Seòmar agus comataidhean

To support work with refugees, people seeking asylum and local communities, the Scottish Government provides funding to organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council to ensure that all people seeking refugee protection in Scotland are welcome, where women, children and men are protected, find safety and support, have their human rights and dignity respected and are able to achieve their full potential.

Refugee Festival Scotland, is coordinated by Scottish Refugee Council. The breakdown of indirect funding to Refugee Festival Scotland each year since 2021 can be found in the answer to question S6W-37679 on 30 May 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is playing a key role in delivering Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland, alongside delivery of our own £600M+ Reaching 100% programme. As such, there are currently no plans to launch further procurements beyond those that are already underway.

The Highlands and Islands forms part of existing contracts and procurements, with premises across the region included in the R100 North contract, the nationwide Project Gigabit contract awarded to Openreach by BDUK last summer and a regional procurement currently underway to connect further premises in Orkney and Shetland. This is further supplemented by our Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme and improved 4G coverage provided by our Scottish 4G Infill programme.

This information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact NHS Highland, NHS Western Isles, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Grampian who may be able to provide this information.

This information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact NHS Highland, NHS Western Isles, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Grampian who may be able to provide this information.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. In relation to pregnancy loss only miscarriages that require hospital inpatient or daycase treatment are recorded by NHS Boards, making accurate data collection impossible.

The number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in NHS Highland, NHS Western Isles, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland, NHS Western Isles and NHS Grampian in each year since 2021 can be found in the National Records of Scotland Vital Events publications https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/births-deaths-marriages-and-life-expectancy/# and https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20241128121908/https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/vital-events-reference-tables

We have committed significant investment in the renewal of play parks, providing £35 million to Local Authority partners since September 2021. In 2025-26 we are providing a further £25 million to help accelerate Local Authorities’ plans and make our parks welcoming, free and accessible spaces for all children to enjoy.

The allocations for the requested local authorities are provided in the following table. No funding has been returned as unspent.

The loss of a baby, no matter at what stage of pregnancy is a traumatic event that can have a profound impact on families. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that women and families who have experienced a pregnancy or baby loss receive the right information, care and support tailored to their individual circumstances, this includes high quality, sensitive bereavement care and support.

For most parents who have suffered a pregnancy loss, bereavement and grief support provided by their Health Board or local third sector organisations will meet their needs and they will not require specialist mental health services.

To help ensure that this happens, we are funding the baby loss charity Sands to develop and support NHS Boards to implement the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) for pregnancy and baby loss in Scotland. Sands worked with health professionals, bereaved parents, other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to develop the pathways, putting voices of bereaved parents at the heart of their development.

Additionally, the Delivery Framework for Miscarriage Care in Scotland was published by the Scottish Government on 6 February 2025. This highlights work we are initiating to map existing mental health services available following a pregnancy and baby loss to ensure that women can access appropriate mental health support, should they require it in addition to bereavement care. This work includes considering how counselling and psychological services (including third sector organisations) could be expanded or improved to provide appropriate support for those impacted, where they don’t require more specialised NHS support.

A small number of parents experience more complicated grief and may benefit from engagement with specialist mental health services. If a parent is identified as requiring Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention (MNPI) services in Scotland after the loss of their baby, they would typically be referred by their midwife, GP or other healthcare professional.

MNPI services in Scotland can provide specialist psychological support to parents experiencing difficulties related to pregnancy or baby loss. These services are offered by multidisciplinary teams within NHS Scotland, including clinical psychologists and specialist midwives, and aim to support the emotional well-being of individuals and families during this sensitive time.

Information on average waiting times for psychological services specifically following (a) pregnancy loss, (b) stillbirth, and (c) neonatal death is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Psychological services are delivered by NHS Boards. Boards report their overall performance against the 18 week referral to treatment standard, and this data, published quarterly by Public Health Scotland, does not include the reason for referral at this level of detail.

We continue to work with all NHS Boards to improve access to mental health and psychological services, including specific support for perinatal mental health and bereavement.

The Scottish Government does not have a central record of details of engagement with non-government organisations or of how every Parliamentary Question is handled.

Approximately 61% of the additional funding for National Treatment Centre (NTC) Highland will be used to support ophthalmic procedures. NTC Highland have planned to deliver over 3,500 cataract procedures with this funding.