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We are currently assessing the outcomes of the cladding remediation information and assurance exercises, as described in the Next Phase Plan of Action, and will be sharing this with Parliament shortly.

A total of 7,582 applications were received, requesting £77.69 million in grant support.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally by Scottish Government.

No civil servants are employed by Scotland’s Migration Service. Officials from the Population and Migration Unit oversee the delivery of Scotland’s Migration Service.

There is no business requirement for officials to record the time spent on specific tasks or their work more generally. These are completed as part of normal duties, along with other tasks appropriate to roles as civil servants.

The Scottish Budget for 2024-25 allocated £3.080m at Level 4 for Migration Strategy. Scotland’s Migration Service is one of the deliverables funded within this budget line. A total of £997,480.05 was spent on contracts with operational and digital suppliers to facilitate the design and delivery of Scotland’s Migration Service during 2024-25

The Scottish Budget for the 2025-26 financial year includes a Migration Strategy Level 4 budget allocation of £3.762m, from which funding for Scotland’s Migration Service is sourced, along with delivery of other public commitments around population and migration.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes spend information over £25,000 on its website. This can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-procurement/procurement-transparency/

Contract values are also published on the Public Contracts Register, which can be accessed at: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Contracts/Contracts_Search.aspx

For Scotland’s Migration Service, during the 23-24 and 24-25 financial years, a total of £692,688.00 was paid to Seraphus. To date, during the 25/26 financial year, £314,752.74 has been paid to Seraphus.

This spend relates to the following activities:

• Development of online guidance on business immigration matters (see https://migrationservice.scotland.org)
• Provision of webinars on business immigration matters
• Provision of one-to-one legal advice appointments for Scotland-based employers and inward investors
• Delivery of marketing and stakeholder engagement activities to promote Scotland’s Migration Service
• Reporting and service user engagement activities to support monitoring and evaluation of Scotland’s Migration Service
• Project management, training, and other overheads

The priority group applicants who were successful were those who provided a combination of accurate information in their application, sufficient detail of their planned investment and their planned investment demonstrated strong alignment with the scheme objectives.

Although eligible applications from priority groups were given an uplift as part of the scoring criteria, priority status alone did not guarantee funding. Funding was awarded only where applications met all verification checks and the planned capital investment would deliver strongly against the schemes objectives, which is why only a proportion of priority applicants ultimately received support.

On 21 July 2025, NHS Grampian confirmed that Opioid Replacement Therapy (ORT) is now available at its Kittybrewster Suite. They also advised that work was ongoing to resolve logistical challenges in order to extend this service to the remaining two custody suites, including Elgin.

Following continued concerns regarding progress at these two custody suites—specifically in relation to PE1900: Access to prescribed medication for detainees in police custody—the Scottish Government wrote to NHS Grampian on 6 November 2025 requesting an update.

NHS Grampian have since confirmed that they agree that patients receiving methadone in the community should continue treatment in custody. However, due to logistical and supply issues that they have previously highlighted, this cannot currently be facilitated at Elgin and Fraserburgh Custody Suites. NHSG has only one pharmacy licensed to supply Schedule 2 medications to custody settings, and there is no mechanism to supply or deliver methadone, which is a Schedule 2 medication, to these sites. However, work is ongoing to resolve this and enable methadone administration in the future.

In the meantime, any patient assessed by a nurse or forensic medical examiner as requiring methadone will be transferred from Elgin or Fraserburgh to Kittybrewster in Aberdeen to continue treatment.

NHS Grampian have also advised that their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are based on Tayside and Highland examples, with adjustments for local service delivery and challenges. Efforts continue to address the supply of Schedule 2 medications to remote custody suites.

The Scottish Government continues to work with health boards, including NHS Grampian, to ensure expectations are being met in line with the 2023 Rapid Review.

Following analysis of local authority bids to the School Meal Debt Fund, £2,887,345.58 was allocated to 30 local authorities who applied for support. A breakdown of allocations is as follow:

In line with grant conditions, local authorities have reported to the Scottish Government on how they used their funding allocations and how they continue to support families through the implementation of the Good Practice Principles for the Management of School Meal Debt published by COSLA.

The local authority reports have been analysed and a report on the School Meal Debt Fund will be published in due course.