Seòmar agus comataidhean

Information relating to the number of buildings which have undergone a Single Building Assessment is published on the Scottish Government’s website as Official Statistics in development on a monthly and quarterly basis.

A total of 7,582 applications were received, requesting £77.69 million in grant support.

We are currently assessing the outcomes of the cladding remediation information and assurance exercises, as described in the Next Phase Plan of Action, and will be sharing this with Parliament shortly.

On 21 July 2025, NHS Grampian confirmed that Opioid Replacement Therapy (ORT) is now available at its Kittybrewster Suite. They also advised that work was ongoing to resolve logistical challenges in order to extend this service to the remaining two custody suites, including Elgin.

Following continued concerns regarding progress at these two custody suites—specifically in relation to PE1900: Access to prescribed medication for detainees in police custody—the Scottish Government wrote to NHS Grampian on 6 November 2025 requesting an update.

NHS Grampian have since confirmed that they agree that patients receiving methadone in the community should continue treatment in custody. However, due to logistical and supply issues that they have previously highlighted, this cannot currently be facilitated at Elgin and Fraserburgh Custody Suites. NHSG has only one pharmacy licensed to supply Schedule 2 medications to custody settings, and there is no mechanism to supply or deliver methadone, which is a Schedule 2 medication, to these sites. However, work is ongoing to resolve this and enable methadone administration in the future.

In the meantime, any patient assessed by a nurse or forensic medical examiner as requiring methadone will be transferred from Elgin or Fraserburgh to Kittybrewster in Aberdeen to continue treatment.

NHS Grampian have also advised that their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are based on Tayside and Highland examples, with adjustments for local service delivery and challenges. Efforts continue to address the supply of Schedule 2 medications to remote custody suites.

The Scottish Government continues to work with health boards, including NHS Grampian, to ensure expectations are being met in line with the 2023 Rapid Review.

The former Minister for Housing, Paul McLennan MSP, met with representatives from Scottish Veterans Residences on 28 February 2024. This was immediately followed by a meeting with the Veterans Scotland Housing Group. These meetings focused on veterans and housing-related issues, including homelessness.

At these meetings, the former Minister for Housing confirmed that he had written to housing providers to highlight the relevant recommendations from the veterans homelessness prevention pathway.

I am due to meet with the Scottish Veterans Commissioner soon to discuss veterans and housing.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39185 on 8 August 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers.

We know that there is a gap in protection for seasonal workers and it is something we are very keen to address as urgently as we can.

As I stated during the Housing Bill debate, I do not think that it is appropriate to require ministers to make byelaws and therefore don’t feel that we should be considering reviewing section 315 of the Housing (Scotland) Act.

Instead, the Scottish Government will look to introduce a set of bespoke statutory accommodation standards, for all seasonal workers, and all routes will be considered for what will be the best path to take when introducing these standards.

Following analysis of local authority bids to the School Meal Debt Fund, £2,887,345.58 was allocated to 30 local authorities who applied for support. A breakdown of allocations is as follow:

In line with grant conditions, local authorities have reported to the Scottish Government on how they used their funding allocations and how they continue to support families through the implementation of the Good Practice Principles for the Management of School Meal Debt published by COSLA.

The local authority reports have been analysed and a report on the School Meal Debt Fund will be published in due course.

The local authorities who received support to clear their known school meal debt to 31 March 2024 have now reported on the funding they received. While this report will be published in due course, it is clear that local authorities collect data in different ways and therefore it is not possible to differentiate between the number of children and families funding has helped. However, from reports we believe that in excess of 70,000 instances of support were provided to children and families by this fund.