Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no active policy of pursuing economies of scale through social care reform and therefore has not undertaken an assessment of the impact on small and medium-sized, community-rooted care at home providers.

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution that small and medium-sized providers make to delivering high-quality care and support in communities across Scotland. A diverse and sustainable provider landscape is important in supporting choice, continuity of care and strong local connections.

The Scottish Government engages external multi-disciplinary support services to provide specialist technical, engineering, environmental and project delivery expertise that is essential to the planning, design, promotion, procurement and delivery of major transport infrastructure projects. This provides access to the specialist skills and resources required to support informed decision-making and successful project delivery.

These services have ensured the successful delivery of projects such as the Queensferry Crossing, Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements, enhancing connectivity across Scotland.

Multi-disciplinary support services are being provided on our current programme of transport infrastructure projects, including: A9 Dualling Programme, A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass), A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton, A83 Rest and Be Thankful, A720 Sheriffhall, A90 Laurencekirk, A75 Springholm to Crocketford and M8 Woodside.

Information on all of these schemes can be found on the Transport Scotland website.

In addition, grant funding is provided to Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and Network Rail to support the delivery of harbour, pier and rail infrastructure projects.

Transport Scotland publishes monthly and annual reports detailing expenditure, including consultancy costs, over £25,000. This can be found here: Expenditure | Transport Scotland

Scotland’s AI Strategy recognises AI’s potential to transform work across sectors and the importance of Fair Work principles in ensuring employers and workers benefit. We need a clearer picture of AI’s impact across Scotland’s sectors and workplaces, to support future skills planning and target government interventions effectively. That is why our AI Strategy commits to establishing a Future Jobs Panel; a group of experts from academia, the workforce and businesses, who will assess the evidence on AI’s impact in the workplace and advise on monitoring these impacts over time. The Panel will focus primarily on Scotland, while drawing on relevant UK-wide evidence, and its findings will inform our wider engagement with the UK Government where appropriate.

The Invest to Save Fund supports projects intended to deliver efficiencies, service improvements and financial savings across the public sector. Many projects require a period of implementation before benefits can be realised, and it may take between two and three years for projects to mature sufficiently to begin delivering their full savings potential.

As part of the application and assessment process, funded projects are required to identify anticipated benefits and savings. Projects supported through the current funding round are forecast to deliver approximately £178 million of savings over five years.

Projects supported through the first year of the Fund identified anticipated savings of approximately £167 million over the next five years. These projects are at varying stages of delivery.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor project delivery and benefits realisation, including financial savings, through its fund management and reporting arrangements. No consolidated assessment of realised savings is yet available.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Workforce management and deployment are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) do not hold information for the full ten-year period, likewise it does not allocate or record budgets on a 7stanes-wide or site-by-site basis. Funding is provided through regional recreation and facilities budgets. As a result, a complete ten-year record in the format requested is not available.

The FLS budget allocated to recreation site maintenance needs across the South Region are as follows. A significant proportion of these budgets will have been allocated to the maintenance, upkeep and upgrading of the cycle trails across the 7stanes network.

Taxis and Private Hire Cars (PHCs) are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (“the 1982 Act”).

While the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament has responsibility for the overarching legislation, the day to day administration of the licensing regime is devolved to independent licensing authorities through the 1982 Act – in effect the 32 Scottish local authorities.

All licensing authorities have a duty under section 17 of the 1982 Act to fix the scales for fares and all other charges in connection with the hire of taxis in their area, and have a duty to review the resultant fare scales within 18 months of the scales coming into effect. These are matters for each licensing authority to determine.

While the Scottish Ministers do not have any specific functions in relation to the day to day operation of the Taxi/ PHC licensing regime in any given local authority area, we provide best practice guidance to inform and assist local licensing authorities in their independent decision making.

In 2023 the Scottish Government published updated best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and Taxi and PHC operators on the licensing of Taxis and PHCs and their drivers. Chapter six of the best practice guidance includes information in relation to taxi fares.

Universities are autonomous institutions that are responsible for their own admission procedures, including offer-making, and the Scottish Government therefore does not hold the information requested.

Places at Scottish dental schools are highly sought after with applications far exceeding places, and the selection process is extremely competitive. An assessment of UCAS published data suggests the numbers of Scottish-domiciled students leaving Scotland to study dentistry are very low, with UCAS data showing that in 2025, only 15 Scottish students aged 18 and under left Scotland to study either Medicine or Dentistry.

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), set out below, provides a breakdown of the domicile of students studying dentistry at Scottish universities, rounded to the nearest 5. HESA have published Official Statistics up to 2024-25, with 2025-26 data to be published in the winter.

Ministers and officials undertaking overseas travel are required to ensure that such travel represents value for money, supports the delivery of government priorities and complies with the Scottish Ministerial Code and relevant Scottish Government travel policies. Decisions on international engagement are based on the anticipated benefits to Scotland rather than the cost of any single journey in isolation.

The First Minister's visit to the United States took place during Scotland's first FIFA World Cup appearance in 28 years and provided an excellent opportunity to advance the four priorities of Scotland's International Strategy: economy, climate, equality and stronger international relationships. The programme secured engagement with investors, promoted Scotland's export and investment opportunities, strengthened political, academic and cultural partnerships, supported key sectors including food and drink and clean energy, and helped maximise the significant international profile generated by Scotland's participation in the tournament.

This has become more important in the aftermath of the UK leaving the European Union. That has left the UK more isolated, made business more difficult, removed rights from UK citizens and costing taxpayers tens of billions of pounds. That has had a significant impact on Scottish institutions, businesses and citizens making our international engagement vital as one of the means of seeking to overcome some of that damage.