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Scotland is the only country in the UK with a Tobacco and Vapes Retail Register. All businesses, regardless of size, need to be registered to be able to sell these products in Scotland. This includes retailers which operate from moveable premises, such as market stalls or sales vans. The register exists to support the enforcement of regulation on age restricted products given the public health harms of tobacco and vaping.

We remain committed to considering how the register could be improved including possible further conditions on registration to support our public health aims of reducing the use of tobacco and vapes.

Individual business owners are responsible for registering any business selling tobacco and/or vapes, or they face a fine of up to £20k and possible imprisonment not exceeding 6 months. It is the responsibility of local authorities to enforce compliance with the register in their local areas.

Local Authorities have responsibility to ensure local budget decisions deliver local and national priorities. The 2026-27 Scottish Budget provides a further real-terms increase in the Local Government Settlement, delivering record funding of almost £15.7 billion, including a quarter of a billion pounds of unrestricted General Revenue Grant.

The Ministerial Oversight Board in relation to the Union Street fire first met on 11 March 2026 and has subsequently met a further three times. These meetings drew together Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers with a role in the response to and recovery from the fire, as well as policy and operational teams across the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland. We also extended the invitation to the meetings to senior leaders from Glasgow City Council. Processes to ensure effective Ministerial oversight will be kept under review by the group as we move from the immediate response into the longer-term recovery phase.

The three Accredited Endometriosis Specialist Centres in Scotland provide coordinated, multidisciplinary treatment to individuals with complex symptoms of endometriosis and to those requiring complex surgery. Understanding the potential capacity of services such as the Specialist Endometriosis Centres will be a central aspect of the National Gynaecology Plan.

Gynaecology waits of over 52 weeks reduced by 44.6% for new outpatients and by 21.8% for inpatient/day-case between 31 July 2025 and 31 January 2026 as a result of the almost £13 million additional funding we allocated to health boards in 2025-26 for gynaecology services.

The 2026-27 Budget provides almost £22.5 billion investment in health and social care services.

NHS Board planning for 2026-27 is underway, and dedicated funding will support the continuation of the progress delivered this year. However; NHS Boards are responsible for deciding the distribution of funding that they receive from the Scottish Government across the services they manage, including any funding directed towards laparoscopic diagnostic surgery and multidisciplinary care.

Scottish Government has no plans to provide specific funding for the initiatives proposed by FSB in their 2024 report The Future of the High Street. However, we remain committed to supporting vibrant, thriving towns and town centres, and we are continuing our long standing commitment to regeneration with investment of up to £52 million in 2026-27.

This investment supports the revitalisation of our towns and town centres, helps to bring vacant properties back into productive use, and unlocks opportunities for town centre living, business and community enterprise activity. It also includes support for the Scotland Loves Local programme and Business Improvement Districts.

Since 2014, South Lanarkshire Council has received £25.8 million in regeneration capital funding. This investment has supported a number of projects, including the recently completed Carnwath Business and Community Hub which has transformed a vacant and derelict site in Carnwath town centre.

The Scottish Budget sets out a decrease in the three non-domestic property rates for 2026-27 and offers more than £320 million of support through transitional relief schemes and retail hospitality and leisure relief over the next three years.

Information on the number of community paediatrician vacancies is not held centrally.

Information on the number of consultant paediatrician vacancies are available on the NHS Education for Scotland Data and reports | Turas Data Intelligence website.

Health Boards actively manage their turnover and vacancies throughout the year. Where vacancies do occur the Scottish Government expects Boards to take reasonable steps to ensure the continued delivery of services, including, when necessary, the use of supplementary staffing.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on waiting times will be held locally by NHS boards.

NHS Scotland has separate waiting lists for planned care, including one for new outpatient (NOP) appointment and another for inpatient/day-case (IPDC) procedures.

A clock starts for a NOP appointment once the referral is received by the Health Board and only stops once the patient has had their appointment. Patients may be triaged to the optimal, evidence-based pathway, based on a review of the patient’s records, including any imaging and laboratory results, but their NOP waiting time clock will not be paused during triage.

Most patients will agree any necessary treatment at their NOP appointment and this is when the patient’s waiting time clock for their IPDC treatment should start. Health Boards cannot list a patient for IPDC treatment prior to this appointment because healthcare staff have a responsibility to ensure they obtain valid and informed consent from a patient before putting them on a waiting list for any type of care or treatment intervention. To ensure patients can give informed consent, clinicians must provide information about what the treatment involves, including the benefits and risks, whether there are alternative options, and what will happen if treatment does not go ahead. The NOP appointment provides the opportunity for these discussions to take place.

On 6 March, the Scottish Government wrote to the UK Minister for Small Business & Economic Transformation in relation to the Future of the Post Office Green Paper, and made clear that postal services are a vital lifeline for communities across Scotland, particularly rural and island communities, and for vulnerable or digitally excluded consumers. Post offices, for example, often act as a community hub.

Scotland has many communities and small businesses in rural and island areas, as well as an ageing population, all of whom rely on receiving mail in a timely fashion. That is why work continues to make the case for maintaining the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and ensuring that post office services are available across rural and island parts of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-44387 on 20 March 2026. 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.

Royal Mail and postal delivery services are reserved to the UK Government. It is the UK Government’s responsibility to conduct risk and impact assessments of its postal policies on Scottish communities.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with Royal Mail to provide constructive challenge and to ensure that postal services meet the specific needs of communities across Scotland.