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The Scottish Government currently has no plans in place to implement mobile care units for rural areas across Scotland. It would be for NHS Boards to determine best use of available resources and implement this initiative locally, should they feel the service meets the needs of their local population.

FSS has integrated food crime and fraud awareness into its core communications strategy, using the following approaches:

Raising Visibility of the Scottish Food Crime Unit (SFCIU):

Promotion of the Food Crime Hotline and online reporting channels to encourage the public and businesses to report suspicious food activity.

Case studies and briefings to highlight real-world examples of food fraud.
Stakeholder engagement, including industry awareness sessions and political briefings.

Public Campaigns & Social Media Communications:

Targeted digital content to help consumers recognise fraudulent food products.
Messaging around how to spot and report food fraud, making information accessible and easy to act upon.

Collaboration with Industry & Enforcement Partners:

Working with retailers, local authorities, and law enforcement to increase intelligence-sharing and raise awareness of compliance obligations.
Development of the food crime profiling tool for businesses to assess risk and strengthen food supply chain integrity.

Incident Response & Consumer Protection:

Food crime incidents are managed through FSS’s incident framework and the incident comms plan, ensuring timely public updates and preventing misinformation. Cross-agency coordination with UK and international bodies to take swift action on food fraud cases affecting Scotland.

Through these targeted communication efforts, FSS ensures that both consumers and businesses understand the risks of food fraud, know how to identify it, and are empowered to report concerns effectively.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) advocate the UK wide reformulation programme, managed by the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities, which has voluntary targets for industry to reduce levels of sugar, salt and calories in commonly consumed foods. They regularly report on progress, with the most recent publication in 2024.

In Scotland, Scottish Government funds the Reformulation for Health Programme which is managed by Food and Drink Federation Scotland. Since 2019, the programme has support SMEs operating in Scotland to take steps to improve the nutritional content of their food, including reductions in fat, sugar and salt. Examples of the success of the programme can be found via this link. FSS supports the Reformulation for Health Programme, including as a Reformul8 Partner, and through provision of grant funding to support businesses to undertake reformulation.

It is not possible to identify which charges and prosecutions for assault were specifically of assaults on nurses.

It is not possible to separately identify which prosecutions for assault were specifically for assaults on nurses

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

Decisions relating to the investigation and prosecution of crime, including speeding offences, are a matter for Police Scotland and COPFS, who are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers.

Restrictions brought in to reduce the spread of coronavirus in 2020 led to a significant increase in the length of time it took for cases to progress through the court system. However, there has been considerable progress in addressing backlogs in the summary court system, aided by investment provided by the Scottish Government, with the number of outstanding scheduled summary trials reducing from an average of 38,089 in 2021-22 to 19,848 as of December 2024.

We are aware of the UK Government’s planned secondary legislation following its Genetic Technologies (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 and are looking carefully at the implications of their proposals. As our closest trading partner, any changes in England may have implications for Scottish businesses.

Regulation of genetic modification is an area of devolved responsibility, and the Scottish Government expects full cooperation from the UK Government in matters where any related legislation will impact upon the interests of Scottish businesses and consumers.

The views of stakeholders in Scotland – scientists, farmers, food producers, but especially, consumers and the public as a whole – will inform any future changes in relation to the regulation of genetic technologies in Scotland. On 27 March we will hold a roundtable event to better understand the views and concerns of stakeholders.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s IT Code of Conduct attempts to access, active accessing, downloading, displaying, storing and the distribution of pornographic, racist or other offensive material, or material relating to illegal activities is considered a disciplinary matter.

Under the Scottish Government’s discipline policy, line managers are expected to deal with concerns about inappropriate behaviour at an early stage and where appropriate, on an informal basis. Informal action could include addressing concerns through discussion, feedback, training and coaching. There is no requirement to report informal action to HR. However, where an allegation of misconduct is more serious, formal disciplinary procedures would apply.

Since 2018, there have been two formal disciplinary cases taken in response to incidents of accessing or attempting to access pornography on Scottish Government devices or computers. One outcome was a 6-month formal written warning, and the other outcome was a one-year written warning.