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Section 47 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 requires the Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish an environmental policy strategy. There is no deadline set in the Act for the publication of a strategy. The Scottish Government published the Environment Strategy Vision and Outcomes in 2021. Updates are in progress.

The iMatter Continuous Improvement Programme, which was developed by NHSScotland staff, enables the measurements of staff experience and employee engagement across all 22 Health Boards as well as participating Health and Social Care Partnerships.

This enables Health Boards to ensure that the insights and experiences of staff are captured and acknowledged, helping to influence and shape initiatives to enhance staff support.

Scottish Ministers have granted a limited trial to undertake a pilot project with a number of inshore vessels to help gather further information to support a longer-term policy development on fishing for squid under the North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan (NCAP).

There is currently limited evidence about the impacts of the squid fishing on cod stocks and bycatch of non-target stocks. This project would look to address some of these limitations and seek to evaluate the evidence, once collected.

Through this project, it is hoped that further information will be provided to help inform the balance between environmental, economic and social objectives and development of the squid fishery.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a comprehensive evaluation designed to assess fire safety risks associated with external wall systems in Scottish buildings. However, specific definitions for the terms (a) development, (b) building, and (c) stairs within the context of the SBA are not explicitly detailed in the definitions of the Housing Cladding Remediation (Scotland) Act 2025.

Development: The term development is not specifically defined within the SBA. Generally, in Scottish planning context, development refers to the carrying out of building, engineering, mining, or other operations in, on, over, or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land.

Building: While the SBA specification does not provide a specific definition of building, it refers to in-scope buildings as those eligible for assessment under the programme.

The Cladding Remediation Programme aims to address risks in domestic multi-residential buildings that meet the following criteria:

• have at least one flat
• Have cladding
• are 11 meters or more in height
• were either
  • constructed between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022
  • developed between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022

Stairs: The term stairs is not explicitly defined in the SBA-related documents. In general construction terminology, stairs refer to a set of steps leading from one floor of a building to another.

Muirburn is currently guided by the Muirburn Code: https://www.nature.scot/doc/guidance-muirburn-code which is a non-statutory code and sets out both the law and good practice relating to muirburn.

Section 3.3 of the current Muirburn Code clearly states that the person undertaking muirburn must not burn within 30m of a public road; create smoke that is a nuisance; and endanger anyone’s health and/or safety.

Anyone with concerns that the law is not being complied with in regards to muirburn should contact Police Scotland.

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act 2024 introduced a provision to further regulate the use of muirburn including that all muirburn will need to be carried out under licence.

A condition of the licence will be that anyone carrying out muirburn must have completed a training course. In future this will include both an online and a practical course. Currently no training is required for carrying out muirburn in Scotland.

NatureScot are also currently consulting on a new Muirburn Code that will accompany the licensing scheme, which sets out the essential considerations for muirburn, including where and when muirburn can be carried out, the required notifications before setting muirburn and necessary safety measures. The muirburn licensing scheme and revised Muirburn Code are being introduced to help ensure that muirburn is carried out safely and appropriately.

The NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 was published in August 2021 with a commitment to provide annual reports on progress through the delivery outcomes set out in the plan. These reports are published online and can be found at:

NHS Recovery Plan: annual progress update 2022 – https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-recovery-plan-annual-progress-update/

NHS recovery plan: progress report 2023 – https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-recovery-plan-progress-report-2023/

NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026: annual progress update report 2024 – https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-recovery-plan-2021-2026-annual-progress-update-report-2024/

In line with previous years, an further annual progress report for 2025 will be published by the end of this year.

With respect to the use of e-consultations and telephone triage, while the Scottish Government sets the strategic direction, it is for Health Boards to plan their services based on local need. What is most important is appointments are agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and clinical judgement. We continue to engage with stakeholders in support of service delivery.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold statistics specifically on sustained employment for people who register with an employment agency.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes statistics related to Scottish Government funded employability support, No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland, including data on sustained employment by participants.

The most recent statistics for Scottish Government funded employability support are available at: Scotland's Devolved Employment Services statistics - gov.scot.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case in the Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 31 December 2024.

Table 1 presents the latest available statistics on the total number of attendances and admissions for patients who had waited over a year (52 weeks) as a new outpatient or an inpatient or day case. The following data are presented at NHS Scotland level for all specialties, broken down by calendar year and split by new outpatient and inpatient or day case.

Table 1 – Total number of attendances as a new outpatient and admissions as an inpatient or day case for patients who had waited over a year (52 weeks), NHS Scotland, all specialty level, by calendar year from 2020 to present.

The 2025-26 Budget balances the requirement to address immediate pressures and recovery of the system whilst driving forward our long-term reform and prevention agendas, providing increased investment for NHS Boards, alongside continued focus to improve population health and outcomes through investment in quality community services, vaccination and screening.?

We continue to support delivery of priorities relating to prevention and early intervention by investing almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration, an additional £1.2 billion compared to 2021-22 spend.

The 2025-26 budget also includes over £2.2 billion for primary care to improve preventative care in the community, supporting the development of multidisciplinary teams in general practice, sustaining NHS dental care through enhanced fees and continuing free eye examinations.