Chamber and committees

Ministers and Scottish Government officials regularly meet with the leadership of all NHS Boards to provide support and scrutiny whilst reinforcing national priorities, including further action to reduce waiting times.

Scottish Government officials do not routinely engage with speciality clinical directors in territorial boards. They do meet with the Scottish Association of Medical Directors with representation provided by the Executive Medical Director for each board, both special and territorial rather than individual clinical directors.

In addition, the Scottish Government commissions the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) manage a Rheumatology Specialty Delivery Group, which includes nominated multi-disciplinary representation from all Health Boards providing Rheumatology services.

Finally, Scottish Government officials and the CfSD national planned care team meet monthly with Chief Operating Officer and/or Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including rheumatology. Meetings with island Boards are generally on a bimonthly basis.

A tenant can start the reclaim process for a deposit return at any point on or past the date on which their tenancy ends. In cases where a landlord has commenced the reclaim process first, a tenant has 30 working days to advise whether or not they agree to the proposed return amount. In either situation, where a tenant or landlord does not agree with the proposed return by the other party, there is a dispute resolution system in place.

If neither the tenant or landlord commences the repayment process, the tenant can log on to their deposit account and request a reclaim at any point. There is no statutory time limit on a tenant being able reclaim their deposit and currently any funds that are considered to be unclaimed are held indefinitely by the tenancy deposit schemes in a designated account.

The following data provides the requested breakdown. Please note, for workforce purposes, the Scottish Government People Directorate defines a contractor as temporary workers, typically brought in under a service contract which has been let to an organisation to deliver a specific product.

A contractor is one subset of our wider Contingent Worker classification.

A Contingent Worker is defined as non directly employed workers that are engaged in any capacity for the Scottish Government, such as contractors, inward secondment and temporary agency workers.

Please also note that workforce data is held within DG areas rather than by Ministerial portfolios.

Headcount of Contingent Workers recorded as Contractor by DG

This year, we allocated £123 million to NHS Boards to improve the quality and delivery of mental health and psychological services, including neurodevelopmental services, for both adults and children and young people.

Baselining this funding within NHS Board’s core budgets from 2025-26 will allow NHS Boards and IJBs greater stability and improved longer term financial planning, increasing their ability to support longer-term sustainable improvements and reform.

The Scottish Government is also providing more than £16.2 billion in financial year 2025-26 for Health Boards to deliver front line and other key services.

We are continuing to work closely with NHS Boards and other partners, including local authorities and the third sector, to develop and redesign services to improve access to diagnosis and support.

For example, we know that 78% of autistic adults supported have reported improved wellbeing as a result of accessing community support services funded through our £1 million Autistic Adult Support Fund. The £15 million we have invested annually in local authority community-based mental health supports has also benefitted many neurodiverse children and young people.

Published national statistics on CAMHS waiting times captures children who meet the CAMHS criteria. Children who require neurodevelopmental support are not reported in these statistics unless they have co-morbid mental health issues. We do not currently collect data on length of waits for neurodevelopmental services centrally.

However, the Scottish Government are working closely with NHS Health Boards and Local Authorities to improve services and support for children and young people and their families and will continue to ensure long waits are appropriately addressed, as well as continue to provide tailored support to NHS Health Boards.

Our National Neurodevelopmental Specification Children and young people - national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care - gov.scot places an expectation on NHS and Children’s Services to work together to provide the support required by children and families, which may include assessment, diagnosis or other intervention. The Specification makes clear that support should be put in place to meet the child or young person’s requirements when they need it and should not be dependent on a formal diagnosis.

This year we have provided health boards with £123 million to support improvements across a range of mental health services, including neurodevelopmental services. We have also provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health supports and services for children and young people aged 5-24 (26 if care-experienced) and their families, including supports for neurodiverse children and young people.

Spend on locum psychiatrists is managed locally by NHS Health Boards. It is our expectation that Boards should always be seeking to secure best value whenever they enter into arrangements regarding use of locums.

We recognise that the use of temporary staff in an organisation as large and complex as NHS Scotland will always be required to ensure vital service provision. However we are taking forward work in partnership with NHS Health Boards, overseen by two national oversight groups, to agree measures designed to reduce our reliance on agency staff, with a view to filling more shifts with staff in either NHS substantive or bank roles.

To address specific challenges in the recruitment and retention of permanent psychiatrist posts in Scotland, we have established a Working Group which is actively considering locum usage and complements the work ongoing nationally. The working group will make a series of recommendations and is due to report to Ministers in Spring 2025.

The Joint Working Group last met on the 29 January 2025. The group discussed and approved a programme of engagement on long-term Council Tax reform.

Engagement aims to gather opinions on changes to Council Tax that could be debated by Parliament that will enhance the fairness and effectiveness of the current system. Preparatory work is already underway, with plans to commence engagement activities in August.

The Group will next meet on the 4 March 2025 where they will discuss the implementation of the Council Tax programme of engagement.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of all people with mental health problems, including those with Huntington disease, getting the right help, at the right time, and in the right place.

The core mental health standards set clear expectations for health boards to ensure referrals to community health teams and psychiatry are equitable, clear and prioritise those most in need. They also require services to reduce barriers to access, provide clear referral criteria, and ensure collaboration between staff and agencies to support individuals with complex conditions like Huntington’s disease.

Decisions on referrals may consider clinical appropriateness and service-specific criteria. Where referrals are declined from general psychiatry or community mental health teams a full explanation should be offered for this decision, and alternative pathways offered wherever possible and appropriate.

Cases of alleged food fraud reported to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) by FSS:

2019: 1

2020: 1

2021: 1

The Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) is intended to bring about a number of benefits from the removal of freight from roads to other modes of transport. These include environmental and social effects including improved public health through reduced local air pollution; increased road safety through reduced volumes of heavy vehicle traffic; improved traffic flows through reduced congestion; and lower overall emissions from moving freight from heavy goods vehicles to lower-emitting forms of transport.