Chamber and committees

The Full time equivalent (FTE) annual employee count was:

2020-21 - 262

2021-22 - 314

2022-23 - 295

2023-24 - 281

2024-25 - 277

The increase to 314 FTE is associated with increased funding to deal with the consequence of EU Exit.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for Health and Social Care Partnerships to ensure that support services are in place to provide people with the appropriate support in the right place and at the right time. Decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities, are ultimately for local partners to make.

We continue to protect and prioritise additional investment into social care, despite an extremely challenging Budget settlement. This includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million.

We would encourage all partners to work together to find solutions that put the needs of local people and those impacted by the decision, particularly those who are most vulnerable, at the centre.

Food businesses inspected by an Environmental Health Officer or Food Safety Officer.

2020 – 9,041

2021 – 9,674

2022 – 20,745

2023 – 20,409

2024 – 19,466

2025* – 6,722

*01-01-25 to 12-05-25

No meetings were held with organisations or stakeholders to discuss the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers prior to the Supreme Court judgment as it is not appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on live legal proceedings.

Following the Supreme Court ruling on 16th April, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice spoke with Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland and Engender on 17 April and the Women’s Rights Network on 22 April to discuss the judgment. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice also offered a meeting to For Women Scotland on 17 April, but they declined the invite. Subsequently, a new invite has issued and both organisations are in discussion regards a date to meet.

In 2025-26 the Ministerial element of all Ministers' pay remains frozen at 2008-09 levels. This is the seventeenth consecutive year in which Ministerial pay has been frozen. In 2025-26, it is estimated that, as a result of the Ministerial pay freeze, Ministers will contribute £166,000 to public spending from their own pay packets. This is on top of the estimated £2.23 million Scottish Ministers contributed to public spending from their own pay packets between the start of the pay freeze on 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2025.

As part of the 2020-21 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government introduced the Green Jobs Fund, an investment of up to
£100 million aimed at supporting new and increased opportunities for green job creation across Scotland.

The Green Jobs Fund supported businesses and their supply chains to help them better transition to a low carbon economy. The support provided by the fund, all of which was capital, aimed to create green employment through investment in equipment, premises, and research and development.

Since its creation, between the Enterprise Agencies and Scottish Ministers, the Green Jobs Fund has provided £38.7 million in grant funding to support 122 projects. Figures provided by the recipients of these awards estimated that these projects will support up to 7354 jobs over the life of the individual projects.

The Green Jobs Fund has been discontinued. In addition to financial pressures associated with its continuation, the Fund formed a relatively small part of the Scottish Government’s broader investment in the transition to net zero. This includes many institutions, funding packages and investment vehicles which provide advice, support, and financial assistance for businesses at the forefront to building Scotland’s green economy.

The Green Industrial Strategy provides further strategic direction on how such investment supports the development, growth and scale-up of existing and new businesses seeking to take advantage of the global opportunities of the transition.

The requirement to provide evidence of letting to assessors to ensure compliance with the thresholds for self-catering holiday accommodation to be included in the valuation roll was introduced from April 2022 to counter a known tax avoidance tactic for second homes.

Assessors undertake annual audits to ensure that self-catering accommodation entered on the valuation roll meets the statutory requirements to be classed as non-domestic property. To provide clarity to self-catering accommodation providers on these requirements, and to provide greater certainty regarding the consequences of failure to meet the requirements, a statutory deadline to respond to requests for evidence was introduced from 1 April 2024. If evidence is not provided to the Assessor by the deadline, or if it is insufficient to establish if the requirements have been met, the Assessor must remove the property from the valuation roll under the current statutory framework.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to alter the rules for self-catering properties, however we do keep all policies under review and routinely engage with stakeholders on any issues with the operation of the system and associated legislation.

The Scottish Government has no specific plans to carry out a national alcohol needs assessment at the moment, but recognises the benefits of needs assessments to help develop our strategic priories for improving care and support for people impacted by alcohol.

Local areas currently rely on their own specific needs assessments, which we encourage them to undertake. The forthcoming UK-wide clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment will also underline the benefits of local needs assessments.

We are currently engaging with partner organisations including delivery bodies and the voices of those with lived and living experience to identify actions that will help develop and deliver future recovery focused systems of care.

The Scottish Government will hold a data summit with all local authorities in Scotland on Additional Support for Learning focused on recommending actions for improving consistency of identification, support and reporting of children’s needs at a local level.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.