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As part of a commitment made in its improving urban waters routemap, Scottish Water installed 1000 new overflow monitors by December 2024 and it now publishes overflow information online. It is not correct to state that combined sewer overflows spill every 90 seconds as the data published by Scottish Water only covers a subset of overflows.

Scottish Water aims to install an additional 700 monitors during 2025. Information gathered by overflow monitors allows Scottish Water to optimise the management of its sewer networks and understand where spills occur most frequently and why. This information is critical in informing future investment needs to achieve the greatest benefit for customers and the environment.

Furthermore, Scottish Water’s investment in its assets has contributed towards 87% of Scotland’s entire water environment being assessed by SEPA as having a ‘high’ or ‘good’ classification for water quality and 97% of Scotland’s bathing waters currently achieve the bathing water quality standards.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS do not record this information. SPS’ Disciplinary Hearings guidance does not provide a specific ‘breach of discipline’ relating to having illicit articles obtained via a drone. Any prosecution remains a matter for Police Scotland and the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The Scottish Government does not collate data on the number of people with ADHD appearing before the courts in Scotland.

The information held on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Services (SCTS) live operational case management systems is structured to support the processing of court business, rather than for statistical reporting or research purposes. SCTS and their staff provide administrative support to the Scottish courts, tribunals and their judiciary and rely on information provided by justice partners to consider any adjustment that may be required to facilitate a court hearing. Their computer systems do not record information of this nature.

In criminal proceedings, adjustments for vulnerable witnesses are requested by the Crown or defence - usually in advance of hearing - and are considered by the sheriff or judge. In civil proceedings, information is provided to the court by parties and solicitors. This information is typically only names and addresses of the parties and their legal representatives.

The Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill aims to ensure that the rights of neurodivergent people, including people with ADHD, are respected, protected and championed. The Bill consultation sought views on proposals for how the Justice system (including the Courts system) could be improved for neurodivergent people.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6O-04553 on 23 April 2025. All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

In 2025/26, an additional £28m will be invested in additional support for learning, to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce at a local level, to help enhance professional learning on inclusion for all teachers at all stages of their careers and to support teacher specialism in inclusion. A further £1 million will be provided to support national initiatives, which will enable us to build on the work being delivered through our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

More than £1bn will be provided through the Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap during this parliamentary term. This funding can be used to provide additional tutoring support, if headteachers and education authorities want to deploy this support in a way that targets those who will most benefit from this kind of intervention.

The Scottish Government has provided multi-year funding for mentoring programmes, which has been shown to support confidence building and attainment in care-experienced children and young people and those affected by poverty. In March 2021, the Scottish Government announced a £19.4 million fund over five years for mentoring programmes to support young people as part of the Scottish Mentoring and Leadership Programme (SMLP), including funding for MCR Pathways to further rollout provision across Scotland to a much larger cohort of young people.

An interim evaluation report on the SMLP programme published in December 2024 found that mentoring had increased participant’s academic confidence, attainment/achievement, social confidence, and confidence in doing well at a job in the future. A Value for Money and Impact Evaluation report is due to be published in 2025. Previous independent evaluation of the MCR Pathways mentoring programme showed that there were statistically significant positive differences between the outcomes of care-experienced young people who were mentored and care-experienced young people who were not mentored, in staying on rates, attainment, and positive destinations.

The Scottish Government recognises the growth in the number of pupils with an additional support need since the pandemic.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education and for ensuring that those pupils identified with an additional support need are fully supported to learn, in the environment that best suits their needs. Most children and young people’s needs are met through a universal level of support and 95% of children and young people with ASN were educated in mainstream classes in 2024. This includes adapting learning and teaching approaches to support children in the classroom. There remains a broad consensus from children and young people, parents and carers, the teaching profession and others that the Scottish approach to inclusive education continues to be the right one.

We continue to seek ways to improve the experience of inclusion for all of our young people and the 2025-26 budget sets out an additional £29 million for additional support needs.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a top priority for the Scottish Government. We continue to provide £16 million per year to enable local authorities to provide access to school counselling services for pupils aged 10 and over.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37086 on 6 May 2025. 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 can only comment on the funding we provide, rather than all ‘public money’. Any funding issued by the Scottish Government is done so in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, and Grant Offer Letters to all third sector organisations clearly set out the conditions for which the funding can be used.

Charities must act in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, which sets out that a charity cannot be set up to advance a political party. Any breach of obligations under charity law is for OSCR, who are independent of Scottish Ministers, to determine.

However, charities can and do undertake campaigning activity. The Scottish Government fully support the right of charities to campaign on behalf of those they represent and influence changes in policy.

The first table shows instances where local authorities are not able to fulfil their legal duties in offering temporary accommodation to households who make a homelessness application, annually for 2019-20 to 2023-24, and for the most recent six months April to September 2024.