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Through the 2025-26 Scottish Budget the Scottish Government has provided £5 million for independent hospices. This is to help independent hospices achieve pay parity for staff supporting clinical care with NHS levels for 2025-26.

Public procurement legislation provides that bidders may be excluded from a tender exercise in some circumstances.

Any decision to exclude a bidder must be evidenced-based and proportionate. It must also consider any evidence which the bidder provides of “self-cleansing” measures it has taken, such as co-operation with investigating authorities, payment of compensation, or appropriate organisational and personnel changes intended to prevent further misconduct.

Decisions about whether to exclude a bidder from any given procurement process must be made on a case-by-case basis, and are for the contracting authority carrying out that process.

The Scottish Government does not hold a record of companies which have been excluded.

There is no direct evidence of a link between available care home places and suicide rates or risks, though we are seeking to understand the suicide risks for older adults. Suicide Prevention Scotland is undertaking work to build this understanding and the effective interventions to address these risks.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures people get the right care, at the right time, in the right place. Although we have overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, the statutory responsibility for delivering, commissioning, providing appropriate social care capacity and charging for services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS boards and integrated health and social care partnerships.

This year we have made available over £14 billion to local authorities, a real terms increase of 4.3 per cent, with a record £15 billion for 2025-26 set out in the Scottish Budget, a further real terms increase of 4.7 per cent. But it would be for these local authorities to assess local population needs and where investment needs to be targeted to improve the social care infrastructure within their relevant area.

Suicide prevention is a key priority for the Scottish Government and we published an ambitious 10-year Suicide Prevention Strategy: Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-2032 Creating Hope Together and Action Plan:creating-hope-together-scotlands-suicide-prevention-action-plan-2022-2025.pdf with COSLA in September 2022. This strategy recognises the complex factors affecting suicide, and our action plan sets out the wide programme of work we are taking forward with partners - across the public, private, third sector and communities - to ensure everyone affected by suicide can access compassionate, appropriate and timely support.

Scottish Government has met the Programme for Government commitment to double suicide prevention annual funding to £2.8m in the current parliamentary term, which is helping us to drive forward our ambitious strategy and action plan.

The Scottish Government continues to encourage innovative solutions to support equitable access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across Scotland.

Cross-pavement charging solutions represent a practical approach to EV users who do not have access to off-street parking to access home charging, enabling them to access cheaper tariffs. We recognise the potential of this initiative to support our broader ambitions for a just transition to net zero and to reduce barriers to EV adoption.

That is why in August this year in East Lothian I officially launched the Scottish Government launched the Cross-Pavement Charging Grant, which offers up to £3,500 to support the installation of cross-pavement charging solutions. So far, three Local Authorities – East Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and Renfrewshire – are participating in this pilot.

We would welcome more local authorities participating. My officials and Energy Saving Trust (EST) are currently in discussion with a number of local authorities about taking part in the scheme.

To further encourage uptake of cross-pavement charging, the Scottish Government is actively engaging with local authorities through the SCOTS (Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) network. This engagement includes the sharing of technical guidance, case studies from pilot areas, and support to assess local feasibility.

In addition, the Scottish Government is working to ensure that any deployment of cross-pavement charging solutions do not compromise pedestrian safety or the integrity of public footpaths.

We remain committed to supporting local authorities in identifying consistent and safe approaches to cross-pavement charging solutions, and we will continue to work collaboratively to ensure that innovative solutions such as EV cable channels can be deployed effectively and equitably across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is investing £200 million to reduce waiting times, improve hospital flow, and minimise delayed discharges. This includes £85 million in 2025–26 to support unscheduled care improvements, such as expanding frailty services, Discharge without Delay, and Hospital at Home. Funding has been allocated based on boards’ needs and priorities, including frailty provision and performance.

All NHS boards now have access to frailty services, with tailored models being developed to meet local needs. Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) are providing practical improvement support to local systems to increase capacity and improve front door frailty pathways - an update on progress will be provided in the autumn. While not every board has a dedicated frailty unit in place, work is ongoing to develop or enhance these where appropriate, tailored to local needs and infrastructure.

While current A&E performance is below the levels we all wish to see, we are working closely with boards to manage pressures. These measures are already delivering early results—improving outcomes, reducing delays, and helping shift care from hospital to home.

Our national action plan on relationships and behaviour in schools includes a commitment to refresh our national guidance on attendance – Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1.

Consideration of guidance on part-time timetables has been identified as a key priority for this work. We will also seek to strengthen recording and monitoring processes in the refreshed guidance.

We have established a working group to support this work and we anticipate refreshed guidance will be published in early 2026 to support local authorities, who are responsible for school attendance.

Part-time learning is a decision which should be taken in agreement with the school and the local authority. It should take into account the circumstances of the individual learner including the existing planning arrangements in place for the child or young person.

We continue to work with all our partners to ensure that all children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full potential.

We are refreshing our national guidance on attendance – Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1 to set a clear expectation that any use of part-time timetables includes a plan to support the young person return to full time education at the earliest appropriate point. We anticipate refreshed guidance will be published in early 2026.

We continue to work with our partners to ensure that all children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full potential.

Pupil support staff play a vital role in the education of our children and young people. Scottish Ministers have invested £15m per year since 2019-20, helping local authorities to respond to the individual needs of children and young people and to maintain near-record levels of pupil support staff in Scotland. In addition, the Scottish Government are investing an additional £29 million to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce, in a context of record spend of over £1 billion by local authorities on ASN in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government does not hold data for diagnostic waiting times and outcomes for younger people presenting with potential cancer symptoms.

Cancer waiting times data is collected by Public Health Scotland (PHS). The most up-to-date data was published in September 2025, and can be found on the PHS website: Cancer waiting times - 1 April to 30 June 2025 - Cancer waiting times - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Data is collected for two cancer waiting times standards for individuals (aged 16 or older at the date of diagnosis) who have a newly diagnosed primary cancer. These are:

• a 31-day standard from decision to treat until first treatment, regardless of the route of referral.
• a 62-day standard from urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, including referrals from national cancer screening programmes, until first treatment.