Chamber and committees

Scottish Government continues to work closely with the UK Government on the development of Statutory Guidance that will support the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act, which received royal assent on 3 April 2025. We continue to encourage and signpost stakeholders to both the Protect UK and Gov.UK websites for information and updates on the legislation.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with event organisers to ensure that Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS Boards and Public Health Scotland are appropriately engaged in planning groups for major sporting events. Public sector health colleagues work meticulously with the event organisers and any procured private first aid and ambulance services to ensure adequate first aid and health care is provided to event participants, workforce and spectators, in line with the guidance and requirements set out in the Green and Purple Guides.

The Green Guide, or ‘Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds’, provides guidance on safety at sports grounds for stadium operators and event organisers. The Purple Guide is aimed at event organisers who are responsible for managing health and safety and at events in more general terms.

The Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards set out what people should expect from substance use services. MAT Standard 3 sets out that people at high risk of drug-related harm should be proactively identified and offered support, while MAT Standard 9 sets out that all people with co-occurring drug use and mental health issues should receive mental health care. Implementation of the MAT Standards is supported by multi-year funding of £10.3 million per year over the life of the Parliament. Implementation of the MAT Standards is assessed by Public Health Scotland (PHS) via annual Benchmarking Reports.

GPs are responsible for providing patients with appropriate care whether they have been treated on the NHS or privately. This may include medication, depending on an individual patient’s need. GPs are not obliged to follow the recommendations of a private provider, but should always provide care based on their own judgement if patients are in need.

The Scottish Government funds the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT), which published guidance on Prescribing ADHD medication to adults following private sector diagnosis in Scotland in April 2022. The guidance was drafted in consultation with practising Psychiatrists, the Royal Colleges of Psychiatry and General Practice and individuals with ADHD.

The guidance highlights that shared care arrangements may be put in place between private and NHS providers. For such arrangements to work properly, everyone involved must communicate effectively. Recommendations from specialists for ongoing prescribing on the NHS need to be made at an NHS consultation with an NHS specialist.

Some NHS Boards may have shared care policies, but it remains at the clinical discretion of each individual GP to decide the best course of action for their patients.

Scotland’s first International Education Strategy (IES), published in February last year, highlighted the positive impact that international students make to our colleges and sets out the actions that the Scottish Government will take with both colleges and universities, to promote Scotland as a study destination and to attract and diversity our international student population.

In 2024-25, we launched the Come to Study: Find Scotland campaign aimed at attracting prospective international students to institutions across the breadth of the country. We will continue to work with partners to enhance our marketing and promotional efforts in the year ahead.

We have worked closely with Colleges Scotland in the development of the Scottish Education Exchange Programme. To date, 8 colleges (11 projects) have benefited from SEEP funding which has enabled the delivery of projects that are helping build international partnerships across the globe.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has appointed a new Trade Envoy for International Education who will promote Scotland’s colleges and universities to international students and organisations across the world.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33295 on 28 January 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.

HESA published 2023-24 student data in March 2025 with the data available from the same link referenced in the answer for S6W-33295:

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-59

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36412 on 29 April 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

We recognise the importance of support for individuals on release from custody. While we are not currently pursuing a pilot on post-custody outreach, we are improving support for these individuals by introducing a new national voluntary throughcare service, Upside, which offers one-to-one support for men and women leaving short sentences and periods of remand. This service, which launched on
1 April 2025, will assist people with the immediate challenges they face post-custody, including accessing housing, healthcare and social security, while also linking them to the wider support services they may require, such as mental health or substance use services.

In addition to this, through the Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) model, we are supporting Health Boards to provide a package of care and support in a joined-up, holistic manner across various services and agencies. This will also support people with their needs on release from prison.

Extensive work is ongoing to improve coordination of public services as part of our commitment to public service reform. We will support all areas to follow the Getting It Right for Everyone model of person-centred services (GIRFE). This model brings the person, their families, carers and all service providers together to devise a package of care and support in a joined-up, holistic manner across various services and agencies to achieve the best outcomes for individuals. In December 2024 we published the GIRFE toolkit and Health Boards are now required to set out how they will embed the GIRFE principles and toolkit in NHS Annual Delivery Plans for the organisation and delivery of their services. In addition, we are establishing the new National Care Service Advisory Board to improve social care, social work and community health services.

More specifically to support individuals with complex co-occurring mental health and substance use issues we commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to create a gold-standard protocol that sets out how these services should work together, which has now been published. HIS are now working to support areas across the country to develop and implement their own protocols. We are also supporting Mental Health Officers (MHOs), who assess and support individuals with mental health conditions and are pivotal to integrated health and social care services. Actions underway include undertaking workforce planning initiatives to address shortfall in MHOs, developing a pilot exercise to reduce administrative burden, and developing a scheme to harness the potential of AI powered tools to support reporting and reduce associated workloads.

The Scottish Government expects Health Boards to offer patients a clinically appropriate abortion method. The 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) Sexual Health Standards set out that patients should have access to information on both medical and surgical abortion to enable them to make an informed choice of abortion method. The Scottish Government’s 2021 Women’s Health Plan had an aim that ‘all women will have a choice about how and where they access abortion care’.

While most Health Boards can offer surgical abortions to a certain gestation, the Scottish Government is working with the Scottish Abortion Care Providers network, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to improve access for clinicians to surgical abortion training at all gestations. The Scottish Government has also committed to pay for training for any clinician who wishes to provide later stage abortions.

The Women’s Health Champion has been discussing with Health Board Chief Executives issues around contraception and abortion, including ensuring access to early surgical abortion. The Scottish Government will soon be presenting information gathered from Health Boards to Chief Executives to help inform discussions about where surgical abortion provision could be increased.

In recognition of financial pressures, our 2025-26 budget includes record levels of investment - over £21.7 billion for Health and Social Care and over £15 billion for the Local Government Settlement.

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, including funding for services like the Notre Dame Centre, are ultimately for local partners to make.

However, these decisions should be made in consultation with people who use those services and in full awareness of the impact on them and on other services who may be asked to provide support in their place.

I would therefore encourage all partners to work together to find solutions that not only address financial pressures but put the needs of local people, particularly those who are most vulnerable, at the centre.