Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that Scotland’s prison estate is safe, secure, and fit for purpose. In 2025-26, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) was allocated £355m of capital funding to enable them to progress the major projects HMP Highland and HMP Glasgow, as well as wider estate maintenance.

HMP Highland, which will replace HMP Inverness, is expected to be completed in 2026. HMP Glasgow, which will replace HMP Barlinnie, is expected to be completed by 2028. The wider maintenance programme encompasses a range of activities aimed at ensuring the continued safety, functionality, and efficiency of the physical estate, including asset replacement, building fabric maintenance, surveys and condition assessments and compliance and safety works, with varying time-scales for delivery.

Future capital funding for the Scottish Prison Service is being considered as part of the annual budget process and the Scottish Spending Review, due to be published alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40236 on 16 September 2025 regarding the planned lung screening pilot. 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.

While this will be the first NHS-led pilot within Scotland, the LungScot study generated valuable evidence and insights into identifying individuals at high risk of lung cancer. These findings contributed to the work of the Scottish Expert Advisory Group for lung screening. A research project briefing has been published by the Chief Scientist Office for the phase of the study conducted within NHS Lothian, with key findings included. A full report regarding the wider study will be published at a later date.

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.

In 2023 the Scottish Government commissioned a Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) to inform implementation considerations for a targeted Lung Cancer screening programme.

The SEAG provided the Scottish Government with an evaluation of costs and set out detailed considerations around the scale of workforce, equipment and IT requirements. It acknowledged that UK-wide challenges securing both staff and equipment are potentially rate limiting factors, and these in part contribute to the overall time frame for rolling out a full programme. This reflects the experience of England, which has been piloting lung checks since 2019, but still anticipates national coverage will not be achieved until 2030.

The planned 2027 pilot will support a real world understanding of constraints and limitations, and will inform long term planning for national implementation. For further information on the pilot, I refer the member to the question S6W-40236 on 16 September 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.

It is unclear where the figure of a net loss of over 30,000 private landlords since the COVID-19 pandemic has come from.

The most recently published figures show a reduction in registered landlords of 6,644 from January 2022 to July 2025, although it should be noted that the number of registered properties has increased in during the same period. The latest Scottish Landlord Register data shows the number of registered properties for rent in Scotland between August 2022 and July 2025 has increased by 2.9%. Over the same period, the number of registered landlords has decreased by 2.4%.

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.

Our social security policies have been designed to provide much needed support for the most vulnerable in our society and people can be entitled to support whether they are in work or not.

For example, our Job Start Payment helps young people who are returning to work with the costs of starting a new job, support that is only available in Scotland. The Adult Disability Payment can help to reduce the barriers that prevent some disabled people from working and we recognise that it supports many disabled people to stay in employment. Additionally, findings from the evaluation of our Five Family Payments, published earlier this month, showed that for some recipients, the Scottish Child Payment is easing work costs related to travel and childcare and giving some families greater choice and flexibility to balance work, education, and caring responsibilities.

Through the Scottish Government’s No One Left Behind approach, person-centred employability services are available in every local authority area for people of all ages who experience structural barriers to participating in the labour market. Over 156,000 people have accessed these services since powers were devolved around aspects of employability support.

To maintain a safe and secure prison estate, the Scottish Government increased Scottish Prison Service (SPS) investment by 10% to £481.5m in 2025-26. SPS has invested in a range of initiatives aimed at tackling violence across the prison estate, including body worn cameras, a revised control and restraint model, and body scanners. SPS are also working to mitigate the risks presented by the threat of drones and uses various technologies and intelligence - such as advanced scanners, detection technology, window grilles and sniffer dogs – to prevent illegal substances entering prisons.

The Scottish Government has also increased 2025-26 funding to the Scottish Recovery Consortium to embed a person-centred recovery focused approach in prisons and have supported the National Prison Care Network to develop a Target Operating Model for healthcare delivery in prisons. This sets out a nationally consistent service model for the delivery of the range of clinical services provided in prisons, including drugs and alcohol services.

Future resource and capital funding for the SPS is being considered as part of the annual budget process and the Scottish Spending Review, due to be published alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget.

The provision of opioid-substitution treatment in prisons is a matter for local services. The Scottish Government notes that the transition from prison to the community is a high-risk event in a recovery journey and welcomes moves to join up prison health services with the support available in local communities.

Through the National Naloxone Programme, we work in partnership with the Scottish Prison Service, NHS Boards and third sector partners to ensure Naloxone is routinely offered prior to liberation. The number of take-home naloxone kits issued by SPS is published quarterly by Public Health Scotland through the programme’s Quarterly Monitoring Bulletin, which provides data to track trends, compare outcomes over time, and assess the impact of the programme on preventing overdose deaths.

Further integration across services and consistent data collection are essential to fully assess the impacts on post-release relapse and re-offending rates.

The provision and procurement of uniforms and equipment is an operational matter for the Chief Constable. The Frontline focus review of tools of the trade Report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, (HMICS),identified a number of areas where Police Scotland can make improvements, including in the provision of uniforms. Police Scotland has stated its intention to take account of this review and listen to its officers and staff, to ensure they get the uniform and kit they need to deliver for communities.

The Scottish Government’s record £1.64 billion investment in policing is helping equip officers with modern tools like body worn video, ensuring they have the right resources to keep communities safe.

Transport Scotland already operates in line with key recommendations and best practice of the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry in the delivery of major transport infrastructure projects, as evidenced by its excellent record on projects such as the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the Queensferry Crossing.