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The forthcoming draft Climate Change Plan will set out our pathway to net zero over the plan period of 2026-2040, in a way that is just and fair. Our plan will also set out the estimated costs and benefits of the policies and proposals within.

The plan will be subject to, and published alongside, a suite of impact assessments which ensure policies and proposals are informed by evidence and consider their potential effects on individuals, businesses, and communities. These published impact assessments will include, amongst others, an Equalities Impact Assessment (EQIA) and an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA), which ensure our policy drives progress towards our National Outcomes, statutory targets and commitments within the Policy Prospectus.

We sympathise with the pressure the social care sector is facing and that is one of the reasons that the 2025-26 budget includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million. At £21.7 billion, the overall financial envelope for Health and Social Care also reached record levels.

However it is important to note that while the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, it is for local authorities and health boards to work with the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to ensure that social care support services are in place to provide people with the appropriate support.

While agreeing budgets is the responsibility of partnerships, The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the health and social care sector to understand key pressures and opportunities to ensure we achieve best value of money and improve the outcomes of our population.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out the Chief Constable’s vision of a thriving workforce which goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff.

The Chief Constable aims to make maximum impact with a workforce that has the right skills and capacity to keep people safe. Through the Chief Constable’s workforce modernisation plan, Police Scotland are developing an operating model that will create capacity to deal with new and increasing threats by moving more officers to frontline roles, to strengthen community confidence.

The deployment of officers and staff is a matter for the Chief Constable. It is vital that the Chief Constable has the flexibility to develop her workforce to respond to new and emerging operational demands.

Investigation of reports to Police Scotland are quite rightly operational matters for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that every crime report is assessed for threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence, as soon as it is reported.

Officer wellbeing and retention are operational matters for Police Scotland. I refer the member to my response to S6W-35420 on 17 March.

The Chief Constable has stated to the Criminal Justice Committee that the wellbeing of police officers and staff is one of her main priorities. Police Scotland has made a £17 million investment in wellbeing, which includes a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme and enhanced occupational health services, to support officers and staff wellbeing.

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 operation of Police Scotland, including the deployment of officers, is for the Chief Constable. The latest official statistics show there were 16,553 FTE police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2025. The Scottish Government supports the Chief Constable in having the flexibility to develop and utilise her workforce in a way that responds to the challenges she faces by ensuring she has the right workforce in place. In 2025-26, we are increasing investment in policing by £90 million to a record £1.64 billion to support police capacity and capability.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of accountability in relation to our plans for a just transition. This is why we established the Just Transition Commission in 2019 to advise on and scrutinise our journey to net zero.

The Commission has published a number of reports which consider our approach to delivering a just transition for energy workers. These include the July 2024 publication ‘A Just Transition for Grangemouth’, which has informed the development of our Grangemouth Just Transition Plan; and its most recent report, ‘A Just Transition for Aberdeen and the North East’. The Scottish Government accepts in principle the headline recommendations in the latter report, but will take time to consider them in detail, before providing a full response.

Scottish charity law says that an organisation set up to be a political party or to advance a political party cannot be a charity. However, under the law charities are permitted to campaign on political issues provided that:

• It is advancing their charitable purposes
• Their governing document does not prevent the activity
• They are not advancing a political party
• They can show this is acting in the charity’s interests

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s position is that political campaigning – such as advocating for or against changes in government policy or legislation – is a legitimate way for some charities to pursue their aims.

The Scottish Government agrees with the Regulator’s position; charities play a vital role in civil society, and it is right that they have the ability to advocate for change that aligns with their charitable purposes.

Social Security Scotland does not publish statistics on the number of non-UK nationals in receipt of payments.

Social Security Scotland only captures the nationality of clients where we require that information to progress an application. It will not capture this information when clients are eligible for a benefit because they are in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Social Security Scotland will continue to review and prioritise any new statistics produced and will take account of users’ needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.

We have not held specific discussions with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator on the political neutrality of charities that receive public funding.

We are not aware of concerns about any charities in relation to ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions advocacy’. As the Regulator is a non-ministerial office and independent of government, concerns about a charity’s conduct should be raised with them to determine their validity.