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The Scottish Government works with the SCTS in line with the Framework Document agreed between the SCTS and the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) is a non-ministerial office established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008. Scottish Ministers do not oversee the performance of the SCTS. The SCTS is accountable to the Scottish Parliament .

As part of the Scottish Administration, the SCTS is subject to the accountability and audit provisions of Part 2 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 and adherence to the guidance contained within the Scottish Public Finance manual .

As required by the 2008 Act, the SCTS prepares a draft corporate plan every 3 years for approval by Scottish Ministers. The corporate plan informs the development of a separate annual business plan with key targets and milestones, a copy of which is sent to Scottish Ministers.

In addition, the SCTS publishes an annual report of its activities together with its audited accounts after the end of each financial year. The annual report and accounts are laid before the Scottish Parliament and cover the main activities and performance against agreed objectives and targets for the previous financial year.

The total cost of operating the Scottish Government Resilience Room as calculated below includes salary costs for the teams responsible for developing and maintaining the SGORR function including co-ordination of resilience communications; on call allowances for 24/7, 365 days a year on call cover to monitor and where required respond to incidents; overtime pay for evening and weekend working in response to incidents; and travel and subsistence payments relating to incident response. This amounts to the following for each of the past five financial years: 2020-2021: £834,819; 2021-2022: £738,458; 2022-2023: £817,262; 2023-2024: £829,416; 2024-2025 (as of 5 February 2025): £574,682.

The Scottish Government Resilience Room has been activated 5 times in 2020; 5 times in 2021; 11 times in 2022; 8 times in 2023; 9 times in 2024; and once in 2025 to date. Of these 39 activations, 25 were for co-ordinating the response to severe weather. The remainder of the activations cover a range of civil contingencies emergencies, such as Covid-19; the 2022 power disruption on Shetland; protests threatening to disrupt fuel supply in the summer of 2023; or the worldwide IT outage in July 2024.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is working with Health Boards and Health and Social Care partnerships to drive improvements in sustainability, and the capability of remote, rural and island primary and community care services, avoiding a one size fits all approach.

Their work includes programmes to enhance the education and training for multi-disciplinary teams working in rural and island areas, as well as evaluation of new ways of delivering improved primary and community care health services in partnership with practitioners, citizens and partner agencies.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care has developed a new training programme and supervisory training hub for Rural Advanced Practitioners and is developing a community training hub pilot to increase the amount of training taking place in remote, rural and island primary and community healthcare settings.

Further details on the work of the National Centre can be found here: National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub | Turas | Learn

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR), like any other part of Scotland’s resilience system, conducts regular debriefs following activations, gathers feedback from stakeholders on its effectiveness, and works with partners to identify notable practice. This regular identification and implementation of lessons ensures the continuous improvement of the SGORR function. Numerous improvements have been implemented in the past 10 years, including a comprehensive review of standard operating procedures, the updating of technology, and initiatives to secure more strategic, regular engagement with partners, e.g. a meeting series held during the winter season to review collective preparedness for winter hazards.

The average length of time between the date of alleged commission of a criminal offence and the date of a final court verdict increased considerably as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions brought in to try to limit the spread of coronavirus.

This affected the prosecution of all types of offences, including speeding offences. Scottish Government investment has helped aid the recovery of the summary courts from the effects of the pandemic.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-34075 on 18 February 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 Food Standards Scotland (FSS) website provides a range of curriculum for excellence linked resources to support educators develop lesson plans and deliver food safety and healthy eating messages.

Food safety & healthy eating education | Food Standards Scotland | Food Standards Scotland

In addition, FSS provide a free, online healthy eating tutorial which aims to provide an introduction to nutrition for people who may be required to provide healthy eating messages to others as part of their job. This could include those working in health and social care, education, community groups, local authorities, retail, catering and/or food manufacturing. This tutorial may also be of interest to consumers who want to learn more about healthy eating.

Healthy Eating Tutorial | Food Standards Scotland

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) provides Scottish Ministers and senior officials with situational awareness, enabling them to make informed strategic decisions on the Scottish Government’s response to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR provides this situational awareness, using relevant facilities, by supplying written and verbal briefings, organising meetings at official or ministerial level and making connections across and outside the Scottish Government, with SGORR working closely with responders at all levels in Scotland and with the UK Government where relevant to the response.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.