Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36866 on 6 May 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.

My officials confirmed with Network Rail that, taking account of available budgets, the refurbishment of Glasgow Central low-level platforms 16 and 17 will not take place in Railway funding Control Period 7 (CP7), which spans 2024-29. Network Rail will be responsible for determining when and if these renewals works take place, at a date beyond 2029.

There is currently no standard dataset covering the number of people being prescribed medication for ADHD in Scotland, and consequently the Scottish Government does not hold figures for this year or for previous years.

More than £1bn will be provided through the Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap during this parliamentary term. This funding can be used to provide additional tutoring support, if headteachers and education authorities want to deploy this support in a way that targets those who will most benefit from this kind of intervention.

The Scottish Government has provided multi-year funding for mentoring programmes, which has been shown to support confidence building and attainment in care-experienced children and young people and those affected by poverty. In March 2021, the Scottish Government announced a £19.4 million fund over five years for mentoring programmes to support young people as part of the Scottish Mentoring and Leadership Programme (SMLP), including funding for MCR Pathways to further rollout provision across Scotland to a much larger cohort of young people.

An interim evaluation report on the SMLP programme published in December 2024 found that mentoring had increased participant’s academic confidence, attainment/achievement, social confidence, and confidence in doing well at a job in the future. A Value for Money and Impact Evaluation report is due to be published in 2025. Previous independent evaluation of the MCR Pathways mentoring programme showed that there were statistically significant positive differences between the outcomes of care-experienced young people who were mentored and care-experienced young people who were not mentored, in staying on rates, attainment, and positive destinations.

There are no school streets or school safety zones on the trunk road network under the responsibility of Transport Scotland. In addition, there are currently no plans to increase the number of school streets and school safety zones on trunk roads in Scotland.

With regard to local roads, local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic.

Each local authority would be able to advise how many school streets and school safety zones they have on their road network.

The Scottish Government welcomes the work done by Carers Scotland and IPPR Scotland on a Minimum Income Guarantee pilot for unpaid carers.

We recognise the importance of unpaid care, which is why we made a Programme for Government commitment to work with the independent Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group to model a Minimum Income Guarantee for unpaid carers.

The Scottish Government will carefully consider how this and wider work on a Minimum Income Guarantee for unpaid carers is incorporated into the independent Expert Group’s report and recommendations that we expect to see shortly.

The Official Statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland provide data on shoplifting and offences recorded under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. The statistics include the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, and the proportion cleared up (i.e. where there exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots law to justify consideration of criminal proceedings against the suspected perpetrator). Information is not held centrally by the 8 Scottish Parliamentary regions, as these do not fully align with local authority boundaries (which form the basis of how data is received from Police Scotland).

Data on recorded shoplifting and the proportion of cases cleared up is available in the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2023-24 publication. The number of crimes recorded is available in Table 1 with the percentage of recorded crimes cleared up by the police in Table 3. Both of these tables include the latest 10 years of data.

The following tables show both the number of crimes and offences recorded and the proportion cleared up under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 Data is available from 24 August 2021 (the point from which the Act came into force).

Crimes of assault or threaten a retail worker recorded in 2021-22 to 2023-24

The University of Dundee is an invaluable component of the economic, social and cultural success of the city and region. The Scottish Government continues to work with external partners and internal analysts to better understand the economic impact the University has, locally and nationally. Universities are autonomous institutions, and whilst Ministers cannot compel a commitment to no compulsory redundancies, the university is expected to work with staff to make every effort to protect jobs. We will continue, alongside the Scottish Funding Council, to work closely with the sector on its sustainability into the future. A Strategic Advisory Taskforce has been established, bringing together expertise to support the development of a sustainable future for the University, the region, and the wider economy. The first meeting of that Taskforce was held on 24 April. Membership includes a range of stakeholders including skills and enterprise agencies as well as representatives of the business community.

The scope of the digital dermatology pathway is for new referrals from primary care into secondary care dermatology services. The Scottish Government’s NHS Operational Improvement plan has set out that no one is waiting longer than a year new outpatient appointments and committed an additional £100 million in 2025-26 to target long waits for procedures that include diagnostic tests, resulting in an extra 150,000 appointments. The Scottish Government has been working closely with NHS health boards to target this investment and coordinate effective delivery to identify and address their own waiting lists.

Information on referrals is not held centrally.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for most secure placements and make referrals directly to the secure care services. A placement in respect of any child may only be accepted if the secure accommodation Head of Centre is confident that they can meet the needs of the individual referred child, while keeping safe all other children already in their care. The concept of any or all secure services ‘turning away’ a child has limited applicability.

In addition, the statutory criteria regulating children’s eligibility for referral to secure care are tightly drawn. A change in circumstances or a child’s own need and risk profile may mean that an alternative to secure care represents a more appropriate placement.

Secure centres have robust matching procedures in place, following the Care Inspectorate’s Admissions Guidance for Residential Services.

The Children’s Social Work Statistics 2023-24 – Secure Care Stats provide details of the number of admissions to this type of accommodation.