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Given the wider impact of GEOAmey’s contract performance, all relevant partners (Scottish Prison Service, Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and senior Scottish Government officials) met in September 2023 and October 2023 to discuss options to mitigate the impact of GEO Amey’s staffing issues. They also had an initial discussion regarding the future model for prisoner transport services.

The Scottish Government have already confirmed plans to bring forward the review of the target from 2026-27 to 2024, with a focus on the timeline for delivery of 110,000 affordable homes. And in parallel we will accelerate work with the financial community in Scotland and elsewhere to boost private sector investment in Scotland year on year, and help deliver more homes. This work will help to inform the assessment of the investment required to deliver the 110,000 affordable homes target.

The UK Government did not inflation-proof their Capital Budget which has resulted in a 9.8% real terms fall in our UK capital funding over the medium term between 2023-24 and 2027-28. Scottish Government will invest more than half a billion pounds in affordable housing across Scotland next year, and we will be continuing our funding support for the demand-led Rural and Islands Housing Fund. We will work with partners to continue to deliver more affordable homes across Scotland, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting acquisitions of existing properties and the demand led Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.

We have been supporting Scottish Prison Services and other partners in delivering an improvement in the contract. This has resulted in some progress, with a slowdown in staff attrition, which is down by 40%. Prisoner Custody Officer (PCO) staffing levels have increased by around 40 officers in the last 3 months with another 20 currently in officer training, with them operationally deployable during January 2024. Steps have also been taken to help reduce future demand for service.

SPS is continuing to monitor the performance of the contract carefully to ensure target thresholds are met, so we can have a level of service which meets the needs of our Justice system.

Complaints made to Creative Scotland are handled in line with their published Complaints Handling Procedure , which is available to download on Creative Scotland’s website. In 2023, six formal complaints were made and all have been successfully resolved in line with their published procedure.

Since 2017, the Scottish Government has commissioned COSLA’s Digital Office for Local Government to implement a national programme for the transition of analogue to digital telecare. This approach has ensured a Scotland wide approach, the efficient use of resources and sharing of best practice in managing its complexity.

The Scottish Government, alongside COSLA’s Digital Office, continue to hold regular discussions with key partners including the telecoms industry, the Telecare Services Association (TSA), Ofcom and Local Authorities. Scottish partners are also actively sharing best practice and guidance with the other devolved nations.

At this point in time, telecare services across Scotland are on track to meet the end of 2025 analogue switch off.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) leads the management and monitoring of the contract on behalf of Scottish Ministers as well as Justice partners and is working closely with GEOAmey to resolve the performance and service delivery issues.

Scheduled monitoring of the contract is undertaken by SPS which reports against a significant number of service level and performance indicators to assess contractual compliance. In addition, routine and ad-hoc audits are also carried out to ensure care, welfare and other legislative elements are maintained and delivered by GEOAmey.

As a result of the contractual audits and reviews completed since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, a contract recalibration was agreed in 2023 to support the changing demands of the Justice Sector.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

The data we receive from Police Scotland for production of the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up. We do not receive further details on the characteristics and circumstances of individual crimes, therefore we are unable to identify how many crimes of vandalism were in relation to graffiti or the location of these crimes.

Time series information on the total number of crimes of vandalism recorded by the police is available from the Recorded Crime in Scotland Accredited Official Statistics.

Creative Scotland advertised 22 jobs in 2023. 20 roles were appointed, 1 closed without an offer and 1 closed with interviews taking place in January 2024. 18 were filled in Edinburgh, 2 in Glasgow and 0 outwith Edinburgh/Glasgow.

Whilst all roles have a contractual base location of either Edinburgh or Glasgow, since 2020 all roles at Creative Scotland have the ability of hybrid and remote working. Through this, Creative Scotland have benefitted from opening their talent pool to many regions across Scotland including the Highland and Islands, Perthshire and Ayrshire.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme is fit for purpose. The UK Government did not inflation-proof their Capital Budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real terms fall in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28. That means that we cannot deliver on all our capital projects. One of the most difficult choices we have taken is to reduce the funding for our Affordable Housing Supply Programme.