Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42271 on 16 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

The Scottish Government provides national oversight to ensure adoption from fostering is coordinated effectively across local authorities. Guidance on the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, The Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and The Looked-After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 recommends permanence planning to begin promptly when a child becomes looked after to support timely and stable permanence arrangements.

Scotland’s Adoption Register also facilitates matching across local authorities by providing a national system to link approved adopters with children from any local authority in Scotland.

To promote consistent and effective practice in permanence, the Scottish Government has commissioned the Association for Fostering, Kinship and Adoption Scotland to develop three national good practice guides on permanence in kinship care, foster care and adoption, which will be available in early 2026.

Together, these measures provide a national framework intended to promote consistency and improve coordination for children moving from foster care to adoption.

Permanence Orders with authority to adopt are governed by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and The Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009. The Act makes the child’s welfare paramount and requires decision-makers to consider any risk of prejudice caused by delay, but it does not set statutory time limits.

The 2011 Scottish Government Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 emphasises that decisions should be made within timescales appropriate to the child’s developmental needs and that avoiding delay is essential, as prolonged uncertainty can harm a child’s welfare and stability.

The duration of the process varies according to the child’s circumstances, the complexity of the case, and the time taken to complete necessary legal and administrative procedures.

The Scottish Government strongly welcomes the British Ecological Society’s report and its emphasis on an ecosystems approach. This aligns with the focus in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and draft Environment Strategy on ecosystem health and integrity, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework.

In developing statutory nature restoration targets, we are also working to develop a target focused on Ecosystem Health and Integrity, using the Red List of Ecosystems indicator framework.

The following table shows how many drug- related and alcohol-related hospital stays were recorded in Inverclyde in each of the last five years.

Number of drug-related and alcohol-related hospital stays, Inverclyde

We are committed to enabling regional co-operation, which is why last month the First Minister announced a plan to bring forward legislation in the next parliament to allow Regional Partnerships to become legal bodies. As is normal practice, we will provide details of the timetable for the next legislative programme in the next Parliament.

This year NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is being supported with an initial resource budget of £3,123.5 million, along with capital allocations of £41.26 million for maintaining the NHS estate and replacing and upgrading equipment.

Boards are expected to make the best use of these resources, to ensure that patients continue to receive a high standard of care.

In addition, we are supportive of NHS GG&C developing a design for the façade of Inverclyde Royal Hospital and Scottish Government will make a decision on funding when a design is complete and full costs are known.

We are currently working with all NHS Health Boards to develop a whole system NHS infrastructure plan to inform long-term investment priorities across Scotland – this includes NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The Scottish Government wants all healthcare provided to people in Scotland to be safe, appropriate, and carried out by those with the right qualifications.

The Scottish Government are engaging with Healthcare Improvement Scotland regarding the next phase of regulation of independent healthcare. Any proposals for widening the scope of regulation of independent healthcare will be based on intelligence of potential risks and patient safety concerns.

The Tax Advisory Group (TAG)’s most recent meeting took place on 21 October 2025, prior to the UK Government’s budget on 26 November 2025. The group’s final meeting of this Parliament is expected to take place in early 2026.

The minutes for TAG meetings are published at Tax Advisory Group - gov.scot

Ministers regularly discuss matters of importance including budget priorities and the views of stakeholders in the run-up to the Scottish Budget. As is normal, decisions on non-domestic rates policy for 2026-27 will be set out in the Scottish Budget on 13 January 2026.

Legislation and regulations relating to electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government, with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) responsible for the strategic approach to the development of the electricity system across Great Britain.

The Scottish Government has no powers to direct network companies to prioritise one technology or route over another when developing their build plans.

Network companies are regulated by Ofgem and when developing project proposals they must give due consideration to their license obligations, which require them to be economic and efficient in respect of costs to the consumer.