Seòmar agus comataidhean

The 2025-26 budget provides £139 million additional investment for health infrastructure which allows some work to resume on delivering new acute facilities, and supporting Boards’ priority maintenance.

Despite this increase, following the outcome of the UK Government’s Spending Review, the capital funding position remains challenging. As a result, it remains the case that we cannot replace or upgrade health infrastructure as quickly as we might wish to –a position that is not unique to Scotland.

We are working with all health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan to inform strategic investment priorities across the NHS estate. This work supports continued safe operation of existing facilities and will inform determination of longer-term investment priorities.

A key part of this longer-term planning work is development of an investment strategy for primary care, considering both priorities and delivery model.

Prior to the implementation of Oracle Cloud, the Scottish Government’s previous HR Information System did not require Job Title to be a mandatory field for completion. This meant that individuals could be operational in substantive posts, but with missing or out of date job titles recorded on the system.

There are 45 civil servants, directly employed by the Scottish Government, whose Job Title does not appear on the organisation’s HR Information System, Oracle Cloud, when a report is downloaded. Further information on Scottish Government workforce numbers is available here Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot).

A Professions Strategy is in operation within Scottish Government. This enhances workforce management by adopting a classification system that links all jobs to a profession and a related job family and job type. While the majority of jobs have been through this classification system in preparation for Oracle Cloud going live, there is a small minority of roles (~7%) still to be formally classified which Scottish Government are currently progressing.

The Scottish Government will continue to actively engage with our partners and our farming industry through Autumn 2025 to inform the drafting of the first Rural Support Plan and to meet the requirements set out by the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 on engagement. This process will not involve the publication of a draft plan. The 2024 Act requires the Scottish Minister to lay a statement describing the engagement undertaken in respect of the plan at the same time as laying the plan. The Scottish Government intends to complete this process and publish the first Rural Support Plan in December 2025.

For further background I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39056 on 10 July 2025. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39888 on 9 September 2025. 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 can confirm there is no transport service, including taxi provision, available to support individuals who use drugs, in travelling to and from the Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility (The Thistle).

The deployment of officers and staff are matters for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has stated that, “The nature of policing is unpredictable, and overtime is a flexible mechanism which can help to ensure we maintain an effective service for all our communities”

The Scottish Government is investing a record £1.64 billion in policing in 2025-26, an increase of almost £90 million of additional funding from the 2024-25 budget to support police capacity and capability. Our investment in policing has enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception in 2024-25. Police Scotland has stated that it has a healthy recruitment pipeline.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation which aims to bring frontline policing to its strongest possible position.

As the tax authority with responsibility for the collection and management of Scotland’s devolved taxes, Revenue Scotland publishes data on its website regarding Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Revenue Scotland has published a local authority breakdown of the numbers claiming Land and Buildings Transaction Tax first-time buyer relief for the years 2021-22 to 2024-25. The relevant table can be accessed at: Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Statistics | Revenue Scotland

Decisions on the rates and bands in place for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax are considered annually as part of the Scottish Budget.

As set out in Scottish Budget 2025-26, the conclusions of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax review will support decisions in the next Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government has increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, and £1.64 billion in 2025-26.

Decisions on how these resources are allocated, including the deployment of police officers, is a matter for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.

The total costs of overtime paid by Police Scotland to its workforce over the last five financial years are detailed in the following table.

Data on Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Additional Dwelling Supplement transactions, revenues and repayments is collected and published monthly by Revenue Scotland.

There is however no specific and attributable data available on the impact of the Additional Dwelling Supplement increase to 8%. As a range of other tax and non-tax factors may impact on Scotland’s property market, it is not possible to attribute any specific impact of the increase in the rate without a detailed analysis over a longer period.