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Please see the following table with details of the complaints HIS has received about maternity care provided by maternity units in each year since 2020-21, broken down by maternity unit.

The information held by HIS relates to concerns raised through its Responding to concerns – Healthcare Improvement Scotland that were referred by another national organisation; raised with HIS by an NHS member of staff, and one complaint that was raised with by a member of the public. Whilst complaints from members of the public are not usually within the remit of the RTC process or HIS’s remit, the HIS Executive Review Team agreed that in that instance an assessment should be undertaken.

We expect all women who experience pelvic floor trauma and post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) will have this recorded within the electronic maternity record. Rates of third- and fourth-degree tears for each Board are available on the Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Dashboard: Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Dashboard. Data on PPH is collected by Healthcare Improvement Scotland as part of the Scottish Patient Safety Perinatal Programme.

We have written to all NHS Boards identifying the Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injury (OASI) care bundle as an approach which can be used by maternity services with a view to reducing the incidence of third- and fourth-degree tears. This will be one of several priorities for consideration by the expert members of the Scottish Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce.

The scheduling of psilocybin in the UK is overseen by the Home Office and the regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The Scottish Government has no power to alter this.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is supporting psilocybin research via the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility, the NIHR Oxford Health Clinical Research Facility, and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. This includes developing and evaluating the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapies.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 requires local authorities to assess rent conditions in their areas and report their findings and recommendation to Scottish Ministers. The first report is to be provided by 27 May 2027 and on a five yearly basis thereafter. Scottish Ministers may then designate rent control areas where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to protect tenants’ social and economic interests.

The Act provides powers for local authorities and Scottish Ministers to collect rental data from landlords to support their assessments.

Data will play a vital part in rent control being successful and we continue to work with local authorities on developing the detail of the assessment process. Work is also continuing on the potential options for collecting data, including consideration of the use of the landlord register as a vehicle to collate data collected in support of rent control.

The Digital Strategy for Scotland Vision and the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan (2025-2025) will both be published today (18 November 2025). Tomorrow, I will be attending the Digital Scotland conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, where I will give the joint keynote with Cllr Katie Hagmann.

• The Digital Strategy for Scotland Vision is available here:
  https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806433698
• The Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan is available here:
  https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806433704

I can confirm that the commitment to reduce drop-off in breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks by 10% by 2025 has been achieved and exceeded. The rate of drop off has reduced from 34.5% in 2017-18, when the stretch aim was announced, to 25.3% in 2024-25, a reduction of 9.2 percentage points. This shows a 27% reduction, thereby exceeding the anticipated 10% by some margin.

As we set out in the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategic Framework published earlier this year, we committed to setting out a new stretch aim before the end of 2025. Following engagement with Health Boards and key stakeholders, I can now confirm that this will be ‘to reduce drop-off in breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks by 10% by 2031’.

Much of the improvement over the last seven years has been driven by a combined approach within and between Health Boards, including further embedding of the Unicef UK Baby Friendly standards. From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million annual additional investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding. This builds on additional investment of over £11 million since 2018. This funding will continue to be used to support evidence-based interventions and to target those who need it most.

As part of our achievements for the highest rates of breastfeeding ever, at 69% initiation and 61% at First Visit, we now have more than half of all babies being breastfed at 6-8 weeks. The statistics from 11 November mark the first time since these statistics began in Scotland in 2002-03 that more babies are being breastfed than formula fed at that time point. It is also clear from the most recent Infant Feeding Statistics, that action on breastfeeding inequalities is making a difference, with the most marked differences for those who live in the most deprived areas and younger mothers.

We want all babies to have the best start in life, including the best nutritional start. Supporting, protecting and promoting breastfeeding remains one of the most important actions we can take to improve the health of both the mother and baby, in both the short and long term. However, we also recognise that breastfeeding might not be possible for every mother and baby and we will continue to support all parents with their infant feeding choices.

This work has been driven through our health services and partners, and in particular the role of Infant Feeding Leads and their teams across maternity, neonatal and community-based services. We will continue to work collaboratively with local leaders to ensure that all mothers across Scotland can be fully supported to achieve their breastfeeding goals.

I was first made aware of issues with maternity services in NHS Lothian in December 2024. At that time Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) had already started an investigation following whistleblower reports. I met with Lothian Chief Executive and Chair, and they outlined the improvement work they had underway. At my request, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer/Deputy Chief Nursing Officer began working directly with NHS Lothian on the issues, providing support and reporting back to Ministers on progress. They noted that NHS Lothian was taking forward a suitable programme of work to address the issues raised as a priority. However the complexity of the issues and improvement required, particularly cultural change, would take time to take full effect.

Following the unannounced HIS inspection, the decision was made to escalate NHS Lothian’s maternity services to Level 3 of NHS Scotland’s Support and Intervention Framework. I have met with NHS Lothian’s Chief Executive to discuss the findings of the report and wider concerns on patient safety oversight, leadership, staff wellbeing and delays in care. NHS Lothian has provided assurances that they will move quickly to implement the required changes and I am scheduled to meet with the Chief Executive and Chair of NHS Lothian on 25 November for an update on progress.

National security and counter-terrorism, including Prevent, is reserved to the UK Government but is delivered in Scotland by devolved partners such as Education, Police, Local Authorities, Prisons and Health. The Scottish Government works closely with the Home Office and key delivery partners to ensure proportionate responses to a broad spectrum of threat. There are variations over time in the number of referrals to Prevent and the number of cases adopted to the programme. This is likely due to a combination of factors including improved training of frontline staff, increasing public awareness of terrorism, related events or high-profile incidents.

Prevent is focussed on early intervention to address all forms of ideology and does not target any one community, group, or individual. The Scottish Government’s work is centred on supporting partners, increasing awareness and improving access to training for professionals to tackle ideological causes. Our wider work to support resilient and safe communities in Scotland helps to stop people from becoming alienated or isolated, reduces susceptibility to radicalisation, and increases resilience to the narratives used to divide us.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A range of checks are carried out before the release of a prisoner is authorised including but not limited to, an identity check of the person, confirmation of liberation date and a check for any known outstanding warrants.

A liberation in error occurs when an individual is released from a Scottish Prison Service establishment without lawful authority. This situation typically arises due to an administrative or procedural mistake, such as incorrect interpretation of documentation, miscalculation of sentence dates or incorrect data sharing from other partners.

The following table provides the numbers of total liberations and the liberations in error since 2021-2022, up to and including 13 November 2025:

The Scottish Government has not proposed a 'Heroes of Net Zero' campaign, has not done so in the past and is not aware of any proposals to do so in the future. Therefore, we cannot provide a response to points (a), (b) and (c). It is worth noting that the Scottish Government publishes its marketing spend annually on gov.scot - Marketing spend - gov.scot.