Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. However, we have been able to access the data held by National Records of Scotland (NRS) for the years 2010 and 2015. (Please see table attached). As at
31 March 2025, there are 2,938 GDS dentists, up c.5% over the last year and there are 3,249 primary care dentists, an increase of 4.2% over the last year.

Currently there are 110 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Civil Servants in the NCS Programme working on wider social care reform. Within the 110 (FTE) we have four staff working on the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill.

In the 2 years of SEEP Test and learn Scottish colleges and universities planned to collaborate with over 100 international partners across 38 countries. Please see a list below of countries partnered with in year one and year two.

1.Argentina

2.Australia

3.Belgium

4.Brazil

5.Canada

6.China

7.Czech Republic

8.Denmark

9.Egypt

10.Estonia

11.Finland

12.Flanders

13.France

14.Germany

15.Ghana

16.Greece

17.Hong Kong

18.India

19.Indonesia

20.Ireland

21.Japan

22.Italy

23.Lithuania

24.Malaysia

25.Nepal

26.Netherlands

27.Pakistan

28.Singapore

29.Spain

30.South Africa

31.South Korea

32.Sweden

33.Taiwan

34.UAE

35.Uruguay

36.USA

37.Valencia

38.Vietnam

Institutions are able to top up their project fund using additional funding provided by the project’s international partner. Twenty-two of the fifty-six projects funded to date planned to top up their project.

An external evaluation due to be published later in the summer will provide an analysis of the SEEP projects which will include further detail on how institutions used additional funding.

The Scottish Government does not receive any funding from external organisations or international partners for the SEEP test and learn project.

The Scottish Government’s supplementary Financial Memorandum, to reflect the scaled-back care reform proposals for the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, was published on the Health, Social Care & Sport Committee’s website on 25 March 2025.

Dualling of the A9 will improve connectivity of the Highlands with the Central Belt of Scotland, reducing journey times and improving journey time reliability. Whilst dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness is likely to support delivery of some of the projects identified in the Project Willow report, where those entail transportation of materials by road to or from the Highlands, it is unlikely that dualling would be necessary for delivery of those projects.

All public bodies, including Police Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service, are expected to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and other relevant legislation.

Compliance with the Act is a matter for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC operates independently and cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

The EHRC publishes statutory Codes of Practice and associated guidance on the Equality Act 2010 to assist bodies to better understand and comply with their legal obligations under the Act.

Project Willow sets out a truly transformative future for Grangemouth and will be possible if the public and private sectors work together. The current 10 year Deal was signed in November 2024, so our focus is on delivering the Growth Deal, which commits £50 million of Scottish Government funding over ten years to projects in the area. The Deal will complement the aims of Project Willow and we will work with partners to progress both the Deal and Project Willow. As previously stated, there are no plans for a further Deal.

The citation of witnesses is a matter for the independent Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Scottish Government is, however, supporting justice partners to drive reforms to improve our criminal justice system to make it more efficient and ensure that it works better for everyone.

That will include reducing the number of police witnesses who are required to attend court and reducing the length of time that cases take. It will also mean enabling more cases to be concluded earlier, and fewer victims and civil witnesses needing to come to court.

Two key programmes being rolled out across Scotland are the judicially led summary case management programme, which provides a new approach to summary criminal cases, and the digital evidence sharing capability programme, which allows digital evidence to be shared at the earliest opportunity including the evidence from Body Worn Video technology which is being rolled out by Police Scotland this year. It is anticipated that combined these will deliver benefits for both civil and professional witnesses.

This year Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will commence payments to local authorities to support efficient and effective collection services for household packaging waste. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26). This additional funding will ensure that local authorities are supported to deliver household collection of packaging waste across Scotland.

The Circular Economy Route map commits Scottish Government to co-design the new Code of Practice to create modern, efficient, and affordable waste and recycling service standards that are deliverable. This includes ensuring the most effective approaches to implementing kerbside collection of plastic film and flexible packaging in Scotland. Individual local authority performance targets and pEPR payments will also help underpin increased collection and aggregation. The Recycling Improvement Fund has already helped two authorities to collect flexible plastic from households across their full authority area (Fife and Perth & Kinross).

The UK Plastic Packaging Tax incentivises the use of recycled plastic by taxing plastic packaging components containing less than 30% recycled plastic. From April 2027 changes to this tax will mean that pre-consumer plastic waste will not count towards this percentage, further acting as a “pull” to increase use of recycled content. The tax has increased from £210.82 per tonne in 2023 to £223.69 per tonne on April 1, 2025.