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Scottish Government officials have engaged with analytical specialists and key stakeholders, such as Historic Environment Scotland, to ensure that any proposals for retrofitting traditional buildings or listed buildings in rural and island areas are flexible and protect the characteristics of our buildings, as well as considering the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people.

We have recently published a final report of the Short Life Tenement Short Life Working Group on energy efficiency and zero emissions heating as well as The suitability of clean heating options for challenging dwelling types, which are available on the Scottish Government website. Officials have also attended Hopetoun House and Holyrood Lodge to hear about the challenges of retrofit and what Historic Environment Scotland had done to improve these buildings.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders alongside the Private Renter Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) consultation workshops on the proposals. This engagement will be vital in helping us develop and shape cost-effective and feasible solutions to improve the energy efficiency of privately rented traditional and listed buildings in rural and island areas.

SCTS is independent of Scottish Government and therefore entrusted to make determinations of what an efficient system for them looks like and what a normal volume of scheduled criminal trials would be.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heating systems in Scotland’s buildings to support improvements in fuel poverty and to help meet our climate target to reach net zero by 2045.

We have committed to investing over £300m in our Heat in Buildings programme in 2025-26. The support is aimed at reducing emissions from heating and improving energy efficiency in homes and other buildings across Scotland, as well as developing heat networks.

In 2023 we published a Heat in Buildings Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (Heat in buildings monitoring and evaluation Framework - gov.scot). This described the different elements that need to come together to enable us to deliver the heat transition and indicators to track progress in each of these areas.

Our annual Heat in Buildings Progress Reports (last published on 10 October 2024: Heat in Buildings: progress report 2024 - gov.scot), reported against the indicators described in the Framework and described the action we are taking to support delivery.

We are continuing to work in partnership with the sector and with installers to ensure that the appropriate support and training provision are aligned locally with business needs and future demands.

Our proposed Heat in Buildings Bill will provide clarity and confidence to boost consumer demand for clean heat and build market confidence.

Emissions in the buildings sector have decreased 31% since 1990 - mainly due to heating system and energy efficiency improvements. However, we know we need to go further and faster. That is why we will introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill this year which sets a target for decarbonising heat by 2045.

The Bill will result in a blueprint for the transition to clean heating and better energy efficiency, based on collective measures as well as individual action. Our plan sets out a positive and fair approach that supports a just transition and keeps us on track to deliver the heat transition.

In the meantime, our schemes continue to support the public to access funding to decarbonise their homes. It is also down to the UK Government to ensure that the transition to clean heat is attractive to consumers by taking action on energy prices.

The Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill seeks to make permanent a number of measures introduced over five years ago through emergency legislation designed to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes the greater use of virtual attendance at criminal courts which has made our criminal justice system more modern, responsive and accessible. The Scottish Government has consulted extensively on the continued use of virtual attendance since 2020 including through the pre-legislative consultation on the Bill.

Since the conclusion of the Stage 1 debate, the Scottish Government has engaged further with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Lord Justice General and the Law Society of Scotland on the provisions relating to virtual attendance

The Mental Welfare Commission publishes percentage of all place of safety orders under 18 but not the numbers.

In addition, the Commission does not publish numbers that small: as a rule it suppresses any figures equal to and under 5 and in some cases it uses secondary suppression to ensure that there is no statistical disclosure.

The data for 2024-25 is not yet available; the Mental Welfare Commission is currently in the process of extracting and validating this data. It will be included in the Commission’s Mental Health Act Monitoring report 2024-25 which is due to be published this Autumn.

The data for 2024-25 is not yet available; the Mental Welfare Commission is currently in the process of extracting and validating this data. It will be included in the Commission’s Mental Health Act Monitoring report 2024-25 which is due to be published this Autumn.

The total cost of work considering and progressing misogyny legislation by the Scottish Government was £143,668.13. This includes:

• The fee paid to Baroness Helena Kennedy KC in her role as Chair of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland;
• Costs associated with Working Group;
• Publication of the Scottish Government consultation paper on draft legislation to implement the Working Group’s recommendations;
• Analysis of the responses received to the consultation; and
• Publication of consultation analysis.

This does not include the cost of time spent by Scottish Government civil servants as the work was carried out by staff working on a range of different areas including but not limited to misogyny legislative policy. As such, it is not possible to quantify the cost of staff time involved.