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Youth work falls within the scope of The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. This regulation, in effect, requires local authorities to identify need and plan provision of Community Learning and Development in their areas.

As the regulatory requirements for Community Learning and Development are placed with education authorities, the Scottish Government does not collate information on youth workers.

Health and safety legislation applies to all employers across the UK without exception and is a reserved matter under the authority of the UK Parliament.

It is an employer’s duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their staff and where death or injuries at work occur, there are a range of reserved offences which can be used to hold employers to account, if they are found to be criminally liable.

The Health and Safety Executive states one factor that Scotland’s higher workplace death rate is in part due to more workers in high-risk industries.

The Scottish Government promotes workplace health and safety through its Fair Work policy and supports initiatives like Healthy Working Lives, a Public Health Scotland programme offering resources and training to improve workplace wellbeing.

The Scottish Government remains committed to its vision for an integrated and community-based hearing service in Scotland. However, in considering the future direction for the audiology sector, it is right that we move forward in step with the work of the Independent Review of Audiology and this – together with the wider financial and strategic context in which we are currently operating – has necessitated the re-phasing of our commitment on community hearing. We will continue to meet with Professional Bodies, NHS services, third sector, private providers and individuals with lived experience to help inform decision-making as our work progresses.

The 2025-26 Budget provides record funding of £21 billion for health and social care - with NHS boards receiving an additional £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. Ear, Nose and Throat will be an important part of this work, with over £9 million being allocated as part of this funding.

In addition, NHS Boards have been proactive in addressing waiting times by releasing additional appointments and reducing their failed to attend rate.

There has also been substantial work to redesign patient pathways and Specialist Audiologists/Diagnosticians now handle referrals traditionally made through Ear Nose and Throat. This practice not only reduces Board costs for unnecessary medic time and expertise, but also directs the patient to the correct speciality and reduces the number of appointments needed overall.

An open and transparent criminal justice system is important to allow for justice to be delivered and seen to be delivered so communities can have confidence in how offending behaviour is being dealt with. However, there can be areas of the operation of the criminal justice system where it is considered appropriate to allow certain individuals to remain anonymous to protect their dignity and privacy while still ensuring justice is able to be delivered.

The issue of anonymity in respect of domestic abuse criminal cases has been raised in the past with the Scottish Government. In considering whether victims of domestic abuse should receive anonymity, a key consideration has been that if anonymity is afforded to victims then, given the nature of domestic abuse, it may be that anonymity would be required for the accused too. This is because identification of the accused may reveal the identity of the victim. This inherently creates a challenging scenario within which to develop anonymity protections.

While the Scottish Government has no current plans in this area, we keep all policy relating to anonymity within the justice system under review.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36648 on 29 April 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 citation of witnesses is a matter for the independent Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Scottish Government is, however, supporting justice partners to drive reforms to improve our criminal justice system to make it more efficient and ensure that it works better for everyone.

That will include reducing the number of police witnesses who are required to attend court and reducing the length of time that cases take. It will also mean enabling more cases to be concluded earlier, and fewer victims and civil witnesses needing to come to court.

Two key programmes being rolled out across Scotland are the judicially led summary case management programme, which provides a new approach to summary criminal cases, and the digital evidence sharing capability programme, which allows digital evidence to be shared at the earliest opportunity including the evidence from Body Worn Video technology which is being rolled out by Police Scotland this year. It is anticipated that combined these will deliver benefits for both civil and professional witnesses.

The Scottish Government has not made an assessment of any long-term economic benefits of replacing methadone with Buvidal for eligible patients

It is not possible to assess how many new green jobs have been created by region and sector, however the PwC Green Jobs Barometer shows that 5.6% of all job adverts in Scotland in 2024 were for jobs that have a positive impact on the environment, up from 4.0% in 2023. This helped Scotland once again retain first place among 12 nations and regions of the UK in the overall Green Jobs Barometer, once again showing that Scotland is leading the way in delivering a green jobs revolution and unlocking the tremendous potential that our energy transition and wider net zero journey holds.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, the statutory responsibility for delivering, commissioning and providing appropriate social care services at a local level lies with local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships. This includes the responsibility to reduce the number of people being delayed in hospital unnecessarily.

Since 2015-16, the Scottish Government has provided additional funding for social care and integration. This annual investment has risen to almost £2.2 billion in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget.

However, decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities are ultimately for Health and Social Care Partnerships and locally elected representatives to make.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

A key principle of the programme is to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.