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Scottish Government officials met with the Association of British Credit Unions Limited in December 2024 (and are due to meet them again in August) and with the Scottish League of Credit Unions in February 2025. Officials and Ministers have also met with individual credit unions over that time and representatives of the credit union sector attended the June meeting of the Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD). Discussions covered the current operating environment for the sector, opportunities to strengthen resilience and sustainability, and ways in which the Scottish Government and industry can work together to improve access to financial services. Topics also included ongoing engagement on policy developments, the promotion of ethical and affordable financial products, and the role of the sector in supporting financial inclusion across Scotland.

There are no devolved elements of the UK Government’s delivery plan on ME/CFS. It covers the population of England only.

We are unable to formally endorse the Plan due to differing healthcare systems and statutory structures.

However, the UK Government shared anonymised responses to its public consultation on the draft Plan from stakeholders living in Scotland with the Scottish Government. We are taking these views into account as we progress our ongoing work on ME/CFS.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an additional £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for long COVID, ME/CFS and other similar conditions. We want this money to have maximum impact and we are working closely and carefully with health boards across Scotland to allocate it as quickly and effectively as possible.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded with other health research organisations the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership that has published priorities for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) research. In addition, CSO with other research funders have developed a toolkit for researchers to guide them on funding streams that provide opportunities for ME/CFS research. These streams include CSO’s open competitive grant and fellowship schemes that fund applied health research across a wide remit, inclusive of ME/CFS research as well as National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) programmes that can also fund ME/CFS research in Scotland with CSO’s financial contribution to NIHR opening these programmes to applications from researchers in Scotland. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

There are no devolved elements of the UK Government’s delivery plan on ME/CFS. It covers the population of England only.

We are unable to formally endorse the Plan due to differing healthcare systems and statutory structures.

However, the 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an additional £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for long COVID, ME/CFS and other similar conditions. We want this money to have maximum impact and we are working closely and carefully with health boards across Scotland to allocate it as quickly and effectively as possible.

The provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of NHS health boards. In commissioning boards’ plans for this funding we have stressed the importance of ensuring that services are informed by current clinical best practice, such as National Institute for Excellence in Healthcare (NICE) guidelines NG:206 and NG:188– which are available to clinicians across the UK - and that care is delivered in line with the relevant recommendations, wherever applicable.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the credit union sector in Scotland. At the most recent meeting of the Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD)in June, representatives of the sector confirmed they are working with Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) to establish a Scottish specific group that will bring all of the credit unions and industry bodies in Scotland together for the first time. This will enable a more unified approach to engagement and support for the sector going forward.

The number of credit unions in Scotland is publicly available through the Bank of England’s annual statistics, which are published online.

The Scottish Government is responsible for setting the strategic policy direction for NHS Scotland and its workforce, including interventional neuroradiologists.

Operational matters, including the staffing of individual services, are the responsibility of each NHS Scotland Health Board. At a local level, the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 places duties on Health Boards to ensure that suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

It should be noted that the North of Scotland thrombectomy service utilises Interventional Radiologists, whereas the West and East of Scotland services utilise Interventional Neuroradiologists.

Workforce statistics across NHS Scotland, can be found at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally. Thrombolysis is available 24/7 across Scotland.