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The Scottish Government is taking seriously concerns that 16- and 17-year-olds may need more protection. Our consultation on a range of family law matters, including whether we should legislate to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership to 18, is in the latter stages of preparation and will be published this Autumn. The responses to the consultation will, along with other available evidence, help inform our decisions on next steps.

The most recent Data (2023-24) for those who received Free Personal and Nursing Care is contained in the Scottish Government website:

Introduction - Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2023-24 - gov.scot

Data is captured at a specific moment rather than cumulatively.

Regional disparities are not as easy to identify due to diverse demographics, geography etc which make direct comparison difficult. This is compounded by the mixed returns from Local Authorities.

Free Personal and Nursing Care is a core part of the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care strategy the funding of which is at a record level. Our 2025-26 budget is investing £21.7bn. including almost £2.2 billion investment for social care and integration, delivering on our commitment to increase social care spending by 25% over this Parliament, two years ahead of schedule.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40219 on 19 September 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 SPCB has a Flag flying policy.

The Flag flying policy is managed on behalf of the SPCB by the Facilities Management Office and they are guided by the SPCB on the appropriateness of any flags, which have been requested to be flown, on a case-by-case basis.

The SPCB last reviewed the Flag flying policy on 2May 2024 and confirmed it remained content with the current Policy, which includes flags which are to be flown annually.  The flag policy will be reviewed again by SPCB prior to dissolution and this request will be considered at this time.  Ad hoc requests can also be made to the SPCB to be considered each year, it is helpful to have these requests at least a month in advance to accommodate SPCB meeting dates.

The Scottish Government approach to vessel funding and procurement is progressed in line with relevant policy and legislation, including the Subsidy Control Act 2022. The direct award of any publicly funded contract and application of potential exemptions from subsidy control are only possible in strictly limited circumstances. We continue to review the procurement route for our vessels.

We can confirm that security passes are not issued on the basis of gender identity. Our pass management system records the details necessary to ensure safe and secure access to the Parliament estate and gender identity is not a factor in the issuing of passes. 

The DWP is ultimately responsible for increasing take-up of Pension Credit. Despite this, through our Benefit Take-Up Strategy, of which there is no UK Government equivalent, we continue to tackle barriers to take-up and explore opportunities to raise awareness of this payment to people in Scotland. For example, Social Security Scotland have shared content on Pension Credit, via social media, and information is included in posts where entitlement is relevant to a devolved payment.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40219 on 19 September 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.

For the 2025-26 financial year, the Scottish Government have invested a further £125 million to enable adult social care workers in the third and private sectors to be paid at least the Real Living Wage rate, £12.60 per hour, which takes the estimated total investment to deliver this policy up to £950 million annually. This rate is already 39p higher than the National Living Wage rate of £12.21 per hour, which applies to many social care workers in England and Northern Ireland.

Uplifting pay in Scotland to £2 per hour above the National Living Wage rate would mean raising the Scottish minimum hourly rate of £12.60 by £1.61 per hour to £14.21. It is estimated that this would cost an additional £335 million annually.

The Scottish Government is proud to have led the way in supporting enhanced minimum hourly rates of pay for the adult social care workforce among the four UK nations. However, we are always happy to listen to serious proposals about how increases in pay for the social care workforce could be achieved in an affordable way.

The Scottish Government will continue to look at what we can do to increase rates of pay for social care workers, and our work to introduce sectoral bargaining arrangements for the sector is progressing. However, there has never been greater pressures on public finances, and we must balance the books while demand for government support and intervention is increasing.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) published its most recent independent forecasts on 25 June 2025, which sets out its latest five-year economic and fiscal forecasts to 2030-31.

The publication can be found on the SFC’s website: Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025 | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

Based on those forecasts and Scottish Government’s estimates of Young Carer Grant and Job Start Payment, expenditure on the range of Social Security Assistance provided by the Scottish Government is forecast to increase from £6.8 billion this year, to £9.3 billion by 2030-31, as shown in the following table.