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Scottish Government recognise the unique challenges New Scots face, including the recognition of overseas qualifications. This is a known barrier to employment.

Through the New Scots strategy, a strategy involving wider partners including those involved in employability support, a number of partners including third sector and local authorities are working with New Scots to support the recognition of their qualifications.

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) is just one of the means of financial support available to patients and their families. YPFF supports families to visit a child or young person aged under 18 while they are an inpatient. Financial assistance for attending hospital appointments, including outpatient and day treatments, is available through the patient travel reimbursement schemes.

These schemes provide financial assistance for eligible patients and authorised escorts, including for outpatient appointments and day treatments, and apply to travel both within and outside Scotland. All eligible patients aged 16 and under automatically qualify for an escort. NHS Boards are responsible for assessing eligibility and have the flexibility to consider individual circumstances and make decision in the best interests of patient care and wellbeing.

Winter Heating Payment is an automatic payment made during the winter months to help eligible people with heating costs.

It replaced the UK Government’s Cold Weather Payment for people in Scotland and is paid regardless of temperature – unlike the payment it replaced, which only applied if temperatures stayed at or below freezing for a week.

Social Security Scotland contacts clients before payment is issued. Most people will receive their payment by the end of December 2025, although payments will continue to be made until the end of February 2026.

As of 14 December 2025, more than 225,000 Winter Heating Payments had already been made. Further details are available on Social Security Scotland’s website at: Winter Benefits management information release to 14 December 2025.

The Scottish Government strongly supports the Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) Call to Action to enable disabled people to engage in sport and physical activity and address the finding that 40% of disabled people in Scotland are worried about losing their benefits if they are seen to be active.

Devolved social security benefits provide financial support to disabled people to help mitigate the additional costs of being disabled. The Scottish Government is clear this support can help reduce barriers to equal participation in communities and increase life opportunities. Social Security Scotland actively encourages everyone who may be eligible to apply for these benefits to apply and work is in hand on a marketing campaign to increase take-up.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42458 on 6 January 2026. 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-42458 on 6 January 2026. 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

Under section 23 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, Scottish Ministers must review the operation of Parts 1 to 3 and report to the Scottish Parliament as soon as practicable after the end of the five-year period following Royal Assent. The intention behind this period was to allow sufficient time for those Parts to be fully in force and operating as intended before the review took place.

While some sections came into force on Royal Assent and others shortly thereafter, implementation of Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS)—which sits within Part 2 —required detailed court rules. Work on these rules was delayed because urgent rule changes were needed to keep courts operating under COVID-19 restrictions. As a result, QOCS did not come into effect until June 2021.

The Act specifies that the review must include information on the effect of QOCS on access to justice and the administration of the courts. To provide a meaningful assessment based on robust and meaningful data, the review will therefore focus on five years of actual operation rather than five years from Royal Assent. This approach reflects the original policy intention.

The Scottish Government will publish the review once sufficient evidence has been gathered and analysed. This will be after QOCS has operated for five years, ensuring the review reflects its practical effects on access to justice and court administration.

Powers to mandate community benefits and shared equity ownership are reserved to the UK Government. We continue to press the UK Government to use its reserved powers to mandate community benefits and shared ownership for mature onshore technologies, so communities share in Scotland’s natural wealth through locally shaped, lasting arrangements.

In order to maintain a robust, impartial process in which people can object to proposals while still discussing any benefits on offer, financial arrangements such as community benefits and shared ownership schemes sit independently from our planning and consenting systems.

Consequently, the Scottish Government has no plans to make community benefits or shared ownership a mandatory consideration in planning applications.

We remain committed to a just energy transition that delivers real benefits for communities: around £30 million was offered last year under our voluntary Good Practice Principles, which we are refreshing following consultation analysis published on 22 October.

Monitoring of joint replacement procedures in Scotland is already in place through the Scottish National Audit Programme (SNAP) within Public Health Scotland. This work predates the establishment of the National Joint Registry in 1999.

SNAP performs many of the functions of a joint registry. It monitors the volume of procedures undertaken and associated complications, and it identifies outlier departments and surgeons. There is a robust reporting process, including case reviews from outliers and an escalation policy where required.

Currently, monitoring applies to joint replacements carried out within NHS Health Boards for NHS patients. The private sector does not currently supply data on procedures undertaken in their institutions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42458 on 6 January 2026. 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