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The Scottish Government is committed to making it safer and easier for people of all ages and abilities to choose active and sustainable travel.

The focus of active travel delivery at a local level is a matter for each Local Authority, but funding from the Scottish Government comes with a requirement to demonstrate delivery against the First Minister’s priorities.

Through a variety of programmes, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund, the People and Place Programme and Bikeability, Transport Scotland provides access to funding for Local Authorities that to support safer journeys to and from school.

The effectiveness of these programmes are monitored through individual project monitoring and evaluation at a national level through publications such as the Children’s Walking and Cycling Index, and the Hands up Scotland Survey, that since 2008 has presented information on how pupils across Scotland travel to school and nursery. Earlier this year, Cycling Scotland also published a three year independent evaluation of Bikeability.

Subject to the budget receiving parliamentary approval, in 2026-27 we will continue to work in partnership with Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to deliver active travel investments in our communities, including through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund to improve infrastructure, and through our regional People and Place behaviour change programme and Bikeability to provide the skills and knowledge for school pupils to make safe journeys to and from school.

Referral arrangements exist within NHS Scotland to allow patients to access specialist procedures not available locally. Where thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery is clinically indicated and not provided within NHS Lanarkshire, patients may be referred to another Board offering the procedure if that is appropriate.

Data on the number of referrals over the past five years is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This information may be obtained from NHS Lanarkshire and other relevant Boards.

The Scottish Government recognises that prolonged recovery and reduced function can have personal and economic implications for patients.

We expect Health Boards to consider these factors when planning surgical pathways and to prioritise patient outcomes, including functional recovery and impact on daily living.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring equitable access to all clinically approved surgical procedures, including thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery, across NHS Scotland.

Each NHS Board has a process for assessing and adopting innovative procedures with appropriate safeguards until a procedure becomes standard practice. At present though, there is insufficient long term data to recommend thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery as the routine standard of care.

Health Boards are expected to plan and deliver services in accordance with the needs of their local populations, ensuring that care is safe, effective, person-centred, and aligned with current clinical guidelines and best practice.

Currently, thumb carpometacarpal joint replacement surgery is offered in: NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, NHS Grampian, NHS Highland & NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (Inverclyde).

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that patients across Scotland receive consistent, evidence-based care for thumb arthritis.

We expect clinicians and NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice including from authoritative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including (NICE Guidelines NG226 on osteoarthritis care and NICE Interventional Procedure Guidance IPG111) and specialty groups including The British Society for Surgery of the Hand.

The Scottish Government does not undertake direct clinical outcome assessments.

Health Boards are expected to consider these factors when determining the most appropriate surgical option for individual patients, in line with current clinical guidelines and best practice. Such as the guidance shared in response to S6W-42776 on 7 January 2026.

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 definition of ‘rewilding’ in the report ‘Defining Rewilding for Scotland's Public Sector’ prepared for the Scottish Government by the James Hutton Institute, has never been adopted by the Scottish Government.

While the Scottish Government does not use the term rewilding, it recognises that the term includes many interventions which the Scottish Government and NatureScot actively support. For example, our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund has committed over £65 million since 2021 to unlock the full potential that nature restoration projects can bring to communities.

In addition, our Biodiversity Delivery Plan sets out over 100 actions that need to be taken to ensure a nature-positive Scotland by 2030. A key action in the first Delivery Plan is the creation of Nature Networks in each local authority area in Scotland. These create habitat corridors and stepping stones, which help species to migrate in response to our changing climate.

The definition of ‘rewilding’ in the report ‘Defining Rewilding for Scotland's Public Sector’ prepared for the Scottish Government by the James Hutton Institute, has never been adopted by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not use the term rewilding, which encompasses a wide range of activities and can be interpreted in different ways.

The Scottish Government commissioned research by the James Hutton Institute in 2023 which considered the definition of ‘rewilding’ for public bodies in Scotland. Ministers accepted and published the report in 2023 but concluded that the term ‘rewilding’ remains contested and does not, therefore, provide useful clarity for policy purposes.