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the Scottish Government is updating guidance on Employment, Skills and Training within the Sustainable Procurement Tools, there are no current plans to issue a new Policy Note on social impact.

Scotland has been delivering social value through procurement for many years, embedding our commitment within legislation over ten years ago with a requirement to include economic, social, and environmental wellbeing in procurement decisions. For contracts valued at £4 million or more, public bodies must consider including community benefits and justify their exclusion if not appropriate. Legislation also requires that awards are not based on price alone, but on the best balance of cost and quality, which includes a commitment to sustainable outcomes.

Scottish Procurement Policy Note 6/2020 reaffirms these requirements, outlining how social impact should be considered in public procurement. In addition to scored social impact questions, it highlights other practical ways to achieve social and economic outcomes, such as:

• While Including social requirements in specifications,
• Dividing contracts into lots to facilitate access for SMEs and third sector organisations,
• Reserving contracts for supported businesses.

The effectiveness of this approach, which includes extensive training and support to implement these policies, is evidenced in the 2023 report Scotland’s Journey of Achieving Sustainable Procurement Outcomes (2002–2022) and in annual procurement activity reports.

The number of fishers working on Scottish registered vessels on 31 December 2024, whose main gear in 2024 was a towed gear (trawl or dredge), was 1,761. This includes 1,708 regular fishers and 53 irregular fishers. This information is provisional and may be revised when the final Sea Fisheries Statistics publication is released in October 2025.

The Scottish Government has committed to refresh the Additional Support for Learning Statutory Code of Practice Guidance as part of the delivery of the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan. We have been working collaboratively with a range of education partners and policy areas, including those with a focus on transitions, to ensure it continues to fully support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004.

A public consultation will be undertaken in the Autumn of 2025, providing an opportunity for wider stakeholders with an interest in the Code of Practice to share their views.

The Scottish Government’s Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland (RCAP) sets out our vision for driving improvement in the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support of people affected by respiratory conditions including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease.

There is also a significant respiratory work programme managed by the Respiratory Speciality Delivery Group within NHS Golden Jubilee. They have pathways under development for severe asthma, COPD and sleep apnoea. Pulmonary fibrosis has been added to their workplan for this year, and we will continue to work closely with colleagues leading this work to ensure all key stakeholders are informed of its progress.

Our new Prescribing Guideline sets out our ambitions for better access to respiratory care, including for those living with pulmonary fibrosis. The guide keeps the person with respiratory conditions at the centre of their treatment and disease management, and we also have national workstreams focusing on access to pulmonary rehabilitation and smoking cessation.

The Scotland's Population Health Framework (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-population-health-framework/) sets out the Scottish Government's and COSLA’s long-term collective approach to improving Scotland’s health and reducing health inequalities for the next decade. The Framework sets out how national and local government will work with public sector partners, community organisations and business to tackle the root causes of ill health.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of raising awareness of conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis and welcome the work of third sector organisations in raising awareness.

We currently have no events planned for Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness month in September.

We acknowledge the recent research findings, which highlight the disproportionate health impacts experienced by women in relation to the covid pandemic. Addressing these inequalities is a core ambition of the Scottish Government.

In August 2021, Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish a Women's Health Plan (https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-health-plan/documents/). Developed with women and girls, the Plan articulates the commitment that all women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives. The next phase of the Plan is currently under development.

Improving health outcomes for women and girls requires the consideration of their specific health needs to address avoidable inequalities. The Women’s Health Plan is a key element within a wider, ongoing programme of work to improve the health and wellbeing of women and girls across Scotland.

Women are also prioritised as one of the at-risk groups within the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, which has received £81 million in investment since 2021. A further £15 million has been committed for 2026-27 as part of the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding Pilot, demonstrating our ongoing dedication to supporting those facing the greatest challenges.

On 17 June 2025, the Scottish Government and COSLA co-published a ten-year Scotland's Population Health Framework (PHF) (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-population-health-framework/), setting out a refreshed cross-government and cross-sector approach to improve Scotland’s population health and reduce inequalities, with a focus on prevention.

While the PHF was developed with a population-wide perspective, it is deliberately designed to enable targeted implementation of its 30 actions. This ensures that priority groups including those with protected characteristics receive tailored support to address their specific needs including women and girls.

Supporting the construction industry and its workforce is a priority for the Scottish Government. The Minister for Business and Employment chairs a Construction Leadership Forum that has oversight of a 2024 Transformation Action Plan and a skills and workforce working group, which is progressing the commitment to increase the capacity, capability, and diversity of the workforce with a focus on future skills and industry attractiveness. The sector continues to have one of the highest apprenticeship intakes, with construction occupations accounting for 25.6% of Modern Apprenticeship starts in 2024-25.

We encourage community or affordable housing projects returning empty homes to use to consider how skills development may be incorporated. Scottish Government funding allocated through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) in 2024-25 enabled one such project to happen in Dundee. More information about this project is available here: https://www.the-cii.org/strong-foundations-scotland/.

The Burial and Cremation (Inspection) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (the Inspection Regulations) make provision for the Scottish Ministers to establish and maintain a register of relevant bodies and provide a power to publish the register or any information contained in the register.

At present there is no universal list of burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors operating in Scotland. The system of inspections will therefore be aided by the inspection register as provided for in regulation 4 of the Inspection Regulations. The Scottish Ministers may publish the inspection register or information from the register and this will, as information is collected over time, provide a platform for the public to access information about the location of relevant bodies, and whether they have been found to be non-compliant with relevant regulations or Codes of Practice. (Such regulations and Codes of Practice are the Funeral Director Code of Practice, the Cremation (Scotland) Regulations 2019, the Burial (Applications and Register) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, and the Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025.) The inspection register will also help Inspectors to plan their inspections.

The Scottish Government launched the inspection register (titled the Funeral Sector Register) on 1 April 2025 via a digital portal and continues to encourage all organisations working within the funeral sector including funeral directors to register. The register is also publicly available and details the names and locations of those organisations who are registered.

The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service that is available across Scotland whenever people need it. The majority of NHS Boards can now refer to thrombectomy Hub centres, increasing geographical access to thrombectomy procedures.

Scottish Government officials and NHS planners have been asked to work at pace on developing a plan for the next steps for service expansion. While there is not a specific date for publication, we expect the next steps for service expansion to reflect work to align the governance and delivery of thrombectomy with similar national programmes. This alignment with wider health service planning aims to support oversight of thrombectomy planning for the NHS Chief Executive Group and encourage greater collaboration between NHS Boards in delivering this vital service.

Regulation 4 of the Burial and Cremation (Inspection) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 makes provision for the Scottish Ministers to establish and maintain a register of relevant bodies and provides a power to publish the register or any information contained in the register.

The Funeral Sector Register opened on 1 April 2025, and to date 92 organisations including funeral directors, cremation and burial authorities have registered. These organisations relate to 333 different premises across Scotland. The Scottish Government has and continues to encourage all organisations working in the funeral sector to register. In addition, the Scottish Ministers have the ability to add organisations to the register if they become aware of them.

We continue to promote the digital register and build on current number of organisations registered whilst highlighting the positive benefits of registration for both the sector and the public.