Seòmar agus comataidhean

Public Health Scotland continues to provide data regarding planned procedure activity prior to March 2020 in the monthly Cancelled Planned Operations release which can be accessed at Cancelled planned operations - Month Ending 30 April 2025 - Cancelled planned operations - Publications - Public Health Scotland. The ‘Cancellations data’ file provides the information needed for comparisons of time periods May 2015 to April 2025 by month and therefore able to illustrate the difference in current levels of operation activity and operation activity pre-COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of PHS’ obligations under the UKSA Code of Practice for Statistics (found at About the Code – Code of Practice for Statistics), PHS continually review outputs to ensure they adhere to all the pillars contained within the Code of Practice. This states that “statistics and data [should be] useful, easy to access, remain relevant, and support understanding of important issues.” Upon review, the Cancelled Planned Operations summary has been adapted to align with these principles.

More specifically, in line with the principles of “Relevance to Users” and “Innovation and Improvement” the Cancelled Planned Operations commentary now reflects and highlights current trend patterns within 3 years from the latest release. The aim of the revised time trend highlighted within the summary is to meet the user need of improving access to latest trends and highlights important current information. The risk of including too much of a historic time trend in the summary chart is that it becomes more difficult to interpret these current trends. Nevertheless, the continuation of the provision of the longer time trend within the accompanying data tables, including activity prior to March 2020, allows the user to access the data if they wish to do so.

The Scottish Government regularly discusses a wide range of fire safety topics with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) including battery energy storage system (BESS) sites.

SFRS is a member of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and has access to the wide range of fire and rescue research, guidance and expertise provided by the NFCC. The Scottish Fire and Rescue service provides advice to the Scottish Government on fire safety matters.

There was no communication between the Scottish Government and the NFCC regarding the single recorded incident at a BESS site in Scotland. This incident involved a battery unit which was damaged in transit and was not yet installed. There were no casualties.

Funding is provided to Local Authorities by means of a block grant to allow them to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on additional support needs.

Scottish Government and COSLA work in partnership on additional support needs through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board. The new Education and Childcare Assurance Board provides a further opportunity for jointly agreeing priorities and joint working in this context.

The Scottish Government has no role in reviewing how additional support needs team allocations are determined within local authority secondary schools.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act (2004) places duties on Education authorities to identify, make provision for, and review provision for the additional support needs of children and young people for whose education they are responsible.

Funding is provided to Local Authorities by means of a block grant to allow them to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Capital funding for the play park renewal programme is distributed to all 32 Local Authorities based on population of 0-14 year olds and rurality. In the first year, the formula was:

1.95% on population 0-14

2.5% on rurality

From 2022-23, the formula was:

1.93% on population 0-14

2.7% on rurality

The full table of allocations to each local authority by year is:

We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding a year to ensure access to school counselling services across Scotland.

As part of the commitment, local authorities provide reports on school counselling services which includes number of counsellors in post (this relates to number rather than FTE).

There is variation in how the access to counselling service is being delivered across authorities. Some authorities employ counsellors directly, while others procure third sector counselling.

The following table shows the numbers of counsellors local authorities reported were in post in each of the reporting periods.

We are not aware of any reports by the Accounts Commission that local authorities are facing unsustainable budget shortfalls.

Councils are statutorily required to set balanced budgets, and the Accounts Commission appropriately highlights that the use of one-off measures, such as the use of reserves, in place of established recurring measures and robust longer-term financial plans to bridge notional budget gaps is unsustainable.

The Scottish Government has a long history of working with COSLA and local authorities to make sure council finances are sustainable and that available resources can meet long-term commitments.

The record funding settlement for Local Government in 2025-26 provided a real terms increase in funding of 5.5 per cent, as confirmed by the Accounts Commission, and was the result of early and meaningful engagement between Scottish Government, COSLA and Councils. We remain committed to ensuring the sustainability of local services going forward and budget engagement ahead of the 2026-27 Scottish Budget has already commenced.

The Scottish Government does not receive data from Local Authorities on the inclusion of accessible or inclusive equipment in play parks renewed using the renewal funding. As noted in the answer to S6W-38036 on
13 June 2025, Local Authorities report annually every April on their play park renewals carried out as a result of the Scottish Government’s £60m play park renewal funding.

As noted in the answer to S6W-38037 on 13 June 2025 the Scottish Government has chaired quarterly network meetings of Local Authority play park leads. The network allows Local Authorities to provide updates and how funding is being used and to share best practice and common issues.

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 £60 million play park renewal funding is allocated to local authorities to use across their whole play estate. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them based on local needs and priorities. The Scottish Government recognise that the extent of renewal and refurbishment will be influenced by local plans and investment priorities and engagement with children and young people.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the geographic and socio-economic spread of play parks within local authority estates.

The aerospace, defence, and shipbuilding sectors play a vital role in supporting jobs and driving economic growth across Scotland. We are committed to promoting manufacturing and innovation, and Ministers continue to engage with businesses in these sectors as part of that commitment. Ferguson Marine's (FMPG) work for BAE Systems is consistent with the Scottish Government’s policy that public money is not used to support the manufacture of munitions.