Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39952 on 9 September 2025. 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.

Work related to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax review is ongoing.

Alma Economics has been appointed to undertake independent research on various aspects of the legislation and will engage with a range of relevant organisations to support this. The Scottish Government has also established a working group involving legal, property sector and other organisations to allow for detailed consideration of other specific issues.

As set out in Scottish Budget 2025-26, the review will support decisions in the next Scottish Parliament on whether any legislative changes should be brought forward.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing inclusive communication in Scotland. We have therefore commissioned an inclusive communications toolkit for listed authorities, which includes NHS Boards, to consider. This toolkit aims to make improvements for those with different communication needs in Scotland.

The project will provide practical support to all public bodies in Scotland. It will help them to mainstream inclusive communication throughout their organisation and so meet the general equality duty.

The toolkit is currently being co-produced with people who communicate in diverse ways, public bodies, and other expert organisations. We intend to roll out this toolkit by early 2026.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has collaborated with both autistic people and professional partners to produce resources to help healthcare practitioners understand and accommodate the communication needs of autistic individuals. These include an Autism Informed Services eBook and a series of posters, co-produced with an autistic working group, detailing how healthcare practitioners can anticipate, enquire about, and arrange adjustments to meet the needs of autistic patients, including communication needs. These resources are freely accessible on our Different Minds website.

The Scottish Government currently provides funding to Upside, the national voluntary throughcare service. Upside launched on 1 April 2025, replacing the previous Public Social Partnerships ‘New Routes’ and ‘Shine’, which had been in place for 12 years and 10 years respectively prior to Upside launching. Upside supports men and women leaving a period of remand or a short-term prison sentence (less than 4 years) without statutory supervision requirements. It is a partnership of third sector organisations, which provides person-centered support including help to access sustainable housing, healthcare, social security and employment opportunities.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to Justice Social Work, through payments to Local Authorities, to deliver both statutory and voluntary throughcare. Local Authorities have autonomy to direct this funding to meet statutory justice services and local priorities which are aimed at reducing reoffending. This funding covers long term prisoners, short term prisoners released on a statutory supervision order, and community payback orders.

Table 1 details the amount of funding which has been provided to each programme to support people leaving prison to reintegrate into the community in each of the last five financial years.

Table 1: Funding for throughcare services 2021-22 to 2025-26. To note, all figures in the table have been rounded off.

Scotland is not alone in facing challenges as a result of a rise in the prison population. There is no single reason for the increase and there is no single solution.

The Scottish Government has therefore taken a range of actions to address this, including changing the point of release for some short-term prisoners and bringing forward regulations to widen the use of home detention curfew, which enables selected individuals to be released to serve the last part of their sentence under curfew and clear licence conditions. Additional funding of £25m over two years has been provided to increase the capacity of community justice services across Scotland to support a sustained increase, where appropriate, in the use of alternatives to custody. This brings the total funding for community justice to £159m in 2025-26. We have also established an independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission to review how custody and community-based interventions are used, with a focus on reducing crime, supporting rehabilitation, and ensuring a sustainable prison population. Final recommendations will be delivered by the end of 2025 and will inform longer term action in this area.

The Scottish Government is aware of the UK Government’s consultation on Landfill Tax reforms, and of the potential relevance for Scotland.

Any assessment of the impact in Scotland would depend on the detail of decisions taken following the consultation. The Scottish Government would therefore welcome early certainty from the UK Government on its plans, particularly regarding the arrangements for the lower rate of Landfill Tax.

Decisions regarding Scottish Landfill Tax policy will be announced as usual as part of the Scottish Budget.

In 2023, the Scottish Government consulted to inform the development of proposals for a Scottish tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy. The consultation included questions on alignment with the UK Aggregate Levy and the tax rate.

Separately, in 2025, Scottish Government commissioned research on the role of alternatives to primary aggregates in reducing construction sector emissions examined how the tax rate could incentivise the use of such alternatives.

The Scottish Aggregates Tax will initially mirror key aspects of the UK Aggregates Levy, with flexibility to evolve in line with Scottish Government policy objectives.

The Scottish Government regularly meet with the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (The ALLIANCE) at both official and ministerial level. Both organisations are key stakeholders who have been heavily involved in the work on the National Care Service, social care workforce and our reform and renewal programme through their membership of the Key Stakeholder Steering Group (KSSG) as well as through other regular policy engagement.

The most recent ministerial meeting with the CCPS was with the Minister for Public Finance, Mr Ivan McKee, who met with Rachel Cackett, CCPS CEO, on 25 August 2025.

I chaired the most recent meeting of the KSSG on 8 July 2025, which was attended by Sara Redmond, Chief Officer at the ALLIANCE.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, it is for local authorities and health boards to work with the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to set budgets and ensure that social care support services are in place to provide people with the appropriate support.

Social Care spend therefore occurs at a local government level and details can be found in the Local Finance Returns: https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/#scottishlocalgovernmentfinancialstatistics

However, each year, the Scottish Government does provide additional investment into Social Care.

Details of the Scottish Budget for each year can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/budget/

The Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) was established in 2021 as a five year commitment from 2021 to 2026 to support Local Government in delivering long term ambitions for place, town centre revitalisation, 20 minute neighbourhoods, community led regeneration and community wealth building.

The Scottish Government is currently progressing a Spending Review and, as part of this, we will consider future budget implications from 2026-2027 and how our regeneration capital programmes may be best delivered to achieve greatest impact.