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We recognise the challenges facing Scotland’s health and social care system. That is why we have already taken significant steps to set out clear, short and longer term actions to improve access to treatment, shift the balance of care, harness digital innovation, and strengthen prevention.

We recently published the, Foreword - NHS Scotland operational improvement plan - gov.scot the Scotland's Population Health Framework - gov.scot and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework - gov.scot in which we outline our shared vision for reforming and renewing health and social care services to ensure they are more sustainable, preventative, and equitable.

We remain committed to engaging with leaders across health and social care, including clinical leaders, to design and deliver the change needed in our NHS.

With regard to charging for services, the Scottish Government’s policy could not be clearer: our National Health Service must be maintained on its founding principles – publicly owned, publicly operated, and free at the point of need. As we have previously said, the provision of health services must always be based on the individual needs of a patient.

All wholetime fire stations have some form of segregated washing facilities for staff and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) estates strategy ensures all premises are risk assessed and that suitable alternative washing facility arrangements and mitigations are implemented. SFRS recognises the need for investment in dignified facilities and for contaminant control measures and prioritises its budget accordingly, for example as part of ongoing work. SFRS has recently upgraded facilities at Galashiels, Newcraighall, McDonald Road, Edinburgh and Inverness.

The Scottish Government has taken a stepwise approach to the expansion of the national thrombectomy service, investing over £51 million to date. The total costs of delivering a national 24/7 thrombectomy service are yet to be established, however Scottish Government officials and NHS planners have been asked to work at pace on developing a plan for the next steps for service expansion.

The Scottish Government has increased the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) capital budget by £10.5 million in 2024-25 and by a further £4 million in 2025-26, bringing the total annual budget to £47 million. SFRS is currently conducting a Service Delivery Review to ensure that investment in its estate, fleet and equipment is focussed where it is needed most.

Scottish Government committed to a Four Day Working Week pilot in the public sector to explore the wellbeing and productivity benefits that a shorter working week could bring. No additional funding was allocated to either Accountancy in Bankruptcy or South of Scotland Enterprise to deliver the pilot in their organisations.

The pilot was delivered in partnership with The Autonomy Institute who published their evaluation report on 27 August. The report can be accessed here - Four day working week pilot - Public sector pay - gov.scot.

The Penrose Inquiry’s report, published on 25 March 2015, contained a single recommendation, which was that the Scottish Government take all reasonable steps to offer a hepatitis C virus (HCV) test to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who has not been tested for HCV. The Scottish Government accepted this recommendation and in response a Short-Life Working Group (SLWG), involving key stakeholders such as the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, was established by Health Protection Scotland. The SLWG progress report was published on 2 September 2016, setting out the range of work undertaken by the SLWG.

The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation of the SLWG that there should be an awareness raising campaign to encourage people who had (or are likely to have had) a blood transfusion prior to 1991, and who have not already been tested for hepatitis C, to come forward for testing. A targeted awareness raising campaign to encourage such individuals to be tested was launched in October 2016 and an evaluation of the campaign, as recommended by the SLWG, was completed by Health Protection Scotland in 2018. The SLWG also recommended that a Chief Medical Officer letter should be sent to all clinicians in Scotland to remind them of certain risk factors and clinical indicators for HCV infection and making them aware of the recent advances in therapy and thus the benefits of HCV testing. The Chief Medical Officer accordingly wrote to all clinicians in Scotland on 20 September 2016, following up a previous letter issued just after the publication of the Penrose report on 27 March 2015. The Penrose Inquiry’s recommendation has therefore been fully implemented.

The Scottish Government has a strong track record in the investment in and delivery of affordable homes. Since 2007 we have supported the delivery of more than 139,000 affordable homes, with 99,000 of these being made available for social rent. This has resulted in the delivery of affordable homes in Scotland being 47% more per head of population than in England, and 73% more than in Wales. However, prevailing economic conditions across the United Kingdom in recent years, driven by EU-exit, Covid-19 and wider global pressures, has made delivery in recent years more challenging. For example, construction inflation reached 24% in the summer of 2022.

Despite these headwinds we remain absolutely committed to our longstanding affordable home ambitions. We are investing £808 million in 2025-26 alone, and remain focused on delivering at least 70% of homes for social rent towards our 110,000 affordable homes target. This investment includes a doubling of our acquisition fund from £40 million to £80 million in 2025-26 helping to deliver homes more quickly, the majority of which will be for social rent. Of the 28,537 affordable homes delivered to end March 2025 against our target, 77% are for social rent.

We have announced plans to invest up to £4.9 billion over the next four years in a multi-annual, multi-billion pound affordable housebuilding project and continue to work with partners to maximise delivery in Scotland.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has 456 rescue pump appliances in operation. 211 of these are more than 15 years old, however all SFRS appliances are properly maintained to ensure they remain fully operational, and the oldest vehicles are placed in locations where they will be least used.

All cultural organisations in receipt of public funding must ensure that funding is not used for party political purposes. They must also operate within the wider framework of the law, including equalities legislation.

Programming decisions are the responsibility of individual cultural organisations - the Scottish Government does not and should not have any role. All cultural organisations, whether in receipt of public funding or not, must operate within the wider framework of the law, including equalities legislation.