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The Scottish Government has worked closely with local authority partners to develop estimates for the cost of delivering universal free school meals in primary schools. It is estimated that the expansion would require recurring annual revenue funding of £79.7 million, one off revenue funding of £12.2 million, and capital funding of at least £135 million.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of NRS, to respond. NRS is responsible for the Scottish Register of Tartans website.

NRS is currently researching the needs of users of the website. Research outputs, internal business requirements and available budget will inform what steps NRS takes next.

Within the Scottish Government, funding of Health and Care Research comes under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

CSO funds research projects via its Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research (HIPS) Committee

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/grant-funding/response-mode-funding-schemes/

CSO funds capacity building research via its Fellowship Funding programmes

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/fellowship-funding/

Research funding is not allocated to any particular condition and CSO funds research across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through a process of independent expert review to allow funding decisions to be made. Applications on eosinophilic oesophagitis are welcomed and CSO's role is well known across the Health and Care research community in Scotland

The Scottish Government is committed to full and successful implementation of the new homelessness prevention duties.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 includes a provision that Part 5 (homelessness prevention, including ask and act) should be commenced no later than three years from Royal Assent (given November 2025). However, we are clear that relevant bodies do not have to wait for the duties to come into force to adopt the ask and act approach, based on shared responsibility and earlier intervention to prevent homelessness.

We are funding and currently commissioning learning from prevention pilots and independent research to assess the impact of the duties on the relevant bodies named in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, including health bodies.

This will help inform the development of guidance and secondary legislation in the coming period and support a smooth and effective rollout, ensuring that individuals are not discharged from hospital or other institutions into homelessness.

A review of local authorities’ statutory waste and recycling duties is currently in progress and due to conclude by the end of 2026.

The Scottish Government’s Circular Economy & Waste Route Map sets out an ambitious plan to deliver the priorities to 2030 that will help us progress to a circular economy and more sustainable resource use. A priority action in the Route Map is to co-design a new statutory Code of Practice for household recycling to set standards for waste collection services across Scotland, increase recycling rates and cut emissions.

The statutory Code of Practice is currently being co-designed with local authorities, businesses and other waste sector stakeholders to promote greater consistency in services and account for Scotland’s diverse communities and geography. It will also be informed by the findings of recent consultations on textile collections and rural food waste, actions also set out in the Route Map.

The draft Code of Practice will be published for consultation by the end of 2026.

Public Health Scotland publishes monthly Official Statistics on Delayed Discharge in NHS Scotland. The number of people delayed for more than four weeks at each monthly census point can be found in the detailed data tables for Standard delays and Code 9 (complex) delays.

Please note, the number of people delayed for Standard or Code 9 reasons at monthly census point reflects the main reason at the census point, and reasons for delay may change during a delay episode. The number of people delayed for four weeks or more for Standard reasons at monthly census point may therefore include some people who were delayed for complex (code 9) reasons during the same delay episode.

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhs-scotland-monthly-figures-for-november-2025

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36782/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_standard_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36781/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_code9_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx

The scoping exercise we commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to carry out for a national respiratory audit was completed in March 2024 but due to fiscal challenges PHS have been unable to progress the development of a national respiratory audit.

We continue to engage with the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee and stakeholders to improve standards of care and data collection for respiratory care across Scotland.

In Scotland, £600 is the notional study leave allocation per resident doctor in training. This allocation is a guide for resident doctors and Training Programme Directors (TPDs) rather than a spending requirement.

Study leave funding is aligned to curricular requirements and specialty competence development, not general employment-related mandatory training. Resident doctors are required to achieve competencies as set out within the relevant specialty curriculum. There is no defined list of “mandatory training” within the study leave policy.

Study leave budgets are not utilised for Once for Scotland mandatory training or for training required by employing Boards as part of local employment obligations.

I refer the member to my response to his Parliamentary Questions S6W-42512 and S6W-42514 on 12 January 2026. As I set out, broadcasting is a reserved issue, and the Scottish Government has long said that it should be devolved, so that services can best meet the needs of audiences in Scotland.

We are clear on the importance of people being able to continue to access the high-quality broadcast TV and radio services they rely on and enjoy, and we urge the UK Government to engage with all relevant parties to ensure that remains the case into the future, and to be particularly alert to the risk of inequitable impacts on vulnerable people, including those in rural communities and from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The health & wellbeing impacts of losing access to television should be a key part of the UK Government’s considerations, and I have written to them to set out our position on this issue.

Furthermore, and as set out previously, we are committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland has the skills, confidence, and access they need to participate fully in the digital world. The Scottish Government continues to help extend the reach of fast, reliable broadband infrastructure across Scotland through our £600M investment in the Reaching 100% (R100) programme and key role in delivering Project Gigabit in Scotland. In addition to digital inclusion programme delivery, we have commissioned and published research on a Minimum Digital Living Standard for Scotland, which will inform our future digital inclusion policy.

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 Scottish Government welcomes Audit Scotland’s report and has asked the Collaborative Response and Assurance group, which is co-chaired by the Scottish Government and CoSLA to come together to consider these recommendations as a whole and develop a partnership approach to addressing them. The Scottish Government remains committed to reforming the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) 2000 Act will which will play a critical role in embedding this recommendation in future.