The Scottish Government has not consulted the National Mission Clinical Advisory Group (NMCAG) regarding the potential impact of the reclassification of psilocybin on the treatment of people in Scotland with substance abuse disorders. The NMCAG is not a Scientific Advisory Group, it is a consensus seeking Clinical Advisory Group.

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a result, the Scottish Government has not assessed any lessons learned regarding the Australian Government’s approval in 2023 for psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Legitimate use of Controlled Drugs is enabled through scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, which regulates their availability according to their medicinal value and perceived risk of misuse. Controlled Drugs are placed in one of five schedules, where Schedule 1 has the greatest restrictions on activities and Schedule 5 the fewest. Psilocybin is classed as a Schedule 1 drug. All research in the UK involving Schedule 1 Controlled Drugs requires a Home Office domestic licence.

In this instance study recruitment closed in August 2025, before NHS Lothian's Home Office licence was granted.

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a result, the Scottish Government has no plans to assess the reasons for three states in the United States of America legalising psilocybin for the treatment of major treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance-use disorders and in end-of-life care.

Information on the sex of victims and perpetrators is not held centrally as the data the Scottish Government receive from Police Scotland is a simple count of recorded crimes by crime type. The two exceptions to this are where separate Official Statistics products cover specific types of recorded crime in more detail, namely (i) homicide and (ii) any crime recorded by police as part of a domestic abuse related incident. In this instance domestic abuse is defined as between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners.

The first table shows the number of female homicide victims with a male accused during each month from January 2024 to March 2025. Figures for April 2025 to date will be available following publication of the 2025-26 Homicide in Scotland Official Statistics in October 2026.

The second table shows the number of domestic abuse incidents involving a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator, where either a non-sexual crime of violence or a sexual crime was recorded. This covers each month from January to March 2024. Figures for April 2024 to March 2025 will be available following publication of the 2024-25 Domestic Abuse in Scotland Official Statistics by Spring 2026.

Number of female homicide victims with male accused, Scotland, January 2024 to March 2025

VAT Assignment was most recently discussed with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at a meeting of the Joint Exchequer Committee on 17 October 2025.

The Scottish Government has noted the comments from the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee and the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee on the risks and challenges regarding the implementation of VAT Assignment and the governments will have further discussions on this matter.

Council Tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities. Future local government finance settlements, including any decisions on council tax, will be set out in the usual way as part of the annual Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government continues to support a national Council Tax Reduction scheme to protect those most in need. Over 450,000 households receive some level of Council Tax Reduction, saving recipients on average over £850 a year.

NHS Education of Scotland are responsible for the publication of GP workforce data. GP Headcount data is now published on a bi-annually basis with reference points relating to March and September. While the Scottish Government do not set annual recruitment targets, we do measure our progress against our commitment to increase GP numbers by 800 by the end of 2027 against the September data. The latest figures show an increase of 360 GPs since 2017 against this commitment. The latest data can be found here NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the universal provision of free school meals in primary schools. Current financial constraints mean that we are prioritising investment to reach those pupils most in need.

Currently over 230,000 pupils across Scotland, all primary school pupils in primaries one to five, all children in special schools, and eligible pupils in Primary 6 through to Secondary 6 can already benefit from free school meals during term-time in Scotland and we are expanding this provision to target those pupils whose families are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in Primaries 6 and 7. This phase began in February of this year. It is expected that once this phase is completed 84% of all primary children will benefit from the opportunity to take a free school meal.

In addition, we are taking forward a test of change policy for those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in Secondary 1 to 3 in 60 schools across 8 local authorities which started in August 2025 and will run to July 2026. This will benefit around an additional 6,100 pupils.

Local authorities are responsible for the development, design, consultation and delivery of flood protection schemes within their jurisdiction. This includes full assessment of all technical, environmental, financial and ownership-related considerations.

The Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme was formally notified to the Scottish Ministers by East Lothian Council on 24 October 2025 under Schedule 2, paragraph 5(5) of the Flood Risk Management Act. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on the merits of specific aspects of the Scheme at this stage or pre-empting Scottish government decisions.