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There are no current plans to amend the three month time limit for a tenant to apply to the First-Tier Tribunal where a landlord has failed to meet tenancy deposit requirements.

There are no current plans to change the First-Tier Tribunal rules around judicial discretion in respect of Regulation 9(2) of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

The Scottish Government received a total of 26 request for review of Future Farming Investment Scheme applications. 19 for those were for applications that were rejected and 7 for those deemed ineligible. All those who requested a review were responded to.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43447 on 9 February 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.

Dr Henrietta Hughes published her report, which was about financial and non-financial redress for persons affected by transvaginal mesh or the medicine sodium valproate, on 7 February 2024. The report was commissioned by the previous UK Government, but the present UK Government has undertaken to consider and respond to it. Regrettably, it has not yet responded.

Dr Hughes is the Patient Safety Commissioner for England and her report and recommendations were concerned in the first place with affected persons in England, but both Dr Hughes and the UK Government have acknowledged that people across the UK have been affected, and also that issues relevant to the report, notably the regulation of medicines and medical devices, concern UK-wide responsibilities of the UK Government.

Since the publication of the Hughes Report the Scottish Government has been working closely with the other Devolved Governments to seek a response from the UK Government. Scottish Government Ministers wrote to Ministers of the present UK Government about the report in October 2024, in February 2025 and again in July 2025, to seek meetings and assurances that the Devolved Governments would be consulted about any potential UK Government response. Ministers from the other Devolved Governments wrote in similar terms, also on a number of occasions.

A meeting between the four UK Health Ministers was finally agreed to in December 2025, and took place last month. Despite this meeting, it remains the case that the UK Government has made no substantial proposals about how it might respond to the recommendations concerned with financial redress; nor so far has it stated a date by which it might seek to publish a response.

Whilst the UK Government published a spending review on 11 June 2025 setting out plans from financial year 2026-27 to the end of 2028-29, there was no specific provision to respond to the Hughes Report.

The second anniversary of the Hughes Report’s publication approaches and anyone affected will have wholly reasonable expectations that the UK Government would have responded to the report by now, and in a substantial way. I consider it unreasonable and unfair that they have had to wait for two years and possibly now for even longer.

I therefore wish to note in particular that, to date, the Scottish Government has received no proposals from the UK Government for any schemes of financial redress that would constitute a substantial implementation of the recommendations made by Dr Hughes. We stand ready to consider any proposals from the UK Government, but we do not consider we are able to make proposals independently of them.

I appreciate that this information will be disappointing for those affected, but I wish to assure the Parliament that I will continue to push for a resolution.

Both the Scottish Government and the NHS in Scotland will continue to offer help and assistance to women affected by transvaginal mesh and people affected by sodium valproate. We will continue to offer mesh removal surgery, both in the NHS and with independent sector surgeons, if that is what patients prefer. We also continue to explore how support for people harmed by valproate might be organised in Scotland. Public Health Scotland has established a National Medicines in Pregnancy ‘surveillance asset’ focussed on anti-seizure medicines, including valproate, that are known or suspected to have potential to increase the risk of birth defects and development disorders when taken during pregnancy.

The Scottish Government appreciates that there is interest in these issues and support for people affected among members in all the parties represented in the Parliament. We will continue to keep Members informed about significant developments.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of actions to support people to access affordable home ownership in rural and island communities.

We operate the Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT), which includes:

• Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) Scheme – helping eligible purchasers buy a home available on the open market.
• New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) – enabling people to buy a newly built home from a housing association or local authority.

At the National Farmers Union Conference later today, the First Minister will also make clear his intention to develop a Rural and Island Housing Grant Scheme (RIHGS) in collaboration with the rural and housing sectors. The scheme will have an indicative budget of up to £20 million over four years and will provide modest capital grants to help people secure properties as permanent homes in rural and island communities.

We recognise that access to good-quality, affordable housing is essential to attracting and retaining people in rural and island areas. The new RIHGS will complement the Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, published in October 2023, which was shaped through strong partnership working with stakeholders across rural and island communities.

Acknowledging the impact of the revaluation, we are protecting business by introducing a Revaluation Transitional Relief to protect those most affected and will cap increases in gross bills up to the next revaluation in 2029. Increases in non-domestic gross liabilities due to revaluation will be capped at 15 per cent (cash terms) in 2026-27 for small properties, rising in subsequent years, with higher caps for larger properties. This relief will ensure that the gross bills of around 60,000 properties are lower in 2026-27 than they otherwise would have been. Table 1 shows the year-on-year caps by rateable value bracket. No property class or size is excluded from Revaluation Transitional Relief eligibility.

Table 1: Year-on-year Revaluation Transitional Relief caps (%), 2026-27 to 2028-29

The Scottish Government has taken into account the commissioning of the Gill Review on the valuation methodology applied to licensed hospitality premises in its financial planning. The Review is independent of government.

The NHS Grampian Assurance Board was established in July 2025. It commissioned an independent diagnostic review to help inform NHS Grampian’s approach to system redesign and service transformation.

A sub-group of the Assurance Board has been established to advise on the Board’s approach to a strategic review of their workforce planning. This work is in the early stages of development, and the Assurance Board is expecting to consider the approach and associated work plan in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland. Operational matters, including local recruitment decisions, are the responsibility of each NHS Health Board as employers.

Whilst it is hoped that all graduates can join the NHS in their local area upon graduation, this is not always immediately possible. When a student is ready to graduate and cannot find employment with a local health board, universities will provide support and career guidance to assist the student in the consideration of all employment opportunities across health and social care.

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen workforce planning across NHS Scotland, we have developed an internal panel (the Advisory Panel on Workforce Projections & Controlled Subject Intakes) to improve our healthcare student planning, ensuring we continue to fund the right number of healthcare training places across a range of disciplines.

In addition, we have tasked the NHS Scotland Centre for Workforce Supply to explore what further national support is required to promote employment opportunities in Scotland and we are working alongside the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group to identify what action can be taken to support newly qualified nurses to access employment in health and social care across the country.