Chamber and committees

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

GP practices in Glasgow, and elsewhere, must meet minimum standards for their practice premises which comply with their obligations under the Equality Act. This includes taking such steps as are reasonable to provide for ease of access to the practice premises and ease of movement within the practice premises for all users of the practice premises (including wheelchair users) and to provide adequate sound and visual systems for the hearing and visually impaired.

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde is responsible for ensuring that its GP practices are meeting their contractual obligations.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach that aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

The Scottish Law Officers are not members of the Scottish Cabinet. Consistent with long standing practice, the Lord Advocate (or, in their absence, the Solicitor General) attends Cabinet meetings whenever it is required. In practice this means when Cabinet is discussing a matter with a legal aspect, or to represent their own Ministerial interest, in particular as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland.

The following table sets out, for each of the previous 10 years, the number of occasions on which the Scottish Law Officers have attended meetings of the Scottish Cabinet.

CMAL has confirmed that it included two strands of community benefit commitments in its contract with Remontowa. The first provides opportunity for three Scotland-based shipbuilding apprentices per vessel, 21 in total, to attend optimisation and sea trials for training purposes when the vessels are delivered. The second is that Remontowa shipyard will match CMAL’s funding for its Corporate Social Responsibility programme over the course of the build, which supports charity initiatives across local communities in the Clyde and Hebrides region.

Each year Transport Scotland, through its Operating Companies, undertakes a review of collisions on the trunk road network to identify cluster sites, or routes with recorded personal injury collisions that may be worthwhile of further investigation.

Whilst the Toll of Birness junction was not, itself, identified for further investigation through the 2023 annual assessment, it was agreed, following a request from the Council, to include the A90 Toll of Birness junction within an investigation being undertaken by Transport Scotland’s Operating Company for the North East, Amey.

The scope of Amey’s investigation covers an accident, investigation and prevention study of the A90 from its junction with the A952 at the Toll of Birness to the junction to the A975 south of Longhaven.

An Accident Investigation and Prevention Report shall set out;

(a) Nature and cause of accidents, and

(b) Propose remedial work to help remove identified causes of and prevent accidents occurring again.

The proposed remedial work shall be backed by relevant evidence showing an expected accident reduction factor for that type of mitigation measure.

The report is currently in draft and will be completed by Amey in April/May 2025. There are no plans to publish the study.

The process for agreeing fees for undertaking such works are set out within the NMC Contract where Ordered works are submitted and agreed between the two parties at pre-agreed rates. The relevant rates and prices shall be used with estimated quantities to develop the Estimated Bid Value.

Any further design or construction work recommended within the report will be included in Transport Scotland’s Trunk Road Casualty Reduction programme of works and will be subject to available funding and competing priorities.

Transport Scotland is a statutory consultee in the planning process and continues to engage constructively with both developers and/or their agents around developments allocated in Aberdeenshire Council’s 2017 Local Development Plan, and the necessary mitigation measures required to offset any potential traffic impacts on the trunk road network.

The Council’s Plan allocated approximately 1,200 houses within Mintlaw, as well as a number of smaller allocations. The Plan also allocates land for over 1,400 houses plus extensive employment in Peterhead, with a further 1,000 houses allocated in Fraserburgh, again with areas of employment land. All of these planned developments have the potential to impact on the operation of the A90(T) and A952 corridors, and significantly affect the performance of the Toll of Birness junction.

At this time, through existing planning conditions, Aberdeenshire Council has effectively imposed an infrastructure capacity of 200 houses across the allocated sites within Mintlaw until such a time as the Toll of Birness Junction has been upgraded.

Transport Scotland has been clear and consistent in its engagement with all parties, in that Aberdeenshire Council and/or developers will be required to fund and deliver improvements to the Toll of Birness Junction as a result of development.

Nestrans commissioned a separate appraisal of the A90(N) / A952 Road Corridor. This study includes identifying issues and opportunities within the transport infrastructure system and evaluating potential short to medium term road improvements on the A90 north of Ellon.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the findings of the UN report and the need to promote sustainable resource use.

As well as the recent UN report noted in S6W-35438, Zero Waste Scotland was also influenced by recent Circularity Gap Reports in setting its Corporate Plan target. These highlighted the importance of cutting material consumption by one third:

https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download

https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024#download

The Circular Economy and Waste Route Map sets out the Scottish Government’s intention to set its own circular economy targets by 2027.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-circular-economy-waste-route-map-2030/

Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.

We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.

We expect all healthcare professionals to follow best practice and adhere to current guidelines and standards when providing care and support for people with suspected IBD, including the use of faecal calprotectin tests, to help improve diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

A national IBD pathway for NHS Scotland was published in January 2025: inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-pathway.pdf. This pathway is intended to be used for primary and secondary care health care professionals who are concerned that a patient may have undiagnosed IBD.

The Scottish Budget 2025-26 identified funding of £5 million to help support independent hospices deliver pay parity with Agenda for Change (AfC) levels for 2025-26. Officials continue to work with the chair of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and Hospice UK to understand the requirements from each hospice. Officials are also undertaking work to explore the mechanisms for providing this funding, while respecting local commissioning arrangements. Funding will be provided in financial year 2025-26.

To note, it is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to commission palliative care services, including independent hospices, to meet the needs of their local populations.