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The Scottish Government has not carried out any economic analysis of delays to the conclusion of missives between buyers and sellers of residential properties.

Work on the Health and Social Care app—developed through the Digital Front Door programme and now branded MyCare.scot—has progressed since 2021, including technical development, secure digital identity work, and early service design. The initial MVP is live for dermatology patients in NHS Lanarkshire to support testing and MyCare.scot will be available across Scotland from April 2026. Further services will be developed and expanded as already set out in our rollout plan, published in September 2025, with further information to be published this Spring.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads and associated infrastructure in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

As part of the record funding package for Local Government, in 2026-27, Moray Council will receive £246.3 million to fund local services which equates to an extra £12.3 million or an additional 5.3% compared to 2025-26 alongside full discretion over decisions on Council Tax.

The vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on maintenance of local roads and bridges, on the basis of local needs and priorities

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) provide an all-age career service in every local authority, with SDS Careers Advisers in secondary schools and SDS centres and community locations nationwide. Careers advisers highlight the career options available across all sectors - including the Print industry - to people across Scotland, including Apprenticeships.

SDS also works with partners and employers to highlight the importance of Apprenticeships particularly through Scottish Apprenticeship Week which took place in 02 – 06 March 2026. We continue to work closely with SDS to support the promotion of Apprenticeships throughout Scotland.

I am aware of Print Scotland’s concerns over the funding differences in training contributions between England and Scotland. Print Scotland have written to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and will meet to discuss this further.

Apprenticeship funding in Scotland follows a contribution model that differs from England, alongside often differing training and assessment requirements, so cannot be directly compared.

We have committed to reviewing apprenticeship contribution rates and published the scope of this review on Friday 13 March as part of wider work on Modern Apprenticeship (MA) reform. The scope and terms of reference can be found here: Modern apprenticeship contribution rates review: terms of reference - gov.scot

The review will be in two stages. The first stage has already started and this will include working with our delivery partners to gather the necessary evidence. We expect the second stage of this review to be undertaken from February 2027 and we intend to publish a report following the outcome of the review.

Scotland’s planning system has already undergone significant system changes including through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and the adoption of National Planning Framework 4, Scotland’s long-term spatial strategy, which sets out where development and infrastructure is needed. Our package of reforms is focused on incentivising development and delivering clear and quicker decisions which provide greater confidence and predictability to those who are planning to develop.

We have also significantly extended permitted development rights (PDR), including for renewable energy equipment and thermal efficiency measures, and developments in town and city centres and in ports. PDR allow certain types of development to be carried out without a planning application. In doing so, they help provide certainty and save the time and expense associated with applying for planning permission.

Alongside system reform, we have been progressing a range of measures to increase capacity and skills and improve practice in planning authorities which are helping to accelerate development delivery. This includes providing direct support via the National Planning Hub for additional surge capacity and expertise within planning authorities and funding the National Planning Improvement Champion to help share knowledge and best practice across the planning system.

We have taken significant steps to simplify navigating the planning system through withdrawing 27 historical Planning Advice Notes (PANs) and 19 other pieces of obsolete guidance. This equates to 71% of the planning advice and guidance (over 1000 pages).

Health Boards are not required under the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 (HCSA) to report individual breaches of the legislation. Health Boards are, however, required under the Act to produce an annual report on how they have carried out their statutory staffing duties. These reports are intended to support transparency and local accountability, rather than to notify Ministers of individual instances of non-compliance.

Information from these reports is used to inform the Ministerial Annual Report. The first report can be accessed here: Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 2024/25 Ministerial Annual Report - gov.scot.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) has responsibility for monitoring and reviewing Health Board compliance with their duties, and for providing assurance on how organisations are meeting the requirements of the legislation. HIS provide assurance to Scottish Ministers via their inspection responsibilities, and their Health and Care Staffing Act Annual Report: Health and Care Staffing Act 2019 HIS functions in relation to staffing annual report 2024-2025: April 2025 – Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

HIS also provide support, if required, to Health Boards to aid them in their compliance with their duties under the Act.

There is already a one-stop breast clinic operational within the NHS Dumfries & Galloway’s Royal Infirmary which has been the case from some years.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people with respiratory conditions receive the best possible care and treatment to enable them to live longer, healthier, and more independent lives. Through our Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland, we have supported national work to strengthen prevention, diagnosis, care and support for people living with respiratory conditions.

The Scottish Government has embedded the prevention of respiratory disease into wider policy through the launch of the Cleaner Air for Scotland Strategy, Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme and the refreshed Tobacco Action Plan.

National clinical pathways for severe asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease are being developed through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. This work includes enhanced referral triage and innovations in the diagnosis and management of sleep apnoea, helping to ensure that people receive the right care at the right time.

We also published the Quality Prescribing Guide for Improvement, which aims to keep people at the centre of their treatment, and promote safe, evidenced based, sustainable prescribing. A core component of this has been to create user friendly digital tools for both people living with lung conditions and healthcare professionals

To improve access to pulmonary rehabilitation, a key intervention for people with chronic respiratory conditions, we are working in partnership with Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to develop a digital first model. This will provide self-management tools, resources and videos that can be accessed anywhere in Scotland and will be hosted on the My Lungs My Life platform.

We recently published the Scotland's Population Health Framework and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework in which we outline our shared, long-term vision for reforming and renewing health and social care services to ensure they are more sustainable, preventative, and equitable.

We are exploring a Long-Term Conditions Framework to ensure equitable and sustainable access to services that everyone with long term conditions needs, such as those living with a respiratory condition. A series of advisory groups, including respiratory, will be established to make initial recommendations to the Scottish Government and these will produce an authoritative set of recommendations to inform the new government’s work on long-term conditions.

We will continue to work with clinicians, NHS, Boards, and national delivery partners and the third sector to ensure that people with lung conditions can access timely diagnosis, effective treatment and ongoing support as part of safe, high quality respiratory care.

Health Boards might arrange treatment for some patients outwith NHS Scotland in exceptional circumstances. In all cases, the originating Health Board retains responsibility for funding consultation, diagnosis and treatment for their patients and we expect Scottish NHS Boards to have appropriate processes in place to enable this access.