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Through delivery of the Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot we are working with our Save a Life for Scotland partners to improve access to defibrillators by ensuring that they are publicly accessible, registered and to take a data driven approach to their placement.

The Scottish Government provided the Resuscitation Research Group funding to support the development of PADmap - Increasing cardiac arrest survival through optimal defibrillator placement. This is a free to use, data-driven service to help defibrillator guardians make informed decisions about where to place their devices in order to have the most impact.

We will work with Scottish Women’s Aid to ensure the fund to leave is open to women across Scotland who are in need of financial support to leave an abusive partner.

In 2024–25, the Scottish Government supported the delivery of 966 affordable homes, including 351 acquisitions and 615 voids, through £40 million in targeted acquisition and voids funding.

We know that local authorities across Scotland are facing significant housing and homelessness challenges. However, some are experiencing much greater pressure than others, as evidenced by higher numbers of households living in temporary accommodation.

The additional £2 million investment in Discretionary Housing Payments is intended to provide targeted support where it is most needed. Local authorities are best placed to identify households in temporary accommodation who can benefit from this funding, based on their local knowledge and operational expertise.

We will work closely with local authorities to monitor the impact of this funding. This includes gathering data on how the payments are being used and assessing outcomes for households receiving support.

We will also be seeking feedback on the impact of this funding through the discretionary housing payment practitioners’ forum.

NatureScot consulted on and produced an Environmental Report on the principle of beaver translocation to the river Beauly catchment in 2022. A copy of the report can be found on NatureScot’s website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-translocation-consultation-river-beauly-catchment-environmental-report

NatureScot also carried out a Habitats Regulations Assessment for the River Beauly catchment area. A copy of the assessment can be found on NatureScot’s website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-translocation-consultation-river-beauly-catchment-habitats-regulation-appraisal-hra-possible

The licence application was assessed against the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations which also assesses environmental benefits and risks. NatureScot’s decision documents on Glen Affric and Abriachan sets out how the licence applications were assessed. Copies of these documents can be found on Naturescot's website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-decision-document-licence-application-283801 and

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-decision-document-licence-application-296282

Our social security policies have been designed to provide much needed support for the most vulnerable in our society and people can be entitled to support whether they are in work or not.

For example, our Job Start Payment helps young people who are returning to work with the costs of starting a new job, support that is only available in Scotland. The Adult Disability Payment can help to reduce the barriers that prevent some disabled people from working and we recognise that it supports many disabled people to stay in employment. Additionally, findings from the evaluation of our Five Family Payments, published earlier this month, showed that for some recipients, the Scottish Child Payment is easing work costs related to travel and childcare and giving some families greater choice and flexibility to balance work, education, and caring responsibilities.

Through the Scottish Government’s No One Left Behind approach, person-centred employability services are available in every local authority area for people of all ages who experience structural barriers to participating in the labour market. Over 156,000 people have accessed these services since powers were devolved around aspects of employability support.

It is unclear where the figure of a net loss of over 30,000 private landlords since the COVID-19 pandemic has come from.

The most recently published figures show a reduction in registered landlords of 6,644 from January 2022 to July 2025, although it should be noted that the number of registered properties has increased in during the same period. The latest Scottish Landlord Register data shows the number of registered properties for rent in Scotland between August 2022 and July 2025 has increased by 2.9%. Over the same period, the number of registered landlords has decreased by 2.4%.

While these changes may point to some landlords choosing to leave the sector, the evidence suggests that their properties are remaining in the sector, or new properties are being offered for rent.

It should be noted that there are some limitations to the administrative data from the landlord register, including the time-lag in landlords deregistering properties that are no longer available to rent. These statistics should therefore be treated with some caution.

As part of the financial memorandum accompanying the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill 2024, the Scottish Government provided a low, central, and high estimate for the potential number of individuals with convictions that may be quashed through the operation of the legislation. These estimates were given with a significant degree of uncertainty given the nature of the issues covered by the Act. The low estimate was 100, the central estimate was 200, and the high estimate was 300. To date, the Scottish Government has identified 64 individuals with convictions quashed by the Act, and one alternative to prosecution within the scope of the Act.

In 2023 the Scottish Government commissioned a Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) to inform implementation considerations for a targeted Lung Cancer screening programme.

The SEAG provided the Scottish Government with an evaluation of costs and set out detailed considerations around the scale of workforce, equipment and IT requirements. It acknowledged that UK-wide challenges securing both staff and equipment are potentially rate limiting factors, and these in part contribute to the overall time frame for rolling out a full programme. This reflects the experience of England, which has been piloting lung checks since 2019, but still anticipates national coverage will not be achieved until 2030.

The planned 2027 pilot will support a real world understanding of constraints and limitations, and will inform long term planning for national implementation. For further information on the pilot, I refer the member to the question S6W-40236 on 16 September 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40236 on 16 September 2025 regarding the planned lung screening pilot. 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.

While this will be the first NHS-led pilot within Scotland, the LungScot study generated valuable evidence and insights into identifying individuals at high risk of lung cancer. These findings contributed to the work of the Scottish Expert Advisory Group for lung screening. A research project briefing has been published by the Chief Scientist Office for the phase of the study conducted within NHS Lothian, with key findings included. A full report regarding the wider study will be published at a later date.