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There are many factors that influence the average cost per offender for in-prison rehabilitation programmes, meaning that it is not possible to provide an average cost. These factors may include but are not limited to: the duration of the Offending Behaviour Programme (OBP), grades of staff involved in delivery/treatment management, training costs involved for staff to be able to deliver the OBP, and materials involved for delivery.

The current funding distributed by the Scottish Government to local authorities for the purpose of delivery of Caledonian includes: £2,557,547 for the Men's Programme and £1,910,119 for the Women and Children’s Service. For 2025-26 the total budget is £4,467,666. It is not possible to quantify an average cost per man on the Caledonian System, or that of women and children being supported, due to several varying factors. This includes: variation in cost to run the Men’s programme, as mentioned above, along with the intensity of the programme required which is equated to individual need. The Women and children’s service again will vary in cost per client, as support is very much tailored to individual needs.

Data sourced from the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-2023 data set shows that 7807 people were convicted of aggravated offences under section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 in 2022-2023. Of those convicted, 251 were given prison sentences of 12 months or longer and, of those convicted, 2407 were given community payback orders. The remaining 5149, are made up of other disposals which may include: fines, short-term prison sentences (under 12 months) and admonishments.

Sentencing is of course a matter for the independent courts.

We have interpreted part (b) of the question as relating to sex offender notification requirements (SONR). Section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 does not create an offence. It creates an aggravator which is something that is applied to an existing offence. Section 1(1)(a) (or section 1 as a whole) is not listed in Schedule 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (offences which trigger SONR).

Therefore, whether the offender would be subject to SONR would depend on the offence they were convicted of and whether that was on the list in Schedule 3. Schedule 3 of the 2003 Act does also contain paragraph 60 which is a provision which allows the court to trigger SONR where the offence is not on the list in Schedule 3 but the court determines that there was a significant sexual element in the offender’s behaviour.

Data on the numbers of those with this aggravator who are also subject to SONR is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

This information is not centrally held. The staffing levels involved for supporting the management of registered sex offenders are a matter for each of the Responsible Authorities.

This information is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government funds a number of organisations including Police Scotland, local authorities, NHS Boards and the Scottish Prison Service. The published Scottish Budget for 2022-23 sets out the funding levels of those organisations and is available here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2022-23/

It is for each organisation to determine how they allocate their funding to deliver their broad responsibilities, recognising that in terms of wider public protection, including MAPPA, those responsibilities may be more intensive for managing some individuals than for others.

This information is not centrally held. The staffing levels involved for supporting work on MAPPA are a matter for each of the Responsible Authorities.

As set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the Chief Constable of Police Scotland is responsible for the policing of Scotland, and is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for this, rather than to Scottish Ministers directly.

It is therefore not the place of Ministers to issue guidance on operational policing matters. The member may wish to write to the Chief Constable on this issue.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. As of August 2023, there were 79 schools registered with an ESAS account.

Between 2022-23 Rape Crisis Scotland were funded £408,675 through the Delivering Equally Safe fund. This funding supports the implementation of the Equally Safe at School whole school approach to preventing GBV and the continued delivery of the national sexual violence prevention programme.

Additionally, Rape Crisis Scotland was funded £43,000 in 2022-23 to fund a prevention and training post which oversees the effective implementation of the Equally Safe at Schools programme.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and the attitudes which perpetuate it such as; the Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the preventing and responding to gender based violence: a whole school framework and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role health services can play in helping to prevent homelessness, including for households with children. We will introduce new ask and act duties on named relevant bodies so that a wider range of services do more to prevent homelessness.

The relevant bodies include health boards, special health boards and integrated health boards. While GPs are not on the named bodies list, we anticipate that the duties on other health professionals, such as community link workers in GP practices, will ensure GPs and other practice staff are kept informed and involved in homelessness prevention.

We will work closely with stakeholders in health to ensure the regulations, guidance and training for the implementation of the new duties are fit for purpose and take into account the specific needs of particular households, including those with children. We will be funding a series of pilot projects in 2025-26 that will help inform the best approach to take.

We also know that there is good practice in preventing homelessness across Scotland and we would encourage health and other services to work together and in co-operation with other partners to prevent homelessness now rather than to wait for new homelessness prevention duties.

We have taken action to increase supply of social homes, with a focus on larger family homes, through increasing funding to local authorities for voids and acquisitions as set out in the answer to S6W-35453 on 19 March 2025.

We continue to support local authorities to transition to rapid rehousing, which is the best way to reduce the use of temporary accommodation in the longer term. Where temporary accommodation is required, it should meet the needs of the household.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework, published in 2023, sets out the physical, location, service and management standards to ensure consistency in standards across all local authority areas. All local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and is safe, warm and affordable.

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