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It has been a critical aim of the Scottish Government over a number of years to improve interoperability within health and social care. We recently passed the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, which includes the introduction of mandatory information standards across systems to support this aim. Details of the legislation can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2025/9/enacted.

Scotland’s National Digital Platform (NDP) brings together cloud-based digital components and services. The technology available on the platform will improve consistency of access to core digital tools in the health and care system. MyCare.scot will make extensive use of the reuseable digital components and data services offered by NDP. The NDP is currently operational, and the member can read more about it at: https://www.nationaldigitalplatform.scot/about/.

COSLA and Scottish Government, along with NES, are working together to develop and deliver MyCare.scot. COSLA are joint owners of our Digital Health and Care Strategy and previously committed to supporting delivery of the Digital Front Door Programme and by extension, MyCare.scot. COSLA also represents local authorities in that. The member can find more information about the strategy here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-digital-health-care-strategy/.

The estimated cost to deliver the removal of peak fares is available in the ScotRail Peak Fares Permanent Removal Outline Business Case, published on Transport Scotland website: ScotRail Peak Fares Permanent Removal Outline Business Case

Any future predictions of the cost of delivery of this initiative must include variety of different factors, which naturally, may influence the annual cost.

There will be an evaluation of the project at the end of year 1 and year 3 which will assess the ongoing costs and impact of the scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41047 on 15 October 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.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular impact of food price inflation on low-income households in Scotland who are already grappling with cost-of-living pressures and are disproportionately affected by rising food prices. That is why the 2025-26 budget continues to allocate over £3 billion a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living, including offering free school meals to all pupils in P1 to 5 and in special schools, saving families taking those meals around £450 per year per child. The Scottish Government is investing around £6.9 billion in our social security system this year, almost £1.3 billion more than the UK Government gives to the Scottish Government for Social Security. This includes investment of £649 million in our package of benefits and payments only available in Scotland. All action putting more money in people’s pockets to be able to afford the essentials, including food.

There are a range of global and domestic factors driving food price inflation and whilst the Scottish Government is seeking to support households and local food suppliers in Scotland, there are a number of challenges that lie specifically with the UK Government. Indeed, the Bank of England cite factors such as regulatory changes and rising labour costs, which have been exacerbated by the UK Government’s increase to Employer National Insurance Contributions in autumn last year, as creating an additional financial burden on businesses, households, and the public sector. While many of the levers to address these challenges lie with the UK Government and could be managed more effectively in an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government remains committed in the meantime to using the powers available to us to support people across our nation with the cost of living pressures.

While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, it is NHS Boards that are responsible for delivering safe, effective, person-centred care at a local level.

To do this effectively, NHS Boards provide a tiered podiatry service, which includes offering support for self-management in order to promote foot health. No single medical condition is automatically deemed to require ongoing general NHS podiatry care and as such podiatry services assess and treat patients based on individual healthcare needs. Whilst routine nail cutting and personal footcare are considered part of daily hygiene, not a clinical service provided by NHS podiatry, advice is available to patients free of charge via their NHS Boards or as part of refreshed footcare guidance published by the Scottish Government in March this year.

Scottish Borders Council is leading on this business case work on behalf of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal Partners. The inception phase has started but the detailed scope has yet to be finalised.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any NHS Board that has stopped providing specialist podiatry care for people with diabetes. NHS Scotland’s Podiatry Service assesses and treats patients based on individual healthcare needs rather than specific medical conditions. As such, no medical condition is automatically deemed to require ongoing general NHS podiatry care.

The Scottish Government does not know at this juncture, what the rolling out of Jess’s Rule will require in terms of implementation either by GPs or NHS England. We will be in a position to consider the benefits of the rule when we know more.

However, the Scottish Government understands that the RCGP learning resource which supports “Jess’s Rule” is available to GPs who are members in Scotland as well as in England. We would encourage GPs to make use of this resource.