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Data are available on the number of SMEs operating in Scotland, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, broken down by Scottish parliamentary constituency. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Number of registered SMEs operating in Scotland, by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency, March 2015-2024

The Scottish Government is responsible for setting the strategic policy direction for NHS Scotland and its workforce. Operational matters, including the staffing of individual services, are the responsibility of each NHS Scotland Health Board.

Workforce statistics, including statistics on certain roles within dermatology services across NHS Scotland, can be found at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Scottish Government works with a stakeholder group (which includes NHS Education for Scotland, the British Medical Association, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and various Health Board representatives including regional workforce planners) to undertake annual reviews of the number of specialty training places (for resident doctors) needed across all specialties (including dermatology) in order to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need.

At a local level, the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

Through our £106 million additional investment targeted at the longest waits, NHS Boards plan to deliver more than 300,000 appointments and procedures this year.

The additional appointments and procedures are expected to break down as follows:

• 195,000 imaging scans;
• 31,000 inpatient or day-case procedures; and
• 88,000 new outpatient appointments.

A proportion of funding will also support cancer activity and provide critical supporting services which help our NHS deliver activity including pathology, diagnostic reporting and pre-assessment.

In addition, the Government has also now committed a further £4 million to deliver extra dermatology activity, bringing total additional funding for this year to over £110 million. This will support a planned:

• 4,100 new outpatient appointments; and
• 1,500 ‘see and treat’.

This funding will also see photo-triage of up to 8,300 digital images, allowing clinicians to triage, diagnose and assess some skin conditions, leading to a better and quicker service for patients.

Today’s announcement means 213,000 more appointments will be delivered this year than in 2024-25 and exceeds our Programme for Government target of delivering 150,000 extra appointments by more than 60,000.

NHS Boards will receive their allocated funding on delivery of activity. The Scottish Government may move funding between Boards and specialities throughout the year, subject to progress.

While a patient has the right, at any time, to exercise choice and seek private treatment, we recognise that excessively long waits for NHS treatment are not acceptable.

We’re determined to reduce patient waits in the year ahead and our investment of £106 million additional funding will help us to deliver more than 150,000 extra appointments and procedures in 2025-26. The funding has been assigned to specialty areas for the year ahead where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits – this includes £25 million for trauma and orthopaedics, £21 million for imaging, more than £12 million for ophthalmology, over £9 million for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) and over £8.8 million for Gynaecology.

This funding is just part of our record investment of £21.7 billion for health and social care this year.

In support of the Budget and wider Public Service Reform agenda, the Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to control workforce size.

From March 2022 to March 2025, the total workforce in the Scottish Government has reduced by 5%. This reduction has been achieved through prioritising reductions in contingent workers, natural attrition and enhanced recruitment controls. There are currently no plans for redundancies for this financial year.

As the Public Service Reform Strategy is taken forward we will establish how this will shape the future workforce plan for the Scottish Government organisation and the wider Civil Service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39142 on 23 July 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 Scottish Funding Council’s final allocations to the college sector for 2025-26 provide a 2.6% sector increase in teaching funding compared to last year. Additionally no college sees a reduction in teaching funding in 2025-26 when compared with 2024-25.

Operational decisions, including course provision and staffing, are a matter for individual colleges, who are best placed to respond to emerging trends in skills needs at local and regional level.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data. The General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) is best placed to advise on how many newly qualified teachers progress each year to meet the Standard for Full Registration, through the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) or by the Flexible Route.

The Scottish Government contributes to attracting and equipping skilled people for rural and Island areas, including funding Lantra Scotland’s 2025-26 workplan to promote the rewarding careers available, and the economic and environmental benefits of investing in skills in the land-based, aquaculture and environment.

We are additionally developing our future approach for the sustainable delivery of skills for rural Scotland, following on from the Skills Action Plan for Rural Scotland (SAPRS) in the context of reform across the education and skills system.

Operational decisions, including course provision and staffing, are a matter for individual colleges, who are best placed to respond to emerging trends in skills needs at local and regional level. However, the Scottish Government is committed to introducing a new Scottish Government-led approach to national skills planning, and strengthen regional skills planning, to ensure that post school provision becomes more responsive to Scotland's strategic skills needs and priorities.

I recognise the importance of housing co-operatives and the need to support and encourage them. While we already have powers to make amendments to this section, given the importance of HMO licensing in protecting tenants in Scotland, any decision to make such a change should not be taken lightly, and certainly not before full consideration of any unintended consequences and mitigations had been undertaken. On that basis, the Scottish Government has no immediate plans to change the legislation relating to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing requirements.

England and Wales operate a different HMO licensing regime from Scotland.