S6W-39711

Asked by: Greene, Jamie (Scottish Liberal Democrats - West Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the use of the 101 non-emergency number is an appropriate and sufficient reporting route for incidents of suspected spiking, and whether it plans to review its guidance on this matter.

Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety

The Scottish Government encourages individuals who suspect that they (or someone else) may have been spiked to call NHS 24 on 111 for advice and to seek medical help right away, but in a life-threatening emergency to always call 999. Spiking is a criminal offence. All suspected incidents should be reported to Police Scotland by calling 101.

In addition, and to address concerns that the link between health professionals and Police Scotland has in spiking cases not always been clear to victims presenting at A&E, the Scottish Government, in collaboration with NHS 24 and Police Scotland, has developed a consistent narrative for health professionals to ensure consistent guidance is provided.

As part of this multi-agency national response, Scotland’s 111 service has also been updated to include spiking-related guidance, helping to better identify and support potential cases. This approach has been endorsed by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

Additionally, the NHS are introducing changes to their digital system which will allow us to record those who present to A&E as potential victims of spiking. This will provide invaluable data on previous unrecorded incidents and will allow us to better understand the extent to which these lead on to formal police reporting.

S6W-39716

Asked by: White, Tess (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - North East Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Central Legal Office of NHS Scotland (a) provides cost-effective advice and (b) protects the public purse from costly litigation.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care

The Central Legal Office (CLO) within NHS National Services Scotland provides in-house legal services to NHSScotland Boards and wider public sector organisations. They provide cost effective advice by having fees that are competitive, flexible and compliant with the requirements for the proper handling and reporting of public funds as laid out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Furthermore, their specialist legal advice and representation supports clients make legally informed decisions to promote cost-efficient practice in litigation matters.

S6W-39534

Asked by: Whitham, Elena (Scottish National Party - Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what training and (b) how much training time on neurodivergence is allocated to staff across all education settings.

Answered by None

The provision of ongoing professional learning opportunities and collaboration with other partners on professional development is primarily the responsibility of local authorities.

In education settings, the Scottish Government has worked closely with partners to develop resources for teachers such as the Home | Autism Toolbox Autism Toolbox. The toolbox provides a range of information and guidance to support the education of autistic learners and complements the free autism and inclusive practice professional learning resources available to all staff. We have also created resources to support universities teaching their students about autism and how best to support autistic children and young people in their classrooms.

The Teachers' Agreement (2001), which aims to enhance opportunities for professional development, made continuing professional development a condition of service while also specifying that teachers should undertake a maximum of 35 hours CPD in each working year. Within this, there is flexibility and opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of neurodivergence and ASN.

In 2024, the Scottish Government committed to examine options for teacher training and to analyse the number of initial teacher training hours attributed to additional support needs. The Scottish Council of Deans for Education is currently undertaking this work. We will consider next steps in this area once we have considered their findings, which are due shortly.

The Scottish Government has also commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the National Autism Implementation Team to provide professional learning about neurodevelopmental conditions at informed, enhanced, specialist and expert levels (according to the NES framework). These can be found on the Turas page (NHS Education for Scotland’s unified training platform) and accessed by the NHS and teachers.

Children and young people - national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care - gov.scot is also available for educators to refer to and specifies the standards that all children’s services should follow to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. We recently reviewed the implementation of this specification in partnership with COSLA, including engagement with education staff, and have identified potential areas for improvement, including further professional learning opportunities. We have recently announced the establishment of a cross-sector task force, co-chaired by health and education officials to drive forward these changes, alongside a £500,000 investment in 2025-26 to support system improvements.

S6W-39801

Asked by: Clark, Katy (Scottish Labour - West Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the fourth supplementary to question S6O-02531 by Siobhian Brown on 20 September 2023, in light of the minister’s comment that Scotland is “maintaining frontline services by having a higher number of firefighters than there is in other parts of the UK”, whether it can confirm how many firefighters there are in Scotland, and how this compares with the rest of the UK, also broken down by how many firefighters from (a) Scotland and (b) the rest of the UK are currently available for operational service and are employed (i) in a full-time equivalent (FTE) role or (ii) on a retained duty system (RDS), and how it ensures that, when calculating these figures, it does not double-count firefighters in Scotland who hold dual contracts with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as both FTE and RDS staff.

Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety

In answering Parliamentary Questions in relation to firefighter numbers, the Scottish Government uses nationally available Official Statistics from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and for comparative numbers, the Welsh and UK Governments.

Current Official Statistics for the SFRS in 2023/24 (statistics for 24/25 will be published on 29 August 2025) show that at 31 March 2024 there were 3,419 wholetime operational staff, 55 Retained full-time and 166 Operational Control staff all of whom are considered to be wholetime firefighters. There were 2,708 Retained Duty and 269 Volunteer firefighters which are considered to be On-Call firefighters. Both the wholetime and on-call firefighter numbers are added together to show the total number of firefighters in Scotland. The full Scottish Statistics can be found at FSOS2023-2024Statistics.pdf. Comparable statistics for Wales and England are available at Personnel (headcount) by employment type and Fire and Rescue Service area and Fire statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

SFRS statistics count individual staff who are on dual contracts twice, once in their wholetime operational role and once in their On Call role as they are two distinct and separate jobs with separate contracts. Scottish Government does not hold details on Scottish or UK firefighters that are currently available for operational service and employed on an FTE or RDS role.

