Seòmar agus comataidhean

As I mentioned during the Scottish Government’s response at the debate on 26 June 2025 to Motion S6M-17969: Action to Address the Impact of Gulls in Scotland, I will chair a summit in Inverness later this year.

The Scottish Government is currently working closely with NatureScot on the agenda and final arrangements for the session, including the attendee list. The summit will focus on bringing together those who are managing gulls effectively with those who are facing the most negative impacts of gulls to address the question of how we can mitigate the negative impacts going forward and the actions we need to take ahead of next year.

There is a strong tradition of partnership working between local authorities, particularly through Regional Economic Partnerships. This partnership is a key way that services can be delivered more efficiently, and opportunities can be scaled. This is exemplified by the Northeast Regional Economic Partnership, involving Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council, who are delivering the Northeast Investment Zone in partnership with both the Scottish and UK Governments.

Regional Economic Partnerships are delivered via bespoke regional arrangements, and many other examples of joint working are on a case-by-case basis, so formal monitoring of the “level” of joint working would not be possible.

However, the Scottish Government has committed in the Programme for Government to working with local authorities and other key partners, to identify how to strengthen these partnership arrangements. This work is not yet complete, and it would not be possible to comment on outcomes at this time.

The Scottish Government does not have any current plans to review the number of NHS Boards.

In the NHS Scotland Service Renewal Plan, we have already committed to the creation of a new single body called ‘NHS Delivery’, which will bring together the existing functions of NHS National Services Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland, and will allow us to review and consolidate other crosscutting delivery functions.

We will continue to strengthen collaboration across NHS Bodies to ensure a more strategic, population-based approach to planning and keep governance arrangements under review to ensure they support the needs of Scotland's population and deliver best value for public services.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting stronger regional working. In the Programme for Government we provided that we would:

Work with regional and local partners to identify how best to formally devolve further elements of decision-making and delivery to Regional Economic Partnerships (REPs), and present options before the end of this Parliament.

Officials undertaking this work are engaging with a range of partners across the public, private and third sectors, as well as further and higher education partners, the UK and Welsh governments, and regional groupings elsewhere in the UK in order to understand how best to empower regional partners.

The Scottish Government is also working with COSLA on the Local Governance Review to consider how power and resources should be shared between national and local government and with communities. From the extensive engagement to date, there has been no specific proposals to introduce elected mayors or provosts.

The views of Local Government would inform any future changes to Local Government’s structure or governance arrangements. This is in line with the Scottish Government’s commitment to respecting Local Government’s democratic mandate as part of the Verity House Agreement.

GPs do not require “extended resources” to provide NHS prescriptions following a private diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. GPs are contracted and resourced to provide appropriate ongoing treatment and care to all their patients taking account of their specific needs.

GPs should use their own judgement about what treatment is appropriate for patients who have a private diagnosis of any condition.

In January 2025, the Scottish Government provided updated guidance to support preparation of Housing Land Audits (HLAs). HLAs, prepared by planning authorities, monitor information on past housing completions and future programming of new homes.

The HLA guidance includes a template spreadsheet to support consistent implementation. The template includes:

• The planning status: no consent, pre- application, pending decision, refused, under appeal, consented.
• The type of approval issued (to mitigate the risk of double counting): planning permission (PP), planning permission in principle (PPiP), and approval of matters specified in conditions (AMSC).
• Construction status and when commenced.
• Site capacity: total capacity in the local development plan updated to total capacity of the planning permission when available, and then the remaining capacity of sites when under construction.

The HLA should include both completions and programming information for small sites. For consistency, the guidance considers developments of 1-3 homes to be small sites. Given the nature of housing delivery in island and some rural areas, where there is likely to be a significant number of small sites, flexibility in the approach to small sites for the HLA may be appropriate, as determined by the planning authority.

The guidance outlines flexibility for the planning authority to undertake additional data checking, to remove the double counting of replacement houses, to improve robustness of information and corroborate completion calculations.

The Scottish Government uses existing, publicly available information collated by planning authorities in Housing Land Audits (HLA) that monitor past housing completions and future programming of new homes.

In January 2025, the Scottish Government updated guidance to support preparation of HLAs and improve consistency in data collection. The HLA guidance was published alongside a template spreadsheet, which supports inclusion of information on site planning status and capacity.

The Scottish Government has a subscription to Glenigan, which is also used to inform policy development as appropriate.

The development of a Scottish Government Mobile App is a Digital Public Services commitment within the Government's Public Service Reform Strategy published in June 2025.

One or two services will be available via the proposed App as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) before 1 April 2026.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive a broad, inclusive, and supportive education that meets their individual needs. Within Curriculum for Excellence, health and wellbeing is a key area of learning and a shared responsibility across the school community.

While the Experiences and Outcomes within Health and Wellbeing and Science currently do not refer explicitly to chronic illnesses, they do provide a framework for exploring the impact of health and wellbeing on learning, resilience, and quality of life. Schools are encouraged to tailor this learning to reflect the needs and experiences of their learners, including increasing awareness and understanding of long-term health conditions where appropriate.

Support for children and young people living with chronic illness is addressed through wider inclusive practices, including the Additional Support for Learning framework and Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). These policies ensure that individual health needs can be considered through personalised support planning and whole-school approaches to wellbeing.

The Scottish Government does not collect any data on the number of homes granted planning permission outside of any statistics that are published, reflecting an open and transparent approach.

Planning authorities monitor information on past housing completions and future programming of new homes through the Housing Land Audit (HLA) process. The Scottish Government uses this existing, publicly available information for the number of homes granted planning permission.