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The Scottish Government will seek to review and revise the current guidance in the coming months. However, this review will need to be cognisant of the likely requirements of the alignment position with the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, which proposes further measures in relation to the operation of wastewater networks.

The Scottish Government withdrew the Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) on 28 May 2025, leaving NICE Guideline NG206 as the default clinical guidance on ME/CFS. This will help provide clarity to NHS Boards as providers of care for people in their area with ME/CFS.

Work is ongoing to determine how the additional £4.5 million announced in the 2025-26 budget to deliver new specialist support for ME/CFS, long COVID and other similar conditions will be allocated to NHS boards, what conditions it will cover and the services it will prioritise. We want this money to have maximum impact and are working closely and carefully with boards across Scotland to allocate it as quickly and effectively as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38244 on 17 June 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/questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) Test and Learn Project was launched in 2023. In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of partnerships between Scottish institutions and their international partners.

In year 2, the Scottish Government invested £535,000 in SEEP enabling students from Scottish institutions who would not meet the criteria for Turing Scheme funding to participate in a mobility project. In year 2, 14 projects contained a student mobility element.

An external evaluation of the SEEP is currently underway which will contain further detail on funded projects. The report is due to be published late summer.

Data relating to the Turing scheme is provided by the UK Government. The year 1 (2021-22) figures have been published:

Turing Scheme funding outcomes 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38250 on 17 June 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

In the following table, details are provided of the exact amount of funding that has been allocated to the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme each year since 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38244 on 17 June 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/questions-and-answers.

The Thistle will undergo a comprehensive, independent evaluation, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and led by a collaboration of academic institutions, including the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian University, and other expert research partners.

The number of eligible Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) applicants each year from 2021 and how many of these were new entrant farmers is detailed in the following table.

Foreign authorities sometimes request assurances from Scotland in response to an extradition request because they must be satisfied that requested persons will not be subject to treatment that breaches their human rights. Assurances, by their nature, require more work to be done in order to secure the extradition of a requested person, therefore, all cases where assurances are sought necessarily involve some element of additional delay. The most commonly sought assurances relate to prison standards and the nature of healthcare available in prisons.

Pre-Brexit, assurance requests from the EU were rare due to the principle of mutual trust and respect accorded between EU member states. However, post-Brexit, the number of assurances and the complexity of the specific asks increased as courts, both Scottish and Foreign, must consider the system the requested person will be surrendered to in greater detail and with greater scrutiny due to the loss of mutual recognition between the UK and EU.

The Scottish Government is aware of one extradition which was temporarily blocked by an Irish court in 2023 following a negative judicial finding regarding the first set of assurances provided. The requested person was subsequently extradited to Scotland in 2024 following the provision of updated assurances by the Scottish authorities.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any other international or foreign court blocking any extradition.