S6W-39815

Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14790 by Keith Brown on 23 February 2023, how many (a) incidents of and (b) emergency service callouts for mountaineering accidents there were in each year since 2021.

Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety

Each year the Scottish Government receives a copy of the Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) Annual Review which includes the total number of mountaineering incidents and callouts involving the 25 volunteer teams and 3 Police Scotland teams that are affiliated with SMR. The collated information from the reports for each year since 2021, where available, is provided in the following table:

S6W-39768

Asked by: Kerr, Stephen (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported increase in patient falls recorded in hospitals since 2019.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care

The Scottish Government wants all care delivered within the NHS in Scotland to be safe, effective and person-centred. As part of that, the Scottish Government established the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), hosted by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, which provides ongoing practical improvement support to Boards. Since 2021, SPSP has delivered a programme to reduce the rate of inpatient falls. The most recent data from this work (report published December 2024: 20241211-spsp-acute-adult-collaborative-full-impact-report-v10.pdf) demonstrates that the national median rate of inpatient falls in acute hospitals had sustained a decrease of 9% (when compared to baseline data beginning in 2021). This programme of work will continue to support improvement in the years ahead.

S6W-39728

Asked by: McArthur, Liam (Scottish Liberal Democrats - Orkney Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what structures are in place for determining the allocation of public funding to inquiries.

Answered by Forbes, Kate - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic

Public Inquiries which are established under the Inquiries Act 2005 are independent of the Scottish Government. Public Inquiries relevant costs under the Inquiries Act 2005 are funded via the sponsoring Ministerial portfolio within the Scottish Government, but publication in relation to costs is undertaken independently by each inquiry.

The cost of a public inquiry varies and is very much determined by the complexity of the issue to be investigated, the number of witnesses, and the amount of technical expertise that may be required. There is a statutory duty placed on Chairs of independent inquiries, set out at section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005, the they "must act with fairness and with regard also to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost".

All Inquiries are encouraged to engage with sponsor teams to communicate likely budget requirements in order to inform development of the Scottish Government budget each year, and to advise sponsor teams if expected requirements change or evolve.

S6W-39721

Asked by: Thomson, Michelle (Scottish National Party - Falkirk East)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Retail Consortium’s reported forecast that food price inflation is set to increase to 6% by the end of 2025.

Answered by Gougeon, Mairi - Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands

The Scottish Government closely monitors food inflation data published by the Office for National Statistics and inflation projections published by the Office for Budget Responsibility and Bank of England. The British Retail Consortium’s forecast is concerning, particularly for low-income households in Scotland who are already grappling with cost-of-living pressures and are disproportionately affected by rising food prices. That is why the Scottish Government continues to allocate over £3 billion a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living, as well up to £1.3 million to tackle food insecurity. The Scottish Government remains committed to improving our food security, making Scotland a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture (with high quality food production one of the five objectives of the Agriculture and Rural Communities Act), and supporting Scotland in becoming a Good Food Nation.

There are a range of global and domestic factors driving food price inflation and whilst the Scottish Government is seeking to support households and local food suppliers in Scotland, there are a number of challenges that lie specifically with the Uk Government. Indeed, the Bank of England’s latest monetary report details factors such as regulatory changes and rising labour costs, which have been exacerbated by the UK Government’s increase to Employer National Insurance Contributions in autumn last year, in turn creating an additional financial burden on businesses, households, and the public sector. While many of the levers to address these challenges lie with the UK Government and could be managed more effectively in an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government remains committed in the meantime to using the powers available to us to support people across our nation with the cost of living pressures.

S6W-39646

Asked by: Burgess, Ariane (Scottish Green Party - Highlands and Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made with its work on reforming the National Performance Framework, and what plans it has to include sustainable, affordable, healthy food in the updated framework.

Answered by Forbes, Kate - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic

We are making positive progress towards a reformed National Performance Framework (NPF), and we intend to launch a reformed framework in the new parliamentary session following the 2026 Scottish Election.

We are currently engaging with a range of experts and stakeholders on the detail of a reformed NPF, and as such, no decisions have been made on future outcomes or indicators. We intend to provide a written update on our progress to relevant parliamentary committees after the summer recess. Additionally, officials are scheduled to meet with several MSPs from across the Chamber in September to discuss NPF reform.

S6W-39705

Asked by: McArthur, Liam (Scottish Liberal Democrats - Orkney Islands)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the reported £98.7 million core running costs for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) to date, by (a) secretariat costs, (b) legal team fees, (c) expert adviser fees, (d) overheads and (e) other.

Answered by Forbes, Kate - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic

I refer the member to information recently submitted to the Finance & Public Administration Committee which is available on the parliament website at Costeffectiveness of Scottish public inquiries Letter from SCAI of 22 May 2025 | Scottish Parliament Website.