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The Scottish Government core estate is under review to allow us to plan for affordable, inclusive, accessible, modern, secure, energy efficient buildings of the right size to meet our changing needs and net zero ambitions, as well as to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money.

The table below show the occupancy levels at Scottish Government (SG) core office buildings for which there is an available data set. The average daily desk occupancy rate has been calculated by dividing the number of unique building pass users recorded over a 24 hour sample period by the number of available desks. A sample is taken on one day of each week and totalled together with the other sample days in the year then divided by how many weeks occurred.

The Scottish Government estate is under review to allow us to plan for affordable, inclusive, accessible, modern, secure, energy efficient buildings of the right size to meet our changing needs and net zero ambitions, as well as to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money.

The Scottish Government established a small team of civil servants in the months following the publication of the 2019 Programme for Government until 18 March 2020 which had work to update Scotland’s Future as part of its remit. We cannot provide you with a specific figure on the costs of that work as a full financial year was not completed.

The staffing costs of the Constitutional Futures Division (CFD), for the years that a full financial period was completed, have previously been published in response to an FOI request and in response to question S6W-22623:

2022/23 - Written question and answer: S6W-22623 | Scottish Parliament Website

2023/24 - Various questions relating to Independence: FOI release - gov.scot

The CFD disbanded on 17th January 2025 and therefore, as advised above, we are unable to provide details of staffing costs as a full financial year was not completed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37121 on 1 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/questions-and-answers.

The move to the Preference Informed Allocation (PIA) model was supported by the Medical Schools Council, the British Medical Association and all four UK governments. Medical students were extensively consulted on the changes and their impact, with 66% in favour of the change.

2024 recruitment data shows that 75.42% of applicants to UK Foundation programmes received their first choice of foundation school, an increase from the 2023 cycle (pre-PIA) of 71.02%. This has risen further in 2025 to 83.78%, indicating that more applicants are being allocated to their first choice compared with previous years, an improvement that has continued since PIA was first introduced.

The first year of the PIA process has resulted in more resident foundation doctors wanting to train in Scotland being allocated a place in Scotland and has resulted in a more even and equitable distribution of Foundation doctors across NHS Scotland Boards.

More information about the move to the PIA can be found at the following link: https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/resources/foundation-programme-allocation-process-stakeholder-engagement/

Our consultation on proposals for a Social Housing Net Zero Standard estimated the total upfront costs of installing clean heating systems and improving energy efficiency in social housing would be around £6 billion by 2045, with an average cost per home of around £14,000.

Financing the clean heat transition for social housing will require both public and private contributions, with the recent Green Heat Finance Taskforce Part 2 report exploring how to attract greater private investment including through mechanisms which spread repayment costs over a longer timeframe. The Scottish Government will respond to the Taskforce report in the coming months.

Assaults committed against anyone including retail workers are unacceptable and law enforcement has a range of powers available in dealing with such behaviour.

Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics define a conviction rate as the proportion of people prosecuted in court that are subsequently convicted and are recorded in the financial year in which the case concluded in court. Where the main charge (the most serious offence) was under section 1 of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021, the latest official data relates to the period 2022-23 and this showed a conviction rate of 95%, with 163 convictions out of 172 prosecuted persons.

More generally, the number of charges reported to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of offences under the 2021 Act in the period since it was introduced in August 2021 is 6,577. This is for the period up to March 2025. Please note it takes time for criminal cases to flow through the justice system from being recorded by the police through to reporting to prosecutors, decisions being made whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute and a prosecution proceeding through to conviction and sentence. In addition, a single case may include multiple charges and in general counts of charges, cases and people are distinct and provide different perspectives on the justice system. As such, care must be taken in use of data which seeks to assess the rate at which reports made and recorded by the police lead to prosecution and conviction.

The next set of criminal proceedings data for the period 2023-24 is currently being processed and will be available later in the year. This will contain conviction rates for 2023-24, including the second full year under the 2021 Act.

Shipping safety is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is responsible for shipping regulations and safety, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) requirements. The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety standard to be applied on those vessels accessing Scotland’s waters and ports.

The Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government uses a range of tools and technologies to support the integrated management of Scotland’s seas, including the use of Vessel Monitoring Systems and Remote Electronic Monitoring on fishing vessels. Data generated from such technology can be used for fisheries management, environmental protection and marine planning purposes.

The Scottish Government’s Fisheries Management Strategy and its Delivery Plan (updated 2025) sets out our policy initiatives to further protect the environment. In 2025, we will be taking forward the outcomes of a consultation on requiring tracking and monitoring technology on all under 12 metre fishing vessels in Scottish waters.

The Scottish Government estate is under review to allow us to plan for affordable, inclusive, accessible, modern, secure, energy efficient buildings of the right size to meet our changing needs and net zero ambitions, as well as to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money.