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It is unclear where the figure for the reported loss of 12,000 homes from the landlord register since May 2023 has come from. The most recently published figures show an increase in registered properties of almost 8,000 from May 2023 to July 2025.

According to official published statistics derived from the Scottish Landlord Register, in May 2023 there were 238,787 registered landlords and 341,417 registered properties. By July 2025, the most recent data available, this had fallen to 232,922 landlords, while the number of registered properties had increased to 349,313:

Housing statistics: Scottish Landlord Register data - gov.scot

This represents a reduction of 5,865 landlords over the period. Importantly, while landlord numbers have declined slightly, the number of registered properties has risen by almost 8,000 homes.

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.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are independent, operationally and constitutionally, from the Scottish Government.

The rising and increasingly complex prison population remains a major challenge as it does across the UK, and we are taking sustained action to reduce it. This includes the Prisoners (Early Release) Scotland Act 2025 which changes the point of release for some short-term prisoners and regulations to widen the use of home detention curfew. Additional funding of £25m over two years has been provided to increase the capacity of community justice services to support a sustained increase, where appropriate, in the use of alternatives to custody. This brings the total funding for community justice to £159m in 2025-26.

We have also established the independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission to review how custody and community-based interventions are used, with a focus on reducing crime, supporting rehabilitation, and ensuring a sustainable prison population. Final recommendations will be delivered by the end of 2025 and will inform further action in this area.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland keeps retirement rates under review to ensure that new officer recruitment intakes are underpinned by workforce planning data. Since the beginning of 2024 Police Scotland has welcomed around 1,500 new officers, to ensure sustainability of the workforce.

The Chief Constable has made it clear that frontline strength goes beyond an overall officer headcount. Police Scotland’s Three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation, reducing back-office duplication.

The Scottish Government has increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, with £1.64 billion being invested this year. Scottish Government funding in 2024-25 enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception and Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales.

The Scottish Government continues to progress a range of actions in collaboration with justice partners to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population, whilst maintaining a focus on protecting the public.

At present, Community Payback Orders (CPOs) are the most commonly used alternative to a custodial sentence, with over 15,100 commenced in 2023-24. CPOs are a flexible and robust disposal which make people pay back to their community and can include one or more of a range of requirements which can be tailored to fit the circumstances of individual cases (including unpaid work, supervision by justice social work, and addressing addiction issues). The evidence shows that community-based interventions and sentences can be more effective in addressing offending behaviour and assisting with rehabilitation than short-term custodial sentences, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.

We have increased community justice funding by £25 million over two years, bringing the total to £159 million in 2025-26. This has increased the use of alternatives to custody and supports a range of community justice services, including diversion from prosecution, alternatives to remand and community sentencing.

Looking ahead, we have also established an independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, with final recommendations to be presented to the Scottish Government by the end of this year to help ensure that Scotland has a sustainable prison population over the longer term. This important work will consider how imprisonment and community-based interventions are currently used and what improvements can be made in dealing with offending behaviour in an effective and proportionate manner.

The health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone who lives and works in Scotland’s prisons is a priority for this government and the Scottish Prison Service.

We have taken a range of actions in relation to the rising and increasingly complex prison population. This includes the Prisoners (Early Release) Scotland Act 2025 which changed the automatic early release point for most short term prisoners from 50% point of their sentence to 40% (with exclusions for those serving sentences for domestic abuse/sexual offences) and regulations to widen the use of home detention curfew.

The Scottish Prison Service is maximising the use of space available within its estate supported by a 10% increase their resource budget, bringing this to £481.5 million in 2025-26. We have also increased community justice funding by £25m over two years, bringing the total funding to £159m in 2025-26.

We will continue to progress a range of actions with justice partners to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population.

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 https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

As the recruitment and deployment of officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Police Scotland has confirmed that its recruitment planning takes into account the position 12-18 months ahead to inform the probationer intake process. This process is designed to be agile and depends on the actual number of leavers, which are projected in advance and thereafter managed in accordance with confirmation of numbers. During the current financial year, Police Scotland has set out its intention to recruit around 780 new officers.

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 enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in 2024-25 than at any time since 2013, with further intakes planned throughout 2025 and into 2026. Police Scotland has stated that it has a healthy recruitment pipeline.

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.

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 a cost effectiveness analysis alongside other evidence for lung screening.

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.

Our flagship Childsmile programme has supported a reduction in child oral health inequality over the long term, with the latest National Dental Inspection Programme results showing that the gap between P1 children with no obvious tooth decay living in the most and least deprived areas, is at its lowest on record – decreasing from 32.2 percentage points in 2010 to 23.5 percentage points in 2024.

However we know there is more to do. We continue to invest in our flagship Childsmile programme, which offers universal oral health interventions including supervised toothbrushing, fluoride varnish application and dietary advice to children and young people in nurseries, early years schooling and in dental practices - with targeted interventions for children living in the most deprived areas.

Since 2022-23 we have provided additional annual funding of £1.85m to NHS Boards to scale up delivery of the Programme, including through the recruitment of additional Dental Health Support Workers who work directly with more vulnerable communities.