This response relates to Scottish Government Core workforce.

Historically, a range of factors, including newly devolved responsibilities such as establishing Social Security, EU Exit, and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are behind the growth in the workforce. Like many organisations, the Scottish Government has also needed to respond to the cost of living crisis that has led to increases in pay across the labour market.

The Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to control workforce size to remain fiscally sustainable.

The Scottish Government has reduced its total workforce by 4% from March 2022 to December 2024. It has achieved this through recruitment controls and prioritised the reduction of expensive contingent workers in making these reductions, in partnership with our Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 46% lower than in March 2022.

Scottish Government workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure efficient and effective delivery for the people of Scotland and recruitment controls remain in place. The Budget has set a commitment to continuing to reduce the workforce in this financial year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37715 on 28 May 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

All Civil Servants working for Scottish Government follow annual performance management procedures, including regular evaluation of performance and feedback wherever they work.

As part of a recent review of hybrid working, officials noted that there are few independent research empirical studies about hybrid working of a sufficient academic standing. Of those studies that were of a high standard and have been conducted recently, findings indicate that some form of hybrid working can lead to improved or the same performance levels compared to office working only.

The first meeting of the Glen Rosa review group was held on 10 April 2025.

The Scottish Government does not hold copies of any assessments that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has made in this area. It is SFRS policy to remove pregnant firefighters from front-line operational duties to avoid any potential risks to the mother or unborn child.

The Scottish Government has not made an estimate of the number of barber shops linked to money laundering. Money laundering is investigated by Police Scotland working with partners including the National Crime Agency and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS and the Scottish Government worked directly with Victim Support Organisations including Victim Support Scotland ahead of automatic early release under the Prisoners (early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, to raise awareness and encourage those who were eligible to sign up to the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS).

Temporary expediated systems of registration were also introduced for both the Victim Information Scheme (VIS) and VNS, which were live throughout the tranche releases and ran to 30 April 2025. These systems meant the normal registration process was streamlined to enable victims who were not currently registered, to register quicker and find out the release date of an offender. These temporary expediated systems were agreed by SPS with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

When victims were registered, they were notified by SPS if there was a change to the release date of the offender, ahead of the offender’s release from SPS custody.

With regards to the protection of wild peregrines in Scotland, the Scottish Government does not intend to make representations ahead of the 2026 peregrine breeding season to the UK Government Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to request that transaction specific certificates are issued for peregrine declared as captive bred in Scotland.

The requirement to issue Transaction Specific Certificates (TSC) for peregrine would not improve the accountability of a captive bred peregrine being purchased should that bird not be used commercially again.

A TSC would only improve accountability, where, following a transaction, it would require a new application by the new keeper and allow for a chain of custody to be formed in instances where the specimen has been utilised for commercial purposes across different keepers.

If an Article 10 certificate is issued as an Specimen Specific Certificate (SSC) then the certificate travels with the bird and a new keeper would not need to obtain a new certificate for the bird. Registration of any wild and unsourced bird is still required.

Section 7 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Act provides that any person who possesses or controls any bird from a species listed in Schedule 4 must register the bird with the Scottish Ministers, and identify the bird with a ring or mark. Section 7 and Schedule 4 are commonly known as the bird registration scheme. The purpose of the bird registration scheme is to provide a mechanism to help deter illegal take from the wild of birds whose populations are threatened.

Regulation 5 and the schedule of the Wildlife and Countryside (Registration and Ringing of Certain Captive Birds) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 provides that the bird registration scheme also applies to peregrine falcon and merlin if they are not already registered through the Convention on the Control in Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). It is an offence to fail to register or ring/mark a bird if required to do so.

Our Budget provides a record £21.7 billion for health and social care.

As part of planned care funding for 2025-26 we have provided over £10.5 million to territorial health boards across Scotland, including NHS Lothian, to support endoscopy activity and reduce waiting lists.

Patients continue to be seen based on their clinical urgency, for example, those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer continue to be prioritised for scope-based diagnostic tests.

To specifically support scope based diagnostics we published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan backed by £70 million. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign.

Since May 2021 Naturescot have invested nearly £4 million in rainforest restoration activities through the Nature Restoration Fund: £3,933,357 capital and £381,291 resource.

Scottish Forestry (SF) are not able to give the precise breakdown of funding as requested in the time frame required. This is because the data for grant support is not in a format that allows us to spatially analyse it quickly against the Atlantic Rainforest zone. However, since 2015 SF have committed £6 million of Forestry Grant Scheme funding for the management of existing native woodlands within the rainforest zone, with £1 million made available in 2023. This is all resource spending.

Forestry and Land Scotland have invested £6.14 million in rainforest restoration since 2022: £1,899,000 resource and £4,241,000.