Chamber and committees

Statutory guidance already sets out that, where possible, children receiving their funded hours in a setting outside the local authority in which they reside should be treated on the same basis as those accessing provision in their own local authority area.

Cross-boundary arrangements are working well in much of Scotland under the current legislative framework and Scottish Ministers continue to call on local authorities to work together consistently to support choice and flexibility where families are impacted by boundary lines.

Ministers remain open to exploring all potential routes to improving families’ experiences and have committed to exploring cross-boundary provision further with COSLA within the context of wider reform and the Scottish Government’s ambition to transform the wider childcare offer during this parliament.

The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining Scotland's domestic steel capacity and officials are in regular contact with management at Dalzell as they work towards a restart of operations soon.

Specific operational arrangements at Liberty Steel Dalzell including staffing, furlough arrangements and working hours are matters for the company.

The GP-led walk-in services are intended to complement existing core services and provide an alternative route to care for patients. NHS Grampian is responsible for the operational management of the walk-in services in Grampian, including all decisions about the location and model of the services. The services have been designed by health boards, taking into account the needs of their populations, and reflecting local issues and circumstances.

The Scottish Government is not involved in the contractual arrangements between Liberty Steel Dalzell and Navantia.

The following tables, provided by Public Health Scotland, contain data concerning the annual numbers and crude rates for deaths by suicide among males resident in NHS Dumfries and Galloway from 2015 to 2024, along with annual Scotland-level numbers and crude rates for comparison.

In addition, five-year averages of the annual numbers and crude rates for deaths by suicide for NHS Dumfries and Galloway and Scotland have been included.

The figures show that Dumfries and Galloway has seen an increase in the average annual suicide rates for males in the latest 5 year period (2020-2024), compared to the previous five years (2015-2019); moving from an average of 11.2 to 15.4 deaths per 100,000 male residents. The current rate is comparable with the national average, which has remained steady over this ten year period.

The Scottish Government look at national trends using the data contained in table 1b and 2b, while local areas look at local trends using the data contained in table 1a and 2a. The data provided in table 1a and 2a is for Dumfries and Galloway only.

In Dumfries and Galloway, the local Suicide Prevention Action Group is delivering a range of targeted work, supporting the aims of our national strategy to reduce suicide rates and ensure that anyone affected by suicide gets the help they need. This includes:

?providing suicide prevention training sessions to men’s groups, or in workplaces with a majority of male employees

?delivering support to specific groups who may be at higher risk of suicide, including Armed Forces Veterans and LGBTQ+ community.

?working closely with National Farmers Union (NFU Scotland) and linking with FarmStrong to support the agricultural community

Data tables

Table 1a) Deaths caused by probable suicide and crude rates per 100,000 for male NHS Dumfries and Galloway residents by year; 2015 - 2024.

The Scottish Government is committed to honouring the historic deal made with the BMA to invest £531 million over three years in primary care. The funding will help boost staff numbers and capacity, support day-to-day operations and make it easier for people to access GP services.

GP practices based in remote and rural communities in Dumfries and Galloway will receive a proportionate share of this funding.

Consideration of future funding for Hybrid Closed Loop technology, including any further expansion of access, will form part of the Scottish Government’s wider budget and spending decisions for 2027-28. The Scottish Government remains committed to improving outcomes for people with Type 1 Diabetes and recognises the benefits that Hybrid Closed Loop systems can provide in supporting diabetes management and reducing long-term complications.

On the 1 September, as part of the Programme for Government, the First Minister announced the Scottish Government’s intention to simplify the NHS by replacing the current 14 territorial Health Boards with two Strategic Health Boards and build on planned reforms to further reduce the number of special Health Boards.

This work will be done with the workforce, not to the workforce. We remain fully committed to partnership working and will work closely with trade unions throughout this process.

For NHS staff the principal change will, in due course, be the transfer of their employment from their current Board to one of the new NHS Boards.

Staff in NHS Scotland continue to receive the best reward package in the UK, and pay, terms and conditions will remain the same, all underpinned by the Scottish Government’s Fair Work principles, and our ongoing commitment to no compulsory redundancies.

Any future workforce changes will be done in full partnership with NHS Trade Unions in a structured and managed way, in line with existing NHS Scotland policies which have been agreed in partnership with trade unions.

I recognise that pulmonary rehabilitation is a key intervention for people living with chronic respiratory conditions and that many people across Scotland are affected by lung disease. Improving access to pulmonary rehabilitation remains a priority.

Through the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland, pulmonary rehabilitation was identified as an important area for improvement. The Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee has endorsed a new national three-tier model comprising universal digital services, targeted community-based provision and specialist hospital-based support for people with more complex needs.

We are working with Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to develop a digital-first pulmonary rehabilitation offer through the My Lungs, My Life platform, providing rehabilitation resources, self-management support and educational materials that can be accessed across Scotland. In addition, two targeted pulmonary rehabilitation programme pilots are being developed in both central and rural settings.

Alongside this, Short Life Working Groups are developing national referral criteria and implementation tools to support NHS Boards in expanding pulmonary rehabilitation capacity, reducing geographical variation and improving equitable access. This includes promoting virtual and hybrid rehabilitation models where appropriate, helping to address workforce and travel barriers and enabling more people to benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation closer to home.

The Scottish Government recognises the distress caused by retail crime and is fully supportive of activity to reduce harm.

The Retail Crime Taskforce was established following the launch of Police Scotland's action plan to tackle retail crime in March 2025. Operating under four key objectives – Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – the Taskforce focuses on stopping people from becoming offenders, bringing perpetrators to justice, strengthening protections for retailers, and developing direct reporting systems.

The Taskforce works alongside the Scottish Government in the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE), a Police Scotland led initiative that brings together retail groups and partners to tackle a range of acquisitive crimes including theft and housebreaking.

This work is supported by Scottish Government investment of £3 million for 2026-27 as part of the record funding of £1.7 billion for policing in 2026-27. Ringfenced retail crime funding of £3 million has been confirmed for a further two financial years.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government also commits to provide an additional £1 million to the Taskforce across the next two years bringing the total funding to £10 million over the current Spending Review Period.