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We welcomed the publication of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 1 report on pre-pandemic preparedness and resilience on 18 July 2024. On 16 January this year, in line with the timeframes set out by the Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, we published our response to her report and recommendations. Our response set out the actions and steps we are taking to address the Inquiry’s recommendations.

As requested by the Chair, we are today publishing our first six monthly progress report, setting out details of the action taken to date against each of the accepted recommendations. Since the Chair issued her report last year, we have been working together with our stakeholders, at all levels, to continue our efforts to make effective, practical and measurable improvements in pandemic planning preparedness.

Over the past six months the Scottish Government has been working, in partnership with local and national stakeholders and working as a four nations group, where appropriate, to implement the accepted recommendations within the timeframes set out in our response. During autumn 2025, the Scottish Government will be participating in the UK-wide pandemic exercise, Exercise Pegasus, to test our national and local preparedness for future pandemics. This is the first exercise of its kind in almost a decade.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Public Health Scotland to support the establishment of the National Scottish Pandemic Sciences Partnership, a key recommendation of the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness. The National Scottish Pandemic Sciences Partnership will augment our existing approach to pandemic preparedness and establish itself as a collaboration that leverages our strengths in pandemic science.

The Scottish Government recognises, however, that there is still further work to be done to ensure that Scotland is as resilient as possible to future risks and we are committed to taking the necessary steps. The Scottish Government looks forward to continuing to work closely with our partners and stakeholders to deliver these recommendations and we will provide our next progress update by the end of January 2026.

A copy of the progress report is available online at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836919100

Our next progress report will be provided in early 2026.

The Scottish Government has not had any recent discussions regarding potentially extending the regulatory protections pertaining to red deer to encompass native wild goat populations.

As set out in our response dated 25 May 2025 to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee’s consideration of Petition PE2151 – Grant Protected Status To Primitive Goat Species In The Scottish Borders, whilst feral goats can bring benefits, they are an invasive non-native species that can cause damage to the natural environment and forestry interests.

We currently have no plans to increase regulatory protection for primitive goats, or feral goats as they are more commonly known.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) conducted a review of the emergency departments of the three main receiving hospitals in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2024, and published a report on findings from the review on 27 March 2025.

Eleven recommendations from this report are of national, strategic relevance and the Scottish Government will work collaboratively with stakeholders, at pace, to implement improvements to the challenging environments recognised by HIS inspectors.

I wrote to the Chair and Chief Executive of HIS on 2 June to respond formally to each national recommendation. A copy of this letter has been published on the Scottish Government website today, Monday 30 June, which can be found here https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-greater-glasgow-and-clyde-emergency-department-review-response/.

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.

NHS Boards have exceeded the commitment to deliver 64,000 appointments and procedures in 2024-25, funded through our additional investment of £30 million to drive action to address the longest waits.

In 2024-25, Boards were required to provide regular management information to the Scottish Government on activity being delivered as a result of additional funding provided. Boards have reported delivery of 105,500 appointments and procedures, as follows:

Over 15,800 new outpatient appointments;

almost 10,700 surgeries; and

almost 79,000 diagnostic procedures delivered.

This total is around 30,000 more than reported to the end of January in the answer to question S6W-35115 on 20 February 2025.

Funding was targeted in specialties including Diagnostics, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Urology, and Cancer. Since April 2024, Scottish Government has been closely monitoring progress and impact. The volume of diagnostic procedures is almost double those originally planned for.

Across Scotland, the latest published data in the PHS Stage of Treatment Statistics show that, between October 2024 and December 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, there has been an 2.0% increase in activity for inpatient/daycase procedures and 1.6% increase for new outpatients appointments. Additionally, in relation to diagnostics, at the end of December 2024, the diagnostic waiting list had reduced by over 18,000 compared to end of April 2024. Since December 2022 the diagnostic waiting list has reduced by over 14,870. While changes to overall activity and waiting times cannot be solely attributed to the £30 million additional investment, we are confident that it has supported increased throughput.

At Board level, we have seen reductions in waiting times across a number of specialities where funding has been targeted, as set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the cost of delivering connectivity to individual Local Authorities through the R100 contracts. Costs for delivery of the R100 contracts are collected at contractual level and, as such, it is not possible to break that figure down for Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders only.

As of the end of March 2025, payments totalling £99.1 million have been made to our contract delivery partner Openreach for work to deliver infrastructure through the R100 South contract, including 6,741 connections in Dumfries and Galloway and 6,234 in the Scottish Borders.

The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is also part of the R100 programme. As of the end of March 2025, payments totalling £12.8 million have been made to registered suppliers for a total of 5,073 connections across Scotland, including 244 in Dumfries and Galloway and 313 in the Scottish Borders.

All children in Primaries 1 to 5 across Scotland are eligible for Free School Meals, including children living in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders.

The following table sets out the number of eligible pupils by year group and local authority area.