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The Policy Memorandum for the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill set out the reasons the Scottish Government proposed to reduce jury size to 12. This included evidence from the independent Scottish Jury Research - gov.scot.

In its Stage 1 report the Criminal Justice Committee did not support the reduction in jury size. I therefore confirmed in my letter of 31 October 2024 to the Committee that, as I am satisfied that the abolition of not proven does not require an associated change to the jury size, I would bring forward amendments to retain a jury of 15, in line with the Committee’s position. I have tabled these ahead of the current Stage 2 scrutiny.

The use of telematics technology on police vehicles is an operational matter for the Chief Constable under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable. In 2023, Police Scotland restructuring led to a new establishment figure of around 16,500 to 16,600 officers. The Scottish Government’s record investment of £1.55bn in 2024-25 has enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception, bringing officer numbers up to 16,508 at 31 December 2024.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 aims to make maximum impact with a workforce that has the right skills and capacity to keep people safe. Through workforce modernisation, they will reduce back-office duplication and create capacity to deal with new and increasing threats by moving more officers to frontline roles.

The Chief Constable has been clear that the context of frontline strength goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff.

The Scottish Government supports the Police Scotland Fleet Strategy. Telematics is a key element of that Strategy which aims to provide a fit for purpose, safe, reliable, and cost-effective police fleet.

We do not hold an estimate on the number of cases that the Commissioner will deal with in their first year in post.

The Commissioner’s functions and powers are set out in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. The Commissioner will be independent from the Scottish Ministers, and will determine how to best exercise the functions of their role, in accordance to the Bill.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding electronic monitoring use across a broader range of licences and court orders, including exploring the use of new technology, such as remote alcohol monitoring, which is provided for by the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019.

Regulations came into force on 31 January 2025 which enable the use of GPS monitoring devices for those released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC). As work continues to embed these changes, we will engage with justice partners to explore the potential uses of new technologies, including both GPS and remote substance monitoring technologies. The functionality of GPS tags may have a role in helping to address particular behaviour associated with problematic alcohol use, for example, by excluding someone from a town centre on a Saturday night.

These statistics remain a stark reminder of the unacceptable levels of domestic abuse that occur in Scotland, and the devastating impact on victims and survivors. It is vital that perpetrators are held to account, and that women and children have access to frontline services dealing with violence and domestic abuse.

The 23% increase is in relation to crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. These crimes relate to a course of conduct only and therefore do not include all crimes relating to domestic abuse. A range of factors could be attributed to this increase, including the increasing time since this legislation was introduced and therefore a longer period over which a course of conduct can be committed and recorded through this Act.

To support victims, we are providing more than £7.5m to Women’s Aid groups in 2024-25 through our Delivering Equally Safe Fund and £1.2m (£1.197m) over this year and next to Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline which provides round the clock support - 0800 027 1234.

Our Equally Safe Strategy is focused on early intervention and prevention and through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund (DES), 119 projects are supported from more than 100 organisations.

We have also recently announced a £2.4m uplift to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund for 2025-26, to allow all fund recipients to continue the vital work they undertake to prevent violence and support survivors of VAWG.

Emergency early release regulations have been utilised twice within the last five years (May 2020 and June/July 2024).

On both occasions, the conditions of release were as they would have been at the individual’s original scheduled liberation date. Therefore, as those eligible for release were serving short-term sentences, they were not routinely supervised or monitored following their release.

Therefore, information with regards to their housing circumstances, use of voluntary throughcare, and employment status is not held by the Scottish Government.

The total number of hours of other activity carried out in 2023-24 is not held, but relevant information in relation to orders successfully completed is available.

In the financial year 2023-24, 6,742 unpaid work or other activity requirements imposed as part of a Community Payback Order (CPO) were successfully completed. Of these successful requirements, 884,844 hours were completed.

This above information is available from Table 14 from Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland: 2023-24 – Part 2 - gov.scot.

Of the hours carried out as part of successfully completed unpaid work or other activity requirements in 2023-24, 66,646 hours (8%) were recorded as other activity.

We encourage all businesses to report any instances of criminality to Police Scotland. As well as enabling the perpetrators to be caught and being prevented from committing further crimes, such reports also ensure Police Scotland has the best possible intelligence on incidents in particular areas. The Scottish Government would also urge retailers to engage with the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE) in order to help safeguard their business and the people that work there. The SPAACE Strategy outlines a partnership approach to the prevention, deterrence, and enforcement around a range of crimes including housebreaking and theft.