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The Scottish Government have a long history of working with local authorities and COSLA to make sure council finances are sustainable and will continue to work with our partners across the public sector to address any budget challenges.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government will continue to work with our partners on how we operate and collaborate on reforming public services to ensure communities across Scotland continue to receive high quality, sustainable public services that they expect and deserve.

I am proud that we continue to provide Care Experienced students with unparalleled support through the Care Experienced Bursary (CEB).

The Scottish Government gather data on the uptake of the CEB in both Further and Higher Education each Academic Year. The £225 per week rate is for Further Education students. The most recent data we hold is from Academic Year 2023-24 and shows that a total of 3,050 Further Education students accessed the bursary.

The age breakdown of those students highlighted that around a third of the total number were under the age of 18. Based on the information we hold, we cannot confirm if those of school age were incentivised by the CEB to leave school early.

Colleges provide education and training for a wide group of learners with different backgrounds, experience and levels of prior attainment; giving them the opportunity to achieve their potential and obtain recognised qualifications required for a skilled workforce.

It is important to the Scottish Government that those Care Experienced students looking to enter or remain in Further Education have access to consistent levels of support irrespective of their age. This ensures parity in the support available and works to remove any barriers, evidenced by the Commission on Widening Access report, that Care Experienced students may face when progressing in their education.

The Office of the Public Guardian is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). As a non-ministerial public body, decisions on the allocation of the SCTS budget are a matter for the judicially led SCTS Board.

In recognition of the ongoing pressures on SCTS, including the Office of the Public Guardian, in each of the last three years additional funding has been provided by the Scottish Government.

In addition to the funding allocation in the Budget Bill, the SCTS receives income primarily from civil court fees and retained fines; in-year funding from the Scottish Government related to non-baseline areas; and through the Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) budget.

Within the 2023-24 Budget, the Scottish Government provided additional funding through RRT to SCTS totalling £26.8m which included £0.3m for OPG recovery. The Scottish Government also provided SCTS with £4.7m in additional capital funding, on top of their £8m baseline capital allocation. The additional £4.7m was to support a number of priority SCTS capital projects, including towards the costs in 2023-24 of the replacement of the Office of the Public Guardian IT system.

In the 2024-25 Budget an additional £9.7 million resource funding and £3.9 million additional capital budget was provided to SCTS.

In the 2025-26 Budget an additional £11.5m resource funding and £2.0m capital funding has been provided to the SCTS (compared to the 2024-25 budget bill allocation).

Scottish Information Commissioner Decision 279/2025 is now the subject of live litigation proceedings. The Scottish Government is therefore not in a position to provide further information at this time regarding any advice it may have received, or any costs associated with this.

As set out under the Scottish Ministerial Code, the First Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister. The First Minister's Independent Advisers on the Scottish Ministerial Code have considered this matter fully and their report is now available at: Ministerial code investigation: complaint about Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs - gov.scot.

The First Minister has accepted the conclusions and recommendations of the report in full. A letter from the First Minister to the Justice Secretary can be found at: Ministerial Code investigation: First Minister letter to Justice Secretary - gov.scot.

To date, the only costs associated with developing a unique learner number relate to staff resource to consider options to ensure best use of public funds. As work progresses, a range of options will be fully assessed and evaluated to ensure any future spending represents good value for public funds.

Whilst we recognise the potential long-term benefits of a unique learner number (ULN), it is a wide-ranging issue requiring careful consideration and we continue to explore how this could be delivered for Scotland. This is complex work which is inherently cross-cutting in nature, and potentially involves sharing the personal, sensitive data of millions of individuals, primarily children and young people. It is right that this work is done properly and thoroughly.

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

Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office

CSO funds capacity building research via its Fellowship Funding programmes

Fellowship Funding – Chief Scientist Office

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 Motor Neurone Disease are welcomed and CSO's role is well known across the Health and Care research community in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving life expectancy and tackling health inequalities across the whole population.

During the development of Scotland’s Population Health Framework in 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care met with Movember, a charity that raises awareness of men’s health issues, who expressed their support for the development of a men’s health plan for Scotland. Other organisations have also publicly called for the development of a men’s health strategy, following the UK Government’s publication of a Men’s health strategy for England.

While noting the views expressed by stakeholders, the Scottish Government is embedding action to improve men’s health across key areas, rather than developing a separate, standalone strategy. In doing so, it is focussed on delivering concrete actions to improve men’s health, by considering the impact on men’s health throughout policy development and service delivery across a range of key areas.

On 17 June 2025, the Scottish Government and COSLA published the Population Health Framework, which sets out a whole-system, cross-government and cross-sector approach to improving population health and reducing inequalities over the next decade. By focusing on prevention, early intervention, and the wider determinants of health and wellbeing, the Framework aims to reduce the persistent health inequalities experienced across all of society, recognising that social and economic disadvantage, place and other structural factors impact on long-term outcomes. The Framework includes 30 initial actions, including in areas that disproportionately affect men, such as a commitment to develop a Healthcare Inequalities Action Plan to improve access to, and equity within, healthcare services and the development of an Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan - building on the progress of the National Mission - which will be published this year. In addition, a new Suicide Prevention Action Plan, for 2026 – 2029, will be published shortly.

Moreover, in response to insights showing that men were less likely than women to contact their GP, the Scottish Government’s Be the Early Bird campaign, for detecting cancer earlier, has used specific strategies to reach men, reaching over two million men so far.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving life expectancy and tackling health inequalities across the whole population, and delivering concrete actions to improve men’s health across key areas rather than developing a separate standalone strategy.

On 17 June 2025, the Scottish Government and COSLA published the Population Health Framework, which sets out a whole-system, cross-government and cross-sector approach to improving population health and reducing inequalities over the next decade. By focusing on prevention, early intervention, and the wider determinants of health and wellbeing, the Framework aims to reduce the persistent health inequalities experienced across all of society, recognising that social and economic disadvantage, place and other structural factors impact on long-term outcomes. The Framework includes 30 initial actions, including in areas that disproportionately affect men, such as a commitment to develop a Healthcare Inequalities Action Plan to improve access to, and equity within, healthcare services and the development of an Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan - building on the progress of the National Mission - which will be published this year. In addition, a new Suicide Prevention Action Plan, for 2026 – 2029, will be published shortly.

Moreover, in response to insights showing that men were less likely than women to contact their GP, the Scottish Government’s Be the Early Bird campaign, for detecting cancer earlier, has used specific strategies to reach men, reaching over two million men so far.

The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) who is the lead provider for Phenylketonuria (PKU) services as part of a nationally designated Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMD) Service.