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Officials from the Scottish Government's animal welfare team meet regularly with local authorities to discuss the implementation and enforcement of the 2021 animal licensing regulations.

No specific research has been commissioned into the effects of nitazenes and their prevalence in Scotland. However we do draw on the international evidence base through our public health surveillance system. Since the first detection of these substances in Scotland in 2021, Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) have worked closely to monitor the prevalence of these substances and to provide regular updates and alerts to those using drugs and those working in drug treatment services.

PHS publishes on a quarterly basis, accessible, up-to-date information on services, harms and emerging drug trends, via the Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) early warning system. This includes a range of information relating to nitazenes and can be found here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/population-health/improving-scotlands-health/drugs/surveillance/rapid-action-drug-alerts-and-response-radar.

The £15 million funding for general practice announced by the Scottish Government on 21 August 2025 will be allocated to territorial health boards as outlined in the following table.

The First Minister met President Von der Leyen in Scotland on 26 July.

They discussed transatlantic trade talks, the current state of the UK/EU relationship, the UK/EU Summit held in May 2025, energy cooperation and Scotland’s potential as a centre for renewable energy production, Gaza and Ukraine.

President Von der Leyen noted that the visits of European leaders and the US President provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world.

The Scottish Government has no plans at present to undertake a review of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) (Regulations) 2021. Section 28 of the equivalent regulations in England place a duty on the Secretary of State to periodically review the provisions of the 2018 regulations. No such duty exists under the 2021 regulations.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing the role of nurse sexual offence examiners.

The Scottish Government and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have together supported a test of change involving Queen Margaret University nurse graduates, so that they can undertake sexual offence examinations and give evidence in court. If approved by the Lord Advocate, this test of change could pave the way for nurses to undertake the role of sexual offence examiner in future.

We continue to fund places on a Post Graduate Certificate (PG Cert) in Advanced Forensic Practice course at Queen Margaret University – the first of its kind in Scotland. This qualification is a pre-requisite for nurses undertaking the role of sexual offence examiner in Scotland.

We also fund a skills lab at Queen Margaret University so that sexual offence examiners and recently qualified nurse sexual offence examiners can maintain and update their skills.

Developing a multi-disciplinary workforce model may also support the sustainability of services in remote, rural and island communities.

There are currently 24 qualified nurses with a further 10 working towards this qualification. Assuming all of the nurses graduate by July 2026, the total number of PG Cert qualified nurses in Scotland will increase to 34.

The circumstances in which independent GP contractors can charge their patients for services not covered by their contracts are set out in schedule 5 of the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (box brackets and ellipsis denote edits to the text of the schedule for the sake of clarity):

1. The contractor may demand or accept a fee or other remuneration—

(a) from any statutory body for services rendered for the purposes of that body’s statutory functions;

(b) from any body, employer or school for a routine medical examination of persons for whose welfare the body, employer or school is responsible, or an examination of such persons for the purpose of advising the body, employer or school of any administrative action they might take;

(c) for treatment which is not primary medical services or otherwise required to be provided under the contract and which is given—

(i) pursuant to the provisions of section 57 of [the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978] (a) (accommodation and services for private patients); or

(ii) in accommodation provided by a care home service which is not providing services under the Act,

if, in either case, the person providing the treatment is serving on the staff of a hospital providing services under the Act as a specialist providing treatment of the kind the patient requires and if, within 7 days of giving the treatment, the contractor or the person providing the treatment supplies the Health Board, on a form provided by it for the purpose, with such information about the treatment as it may require;

(d) under section 158 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (payment for emergency treatment of traffic casualties) (b);

(e) when the contractor treats a patient [who claims to be on that contractor’s list of patients, but the contractor has reasonable doubts about that person’s claim], in which case the contractor is entitled to demand and accept a reasonable fee … for any treatment given, if the contractor gives the patient a receipt;

(f) for attending and examining (but not otherwise treating) a patient—

(i) at the patient’s request at a police station in connection with possible criminal proceedings against the patient;

(ii) at the request of a commercial, educational or not-for-profit organisation for the purpose of creating a medical report or certificate; or

(iii) for the purpose of creating a medical report required in connection with an actual or potential claim for compensation by the patient;

(g) for treatment consisting of an immunisation for which no remuneration is payable by the Health Board and which is requested in connection with travel abroad;

(h) for prescribing or providing drugs, medicines or appliances (including a collection of such drugs, medicines and appliances in the form of a travel kit) which a patient requires to have in their possession solely in anticipation of the onset of an ailment or occurrence of an injury while they are outside the United Kingdom but for which they are not requiring treatment when the medicine is prescribed;

(i) for a medical examination—

(i) to enable a decision to be made as to whether or not it is inadvisable on medical grounds for a person to wear a seat belt; or

(ii) for the purpose of creating a report—

(aa) relating to a road traffic accident or criminal assault; or

(bb) that offers an opinion as to whether a patient is fit to travel; or

(j) for prescribing or providing drugs or medicines for malaria chemoprophylaxis.

It is a matter for independent GP contractors to decide whether or not they want to carry out this private work and how much to charge for it.

The Scottish Government recognises the crucial role that the Subway plays in Glasgow’s transport system and the importance of the modernisation programme.

The Psychology of Parenting Programme (PoPP) is funded through NHS Education Scotland (NES)’s Parenting workstream, which covers various programmes of work (including PoPP) to support the social, emotional and behavioural development of infants, children, young people and their families. In financial year 2023-24, the Scottish Government allocated £633,040 to NES to support the Parenting workstream, with a further £571,542 issued in 2024-25.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. You should, instead, request this from the Scottish Ambulance Service directly.