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The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested regarding CPR training in each local authority area.

I am pleased to confirm that we have now laid the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (Scottish Carbon Budgets) Amendment Regulations 2025 in Parliament.

The proposed regulations, if approved by the Scottish Parliament, will amend the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to set an emissions reduction trajectory through a carbon budget framework for the five year periods between 2026 and 2045.

The levels of proposed carbon budgets mirror the advice on targets from the independent Climate Change Committee, and will provide a pathway for Scotland to achieve net zero by 2045.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position on coal extraction in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements.

Having considered stakeholders’ views and the evidence received alongside wider Scottish Government energy and climate change policies, we confirmed our preferred policy position of no support for coal extraction in Scotland in October 2022.

The preferred policy position was subject to statutory and other assessments before the policy-making process was completed, including in our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4).

Following this comprehensive policymaking process, the Scottish Government’s finalised policy position is of no support for coal extraction in Scotland. The finalised policy statement can be viewed here: Onshore conventional oil and gas: policy position - gov.scot

Coal exploitation is a matter reserved to the UK Government, and the Mining Remediation Authority is responsible for licensing coal mining activity in Scotland. Scotland’s planning system is fully devolved to the Scottish Government. Scottish Ministers have today written to UK Ministers to set out our finalised position on coal extraction.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position on onshore conventional oil and gas in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements.

Having considered stakeholders’ views and the evidence received alongside wider Scottish Government energy and climate change policies, our preferred policy position of no support for onshore conventional oil and gas development in Scotland was confirmed in January 2023.

The preferred policy position was subject to statutory and other assessments before the policy-making process was completed, including in our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4).

Following this comprehensive policymaking process, the Scottish Government’s finalised policy position is of no support for onshore conventional oil and gas in Scotland. The finalised policy statement can be viewed here: www.gov.scot/publications/onshore-conventional-oil-and-gas-policy-position.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

The annual cost of blockages related to wet wipes and other items is some £7.5 million. The number of total blockages in 2024 was 34,635. Notably, around 80% of these blockages are due to the wrong items being put into the sewer network, such as wet wipes, sanitary products, and fats, oils, and grease.

The Scottish Government supported the work of Water UK in developing and promoting the “Fine to Flush” certification while this scheme was in operation. The labelling of products, including that of sanitary items such as wet wipes, remains a reserved issue. We are considering future options in this area.

The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.

As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.

In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information, although the level of access varies from Health Board to Health Board. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is exploring how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.

The Scottish Government have 880 live contracts and frameworks of which 42 are with voluntary organisations with details of these publicly available on the Public Contracts Scotland contract register. The Scottish Government requires suppliers to account for employment-related costs in its procurement processes, ensuring compliance with employment law and fair workforce practices and none have identified employment exclusions in the costs.

The Scottish Government has continually supported Scottish Water’s public awareness campaigns on the correct disposal of sanitary items, including wet wipes. Their current ‘Nature Calls’ campaign has a specific focus on binning and not flushing wet wipes. In addition, we have supported various public awareness campaigns run by environmental NGOs, including the Marine Conservation Society which is a valued member of our Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group.

Under the new model, neonatal intensive care will be delivered in three Neonatal Units in Scotland, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.

Of the 44,835 births in the year to 31 March 2024, numbers fluctuate, but Public Health Scotland data reports that around 4554 babies, in the same period, were admitted to neonatal care. The vast majority of babies (around 2300) needed Special Care or Transitional Care (delivered on postnatal wards). A further 1,200 needed High Dependency care, and around 800 were admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care. Around 50 – 60 of these babies a year will be affected by the change in model of care and will have their care delivered in one of the three neonatal intensive care units.

Babies will normally be cared for in the unit closest to home. In the north of Scotland, the Aberdeen neonatal unit already cares for babies from Grampian, Highland and the Island Boards, and at times of extreme pressure on neonatal intensive care, may also care for babies from other parts of Scotland.

Under the new model the smallest and sickest Tayside babies would be transferred to Aberdeen or Edinburgh. In 2024, 11 babies were born at less than 27 weeks gestation in Tayside Health Board, plus a small number of babies who require complex intensive care.

Scottish Government commissioned Consulting firm RSM UK Consulting LLP to undertake detailed modelling work to fully map the capacity requirements across the system to inform capacity building and implementation of the new model. The report was published on the 29 May 2024.