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The fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas is reserved to the UK Government.

We have continued to call on UK Government to listen carefully to concerns being expressed by businesses around the impacts of its Energy Profits Levy, this was repeated by the Deputy First Minister at Offshore Europe on 2 September.

We are now awaiting the UK Government’s consultation response, which must clearly set out how a stable and long-term fiscal regime will be used to deliver business and investor certainty for the North Sea. The EPL was always supposed to be a temporary measure and we must see the earliest possible end date, as it is now affecting investment and jobs in the North East.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials engage with UK Government, including HMT Treasury counterparts and a wide range of stakeholders when considering all of these issues and will continue to do so.

The Scottish Government is deeply concerned by any planned job losses in the North East.

We continue to monitor and consider a range of evidence in relation to Scotland’s energy sector. As part of this approach, we review reports on employment from industry, trade unions and other bodies. We have also commissioned and published . This analysis considers the economic impact of Scotland’s oil and gas industry, including in terms of employment, during the transition to net zero. A partial of the baseline data underpinning this analysis was published in April 2025.

The fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas is reserved to the UK Government. However the Scottish Government have been calling on the current UK Government for an expedited end date to the EPL that was introduced by the previous UK Government. At the time of introduction we were clear that this levy singled out a key sector in the Scottish economy and could put jobs at risk.

It is unclear where the figure of a net loss of over 30,000 private landlords since the COVID-19 pandemic has come from.

The most recently published figures show a reduction in registered landlords of 6,644 from January 2022 to July 2025, although it should be noted that the number of registered properties has increased in during the same period. The latest Scottish Landlord Register data shows the number of registered properties for rent in Scotland between August 2022 and July 2025 has increased by 2.9%. Over the same period, the number of registered landlords has decreased by 2.4%.

While these changes may point to some landlords choosing to leave the sector, the evidence suggests that their properties are remaining in the sector, or new properties are being offered for rent.

It should be noted that there are some limitations to the administrative data from the landlord register, including the time-lag in landlords deregistering properties that are no longer available to rent. These statistics should therefore be treated with some caution.

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 /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40236 on 16 September 2025 regarding the planned lung screening pilot. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

While this will be the first NHS-led pilot within Scotland, the LungScot study generated valuable evidence and insights into identifying individuals at high risk of lung cancer. These findings contributed to the work of the Scottish Expert Advisory Group for lung screening. A has been published by the Chief Scientist Office for the phase of the study conducted within NHS Lothian, with key findings included. A full report regarding the wider study will be published at a later date.

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

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.

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.

Our social security policies have been designed to provide much needed support for the most vulnerable in our society and people can be entitled to support whether they are in work or not.

For example, our Job Start Payment helps young people who are returning to work with the costs of starting a new job, support that is only available in Scotland. The Adult Disability Payment can help to reduce the barriers that prevent some disabled people from working and we recognise that it supports many disabled people to stay in employment. Additionally, findings from the evaluation of our Five Family Payments, published earlier this month, showed that for some recipients, the Scottish Child Payment is easing work costs related to travel and childcare and giving some families greater choice and flexibility to balance work, education, and caring responsibilities.

Through the Scottish Government’s No One Left Behind approach, person-centred employability services are available in every local authority area for people of all ages who experience structural barriers to participating in the labour market. Over 156,000 people have accessed these services since powers were devolved around aspects of employability support.

Police officers in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK, at the minimum and maximum salary points for basic pay at all ranks compared to counterparts in England and Wales.

The recruitment and retention of officers are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

As I sent out in response to question S6W-39931 on 1 September 2025, the recruitment and deployment of officers is a matter for the Chief Constable. The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government is investing a record £1.64 billion in policing in 2025-26, an increase of almost £90 million of additional funding from the 2024-25 budget. Our investment in policing has enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in 2024-25 than at any time since 2013, with further intakes planned throughout 2025. Police Scotland has stated that it has a healthy recruitment pipeline.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.