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The recruitment and deployment of police officers and staff is an operational matter for the Chief Constable. The Scottish Government has increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, with £1.64 billion being invested this year. Scottish Government funding in 2024-25 enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception and Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales.

The Chief Constable has provided reassurance that Police Scotland has a healthy recruitment pipeline and has been clear that the context of frontline strength goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff. Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation, reducing back-office duplication and creating capacity to deal with new and increasing emerging threats.

The Scottish Government established an Independent Group to review our approach to antisocial behaviour, to ensure it has victims and communities at its heart. The Scottish Government, Police Scotland and COSLA are considering the Group’s recommendations. Ministers provided a progress report to the Criminal Justice Committee on key areas in April, and this will be followed by a comprehensive response in the Summer.

The Scottish Government has not set any targets for number of play parks to be renewed by each local authority with their allocated funding but have agreed a set principles with COSLA in 2021 which should be used by the Local Authorities in line with local needs and priorities and informed by the views of the local communities.

Under the General Medical Services contract GP practices are responsible for providing the services required for the management of their registered patients and temporary residents who are, or believe themselves to be ill, with conditions from which recovery is generally expected, terminally ill, or suffering from chronic disease. This can include taking bloods as necessary.

GP practices’ contracts must include terms which require the Health Board to provide the contractor with support by providing community treatment and care services which include phlebotomy.

GP practices may also contract with their Health Boards to collect blood samples to support the secondary care management of chronic conditions. These would be considered enhanced services which are additional to the GP contract and cannot be required.

Businesses providing forestry operations services (contractors), and standing sales timber buyers (merchants), and for the research licence, research institutes and universities.

The Scottish Government committed in July 2024 to provide £2 million of support for the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect project feasibility study, which successfully concluded in March 2025. The conclusions are commercially sensitive and will not be published.

Forestry and Land Scotland currently holds three species licences. The details of which are as follows:

The only current operations by external organisations are standing sale harvesting operations, conducted under the FLS Red Squirrel license with the prior permission of FLS. There is a total of twenty-three sites across the landholding.

A Girvan Bypass was considered as part of the transport appraisal that supported the second Strategic Transport Project Review (STPR2). However, this option is not one of the 45 STPR2 recommendations, which make up our long term framework for investment in transport infrastructure.

Specifically, a bypass was not recommended as, taking account of the accident history and the volume of traffic on the sections of the route where a bypass may be considered, other options to maintain and safely operate the existing asset were considered more appropriate within communities compared to constructing new road infrastructure. This includes speed enforcement, options to reduce trunk road severance and expansion of 20mph zones / limits.

It should also be noted, the second phase of the Girvan speed management scheme commenced early in the 2025-26 financial year. This phase includes measures to improve the road layout through improved road markings, which will in turn encourage positive driver behaviours.

Employment and taxation, including false and deceptive declarations by self-employed workers, are reserved matters.

The Scottish Government introduced eLearning in December 2024 which complements existing practical guidance to support the application of Fair Work First in procurement and to discourage ‘disguised employment’, including bogus self-employment.

Scottish Government does not centrally collect this information for its own construction contracts or for those awarded by other Scottish public bodies.