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Data in relation to the housing circumstances and employment status of individuals released from custody is not available.

Individuals serving short-term sentences are not routinely subject to any form of post-release supervision or monitoring, and those that had supervision or monitoring requirements post-sentence were automatically excluded from both the Coronavirus specific early release process in 2020 and the Emergency Early Release process in 2024.

Pre-release planning, including in relation to housing needs, was a key feature of both of the emergency early release processes (2020 & 2024). The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) worked closely with representatives from Local Government – including housing departments, wider public bodies, and the third sector in the planning and operation of the processes.

The Scottish Government has utilised emergency early release legislation on two separate occasions in the last five years (May 2020 and June/July 2024).

Public and victim safety is central to our decision making, particularly when releasing individuals early from their prison sentence.

In each instance, the emergency action was necessary and proportionate to ensure prisons were able to operate safely, and to protect the health and wellbeing of prison staff and those held in custody. These decisions were not taken lightly, and on both cases strict eligibility criteria were set out, and agreed by Parliament.

In both cases, the number of individuals released was carefully limited to the level required. Only individuals who were close to their scheduled release date were eligible for release. There were important exclusions put in place for domestic abuse and sexual offences, long-term sentenced individuals were excluded, and Governors could veto the emergency early release of an individual, if this would present a risk to an individual or group.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The table below shows the average length of sentence reduction for prisoners released under either the 2020 COVID 19 Early Release Scheme or the 2024 Emergency Early Release Regulations within the last 5 years:

The Scottish Government does not hold this information

The Scottish Government does not hold this information

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

When a prisoner is liberated from custody under emergency release arrangements such as the 2020 COVID 19 Early Release Scheme and the 2024 Emergency Early Release Regulations, they have no outstanding warrants, as such they are released back into the community with no conditions or restrictions having served their time. Therefore, they cannot be recalled back into custody, as there are no conditions attached to their release.

In the last 5 years, no prisoners have been recalled to custody following their release under either the 2020 COVID 19 Early Release Scheme or the 2024 Emergency Early Release Regulations.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing teacher numbers to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people.

The number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at more than 80% over the past 10 years. In addition, the number of teachers in Scotland's classrooms has increased by more than 2,500 over the past decade, as a result of investment by the Scottish Government. While we cannot direct teachers where to work, it is important to note that teacher vacancies arise across Scotland throughout the year.

We recently agreed with local government a commitment to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025-2026, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers.

In order to support each of these measures, the Scottish Government is increasing the funding available to local government to £186.5 million in 2025-2026, and will issue £145.5 million to local government in full this financial year.

Local government will also receive additional funding of £28 million from 2025-2026 to develop the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) education workforce with further funding of £1 million being made available to support national initiatives which will help to recruit and train more ASL teachers.

Data on post-induction scheme teacher employment broken down by subject, Local Authority, contract type (permanent/temporary) and mode of working are published on the Post-Probationer Teacher Employment Dashboard, here: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-post-probationer-employment-dashboard/

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education. Therefore the Scottish Government does not collect data on teacher absences or the reasons for them.

The latest data on pupil support assistants is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/