Seòmar agus comataidhean

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. That is why we recently published our 10 year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023.

The strategic aim and vision is to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care across Scotland.

Scottish Government continues to positively engage with the UK Government, including on the development of the new UK Government National Cancer Control Plan 2025.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36988 on 30 April 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 Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires Scottish Ministers to have regard to just transition principles in development of Climate Plans. The upcoming Climate Change Plan will outline how this government will take action to reduce emissions in a way which supports environmentally and socially sustainable jobs and supports low carbon investment and infrastructure. It will also set out an estimate of the costs and benefits associated with the polices contained. Furthermore, the final plan will be published alongside a series of impact assessments, which will look at the impact of climate policies on areas such as equalities, island communities and children's rights.

The Scottish Government remains committed to an all-age careers information and guidance offer that supports all people, including young people who are at risk of long-term benefit dependency to progress rewarding careers.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) provide an all-age career service in every local authority with an SDS Careers Adviser in every mainstream secondary school to highlight the wide range of career options available. A careers advisor offers impartial advice and supports people to consider and make informed decisions having explored all options and relevant information.

Through the 16+ Data Hub (Participation Portal), SDS are working to ensure that every young person can receive person-centred and proactive support. Having a set of data supplied by a range of partners enables front line staff to identify and provide support to those not in learning, training or employment and who are at risk of disengagement.

Military service can be a rewarding career pathway for many young people, offering a wide range of training and career opportunities as well as valuable transferable skills. To ensure that the knowledge of advisors is accurate, SDS work with the Armed Forces and can direct individuals to armed forces career centre sites if appropriate.

At the invitation of schools, the military may promote the community-based and school based combined cadets programme to young people and provide information about the wide range of careers in the military. There are also sessions promoted to teachers, advisers and Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Co-ordinators such as ‘Meet the Army’ which often includes military personal speaking about their career journey.

Access to skilled training pathways, including apprenticeships is vital for developing the young workforce. Apprenticeships play an essential role in giving young people a pathway into rewarding careers as well as enabling employers to invest in their staff.

The projections and warnings from Scottish Care are alarming, and we certainly understand that the current challenges facing the social care sector including the care home sector are significant. Additional pressures have been brought to the sector by the decisions of the UK Government, such as the increase in employers National Insurance Contributions, changes to the social care visa system and salary threshold levels.

The Scottish Government has increased investment into our Health & Social Care Sector, the 2025-26 Budget provides funding of £21.7 billion for Health and Social Care - an uplift exceeding consequentials and taking funding to record levels. Despite substantial funding increases, it’s clear that significant challenges remain.

While I recognise the seriousness of the risks faced by the social care sector, the projections from partners such as Scottish Care are the worst-case scenario. As stated, investment in the sector has increased, quite substantially, during a period in which pressures on public finances have been most acute.

Safeguards are in place to support the sector with regulators, COSLA and the Scottish Government available to provide additional support where necessary. We will continue to provide targeted support to local areas through the Collaborative Support and Assurance Group, co-chaired by myself and the COSLA spokesperson on Health and Social Care, Councillor Kelly. COSLA also chairs the National Contingency Planning Group, which can be stood up in the event of a large-scale threat to the sector affecting more than one local authority.

But we do take these warnings seriously, and the Scottish Government are undertaking a programme of work to understand and respond to the current financial viability pressures facing the care home and wider social care sectors, and identify where extra support, contingencies and mitigations may be required. This work has included collaboration with COSLA, sector partners and representative bodies. Work remains ongoing but is proceeding at pace.

The Scottish Government are undertaking a programme of work to understand and respond to the current financial viability pressures facing the care home and wider social care sectors.

This work has included collaboration with sector partners and representative bodies, which includes Scottish Care. This includes a new social care Financial Viability Response Group, which has been meeting weekly since February this year. Scottish Care, CCPS, regulators and local leaders are among the membership of this group.

As well as this, I, alongside the COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson, have hosted monthly roundtable sessions with sector partners (including Scottish Care) on the eNICs and financial viability pressures and its potential impacts on the social care sector.

Both the weekly group meetings & monthly roundtables have been candid and honest spaces, to fully discuss the current challenges facing the social care sector. But these have also been pro-active discussions, and partners, with support from Scottish Government officials, are in the process of developing actions and mitigations to help support the sector during this challenging period.

That work is ongoing, but the Scottish Government is committed to working closely with partners to continue to identify the pro-active steps that can be taken to mitigate these impacts, protect services and support the people in receipt of care.

Information on patient suicide in NHS mental health facilities is not held centrally.

Any suicide is a tragedy and should not happen when someone is in the care of the state. We are determined to do all we can to improve patient safety, and to reduce suicide deaths in NHS mental health facilities. Our ambitious suicide prevention strategy and action plan which we are delivering with COSLA, has a clear focus on preventing suicides in higher risk settings, including clinical services. We are working with NHS Boards to implement improvements.

The quality and safety of mental health estates is an important issue for the Scottish Government. Health Boards are expected to place significant emphasis on the safety of environments mental health services are delivered from.

The Scottish Government and NHS Assure have developed and piloted a tool to gather information on the built environment, including reviewing completion of ligature assessments. Wider roll out will begin in spring 2025.

Data are available on the number of businesses operating in Scotland, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, broken down by business legal status. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Number of registered businesses (including public sector) operating in Scotland, by business legal status, 2024

Universities are autonomous institutions, responsible for their own governance. However the Scottish Government expects all organisations in Scotland to comply with the law around protected beliefs and freedom of expression.