The Scottish Government is clear that all nurse agency workers should be accessed via the relevant national procurement framework operated by NHS National Services Scotland unless in exceptional circumstances. This approach supports efforts by NHS Scotland Boards to ensure that all engagements involving nurse agency workers represent value for money and contribute towards the delivery of high quality patient care.

With regards to the engagement of medical agency workers, our recently concluded Medical Locum Task and Finish Group considered the experience of NHS England in adopting price caps and concluded that such a step was unlikely to aid efforts to ensure best value in respect of such engagements. Instead, all NHS Scotland Boards are asked to operate robust governance processes in respect of decisions concerning the engagement of medical agency workers, ensuring that such workers are only used as a measure of last resort. Where this is the case, steps should be taken to ensure best value is secured in relation to such engagements, including through the development of clear exit strategies where possible.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of their learning estate. Statutory guidance sets out the Scottish Government’s expectations in relation to the mothballing of schools and nurseries. As the First Minister stated on 24 April, we are reviewing mothballing guidance to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. We will update Parliament further on this work in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37351 on 14 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.

At launch we substantially widened eligibility for Funeral Support Payment in comparison to the UK Government’s funeral payment. We recognised the complex nature of family relationships and introduced flexibility, meaning that the applicant does not have to be the closest relative of the deceased.

We regularly consider how to improve our payments and last year introduced amendment regulations to make improvements to Funeral Support Payment, further supporting bereaved people and helping people who are struggling to pay for a funeral. The changes included extending the definition of funeral to include alkaline hydrolysis, providing assistance for funerals abroad in exceptional circumstances and removing the cap for funerals outwith the deceased’s local area.

Following the publication of the UK Report in December 2024, the Scottish Government has continued to make progress in implementing the Inquiry’s recommendations through the work of the Oversight and Assurance Group, which involves patient representatives and representatives from the NHS in Scotland.

A second UK Government report provides a further update on implementation of the Inquiry’s recommendations. The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/full-government-response-to-the-infected-blood-inquirys-may-2024-report).

The report includes updates on the approach being taken in Scotland, along with information on progress being made on recommendations being taken forward at UK level, such as on the provision of compensation to infected blood victims. This is in line with the Inquiry’s recommendation 12, that a detailed response to each of the Inquiry’s recommendations should be provided within one year of the publication of the Inquiry’s report of May 2024.

In Scotland, further progress has been made in a number of areas since the December report, with the overall aim of protecting patient safety and working to ensure a similar tragedy can never happen again. In particular:

• The Scottish Government and Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme have continued to ensure additional interim compensation is paid to infected hepatitis C and HIV victims in Scotland and that estates of many of those who sadly died have been able to claim interim payments of £100,000. They have also worked closely with the UK Government and the new UK-wide Infected Blood Compensation Authority to ensure progress has been made on delivering final compensation awards.
• The Scottish Government has now agreed funding specifically for patient advocacy for 2025-26 with Haemophilia Scotland and the Scottish Infected Blood Forum.
• The Scottish Government has provided funding to the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to update and expand the capabilities of its existing Account for Blood system, which will allow for improved surveillance of blood usage and outcomes across Scotland.
• The Scottish Government is working with the City of Edinburgh Council and campaigners to ensure a Scottish memorial to infected blood victims is in place as soon as is feasible.

In August, I launched a Strategic Partnership for Scotland’s arts festivals through an open letter to boost their support and promotion. I’m pleased to announce a new open letter has been published on the Scottish Government website.

This letter, developed with arts festivals and other key partners, reflects conversations across the sector and work undertaken to date. It outlines how the partnership will be pragmatic and solutions focused, drawing upon the expertise across the sector and beyond, ensuring it can be in place for the long term.

The first step of delivery was the Scottish Government’s 2025-26 Budget which delivered the biggest increase in culture spending in the history of this Parliament, after Covid recovery support. For Scotland’s arts festivals specifically, the Budget provides £4 million of additional support to develop and deliver work under this Strategic Partnership.

We have had extensive engagement with stakeholders – including consumer organisations such as Consumer Scotland – to ensure we understand all perspectives in this debate and represent this in our engagement with the UK Government.

Under Section 87(1A) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, a local authority may charge for the adult non-residential, non-personal care it provides such as day care, lunch clubs, meals-on-wheels, community alarm and help with shopping and housework.

There are existing protections for freedom of speech and the Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination or harassment at work or in other areas of their life, because of their religious or philosophical beliefs.

The Equality Act 2010 is mainly reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Government. The regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has issued guidance on avoiding discrimination and harassment in the workplace and there is a Statutory Code of Practice on Employment.

Freedom of speech is a qualified right and the ways in which a person’s religion or belief is manifested might not be protected if this impacts on the legal rights of others, including those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, not to be discriminated against or harassed.

The Minister addressed the issue of executive pay and the need for restraint when he attended the Meeting of the Committee of Scottish University Chairs on 27 March 2025.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own pay and remuneration decisions.

However, the Scottish Government expects universities to exercise restraint in setting senior pay, and senior pay packages should be in step with the salary, terms and conditions offered to other university staff.

Universities are also required to comply with the terms of the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memorandum as a condition of grant funding. This includes compliance with the principles of The Scottish Code of Good HE Governance, such as the expectation that universities’ remuneration committees seek the views of student and staff representatives in relation to the remuneration packages of Principals and senior executive teams, represent the public interest and avoid any inappropriate use of funds.