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Since November 2024, the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme has been live in all 31 Health and Social Care Partnership areas across Scotland for those aged 16 and over.

We also have three national referral pathways to DBI - via NHS24; and via call handling centres operated by both the Scottish Ambulance Service and Police Scotland. These provide additional options for key services to refer people for DBI support.

As at the end of July 2025, over 95,000 people have been referred to DBI.

With our partners across a range of sectors, we will look to continue to embed and grow the DBI programme across Scotland, building on its considerable success to date.

As previously noted to Mr Eagle on 4 September 2025, the First Minister and the President of the European Commission did not discuss Scottish Independence when they met on 26 July 2025.

The process for ordering a repeat prescription for contraception, such as the contraceptive pill or Depo injection, is the same as for any other prescription medication. Patients must have approval from their clinician for a repeat prescription. Most GP practices offer online ordering and many pharmacies also provide collection and delivery services which may be convenient for patients, including evening and weekend opening. Patients are advised to speak to their GP practice or local pharmacy to see what is the best option for them to obtain their medication.

The Scottish Government can confirm that the first meeting of the Strategic Business Forum on 28 August, which I chaired. Attendees included leads from a range of sectors as well as Business Representative Organisations and the discussion focussed on priority areas for the economy in the next Scottish Budget, the Scottish Spending Review and Public Sector Reform.

Representatives attended from Scottish Chambers of Commerce, FSB Scotland, IoD Scotland, CBI Scotland, Prosper, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Tourism Alliance as well as industry leaders representing the Construction, Energy, Life Sciences, Aerospace & Defence, Retail, Space, Forestry & Wood and Chemical Sciences sectors.

NHS Scotland expenditure on mental health is published annually in arrears in the Scottish Health Service Costs book by Public Health Scotland. The Cost Book is publicly accessible and offers a consistent framework for financial data across NHS Boards. The most recent data published in February 2025 covers 2023-2024. Costs Book publication - Costs Book - Finance within the NHS - System monitoring, accountability and quality of care - Healthcare system - Public Health Scotland.

The Scottish Government continuously monitors NHS Boards’ financial positions through routine finance reporting. This resource provides a standardised approach to collecting detailed financial information, including outturn, spend by specialty, and achievement of efficiency targets.

Since the question, S6W-00259, was answered in 2021, the Scottish National Centre for Craniofacial Surgery for Children & Young People in Glasgow has introduced craniofacial endoscopic strip craniectomy with helmet therapy.

Endoscopic strip craniectomy (ESC) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure offered as a treatment choice for children who meet specific clinical criteria presenting to the craniofacial clinic under 16 weeks of age. It is estimated that approximately 20 endoscopic procedures will be undertaken in Glasgow per year.

As a result of the introduction of ESC in Glasgow, NHS National Services Scotland’s National Services Directorate, who commission the craniofacial service, have no plans to review the pathway to Great Ormond Street Hospital for craniofacial therapy.

The referral pathway guidance was last revised in 2023, reflecting the changing landscape and improving specialist expertise within NHS Scotland, and the Scottish National Centre’s understanding of the need to operate within the critical window. This guidance is next due for review in July 2026.

The Scottish Government is working with key partners across Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, from patient health records is available to all healthcare staff when and where they need it.

Community pharmacists have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). Community Pharmacy gained access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) for all community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians during COVID-19. Directions formalising access to the ECS system came into force on 2 October 2023.

In addition, many health boards are providing access to the Clinical Portal which provides additional patient information. Clinical Portals support Health Boards to allow clinicians to access different pieces of information about an individual patient including patients from other Health Boards when required. Some Health Boards have opened access to their clinical portals to community pharmacy. We are encouraging all health boards to extend role-based access to Clinical Portals.

The Digital Health & Care Strategy, published 2021, sets out ambitions for greater access to medical information both for staff and the public. In the medium to longer term, as part of the Digital Health & Care strategy, a National Digital Platform is being developed and has started to bring together service data that is appropriately accessible to the workforce regardless of where they are based.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Spending on postage is an operational matter for individual NHS Boards to consider, as such, the information should be sought directly from each Board.

The Scottish Government is providing Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships (RTPs) with up to £15.5 million of capital grant funding from the People and Place Programme (total value £23.4 million, split between resource and capital).

The primary focus of the capital funding is to provide a programme of sustainable and active travel behaviour change interventions on a regional basis to encourage people to travel actively and more sustainably. In addition to the direct capital grant funding, RTPs can apply to the Tier 2 Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for both Design and Construction, and they worked with local authorities in receipt of Bus Infrastructure Fund awards.

There are no plans to amend the current criteria of the People and Places programme to include park and ride facilities as eligible capital projects.

In November 2024, the Scottish Government published a report on public bodies expenditure for 2022-23 (Public bodies expenditure: aggregated data for 2022-23 - gov.scot). The data was supplied by public bodies and indicates that total resource expenditure by public bodies was over £23 billion to deliver a huge range of services, including in Health, Education and Justice. Of this, public bodies spent almost £1.3 billion on running their corporate functions and another £2.3 billion was spent by those corporate functions. Public bodies passed through funding of over £7.6 billion to other organisations, including third and public sector organisations as well as private individuals. An additional £800 million was spent on the Scottish Government's own total operating costs.