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The Scottish Government is aware of the decision by Maiden Life, to withdraw the Family Protection Plan, which is a commercial matter for the insurer and its broker, CMutual. We have engaged with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) to understand the implications of the withdrawal and the support being provided to current policyholders. We will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure that those affected receive clear information about their options.

The Scottish Government does not collect cost information in relation to Glasgow City Council use of hotel accommodation in line with their housing duties.

The Scottish Government have published an estimated increase of £240 million for local authorities in Scotland in the financial year 2025–2026, following the UK Government’s hike in employer National Insurance Contributions. This estimate was provided by COSLA, and includes teachers.

Scottish Government analysis shows that changes to employer National Insurance Contributions will disproportionately impact on businesses in industries such as hospitality where almost 4,000 jobs have been lost since March, hitting lower paid and part-time staff. Additional analysis suggests that the increase will result in an average additional cost of £850 per employee, with total costs per affected business estimated at approximately £24,500.

We are engaging with the Integration Joint Boards and COSLA to understand the cost impact caused by the UK Government’s hike in employer National Insurance contributions.

All pre-registration midwifery courses validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as meeting the required proficiencies for registration as a midwife include theoretical and practice education in recognising, assessing, planning and responding to pre-existing and emerging complications from alcohol misuse/withdrawal.

The NMC Standards of proficiency for midwives (NMC 2023) are available online at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards/2024/standards-of-proficiency-for-midwives.pdf

Post-registration CPD is a matter for individual NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government permanently transferred funding to Health Boards for Maternal and Infant Nutrition as part of the Outcomes Framework funding, which covers a wider range of outcomes. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2m within the NHS Boards budget for the Outcomes Framework. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. In 2025-26 territorial Health Boards received an overall cash uplift of 3%.

From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million further investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding, which can include peer support, following an additional investment of over £11 million since 2018.

The scale and stability of breastfeeding peer support has been strengthened as a result of targeted multi-year funding, optimising breastfeeding peer support in communities through locally driven decision making, strong partnership working and collaborations. In particular localised approaches which are effective in addressing breastfeeding inequalities and accessibility of support, as well as the growth of coverage across the volunteer and peer support landscape to include multiple Third sector organisations and in-house NHS volunteers.

All NHS Boards employ maternity service staff who are trained to deal with alcohol-related issues.

Where individuals have left a coercive and abusive relationship, it is important that protections for their safety are available where needed. As such, there are a range of protective orders available to help ensure the safety of individuals.

Where a partner or ex-partner has been convicted of a domestic abuse criminal offence against their partner or ex-partner, when dealing with the offender the court is required to consider whether to impose a non-harassment order (NHO). If a NHO is not imposed, the court must explain the reasons why. The NHO can have a range of conditions included within it such as refraining from contacting the person against whom the offence has been committed. NHOs are also available for a wider range of offences upon application by the prosecutor. Changes made in the recently passed Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 will, when brought into force, require the court to consider NHOs upon conviction in sexual offence, stalking and intimate images cases.

In addition, a person can take action through the courts to protect themselves against abuse and harassment, and there are a number of civil court orders available. These include an interdict, which is a court order prohibiting someone from doing something. It can cover things such as contacting a particular person or coming within a certain distance of their home. In some cases, breach of an interdict is an offence. A civil NHO can prohibit conduct which causes alarm or distress and again breach is a criminal offence. An exclusion order can provide protection to a spouse or a civil partner (and, in certain circumstances, a cohabitant) where they or a child of the family is at risk of physical or mental injury because of the conduct of the other spouse, civil partner (or cohabitant). The order suspends an individual's rights to occupy the family home, and will come to an end if the court divorce or their civil partnership is dissolved.

Some data on the use of these various orders is available. Under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and the requirement for the court to always consider imposition of an NHO following conviction for a domestic abuse offence came into force in April 2019, there has been a near quadrupling of the proportion of cases in which NHOs are made (from 10.8% of cases in 2018-19 to 41.8% of cases in 2024-25).

Separately from the availability of protective orders, the Caledonian System is an integrated approach to address the safety of women and children and to improve the lives of women, children and men. The system comprises of a programme for men who have been convicted of domestic abuse related offences with integrated support services for women and children. The men's programme is two years in duration, with a focus on helping men be accountable for their abusive behaviour and reduce the risk of continuing to be abusive. For 2025-26, the total ring-fenced budget allocation to 23 local authorities who operate the Caledonian System was £4,467,666.

These measures are intended to help protect victims of domestic abuse from further offending behaviour.

The Scottish Government remains committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures people get the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

The 2025-26 budget includes over £15 billion for the Local Government Settlement and almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration, exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million. At £21.7 billion, the overall financial envelope for Health and Social Care also reached record levels.

Despite these substantial funding increases, significant challenges in service provision remain, including rising demand and workforce challenges. UK Government decisions, such as increased National Insurance costs and restrictions on international recruitment, are exacerbating these issues.

We are implementing the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, that will strengthen rights for care home residents, support unpaid carers and social workers and improve experiences for the many people that access social care across Scotland.

The National Care Service Advisory Board will drive progress and scrutinise reform to ensure we can meet the care needs of those who require it. The Board is independent of Government and includes a diverse membership of people with lived experience of accessing care services, unpaid carers and those working in the sector.

The Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 and the National Care Service Advisory Board alongside other national programmes including GIRFE, Coming Home, the Self-directed Support improvement plan and Support in the Right Direction funding, are all playing a part to improve services across Scotland.