Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government provided £400,000 to establish an adult ADHD and autism assessment service in Aberdeenshire between 2019-21.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place. Accordingly, funding for adult ADHD and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area between 2021 and 2025 will have been derived from the overall budget allocated to NHS Grampian.

In 2021-22, NHS Grampian received £1,027.9 million from the Scottish Government. In 2022-23, NHS Grampian received £1,072.2 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4 per cent on the previous year. In 2023-24, NHS Grampian received £1,129.9 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 5 per cent on the previous year. Finally, in 2024-25, NHS Grampian received £1,176.4 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4% on the previous year.

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

SPS have proactively published a range of data relating to Emergency Release (ER) on SPS Website, this includes a recently published a summary report of ER returns to custody data.

We continue to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst continuing to meet our statutory obligation to ensure that those in our care have their personal information protected; as such we have taken the decision not to publish a breakdown of establishments of those released under the ER scheme as some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which may lead to their inadvertent identification.

Non-departmental public bodies devolved to Scotland are operationally independent from Scottish Ministers but are ultimately accountable to Scottish Ministers for their performance. The national public bodies directory contains a full list of non-departmental public bodies and shows the amount of Scottish Government funding they receive. The national directory can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/pages/executive-non-departmental-public-bodies/

Artificial grass pitches play an important role in the delivery of sport and physical activity across Scotland, helping the nation to lead more active, healthy lives. Well maintained artificial pitches allow for year-round, intensive use and can provide significantly more playing hours than traditional grass pitches.

sportscotland, our national agency for sport, are part of the UK Artificial Grass Pitch forum monitoring work on the long-term viability of these products. sportscotland, continue to engage with sporting bodies, educational bodies and key partners across the sporting sector in the development of synthetic pitches and surfaces.

There are already alternatives on the market such as cork, corn husks and olive pits amongst others. St Andrews University has already installed a full-size 3G pitch with cork infill, and there is research and development continuing across the industry with more products in the market. Glasgow Life is also planning to trial the use of biodegradable corn as an alternative to 3G rubber crumb on two five-a-side courts at Glasgow Green – with further developments potentially taking place across the city.

Artificial grass pitches play an important role in the delivery of sport and physical activity across Scotland, helping the nation to lead more active, healthy lives. Well maintained artificial pitches allow for year-round, intensive use and can provide significantly more playing hours than traditional grass pitches.

sportscotland, our national agency for sport, are part of the UK Artificial Grass Pitch forum monitoring work on the long-term viability of these products. sportscotland continue to engage with educational bodies and key partners across the sporting sector in the development of synthetic pitches and surfaces.

Although it is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, sportscotland continue to engage with educational bodies and key partners in the development of synthetic pitches and surfaces.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children and young people of school age have the right to an education that helps them develop their abilities to their fullest potential. Local Authorities, who deliver education, also have a statutory duty to make special arrangements for any affected pupils to receive education elsewhere than at a school, or other educational establishment, if they are likely to be absent for a prolonged period as a result of ill health. This statutory duty applies regardless of the nature of the health condition keeping a pupil absent from school, including IBD, Crohn’s diseases and colitis.

The Scottish Government published guidance on the education of children unable to attend school due to ill health and, within this guidance, it states that legislation requires that local authorities make special arrangement for children and young people absent from school through ill health ‘without undue delay’.

The guidance on the education of children and young people unable to attend school due to ill health is available on our website through the following link: Introduction - Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot. Alternatively, this information is also summarised on user-friendly fact sheets which are available on the Enquire website through the following link: too-unwell-to-attend-school.pdf.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland have provided funding in 2022 and 2023 to support Scottish Games Week, which included an Education Symposium. This event brings together video game industry and education providers with an aim to share learning and establish partnerships.

Education Scotland has also supported (through attendance and delivery) the Scottish Games Education Symposium in 2024 and inaugural Scottish Esports Education Conference in 2024.

The Scottish Government does not offer financial support (a-d) specifically for the video games industry. However, there is a large range of resources available through Scotland’s public sector and available to businesses in a variety of sectors which can be found at Find Business Support and Business Gateway websites.

The Scottish Government provided £49,425 in 2022 and £40,000 in 2023 to support Scottish Games Week as the platform to bring industry together to showcase talent, share learnings, build networks, and highlight the potential of the sector.

Further to this, the Scottish Government has been engaged with the video game sector as it develops an industry led games action plan. It is our expectation that this plan, developed by the Scottish Games Network following a series of workshops hosted around Scotland, will set out what support is required to successfully grow the sector in Scotland.

As this action plan is being developed by industry we cannot definitively say what these actions will include but we expect to see the action plan in the coming months.

Video games development covers a range of skills and careers from the technical to the creative development so there are multiple routes into the industry. A college or university course in Computer Games Development is one pathway into the sector, but Apprenticeship pathways in Creative & Digital Media or Software Development will also provide transferable skills and knowledge.

Information on funding available for further and higher students can be found on the Student Information Scotland webpage.

Skills Development Scotland administers Scottish Apprenticeships on behalf of the Scottish Government, which incorporates Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs), Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) and Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs). Information on what funding is available to support access to apprenticeships can be found on the apprentices.scot webpage.