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The Scottish Government is supportive of innovations developed in Scotland being commercialised in Scotland.

Through Scottish Enterprise we have established the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre(MDMC) which is a pan-Scotland collaboration with five universities (Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Robert Gordon). This provides Scottish medical device developers and manufacturers with free advice, technical expertise, and facilities essential for companies that are seeking to translate medical device concepts to commercial products. Technology specialists assist companies with the translation of medical device concepts into small-batch prototypes by offering technical expertise, state-of-the-art equipment and access to health informatics and NHS collaboration. Additionally, the MDMC provides support for clinical trial design.

As well as commercialisation, the Scottish Government also wants to see patients in Scotland benefit from Scottish innovations. The Scottish Government fund three NHS Regional Innovation Hubs to facilitate the development of new technologies, products and services. They enhance the NHS's capacity and capability to engage in innovative activities across the triple helix of industry, academia, third sector and the NHS to develop and scale innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of our healthcare system.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of emergency mental health assessment units available nationally or in each Health Board.

This notwithstanding, we can report that all Health Boards have a 24/7 mental health unscheduled care pathway in place for anyone in need of urgent mental health assessment or urgent referral to local mental health services. These pathways enable local mental health clinicians to receive referrals from the national NHS 24 Mental Health Hub and provide advice and support to frontline services such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service. They also avoid the need to attend the Emergency Department unless that is where the person needs to be cared for.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this data centrally.

Public Health Scotland holds information on NHS patients treated in non-NHS healthcare facilities. 14 children and young people received treatment for an eating disorder in non-NHS healthcare facilities in the period from 1999 to 2023.

When broken down by Health Board and calendar year, the numbers involved are small enough to require suppression. This answer therefore does not include these breakdowns and reports only the total number.

Social Security Scotland is committed to delivering services with dignity, fairness and respect for all people, including veterans and service members. This includes activities to advance its equality outcome to improve the service and experiences of diverse clients, including veterans. Progress will be formally reported in the organisation’s Mainstreaming Equality Report in 2027.

In 2023, Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant produced around 0.1MtCO2e, or around 1.5% of Scotland’s industrial emissions. Scotland’s pathway to net-zero will require all polluting businesses to decarbonise over the next two decades where feasible. For Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be a crucial enabling decarbonisation technology. This hugely depends on the development of the Acorn CCS project, which is still waiting on a final decision and the full funding package from the UK Government.

We work closely with the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) to support enforcement of existing legislation, including checks on sales of tobacco and vapes to under 18s, and advice to business.

In 2025-26 this includes providing funding of £46k to support a National Coordinator post and specific enforcement projects that vary year on year. SCOTSS manages the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme (ETSEP) in Scotland, which is a key component in the Scottish Government’s Tobacco and Vaping Framework, and helps ensure that young people’s access to harmful age-restricted products is minimised.

In addition in 2025-26, the Scottish Government has made £300k available for transitional costs associated with the ban on SUVs, and to support recycling and responsible disposal of SUV’s seized by local authorities.

The 2025-26 budget delivered record funding of over £15.1 billion for Local Government, a real terms increase of 5.5 per cent. Local Government have responsibility for working to ensure local budget decisions deliver local and national priorities, including those on the enforcement of existing legislation, including on underage sales and illicit tobacco and vapes and the single use vape ban.

As scholarships in Scotland are primarily funded and managed by institutions themselves, the Scottish Government does not hold all the information that has been requested.

The Scottish Government has however provided funding towards a number of scholarship programmes for foreign nationals, between 2016 and 2025 including:

The latest evidence of the economic contribution from the Mossmorran NGL plant, provided by Shell to Fife Council, shows that the plant employed an average 196 people in 2022, 213 in 2023, and 229 people during 2024.

Broadcast rights are ultimately a matter for the event owner, Amaury Sports Organisation, but the Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with all partners to develop opportunities to maximise exposure of the event, and ensure it can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

An assessment to license, or develop upon the UK Government’s planning data platform has not been undertaken to date.

The digital development consents programme being taken forward by the Scottish Government will deliver a replacement for the current eDevelopment.scot service, beginning with planning and building standards applications. A first version is expected to be available in 2026 with subsequent versions in 2027 and 2028. As part of the later phases of delivery, the new service is expected to improve both the quality and availability of planning and building standards data. This will allow greater insights into proposed, approved and ongoing developments and related trends across Scotland.