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The Scottish Government does not routinely hold case-specific information in respect of children’s cases. The principal responsibilities lie variously with the Principal Reporter, the chief social work officer of the implementation authority and the head of the relevant secure unit(s).

The Scottish Government have agreed to fund a dedicated professional secure care lead at Social Work Scotland for the next 12 months. This policy and practice adviser will work alongside Scottish Government officials to enhance our partnership with local government and improve the coordination of relevant services across the country.

There are multiple routes by which a child may be referred to secure accommodation. The head of each centre retains discretion over whether or not to accept any individual child’s placement.

If a placement is required, and secure accommodation capacity is reached, then all appropriate and safe alternatives will be considered by the relevant decision makers. They will ensure that the bests interests of each child are prioritised and that any risks are managed appropriately to protect each child and the community. The Scottish Government will assist in every appropriate way.

Where a children’s hearing includes a secure accommodation authorisation in their decision, the hearing also needs to decide where a child is to be placed if, for any reason, their secure authorisation cannot be implemented. This may be because of the professional judgement of the chief social work officer or the head of the relevant secure centre, or for other reasons.

An alternative to secure care should therefore have been prepared by the local authority and authorised by the hearing. This position, and its requirements, are unaffected by questions of capacity.

Where a child is remanded by the court to the care of the local authority and a secure place is not available, an alternative place of safety must be identified until a bed becomes available.

Refreshed guidance on community alternatives to the deprivation of liberty for children was published in March. This guidance highlights the importance of exploring alternatives that prioritise children’s rights and welfare, ensuring that secure accommodation is only ever used when absolutely necessary.

Recognising the complexities and demands and pressures this can bring to bear for professionals. The Scottish Government have agreed to fund a dedicated professional secure care lead at Social Work Scotland for the next 12 months.

The maintenance of the valuation roll, including the collection of evidence, valuation of properties, and decisions on the removal of properties, are the responsibility of the independent Scottish Assessors, in accordance with the legislative framework established by the Scottish Government.

Table 1 shows the number of self-catering properties removed from the non-domestic rates valuation roll since 2020-2021, by the financial year from which the decision was made effective. The Scottish Government does not have information relating to how many operators were the ratepayers for these subjects.

Decisions to remove a property from the valuation roll are generally retrospective, and the financial year from which a property is retrospectively removed from the valuation roll may precede the year in which this decision is made.

This table may also include some properties which were later reinstated to the valuation roll, and may count them more than once, for example if a property was removed, re-added, and removed again.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Self-catering properties removed from the valuation roll, by year for which the deletion was effective

The Scottish Government are progressing a range of actions to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population, including:

• The passage of the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, which changes the point of release for most prisoners serving short-term sentences of under four years from following 50% of their sentence, to following 40% of their sentence.
• Increasing community justice funding by £14m this year to a total of £148m to further strengthen alternatives to custody.
• Introducing regulations that enable GPS technology to be used to monitor individuals being released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC).
• SPS continue to optimise the appropriate use of HDC which allows certain prisoners who have met the requirements of a risk assessment to spend up to 180 days in the community.
• We intend to bring forward secondary legislation to amend the use of HDC with the intention of increasing the period of time individuals can spend on release under licence conditions.
• We have increased the use of electronically monitored bail which is now available in every local authority and its use is at record levels.
• The establishment of an independent review of sentencing and penal policy which will focus on reducing reoffending and ensuring custody is used at the right time, for the right individuals.
• The safety and wellbeing of those who work in prisons and those in their care must also remain at the forefront of our actions to ensure prisons continue to function effectively.
• We must ensure that we have a prison system that focuses on those who pose the greatest risk to the public and provide a range of support to help reduce reoffending and aid integration back into the community.

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

SPS welcome HMIPS inspection report of HMP Barlinnie, especially the recognition of the encouragement given to the efforts shown to try and bring many of those in our care back into education.

SPS are currently experiencing a challenging period caused by an increased population we do, however, continue to recognise the importance in our role in preparing those in our care to return to their communities. As such, we have now developed a multiyear recovery plan to prioritise the delivery of offending behaviour programmes, including the introduction of new delivery sites to increase programme delivery and capacity.

The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, Teresa Medhurst, meets the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on a regular basis to discuss a range of matters including reports such as the recent HMIPS inspection report on HMP Barlinnie.

The most recent meeting of 23 April included discussion of HMIPS’ report, noting its key finding that HMP Barlinnie is a safe, stable, well-run prison and 33 examples of good practice. The Scottish Government agrees with the Inspectorate that the need for a replacement prison through the planned new HMP Glasgow is “overwhelming and urgent”.

There are 83 recommendations made in the report, with the Chief Inspector prioritising 12 of those.

The Scottish Prison Service will respond to all the HMIPS recommendations.

The safety and wellbeing of everyone in the prison estate is a priority for this government and the Scottish Prison Service and we continue to aspire to comply with all relevant standards and international obligations.

The further refurbishment, including the cells, within HMP Barlinnie has been fully assessed but continued refurbishment is not a long-term solution.

The Scottish Government agrees with the Inspectorate that the need for a replacement prison through the planned new HMP Glasgow is “overwhelming and urgent”. That is why it is welcome that the construction contract for HMP Glasgow was signed in January this year.

HMP Glasgow, with a design capacity of 1,344, will add 357 places to the prison estate, featuring larger cells than previous builds and meeting international standards set by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

A sustainable reduction in the prison population, also highlighted in the report, remains a focus for this Government as we work with justice partners to develop measures which prioritises prison for high-risk offenders whilst working on solutions to reduce reoffending and aid reintegration into the community.

Scottish Government Marine Directorate has two main fora for fishing industry engagement on inshore fisheries such as lobster. The first is the Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RIFG) network which has existed in its current form since 2016. This network gives inshore fishers a strong voice in matters which affect them, while providing an environment for co-management of fisheries improvement projects. The second is our Fisheries Management and Conservation (FMAC) Group, this group and associated sub-groups provide a national platform for marine stakeholders to feed into strategic fisheries management discussions.

There is regular engagement with fishing industry stakeholders to discuss a variety of fisheries management issues, including technical measures such as the minimum landing size of lobster. For example, engagement through these two fora helped inform the introduction of interim measures for improvement of crab and lobster fisheries from May 2024 in response to stock assessment advice indicating that these fisheries were under pressure in the majority of areas. We expect this close engagement to continue as we develop our Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement (IFMI) Programme during 2025 and 2026.

Details of meetings conducted by the RIFG network as well as the FMAC Inshore Subgroup are hosted on the RIFG website at www.rifg.scot.