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The Scottish Government wants to ensure that the child’s best interests are at the centre of any contact case and that the voice of the child is heard. Family circumstances can vary considerably and so, beyond those general principles, there is no single approach which will fit every contact case.

Contact orders are made by courts under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Through these orders, courts can regulate the arrangements under which non-resident parents maintain personal relations or direct contact with children under the age of 16.

When the court is deciding whether, and in what terms, to make a contact order under section 11 the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration. The court must also – taking into account the child's age and maturity – have regard to any views the child wishes to express and have regard to matters such as the need to protect the child from the risk of abuse.

Those with parental responsibilities and rights (including in relation to contact) are also expected to exercise these in the interests of the child and, where appropriate, to have regard to the views of the child. If the arrangements provided for in a contact order are no longer considered appropriate the matter could, in appropriate cases, be brought back to the court (including by or on behalf of the child themselves) for the order to be varied or recalled.

The court may order contact to take place at a child contact centre. We expect child contact services to take a child-centred approach, using trauma-informed approaches. We would not expect a child who is distressed to be forced into contact.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Relationships Scotland who are the largest provider of child contact services in Scotland. Child contact services have practices in place to help support facilitation of contact orders, for example: familiarisation visits; gradual build-up of time in contact; signals if child wants contact to end; family support workers to support parents and children.

The education and training of the Scottish judiciary is the responsibility of the Lord President, who established the Judicial Institute for Scotland (the Institute) to conduct training for all sheriffs and judges in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s understanding is that consideration of domestic abuse has been an ongoing component of the Institute’s training since 2019. In response to the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 the Institute launched a learning programme for all judicial office holders at that time. This training included a Domestic Abuse Resource Kit, which has been extended to cover the implications of domestic abuse in civil cases and the interaction between criminal and civil cases.

Domestic abuse training has also been implemented into induction courses since 2019, ensuring that all those coming into post receive similar training, particularly covering the concept of coercive control in the context of domestic abuse. In addition, family and civil law courses consider the impact of coercive control and other forms of abusive behaviour in family disputes.

The Institute’s annual reports can be found on the Judiciary of Scotland website.

Solicitors in Scotland have to undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD) relevant to their roles in line with the Law Society of Scotland's CPD requirements. Training on domestic abuse is available and revisited regularly, for example, the recent webinar on: A Review of Domestic Abuse in Scotland | Law Society of Scotland.

However, there is no specific requirement for solicitors working in the civil system to undergo specialist training in domestic abuse, coercive control and the potential impact on children’s lives.

Public Health Scotland continues to provide data regarding planned procedure activity prior to March 2020 in the monthly Cancelled Planned Operations release which can be accessed at Cancelled planned operations - Month Ending 30 April 2025 - Cancelled planned operations - Publications - Public Health Scotland. The ‘Cancellations data’ file provides the information needed for comparisons of time periods May 2015 to April 2025 by month and therefore able to illustrate the difference in current levels of operation activity and operation activity pre-COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of PHS’ obligations under the UKSA Code of Practice for Statistics (found at About the Code – Code of Practice for Statistics), PHS continually review outputs to ensure they adhere to all the pillars contained within the Code of Practice. This states that “statistics and data [should be] useful, easy to access, remain relevant, and support understanding of important issues.” Upon review, the Cancelled Planned Operations summary has been adapted to align with these principles.

More specifically, in line with the principles of “Relevance to Users” and “Innovation and Improvement” the Cancelled Planned Operations commentary now reflects and highlights current trend patterns within 3 years from the latest release. The aim of the revised time trend highlighted within the summary is to meet the user need of improving access to latest trends and highlights important current information. The risk of including too much of a historic time trend in the summary chart is that it becomes more difficult to interpret these current trends. Nevertheless, the continuation of the provision of the longer time trend within the accompanying data tables, including activity prior to March 2020, allows the user to access the data if they wish to do so.

The Scottish Government regularly discusses a wide range of fire safety topics with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) including battery energy storage system (BESS) sites.

SFRS is a member of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and has access to the wide range of fire and rescue research, guidance and expertise provided by the NFCC. The Scottish Fire and Rescue service provides advice to the Scottish Government on fire safety matters.

There was no communication between the Scottish Government and the NFCC regarding the single recorded incident at a BESS site in Scotland. This incident involved a battery unit which was damaged in transit and was not yet installed. There were no casualties.

I refer the member to S6W-38037.

The £60m Scottish Government funding for play park renewals was distributed among the 32 local authorities based on population of 0-14 year olds and rurality. In the first year, the formula was:

1.95% on population 0-14

2.5% on rurality

From 2022/23, the formula was:

1.93% on population 0-14

2.7% on rurality

Information on Ministerial engagements is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/. The engagements for May 2025 will be published three months in arrears, in line with the Scottish Ministerial Code.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 March 2024 by Liam McArthur MSP (Liberal Democrats). As such, this is a Member's Bill, not a Scottish Government Bill.

Alongside the Bill, Mr McArthur submitted a Financial Memorandum, setting out an assessment of the projected costs of implementing the Bill. He also wrote to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 17 June 2024, and again on 14 October 2024, to provide updates to the figures in the Financial Memorandum.

A Scottish Government memorandum was provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 30 September 2024. This advised that the Scottish Government considered that the costs provided by the member responsible for the Bill were likely to be underestimates. This same memorandum also set out the Scottish Government’s view that the Bill, as introduced, is outside of the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, and that the Scottish Government would be taking a neutral position on the Bill.

A further letter was sent to the Committee on 27 February 2025, following the Scottish Government’s oral evidence session, to provide estimates of the costs associated with providing initial and refresher training to NHS staff. This noted that all cost estimates provided at this stage are purely indicative, and that this is something that will need to be kept under careful review as the Bill moves through the Parliamentary process.

Significant issues were raised about various aspects of the Bill in the Committee’s Stage 1 report, and during the Stage 1 debate. As highlighted in the Stage 1 report, the Committee made a number of recommendations in relation to the detail of the Bill including about areas for further debate and potential amendment. As such, we are considering our own position moving forward, in light of Parliament's decision to support the general principles of the Bill, and we will be paying close attention to any amendments put forward by non-Government MSPs to consider the practical, financial and legal implications of these.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing and the recruitment of graduates is the responsibility of health boards as autonomous institutions.

Whilst graduates can apply to join the NHS and care providers in their local area upon graduation, vacancies can fluctuate geographically each year. Alongside this, staff turnover can also vary, making recruitment of newly qualified nurses more challenging in individual health board areas. Such variations can be difficult to predict on occasion.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any evidence which suggests that significant numbers of graduate nurses are unable to secure permanent positions at this point.

As noted in S6W-38035 on 11 June 2025, Local Authorities report annually every April on their play park renewals carried out as a result of the Scottish Government’s £60m play park renewal funding. The reports from Local Authorities detail the number of play parks in their estate, the number of play parks identified for renewal, the number of play parks they have renewed in that financial year and the number of play parks they have renewed to date since the funding started. Since September 2021, when funding for the renewal programme commenced, Local Authorities have reported that over 1,100 play parks have been renewed. Local Authorities are invited to share details of their play park renewals and the details of the engagement with the local community but are not required to list details of each renewal. The reporting format was developed and agreed in collaboration with COSLA in 2021.

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

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate and the Scottish Government expect them to exercise their statutory responsibilities and deliver a safe environment for all school users.