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The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of staff currently employed in local authority planning services.

However, each planning authority in Scotland has recently participated in the new National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF), which is being led by the National Planning Improvement Champion. The performance assessments for 22 authorities are available at: https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/products-and-services/planning-and-place-based-approaches/national-planning-improvement/national-planning-improvement-framework/improvement-action-plans-and-performance-assessments. The reports include information on the number of staff in individual authorities.

The Scottish Government recognises the financial and capacity pressures on the planning system and is taking forward a package of changes to provide authorities with additional resources. Planning fees were increased in line with inflation last December, and further changes are due to come into force this month. Through the National Planning Skills Commitment Plan, we are coordinating skills development across the planning sector in Scotland.

In addition, Scotland’s National Planning Hub is providing additional surge capacity and resource to help authorities to respond to current challenges, and to enable them to accelerate their activities this financial year.

We are also supporting an increase in planners coming into the profession, particularly through direct recruitment and training in our Future Planners programme, and a trebling of the planning bursaries we are offering this year.

The Care Inspectorate is the independent scrutiny body and regulator for care services in Scotland. It looks at the quality of care in Scotland (including in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings) to ensure it meets high standards and to promote the safety, protection and wellbeing of all service users including children in ELC settings.

The Care Inspectorate publishes an annual report with their national findings on the availability and quality of registered daycare of children and childminding services for children and families across Scotland. The most recent report was published on 24 September 2024: Early Learning and Childcare Statistics 2023.

Figure 10 in this report provides quality data in relation to all daycare of children and childminding services:

Figure 10: Percentage of services holding evaluations of good or better, and very good or excellent in all assessed themes or key questions, 2014 to 2023.

To support the expansion of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) to 1140 hours per eligible child, the Scottish Government provided £476 million of capital funding to local authorities between 2017-18 and 2020-21. Supplemented by local authorities’ own funding, the 1140 expansion infrastructure programme includes 583 refurbishment projects, 124 extension projects and 157 new build projects. Over the course of the 1140 expansion infrastructure programme, no local authority has reported to the Scottish Government that its ELC estate is not fit for purpose. Statutory requirements for the fitness of premises to be used for the provision of ELC are set out in Section 10 of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Social Services Council may be able to assist with this question and can be contacted at:enquiries@sssc.uk.com.

The most recently published annual workforce data (Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2023 Workforce Data) shows that the number of people working in daycare of children services and childminding reduced by 660 from 45,140 in 2021 to 44,480 in 2023.

Funding has been identified in the 2025-26 budget for a potential contract start on NIFS Freighter replacements. The outline business case work has identified a Freight Flex option as the preferred concept for the two replacement vessels, with higher freight capacity, higher operating speed, and ability to carry up to 200 passengers. CMAL will be progressing a two stage competitive procurement starting soon with a view to signing contracts in early 2026, subject to relevant processes and approval of the final business case.

The delivery of two new vessels for the NIFS routes from Aberdeen to Orkney and Shetland will support the communities and businesses using this service for years to come, providing additional capacity, particularly during the peak summer and livestock movements periods.

The Scottish Government spend with Total Politics Group in each of the last 5 financial years is detailed in the following tables. For FY2024-25 the spend has been broken down by Directorate.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be conducting a full 12 week consultation on a range of possible service delivery changes in June 2025. SFRS will carefully consider the responses to that consultation before taking decisions on which options for change it will implement.

SFRS continually reviews and develops its response to any new and emerging technology to keep communities safe including in the event of an incident involving battery energy storage sites. Should an incident occur at a hazardous site of any kind, SFRS has the ability to deploy a range of resources that can be utilised by the highly skilled crews to successfully bring the incidents to a safe conclusion. These resources are not drawn from a single fire station.

The number of birds registered on the Scottish Kept Bird Register has increased since the numbers provided in the answer to question S6W-37429 on 12 May 2025. The number of birds registered on the Scottish Kept Bird Register has increased to 15,621,470 as at 28 May 2025. It is not possible to provide the requested breakdown of categories exactly into (a) canaries, (b) budgerigars, (c) other finches, (d) pigeons and (e) parrots. The categories of birds available for a more detailed breakdown from the register are: avian zoo collections (BIAZA Registered); aviary birds; birds of prey; ducks; emus; geese; guinea fowl; other birds; ostriches; partridges; pheasants; pigeons; psittacines; quails; rheas; and turkeys.

Excluding species classified as poultry or birds of prey the register currently holds records of 61,046 aviary birds, 3,570 other birds, 1,289 psittacines and 77,140 pigeons.

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 recognises that funding will be required to support Boards to make the transition to a reformed maternity and neonatal service. We have provided £3,570,400 to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and £2,873,051 to NHS Lothian since 2019, a total contribution of almost £6.5m. We are in discussion with NHS Grampian about additional support required. This funding is focused on supporting Boards through the transition process. In parallel work is underway to develop a cross-Board funding model to ensure receiving units are funded for the additional care that they provide.

This is in addition to the £25m of support we have provided to all Boards for implementation of the package of recommendations within Best Start since 2018, including improvements such as introduction of transitional care, and neonatal community care, and establishment of the Scottish Perinatal Network.

Safety for the babies, families and staff is our utmost priority, which is why we have taken a phased approach to transition, allowing time to build the right levels of capacity in all areas with NHS Boards working towards full implementation by 2026.

Implementation is already underway in the East region with Fife babies transferring to Edinburgh, and in the West Region with Ayrshire babies being transferred to Glasgow.

Each of the three Regions have developed plans for implementation. The plans include a phased approach to implementation and Regions have chosen to take different approaches to phasing.