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The recruitment and retention of staff is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer. There is currently one on-call stations in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Council area with a full staffing complement. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.

The recruitment and retention of staff is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer. There is currently one on call station in the Moray Council area with a full staffing complement. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.

The recruitment and retention of staff is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer. The 29% vacancy rate refers to on-call establishment figures. SFRS is taking action to recruit more on-call firefighters though the use of 50 full time on-call support officers and in providing targeted assistance to potential candidates. In addition more flexible contracts have been introduced which can reduce the time commitment needed to be an on-call firefighter.

The recruitment and retention of staff is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer. There are currently two on call stations in the Orkney Islands Council area with a full staffing complement. When an appliance is not available, a response will be provided from the next nearest available location.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the Just Transition Fund (JTF) is responsive to the needs of the North East and Moray. This includes full consideration of the recommendations of the independent evaluation to support ongoing improvements to the 10-year Fund in a way which aligns with Scottish Government’s budget position.

The independent evaluation highlighted the positive and catalytic impact of support delivered through the Fund in its first two years of operation. We have already delivered against some of the report’s recommendations. For example, updated application material and guidance were issued as part of the 2025-26 open capital funding round for the JTF to support greater transparency of process.

Under s.2(4) of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, the Scottish Ministers are required to publish a list of habitats and species of principal importance within 12 months of the publication of a Scottish biodiversity strategy, known as the Scottish Biodiversity List. It will have particular relevance for public bodies applying their biodiversity duties.

Work to complete the list is ongoing and it would not therefore be appropriate to say definitively that species-rich grasslands will be included. However, various types of species-rich grassland are included in the current Scottish Biodiversity List.

The term ‘irreplaceable habitat’ is not used in Scotland and is primarily associated with the Natural England biodiversity metric.

The allocation of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) resources to respond to wildfires and indeed to respond to any emergency incident that requires its attendance, is an operational matter for SFRS.

Since the launch of its Wildfire Strategy in 2023, SFRS is investing £1.6 million in vehicles and operational equipment including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The provision of wildfire PPE has been focused on the specialist fire stations which deal with the majority of wildfire incidents. Firefighters from non-specialist wildfire stations who respond to support operations continue to wear standard structural PPE.

The Chief Fire Officer has provided assurances to the Scottish Government that firefighter safety is an absolute priority, that all specialist wildfire PPE and existing standard PPE in place is safe and that SFRS remains fully prepared and equipped to respond to wildfires.

The peer review has now concluded and the feedback shared by the reviewers is currently under consideration by the research paper author, Malcolm McMillan. Once that process, and any further action has concluded, we will publish the paper and it remains that we expect to be able to do that no later than the end of this year.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-35981 on 31 March 2025, delivery of the health and social care online app for Scotland is being taken forward by NHS Education Scotland (NES) as part of the wider Digital Front Door programme. The majority of costs to date have been on mobilising the team required and developing the Outline Business Case. NHS NES staff have participated in the Civtech Challenge, which has allowed NES to understand what is required to develop the app in a way that integrates into Scottish Government plans to digitise postal communications. More information about this can be found at: https://www.civtech.scot/civtech-9-challenge-8-secure-individualised-and-effective-communications-channel.

The Scottish Government increased the capital budget from £32.5 million in 2023-24 to £43 million in 2024-25 and £47 million in 2025-26. Decisions on how this budget is spent between fleet, equipment and buildings is a matter for the SFRS Board and Chief Officer. SFRS is currently consulting on a range of possible service delivery changes to better match its assets with the risks present in communities. This will allow SFRS to take decisions on closing, merging or upgrading fire stations over the next 5 years.