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Scotland is not alone in experiencing falling birth rates, which is a trend across many high-income countries. This has significant implications for the sustainability of our economies, communities and public services. We want to ensure that Scotland is the ideal place to raise a family, and while deciding to have a child or not is rightly a personal decision, we are identifying and addressing barriers to people starting or expanding families in line with their intentions, through the delivery of Scotland’s Population Strategy.

Our 2022 ‘Attitudes to Family Formation’ research highlighted a range of key factors such as housing and economic pressures driving decisions around family formation in Scotland. In mid-2023, the Ministerial Population Taskforce requested that further research be undertaken to increase the Scottish Government’s awareness of family friendly policies which had been developed and implemented in different countries, including interventions implemented in Nordic countries. A paper was discussed at the December 2024 meeting of the Taskforce which explored initial learning from this research exercise.

This early stage, exploratory research aimed to consider the broader international context and responses to trends around birth rates. As such, implications for costed implementation of interventions in Scotland have not yet been considered. The next steps for this workstream will include further research into parental leave uptake and its impact on fertility decisions. Outputs from this work will be considered accordingly by Scottish Ministers.

As stated in response to S6W-36570 on 17 April 2025, it is for the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee to scrutinise the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill and it will be for the Scottish Parliament to decide on whether or not to pass it.

The Scottish Government has been clear about its commitment to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access timely and high-quality palliative care, care around dying and bereavement support based on what matters to them.

In October 2024 we published our draft palliative care strategy for consultation. The consultation closed on 10 January 2025 and we are now in the process of analysing the responses. The final strategy and delivery plan will set our direction of travel for the next five years.

Further to that, the Scottish Budget 2025-26 identified funding of £5 million to help support independent hospices deliver pay parity with Agenda for Change (AfC) levels for this and future years.

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 Scottish Government does not hold information on how many international students have accessed GP services in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as international students cannot be identified from the A&E data collected by Public Health Scotland.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is a Member's Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament by Liam McArthur MSP, not a Scottish Government Bill. It is the role of the Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee to scrutinise the Bill and it will be for the Scottish Parliament to decide on whether or not to pass it into law.

Scottish Government decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of any legal considerations. All legal advice is confidential. It is a long-established convention that legal advice provided to the Scottish Government is not disclosed, and that the Scottish Government does not disclose the source of legal advice other than in the most exceptional circumstances.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

Police Scotland have a range of existing robust powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation and common law to take appropriate action such as seizure of vehicles and disposal where appropriate. We continue to work and engage with Police Scotland to ensure they have the powers they need.

We also liaise with the UK Government where there are reserved matters relating to road safety, including vehicle licencing, off-road vehicles and legal use of both e-scooters and e-bikes. This ongoing collaboration ensures that Scottish interests are considered in any UK-wide decisions affecting road safety including the current legislative proposals. We plan to take this work forward through a cross-party approach.

Patient and staff exposure to sewage leaks within NHS Scotland is an issue that is managed locally by NHS Boards, and the Scottish Government does not collect centralised data on this.

The Scottish Government is aware of this approach.

Police Scotland have a range of existing powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation and common law to take appropriate action such as seizure of vehicles and disposal where appropriate. They have also pursued awareness campaigns, such as in December 2024, that highlighted concerns around illegal e-bikes, clarified the legal position, and publicised the number of such vehicles that had been seized.

Police Scotland also pursue a range of initiatives based on identified local need such as increased and targeted patrols at hot-spot areas, use of off-road vehicles for pursuit where safe to do so, and potential measures such as use of drones. This flexible local needs approach is undertaken by policing divisions including Mid Scotland and Fife.