Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government notes the conclusions of the report, including its estimates regarding capital flows, but does not agree that they provide a robust assessment of the Scottish Government Bonds Programme or its economic impacts.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets.

The Outline Business Case concluded that a multi-year bond programme could represent value for money and deliver a number of strategic and economic benefits, including strengthening investor engagement, raising Scotland’s profile with investors, supporting investment in Scotland and establishing a market track record.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record.

The Critical Success Factors were designed to assess the extent to which options would support the programme's strategic objectives and satisfy requirements relating to value for money, affordability, achievability and deliverability. The Outline Business Case also considered wider economic benefits associated with increased investor engagement and investment in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S7W-02383 and S7W-02384 on 1 September 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

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to diversify funding sources, strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record.

The Critical Success Factors in the Outline Business Case were developed to assess options against these aims, as well as requirements relating to affordability, deliverability and achievability.

The Scottish Government has no plans to revisit the Outline Business Case or revise the Critical Success Factors. A wholesale issuance aimed at institutional investors remains the most cost-effective approach for an inaugural transaction and best supports the programme's objectives.

Future issuances may consider alternative structures where these offer value for money and support the programme's strategic objectives.

As indicated in Parliamentary Question S7W-01610 on 5 August 2026, the Long Term Conditions Advisory Groups, were established under the previous government to provide recommendations to inform our way forward for long term conditions. It is for Scottish Ministers to decide whether and to what extent any of the recommendations become government policy. We are carefully considering these recommendations as we develop this work.

We are grateful to all members of the Advisory Groups for their involvement in developing these recommendations and continue to engage with the Advisory Groups as this work develops.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01758 on 3 August 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.

The requested information is shown in the following table.

Prescription Cost Analysis – Aspirin and Paracetamol

The requested information is shown in the following table.

Table 1: Prescription Cost Analysis Totals

I met with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) on 20 August, to discuss a range of matters of importance to the FBU.

The changes approved by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Board will be delivered over the next 5 years with SFRS developing a change programme.

a) In the short term, there will be no net savings from the review as the total number of wholetime firefighters employed by SFRS will not reduce and there will be additional on-call firefighters (20 new posts) to be recruited. 69 wholetime firefighters in front-line fire stations will be redirected to the essential training and prevention roles. It is expected any savings from building maintenance or future capital expenditure avoided will be invested in other parts of the SFRS estate.

b) With regards to Helensburgh Fire Station, when the changes are implemented, around four wholetime pump crews (17 people), equating to £779,000 salary costs, would be available for reallocation elsewhere in the service, as only one expanded crew would be required for operating the Day Shift Duty System (DSDS). Additional on call staff, costing approximately £109,000 per annum, will be required for providing additional resilience in the evenings and weekends for the DSDS/On-call pump. Costs of approximately £67,000 in relation to training the on call crew and swift water and flood response capability will also be required. This reduced staff footprint will realise property related cost reductions of approximately £23,000 annually. It should be noted that Helensburgh and the wider area will benefit from staff being redeployed into community safety/prevention and training roles.