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The Scottish Government has continually supported Scottish Water’s public awareness campaigns on the correct disposal of sanitary items, including wet wipes. Their current ‘Nature Calls’ campaign has a specific focus on binning and not flushing wet wipes. In addition, we have supported various public awareness campaigns run by environmental NGOs, including the Marine Conservation Society which is a valued member of our Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group.

The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.

As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.

In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information, although the level of access varies from Health Board to Health Board. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is exploring how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has continued to monitor and assess the financial health (sustainability and viability) of universities, including Edinburgh, through regular engagement and analysis of financial returns, which universities are required to submit to SFC each academic year. SFC also considers universities’ individual circumstances and exposure to risk, capacity to respond to financial challenges and other relevant available information.

Financial sustainability of universities is a condition of grant set out in SFC’s Financial Memorandum with universities. As autonomous institutions, universities are responsible for their own strategic and operational decision making, and are required to notify SFC if they identify material risks to their financial viability or sustainability.

Scotland’s economy remains one of the best performing parts of the UK with GDP per person in Scotland growing by 10.3%, compared to 6.1% in the UK and productivity has grown at an average rate of 1.1% per year compared to the UK average of 0.4% since 2007. Despite figures in Quarter 1 of 2025 showing GDP to be lower in Scotland compared to the UK, the pace of growth increased from 0.1% in the last quarter of 2024 to 0.4%.

The Scottish Government published its National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) in 2022, setting out a ten year transformation plan with the objective of creating a fair, green and growing economy and establishing Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation and ensuring that our businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services are more innovative and productive than they have ever been. This year’s Programme for Government sets out specific actions that we will take to grow the economy over the remainder of this parliamentary term.

However, reserved powers on crucial issues such as trade and migration, and the damage of Brexit, all impact Scotland’s economic growth and can create challenging conditions for Scottish businesses. With our limited powers, we are maximising opportunities for economic growth in Scotland.

As the Care Inspectorate is an independent non-departmental public body, it operates at arm’s length from Government. The Care Inspectorate therefore issues its own guidance independently from the Scottish Government to maintain its role as an impartial and objective regulator.

Following a full submission from Pfizer Ltd, in advice published on 8 April 2024, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepted ritlecitinib (Litfulo®) for use in the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland for the treatment of severe alopecia areata in adults and adolescents aged 12 years and over. The detailed advice is available on the SMC’s website:

https://scottishmedicines.org.uk/medicines-advice/ritlecitinib-litfulo-full-smc2610/

The SMC and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) utilise different processes and methodologies, particularly in terms of scope and timelines and therefore, it would not be appropriate to comment on whether their guidance aligns.

The Scottish Government supports the full range of businesses primarily through its enterprise agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. As such the allocation of this direct funding to the size of businesses is held by each agency along with the number of businesses supported outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please email Scottish Government Enterprise Sponsorship team on enterprisesponsorship@gov.scot if you would like to contact the agencies directly.

The Scottish Government continues to pursue a long-term solution to the issues at Tarbolton Moss, engaging with partners, including South Ayrshire Council and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) around issues such as land ownership. We also remain open to discussions with interested parties from the private or third sector.

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing Smoke Control Areas and investigating smoke nuisance complaints under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position on coal extraction in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements.

Having considered stakeholders’ views and the evidence received alongside wider Scottish Government energy and climate change policies, we confirmed our preferred policy position of no support for coal extraction in Scotland in October 2022.

The preferred policy position was subject to statutory and other assessments before the policy-making process was completed, including in our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4).

Following this comprehensive policymaking process, the Scottish Government’s finalised policy position is of no support for coal extraction in Scotland. The finalised policy statement can be viewed here: Onshore conventional oil and gas: policy position - gov.scot

Coal exploitation is a matter reserved to the UK Government, and the Mining Remediation Authority is responsible for licensing coal mining activity in Scotland. Scotland’s planning system is fully devolved to the Scottish Government. Scottish Ministers have today written to UK Ministers to set out our finalised position on coal extraction.