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Conditions attached to Scottish Government grant funding will vary based on the organisation and project being funded. Some organisations are given core funding to meet general costs while others receive funding strictly associated to a specific project. The specific details of these conditions are set out individually in grant offer letters for each piece of funding.

All grants are actively managed in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual: Grant and grant in aid - Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot. In particular, grants have outcomes and objectives associated to them which mean that payments are only made when the grant manager is content that value for money is being achieved. Furthermore, all Scottish Government grant offer letters specify that funds are not to be used for party political purposes. Beyond the auspices of projects for which organisations have been given grant funding, organisations are free to campaign on any issues as we would expect in a democratic society. It is not for the Scottish Government to interfere with this freedom, to ensure that the third sector can have an independent voice.

The information as requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government funds hundreds of organisations and does not monitor which organisations have campaigned for gender self-identification.

The OECD report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” commissioned by Scottish Government and published in 2021 commented that “significant efforts have been made to engage stakeholders throughout CfE’s lifecycle, which have contributed to successes with CfE.” (OECD Report, (p90) and also reported strong public confidence and interest in education (104).

The report by Professor Kenneth Muir “Putting Learners at the Centre” (published March 2022) conducted public consultation across a range of questions. That report commented that “just over half (58%) of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the existing vision for CfE reflected what matters for the education of children and young people in Scotland” (“Muir Report, p17). However, the Muir report (at pages 17 – 19 in the report) also identified a number of points that respondents to that consultation thought should be changed in order to further improve overall confidence in CfE.

The further National Discussion report (All Learners in Scotland Matter - national discussion on education: final report – May 2023) commented that based on its engagement with a range of people and organisations there was “general support for CfE” (p59 National Discussion Report) but also pointed to a range of comments on how to improve the curriculum.

It is important for the curriculum to retain strong confidence and support from pupils, parents, teachers/practitioners and the wider public. As the Member will be aware, the curriculum is currently being reviewed through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle to ensure that our 3-18 curriculum remains relevant, clarify the role of knowledge, declutter the curriculum and help to improve progression. Further information is available via the June 2025 publication “Curriculum, Qualifications and Assessment Reform: progress to date and next steps” and via Education Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle website.

On 7 August, the Scottish Government published the latest 6-month prison population projections, based on court activity and prison population data, up to the end of 2025. Due to the uncertainty surrounding factors that influence prison population flows - such as crime rates and justice system activity - the projections included several possible scenarios, including a reasonable upper estimate and a reasonable lower estimate. Taking the scenarios together and assuming that recent trends in justice demand, policy and practice continue, it was projected that the average daily prison population could be between 7,950 and 8,750 in December 2025. The design capacity of the prison estate is currently 7,805.

It is important that our pupils understand the democratic process in Scotland, the UK and further afield. Local authorities have a role in ensuring that teachers in their schools can engage confidently with election issues and that balance and impartiality are respected.

Teachers are well versed in teaching sensitive topics in a non-partisan way and should use their professional judgement in doing so, in line with GTCS standards of personal and professional conduct, honesty and integrity.

To maintain a safe and secure prison estate, the Scottish Government increased Scottish Prison Service (SPS) investment by 10% to £481.5m in 2025-26. SPS has invested in a range of initiatives aimed at tackling violence across the prison estate, including body worn cameras, a revised control and restraint model, and body scanners. SPS are also working to mitigate the risks presented by the threat of drones and uses various technologies and intelligence - such as advanced scanners, detection technology, window grilles and sniffer dogs – to prevent illegal substances entering prisons.

The Scottish Government has also increased 2025-26 funding to the Scottish Recovery Consortium to embed a person-centred recovery focused approach in prisons and have supported the National Prison Care Network to develop a Target Operating Model for healthcare delivery in prisons. This sets out a nationally consistent service model for the delivery of the range of clinical services provided in prisons, including drugs and alcohol services.

Future resource and capital funding for the SPS is being considered as part of the annual budget process and the Scottish Spending Review, due to be published alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget.

The Chief Executive of the National Social Work Agency is a Senior Civil Service (SCS) post and SCS pay and terms and conditions of employment are reserved to the UK Government. The advertising process for this role ended prior to the announcement of the recently publicised SCS pay award. Therefore, this role was advertised with a salary range of £108,393 to £117,329.

Following completion of the interview stage, the successful candidate will be offered the role in line with the updated pay range effective from 1 April 2025, which is £111,916 to £121,143. This salary range is within the relevant SCS2 pay range of £100,000 to £162,500 published by the Cabinet Office.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Group on Lung Screening have produced an initial evaluation of costs, which estimated the annual cost of a national screening programme at between £29 million and £39 million. The lower and upper estimates of this cost are dependent on factors such as screening uptake, which impact the total cost of scans and required staffing. The UK National Screening Committee, as part of its considerations of whether to recommend lung cancer, considered a cost effectiveness analysis alongside other evidence for lung screening.

Treatment of individuals with lung cancer is complex, and the type of treatment received by patients, such as surgery or chemotherapy, will vary by type of cancer and stage. It is therefore not possible to provide specific treatment costs for lung cancer in Scotland.

In 2023 the Scottish Government commissioned a Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) to inform implementation considerations for a targeted Lung Cancer screening programme.

The SEAG provided the Scottish Government with an evaluation of costs and set out detailed considerations around the scale of workforce, equipment and IT requirements. It acknowledged that UK-wide challenges securing both staff and equipment are potentially rate limiting factors, and these in part contribute to the overall time frame for rolling out a full programme. This reflects the experience of England, which has been piloting lung checks since 2019, but still anticipates national coverage will not be achieved until 2030.

The planned 2027 pilot will support a real world understanding of constraints and limitations, and will inform long term planning for national implementation. For further information on the pilot, I refer the member to the question S6W-40236 on 16 September 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 establishment of the National Social Work Agency is underway. It will be an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government and will be established by Spring 2026. Plans and engagement on office locations are underway, in consultation with staff and the unions and will be finalised over the coming months.