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The Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024 publication shows that while overall casualties decreased in 2024, the number of fatalities increased by 9%.

Despite unprecedented challenges to public finances, the 2025-26 Scottish Police Authority budget has increased to £1.64 billion, an increase of almost £90 million when compared to the 2024-25 budget.

The operation of Police Scotland, including decisions on the allocation of resources and the deployment of officers and staff, is for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. This includes the allocation of resources to specialist sex crimes units.

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressures on the sector including affordability and ensuring the right conditions are created for building new homes.

The Scottish Government can respond in terms of where single carriageway trunk roads have been previously committed to being dualled. The Scottish Government cannot comment on any commitments made by Local Authorities to dual single carriageways roads on the local road network.

The Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26 established a pipeline of projects and programmes. Included within this was the commitment to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness and the A96 from Inverness to Craibstone Roundabout.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness and good progress is being made in delivering targets in the delivery plan announced in December 2023, which anticipates completion by the end of 2035.

In terms of the A96, the position of the Scottish Government has not changed – the current favoured position is to fully dual the route and we are already starting the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including a Nairn Bypass. As part of the then Bute House Agreement, the Scottish Government agreed to undertake a review of the corridor and Transport Scotland published the outcomes from the Review in draft for consultation in November 2024. The feedback received from the consultation will help inform the Scottish Government’s final decision on how best to take forward improvements to the A96.

The A96 between Inverness and Craibstone Roundabout is predominantly single carriageway. There are dualled sections from Raigmore Interchange to just east of Inverness Retail Park roundabout and also from Inverurie roundabout to Craibstone roundabout.

The A9 between Perth and Inverness is single carriageway with dualled sections from Inveralmond roundabout to Birnam, Ballinluig to Pitlochry, Kincraig to Dalraddy, a section near Dalnaspidal,a section near Crubenmore, a section between Slochd and Tomatin, and a section from Moy to Inverness.

In 2023 there were two fatal casualties on single carriageway sections of the road where dualling was included within the pipeline of schemes from the Infrastructure Investment Plan. A96 between Inverness and Craibstone Roundabout recorded one fatality, and the A9 between Perth and Inverness recorded one fatality.

The personal injury accident information provided above is sourced from Transport Scotland’s Accident Manager Database based on the current figures available. The date period was taken from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 and the information was extracted from the database on 12 June 2025. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system: Transport Scotland only holds trunk road accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland. This information is subject to change, e.g. when later returns are received from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.

Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found on the Transport Scotland at www.transport.gov.scot.

It is not possible to provide this information.

The most recent available data on conviction rates for rape and attempted rape were published in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-23. The figures for the most recent available five years are set out in Table 1. This shows the conviction rates for people prosecuted in court.

Table 1: Conviction rate for rape and attempted rape

The following table shows the estimated number of police recorded cyber-crimes during 2021-22 to 2023-24. These estimates are based on a review of crime records, whereby a random sample of cases was drawn across Scotland for those types of crime that could in theory involve a cyber-element. Further information on recorded cyber-crime is available in the recorded crime Accredited Official Statistics publications at Recorded crime in Scotland - gov.scot. Figures for 2024-25 will be published as part of this series on 24th June 2025.

The Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are working together to help protect organisations from cyber criminals, by identifying fraudulent websites, preventing phishing emails, blocking phone numbers and ultimately bringing those responsible to justice. We encourage everyone who wishes to report a fraud to contact the police and to report suspicious sites to NCSC using the reporting tool on their website.

Partners will continue to share knowledge and learning around fraud activity. Fraud is committed by a broad range of criminals, from domestic lone actors to complex international organised crime groups.

It is important to acknowledge that PISA is one source of evidence amongst a broader set of data. Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (ACEL) 2023-24 data showed that ACEL levels for numeracy in primary and secondary schools were at their highest ever levels. The 2024 National Qualifications data also showed progress in maths attainment, with both entries and passes for Higher Mathematics increasing between 2019 and 2024.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland are taking forward the Curriculum Improvement Cycle which introduces a systematic approach designed to ensure that Scotland’s curriculum remains relevant, forward looking, clarifies the role of knowledge and ultimately supports high quality teaching and learning. The review is considering the curriculum in a planned and systemic way, including alignment between the Broad General Education and the Senior Phase.

Work to update all eight curricular areas of CfE is underway, with mathematics being prioritised. The National Mathematics Specialist Advisor has been working closely with Education Scotland to consider all elements of the mathematics curriculum, informed by a wide range of evidence, including PISA data. Outputs of this initial phase of work have been shared in the second discussion paper published by Education Scotland on 19 December 2024.

Work is underway to continue to update and strengthen the Literacy and English Curriculum through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. Other activities include Education Scotland publishing a suite of professional learning resources on Learning to Read in the Early Years, supported by complementary professional learning; and continued investment in the Read Write Count and Reading Schools programmes.

Inspiring young people to study STEM and promoting excellence in the delivery of STEM education sit at the heart of our STEM Education and Training Strategy. In the last Financial Year alone, the Scottish Government provided over £1.74 million to a range of organisations which support the high-quality delivery of STEM education.

The Scottish Government has committed to increasing international evidence around numeracy and literacy by re-joining the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for the assessments in 2027, and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) for the assessments in 2026. The next PISA assessments will take place in Scotland in September and October 2025. The Scottish Government and Education Scotland are developing a programme of support to help schools and pupils to participate in the assessments.

The Scottish Government remains committed to tackling school violence and supporting staff wellbeing.

In 2025-26, we are providing over £2m to implement the Violence Prevention Framework, delivering actions including addressing youth violence, the carrying of weapons and violence in and around schools.

The 2025-26 budget also sets out an additional £29 million of investment for Additional Support Needs (ASN). This will include an allocation for both local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce, with £28 million directed to local government and £1 million retained for national work. This investment will continue to be a joint endeavour with local authorities, who retain the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education in Scotland.

An agreement reached with COSLA will see local government and the Scottish Government working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025, freeze learning hours, and make meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. To support this, we are providing £186.5 million to local authorities in 2025/26 to restore overall teacher numbers across the country to 2023 levels and maximise the number of teaching posts available.

The Scottish Government invited the OECD to assess the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in primary and secondary schools in 2020. The OECD report Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence - Into the Future endorsed CfE as the right approach for Scottish education and made a number of recommendations for further improvement. Education Scotland are now taking forward the Curriculum Improvement Cycle to ensure Scotland’s curriculum remains forward looking and supports high quality teaching and learning, with Numeracy and Mathematics and Literacy and English the first curricular areas to be reviewed.

We continue monitoring literacy and numeracy levels through the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels which are published annually and present proportions of pupils from P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils who have achieved the expected CfE Levels in Reading, Writing, Listening & Talking, Literacy and Numeracy. The latest data available (2023-24) shows record levels of literacy and numeracy by primary (P1, P4 and P7) and secondary (S3) pupils.

In Literacy, the proportion of pupils achieving their expected CfE level are at their highest ever level in both primary (74%) and secondary schools (88%). In Numeracy, 80% of primary and 90% of secondary pupils achieved the expected CfE levels.

We will continue to expand the data and evidence available to the system, by joining the next cycle of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) in 2026 and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) in 2027, while continuing to participate in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) this year.