patient, they conclude, for medical reasons, that it is necessary to do so to meet the specific needs of the patient. In addition, extant guidance states that, unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should prescribe a licensed medicine which has been accepted for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as opposed to prescribing off-label or unlicensed medicines.

Funding for the Deal is awarded to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire region rather than individual council areas, including joint projects between the three main Deal partners, Stirling Council, Clackmannanshire Council and University of Stirling. The Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal private sector investment total secured to date is £476,000, with this investment coming through the University of Stirling’s Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC Phase 1) as commissioned work.

All other secured and leveraged investment in the Deal is from the public sector, including academia, or third sector.

The Scottish Government will consider the advice of the Climate Change Committee before setting out its own proposals for taking necessary actions on climate change.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting our livestock farmers in playing a full part in Scotland’s journey to net zero, including by reducing methane emissions in ways that strengthen farm productivity and resilience. The Scottish Government has no policy to reduce the national herd, our approach focuses on reducing emissions intensity rather than livestock numbers, through improvements in genetics, low-methane breeding, and appropriate uptake of methane-suppressing feed products. We continue to support the sector through a range of schemes including the SSBSS and through reformed direct payments – in stark contrast to the policies of UKG.

We recognise that the meat processing industry is a vital part of the supply chain, and have supported the sector. This has included a Ministerial discount scheme which has been applied to Official Veterinarian charges since 2015, as well as resource funding through the Small Producers Pilot Fund to explore solutions to challenges surrounding abattoirs and small producers’ access to private kill services. The recently published Programme for Government commits to £5 million to support food processing and marketing.

We will continue working with the sector to ensure it thrives as part of a climate-smart food system, while recognising the importance of Scotland’s livestock products to UK and international markets.

The Scottish Government is focused on delivering for people across the country and making the case for taking decisions in Scotland for Scotland with independence.

The Scottish Government will publish further material on independence to give the people of Scotland the information they need to make an informed choice about their constitutional future. We are not planning an independence convention this summer.

As required under the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, the Charter must be reviewed at least once every 5 years. The Charter was last published in October 2022 and is scheduled to be reviewed in 2027.

The Scottish Government’s position on traditional fission nuclear energy is clear: we do not support the building of any new nuclear power stations under current technologies. Nuclear energy creates a legacy of radioactive waste, requiring complex and expensive long-term management to prevent environmental contamination and harm to the public.

New technologies such as the stable salt reactor are not yet proven. Should technologies emerge that can be proven to address the concerns with regard to safety, environment and value for money – then we will consider these further.