Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government announced on 17 December 2024, that the use of WhatsApp and similar mobile messaging applications in Scottish Government would end.

I am pleased to confirm the new Policy and Guidance on Mobile Messaging Applications will be introduced as of 20 June 2025.

The Policy and Guidance now reflects that the use of Mobile Messaging Applications such as WhatsApp is not permitted.

The guidance sets out the approved corporate channels of communication and the scenarios that they are to be used in. The guidance also sets out the responsibilities and actions to be taken in exceptional circumstances when corporate devices and services become unavailable.

A time bound and limited transition period until the end of 2025 has been requested to allow a small number of agencies and parts of the organisation to continue to use mobile messaging. These areas currently have no practical alternative that can be used immediately to provide communication in existing or emergent circumstances such as:

• For the purpose of multi-agency communication to work with others effectively in situations like responding to wildfires
• For communicating with media in the transfer of high-quality large audio or video files
• For overseas operational tasks with local contacts and stakeholders who use mobile messaging as standard or where connectivity may be impacted
• Matters of overseas staff safety and security.

The number of staff identified to have a transition phase has been carefully scrutinised. The agencies are as follows: Forestry and Land Scotland, Science Advice for Scottish Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Food Standards Scotland. In Scottish Government, the areas are Rural Payments and Inspection Directorate, Communication staff (News staff only) for communications purposes, Culture and External Affairs Directorate, EU Directorate and the Directorate of International Trade and Investment.

In response to the Joint Budget Review conducted with the Parliament in 2022, the Scottish Government continues to improve the information available on the climate impacts of our decision-making.

This is the second year in which we have produced our enhanced taxonomic assessment of the full Budget providing a standardised approach to the classification of both resource and capital budget expenditure relative to their climate impact. We are committed to learning and improving how we do it and, while the overall approach to the taxonomy is the same as last year, to increase its rigour and robustness the key change to the process this year has been to bring in a wider range of official expertise through a more panel-based approach improving confidence in the assessment of budget lines.

The improved taxonomy methodology has been published on the Scottish Government website today. https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836916550

The Scottish Government is firmly committed to advancing equality and improving outcomes for disabled people across Scotland. I’m pleased to confirm that the Disability Equality Plan will be published today.

This plan has been shaped through close collaboration with Disabled People’s Organisations at every stage of its development. I want to sincerely thank each organisation for their time, insight, and dedication in helping us create a plan that aims to deliver meaningful and lasting change.

The plan sets out a series of actions to ensure disabled people are more visible and actively involved in shaping policy and decision-making. It also commits to improving disability competence across government, so that the needs and rights of disabled people are considered from the very outset of policy development. I will personally champion this work to ensure it is embedded across all areas of government.

Finally, the plan introduces a robust governance framework to hold us accountable for delivering on our commitments—whether that’s reducing the disability employment gap, reforming social care, or promoting and protecting disability rights.

The publication of this plan marks an important milestone. It lays the foundation for systemic change and is a vital step toward building a fairer, more inclusive Scotland for everyone.

Link to the plan: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836915508

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

The financial arrangements put in place for Dispensing Appliance Contractors and community pharmacies for stoma products are separate from NHS pharmaceutical care service financial arrangements and, as such, are not subject to the same uplift or negotiating framework. The Scottish Government recognises the requirement to keep arrangements under review and will engage with representatives from the sector to explore changes ready for the next financial year, ensuring they are within the affordability of wider public sector finances.

Local authorities have responsibility for the delivery of education, which includes ensuring all employees receive adequate training.

In August, we published our action plan on relationships and behaviour in schools, jointly with COSLA. This includes a specific action on empowering staff through provision of relevant professional learning to support relationships and behaviour approaches and practice and to respond to emerging trends in behaviour.

Our Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) 2023 highlighted a number of barriers faced by support staff in accessing training. Support staff themselves requested appropriate training in order to support them in their roles. To further support school staff, as part of our response to BISSR we provided £900,000 for local councils to aid training of support staff respond to the new challenges in our schools, post-Covid.

Education Scotland has a national professional learning framework to help pupil support staff access and engage in their own professional development. This includes a range of professional learning relating to relationships and behaviour in schools. The national framework can be accessed at Pupil support staff framework | Self-directed professional learning | Professional Learning | Education Scotland. A Pupil Support Staff induction resource will also be published for the next academic session, aligned with the PSS professional learning framework.

Education Scotland’s Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities professional learning framework offers a range of resources to support relational approaches at the Informed level of the Relationships theme. The learning can be accessed at Inclusion, wellbeing and equalities framework | Leading professional learning | Professional Learning | Education Scotland.

The following table shows the Social Security Assistance final outturn for each financial year since 2018, when the Scottish Government began to deliver devolved Social Security benefits, split by category.

You asked about how many offenders with electronic tags have breached their orders in the past five years.

In answering your question, we have taken this to mean orders of the court (as opposed to those monitored on a release licence) and by offenders, we have taken that to mean those convicted, so not those monitored on electronically monitored bail.

In the following tables, data on all restriction of liberty orders (RLOs) and community payback orders (CPOs) and drug testing and treatment orders (DTTOs) which have an electronically monitored restricted movement requirement imposed since April 2020 is provided. The data set out below shows “status at order end”, either: revoked or expired. This is what is known by the Scottish Government at the time of order end, as the decision making on whether something is an established breach of an order, sits with the court.

Compliance with an order is reported back by the monitoring provider to a court, and the court then determines what actions they wish to take in relation to that order, which may include continuing, varying or revoking that order, including to impose a further order or an alternative disposal such as custody.

An order can be revoked by the issuing court for a number of reasons including: on appeal, on breach of a concurrent order, because a new offence had been committed or a breach of an order has occurred.

The category of “expired” orders, includes orders where the outcome of any court consideration may not yet be known at the point the order ends. It will also include orders that were not being actively monitored at order end. Active monitoring could cease for reasons including: absence of the monitored person without consent, householder consent to monitor at that address being withdrawn or as the individual is otherwise absent for example they are already in custody or are in hospital.

Revoked Orders April 2020 to March 2025

The Care Inspectorate is the independent scrutiny body and regulator for care services in Scotland. It regulates and provides scrutiny of the quality of care in Scotland (including in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings) to ensure it meets high standards and to promote the safety, protection and wellbeing of all service users including children in ELC settings.

The Care Inspectorate publishes an annual report with their national findings on the availability and quality of registered daycare of children and childminding services for children and families across Scotland. The most recent report was published on 24 September 2024: Early Learning and Childcare Statistics 2023.

Figure 14 on page 19 provides an overview of the number and percentage of services holding evaluations of weak or unsatisfactory in all assessed key questions or quality themes by service type, at 31 December 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist further with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

The Fostering a positive, inclusive and safe school environment guidance was published on 17 June.

This non-statutory guidance aims to support schools to foster a positive, inclusive and safe school environment through their approaches to positive relationships and behaviour. In particular, it provides clarity to all members of a school community – staff, parents and children and young people – on the use of consequences as part of relationships and behaviour policies.

We have also published new guidance for local authorities and schools on using risk assessment processes to mitigate or minimise violent, aggressive and dangerous behaviours exhibited by children and young people at school.