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In February 2019, at the request of the then Cabinet Secretary for Health, in order to enable a better understanding of the processes required to implement the new model of care, it was rolled out first in two sites in Scotland to enable testing of the entire model ahead of wider implementation.

The test sites were announced as University Hospital Crosshouse and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in the west, and the Victoria Hospital and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in the east.

The Boards were asked to roll out a range of aspects of the new model of neonatal care, including the new model of neonatal intensive care, to enable better understanding of the implications for patient flow associated with other aspects of the new model.

Outcomes of the testing process can be found within the published Options Appraisal.

The Scottish Government welcomes the theme of Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week 2025, “How it feels,” and values the work of charities like Crohn’s and Colitis UK in highlighting the challenges of managing often invisible symptoms such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). We are fully committed to ensuring people living with long-term conditions have access to safe, effective and person-centred care, including appropriate psychosocial support.

While we have not carried out a specific assessment of the impact of IBD on mental health, the Mental Health Equality Evidence Report which underpins our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy ,highlights the mental health impacts that adults with long-term conditions experience. Our Strategy therefore takes a whole person approach by ‘looking at a person and their wider circumstances, such as housing, relationships, physical health, and employment; not just their mental health’.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan ensures that the commitments in our Strategy are underpinned by a resilient and sustainable workforce. Over the last decade our direct investment has led to staffing levels across Psychology Services increasing by 62.3%, with 1,702 whole time equivalent clinical staff now in post. This is additional to the funding NHS Boards receive.

This psychology workforce is contributing to the delivery of our Strategy, both across the age span and in a wide range of settings; including primary care, physical health care, and older adults services. Whilst data is not held on the number of psychology staff working to support people with IBD, we can confirm that 63% of the psychology workforce are working in mental health settings, with the remaining 37% working in wider service settings. In line with their operational responsibilities, NHS Boards are responsible for the recruitment and retention of the psychology workforce, as well as the deployment of staff across services and within multi-disciplinary teams.

Finally, as we develop our Long Term Conditions Framework we will consider how people living with IBD receive effective psychosocial support. We are also considering the message of Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week 2025 and will reflect this in future planning.

The Scottish Government works closely with public sector organisations to ensure that relevant lessons are identified and shared after incidents and/or exercises, in the form of Cyber Resilience Early Warning (CREW) notices to the sector.

The Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network brings together all cyber and information professionals from across the sector regularly to share good practice and consider common challenges. After the cyber attack on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Chief Executive Malcolm Burr presented to the network on 28 February 2024 and provided an overview of the attack, an update on recovery progress, and highlighted the key lessons identified.

The Scottish Government uses lessons from all incidents to inform the action plans which support the Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland and shape the support provided to the sector.

The Scottish Government encourages all public sector organisations to proactively manage their cyber risks, ensure that appropriate cyber security arrangements are in place and that robust, regularly tested incident response plans are developed and maintained.

Since the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar the attack, the Scottish Government has:

provided cyber awareness training to 295 public sector board members and senior managers to improve cyber governance

• updated and promoted cyber incident response plan templates and scenario playbooks to the sector
• updated the Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework, including key actions informed by the immediate lessons from the attack
• provided facilitated cyber exercising opportunities for 250 public sector cyber professionals to improve their cyber incident response arrangements.
• provided £1.085m since 2023 to upskill cyber security staff working in the public sector
• provided daily threat and intelligence to the public sector to empower the sector to detect threats early and ensure mitigation measures are in place quickly.

Health and safety legislation is a matter reserved to the UK Government, with the Health and Safety Executive as the regulator across Great Britain. The Scottish Government has no functions in relation to the funding available to the Health and Safety Executive.

Part 5 of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill(as introduced)is not intended to have a practical effect on any matters which are reserved.

There is an increasing body of evidence on ecological and physiological disruptions caused by artificial light at night on many plants and animals (as well as on humans). Our Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 references light as one of the direct drivers of biodiversity loss and NatureScot can provide advice to local authorities and other public bodies on reducing the impact of artificial light pollution on wildlife.

In respect light pollution complaints, Local Authorities have a duty to investigate those under the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Scottish Government engages with local authorities through the Environmental Health Officers network and relevant working groups, where any emerging issues on light nuisance can be raised.

In 2024, there were seven meetings of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC). In 2025, there were a further seven meetings of SOWEC. I attended two SOWEC meetings in 2024 in my role at the time as Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work and subsequently as Minister for Climate Action and one meeting in 2025. From June 2024 – June 2025, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP was Acting Minister for Climate Action and acting SOWEC Co-Chair, and attended one meeting of SOWEC in 2024 and one in 2025.

The Scottish Government has prioritised action on marine litter through the Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland. We published our refreshed Strategy in September 2022, which sets out a co-ordinated approach to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, and supports the removal of debris that is already there. The Strategy contains multiple actions on the most problematic types of marine litter including sewage-related debris and wet wipes. We continue to work across the four nations to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic, with Scottish legislation forthcoming.

In 2023, we published the Tobacco and Vaping Framework, which set out the Scottish Government’s ambition to create a tobacco-free generation by 2034. Progress towards this goal is measured against five key indicators, two of which relate to smoking and vaping behaviours among children:

• Prevalence of current smoking in children
• Prevalence of current vaping in children

To address a gap in child data, the Scottish Government commissioned a boosted Scotland sample in the ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey starting in 2024. This enables annual monitoring of statistics for adolescents (ages 11-17) in Scotland on tobacco, vaping and nicotine products use, behaviours and attitudes.

Data on children’s use of tobacco, vapes and nicotine pouches among children from the Scottish sample is published annually. Results for 2024 and 2025 are available on the Scottish Government website Introduction - Vaping and smoking among Scottish adolescents: ASH SmokeFree GB Youth survey 2024 results - gov.scot.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42499 on 29 December 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.