Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Mental Welfare Commission publishes percentage of all place of safety orders under 18 but not the numbers.

In addition, the Commission does not publish numbers that small: as a rule it suppresses any figures equal to and under 5 and in some cases it uses secondary suppression to ensure that there is no statistical disclosure.

The Scottish Government has not had any recent discussions of this specific human resources issue with Scottish Water, as this is an operational matter for them to determine. However, I have asked Scottish Water to provide a response and I understand that there have been no changes to its policies – private companies operating on Mull are being asked to adhere to well-established, existing protocols.

The backlogs generated by the pandemic have been largely addressed and we have now returned to a position where the number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types is below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service publish monthly criminal case data.

As at the end of April 2025 the number of Sheriff Summary trials scheduled is 15,472.

Annual figures show a 53% reduction in scheduled Sheriff Summary trials since the peak in 2021-22 when it was 33,598.

The Scottish Government’s human rights due diligence guidance sets out recommendations on how we, our executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake due diligence on an individual or company’s human rights record before entering into an investment relationship.

It is for the accountable officer of each agency and non-departmental public body to ensure that their organisation complies with guidance issued by Scottish Ministers.

Scottish Enterprise is progressing in its work on its review and the Scottish Government continues to stay in close contact with Scottish Enterprise on this. I will update Parliament and wider stakeholders once the review has concluded.

The Scottish Government is supporting plans for a more sustainable, productive, innovative and diverse construction industry.

An open and transparent criminal justice system is important to allow for justice to be delivered and seen to be delivered so communities can have confidence in how offending behaviour is being dealt with. However, there can be areas of the operation of the criminal justice system where it is considered appropriate to allow certain individuals to remain anonymous to protect their dignity and privacy while still ensuring justice is able to be delivered.

Provisions to introduce new statutory anonymity protections for sexual offence victims as well as victims of certain other offences are contained in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill which is currently before Parliament. If approved, the legislation will introduce these new protections to help protect the dignity of victims of these offences.

We held a public consultation on media reporting on child homicide victims between 9 July 2024 and 1 October 2024. We asked for views on a range of possible approaches to reducing the trauma that media reporting can have on bereaved families, and on the wider impacts those approaches might have. This included inviting views on legislating to provide automatic or ‘on application’ anonymity for child victims. The analysis of consultation responses was published on 24 February 2025.

The consultation made clear that there would be serious complexities with legislating to anonymise the victims of child homicide in a way that avoided unintended consequences (like criminalising bereaved family members); that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice. However, many of the experiences highlighted in consultation responses vividly illustrate the need for more sensitive reporting on these cases. We are therefore working with stakeholders to explore a range of non-legislative measures including support materials for bereaved families, media guidance and training. Further detail is available on the Scottish Government website.

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill – which underwent Parliamentary consideration from 2022 to 2024 – contained provisions, on introduction, extending the anonymity for child suspects, accused, victims or witnesses both prior to and subsequent to any criminal court proceedings. This followed public consultation, with the analysis published on 8 September 2022. The provisions were further amended at Stage 2 to extend that, in relation to child victims and witnesses, anonymity could continue after a person turns 18 just as was the case for child suspects/accused. These provisions were amended out at Stage 3. Scottish Ministers gave a full account of the reasoning to the Parliamentary chamber. This is contained in the Official Report of 24 April 2024.

The proportion of orders where an individual was taken to a police station as a place of safety has differed over the years but has decreased from 6.6% in 2014-15 to 1.8% in 2023-24.

Additionally, following the publication of HMICS’ thematic review of policing mental health in October 2023, the Scottish Government is working with its partners through the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network to take forward the recommendations of the national review of psychiatric emergency plans (PEPs) to improve the detention process and removing barriers to multi-agency working when responding to a psychiatric emergency. A national PEP template and accompanying guidance are in development to improve national consistency and ensure that local roles, responsibilities and processes are clearly articulated.

The Scottish Government also published its Safe Spaces Scoping Report in October 2024. It explores the feasibility of implementing additional safe spaces for people experiencing crisis and acute emotional distress as an alternative to Emergency Departments and place of safety. Following the publication, we continue to consider with our stakeholders, the next steps.

The data for 2024-25 is not yet available; the Mental Welfare Commission is currently in the process of extracting and validating this data. It will be included in the Commission’s Mental Health Act Monitoring report 2024-25 which is due to be published this Autumn.

The Scottish Government believes in equality and fairness for all. Our 2025-26 Programme for Government includes a commitment to create safe spaces for the LGBTQI+ community - funding work that tackles discrimination and upholds the human rights of this group, including through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, and progressing actions within the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.

The Scottish Government accepts the UK Supreme Court judgment in the appeal brought forward by For Women Scotland against Scottish Ministers, which has confirmed the meaning of woman under the Equality Act 2010. As the Equality and Human Rights Commission are the body responsible for regulating and enforcing the mainly reserved Equality Act 2010, we await their updated Code of Practice while we consider our next steps. The consultation on the draft Code of Practice launched on 20 May 2025 and can be accessed here: Code of practice for services, public functions and associations: consultation 2025 | EHRC

However, the Scottish Government is also taking action now in preparation for the updated Code of Practice. Our internal Short Life Working Group is assessing implications of the Supreme Court judgment in areas such as legislation, guidance and policies . This work will position us towards a state of readiness to take all necessary steps when the EHRC’s Code of Practice is published.

We have also issued a note to all public bodies outlining the steps the Scottish Government’s has taken since the judgment. This note can be found here: UK Supreme Court ruling on meaning of sex in Equality Act: update - gov.scot.