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The Scottish Government is committed to tackling inequalities and equality is the thread running through our homelessness strategy, Ending Homelessness Together.

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is not a duty to achieve any particular results, but a duty to have ‘due regard’ to the need to achieve the three goals of:

• eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the 2010 Act;
• advancing equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
• fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The Scottish Government expects all public bodies in Scotland which are subject to the PSED to pay due regard to the duty as they carry out their functions The duty applies to local authorities in their role as housing and homelessness support providers. The duty also applies to bodies who are not public authorities but who ‘exercise public functions’.

The Scottish Government’s Adoption Vision Statement, published in November 2024, highlights the need for continued and lifelong support for all those affected by adoption.

Adoption support should include a range of multi-disciplinary universal and specialist services. Under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, local authorities have a duty to assess someone’s needs for adoption support services and then provide that support.

In 2024-25, the Scottish Government provided £790,000 to organisations delivering support to those affected by adoption, including adopted children and young people and their families, adult adoptees and those working in the adoption sector. This funding has supported: a national helpline and support for adoptive families; national good practice guides on permanence; support for professionals and practitioners working in the adoption sector, as well as delivery of the Adoption Contact Register. The Adoption Vision Statement makes clear our commitment to work in collaboration with stakeholders to improve the availability and consistency of post-adoption support in Scotland.

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 65812).

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding access to diabetes technology and since 2016, we have invested almost £30 million to support expansion. Last year, we established a national programme aiming to provide over 2000 more people with access to hybrid closed loop technology.

Waiting times for insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors and hybrid closed loop systems vary across health boards and are difficult to measure due to the length of time it takes for an individual to receive education and training.

However, since June 2024, our national programme has provided Closed Loop Systems (CLS) to over 2000 people. We have also established a National Onboarding Service, who provide significant additional capacity to support local services. This national programme has additional funding to support more people in 2025-26.

While we recognise that there are still waits for some diabetes technology, we remain committed to increasing access to all those that would benefit.

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 65811).

In developing the national apology, the Scottish Government engaged with individuals and families affected by historic forced adoption, drawing on personal testimonies and findings from relevant inquiries across the UK and internationally. This included findings from the Truth Recovery Design Panel report for the Northern Ireland Executive and recommendations from campaigning groups such as the Movement for Adoption Apology Scotland on what would constitute a meaningful apology.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards.

This information is not held centrally.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote school meals and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all children and young people entitled to receive free school meals are given full support to access them.

As I confirmed to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 2 April, we remain committed to the roll-out of universal free school meals in the longer term.

Information on referrals is not held centrally.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for most secure placements and make referrals directly to the secure care services. A placement in respect of any child may only be accepted if the secure accommodation Head of Centre is confident that they can meet the needs of the individual referred child, while keeping safe all other children already in their care. The concept of any or all secure services ‘turning away’ a child has limited applicability.

In addition, the statutory criteria regulating children’s eligibility for referral to secure care are tightly drawn. A change in circumstances or a child’s own need and risk profile may mean that an alternative to secure care represents a more appropriate placement.

Secure centres have robust matching procedures in place, following the Care Inspectorate’s .

The Stats provide details of the number of admissions to this type of accommodation.

The provisions contained within Part 2 of the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill are proposed to allow for the sharing of information for the efficient and effective provision of public health and social care services. Within this context the provisions could enable the appropriate sharing of information in order to consider data-driven approaches to early intervention and targeted support, thereby helping to prevent individuals from experiencing homelessness at an earlier stage.

The Bill is informed by the extensive co-design work, commissioned by Scottish Ministers, to better inform the development of this legislation, which has included individuals with experience of homelessness. Details of this work can be found here: