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The Scottish Government’s Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics reports data on people convicted in Scottish courts. This data is drawn from a subset of Police Scotland’s Criminal History System, with only the minimum information required for statistical reporting and publication received. Alongside any crime(s) committed and the main sentence given, this includes data on a convicted person’s date of birth (used to calculate age at sentencing) and sex. In some cases their Local Authority of residence is also known. Although breakdowns by crime (main charge), sentence (main penalty), age (at sentencing) and sex are included in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland bulletin, there is currently no published disaggregation of those convicted of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The Scottish Government is committed to equitable access to HIV support services and we continue to work with NHS Boards who provide targeted community outreach, peer support initiatives and digital health solutions particularly focused on underserved groups.

The landmark anti-stigma campaign had a significant impact and laid strong foundations to challenging HIV-related stigma and reducing barriers to HIV prevention. Building on this successful campaign, we are funding further training for health and social care staff to increase awareness and reduce stigma, particularly for underserved groups.

Recently, in partnership with Scotland’s Migration Service, we have developed tailored information on accessing sexual health and HIV services for new arrivals to Scotland, which can be found here Healthcare in Scotland | Scotland.org.

The Scottish Government published its Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework (SRF) on 17 June 2025. This Framework provides a high-level guide for change, to ensure the sustainability, efficiency, quality, and accessibility of health and social care services in Scotland. Within the SRF, we set out our commitment to publish the Long-Term Conditions Framework and its aim and outcomes will be closely linked to the principles of the SRF.

Work is progressing to implement changes through Energy Act 2023 to establish a better enabling environment for offshore wind development. Scotland’s strategic compensation policy, including amendment to the Habitats Regulations, is now at consultation until 1 September 2025. The changes proposed seek to increase the availability of compensatory measures and give clarity on the requirements around environmental compensation for offshore wind development. These reforms have been developed in partnership with the UK Government to ensure a consistent approach across the whole of the UK.

Scottish Government is also working to establish a Scottish Marine Recovery Fund to deliver Strategic Compensation and a more streamlined process for securing compensation for adverse environmental effects of relevant offshore wind activities. Scottish Government has published Scottish Marine Recovery Fund Interim Guidance (available on the Scottish Government website) and consultation on these proposals will be undertaken in due course.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy in Scotland, is also now at consultation and a series of engagement events have been held around Scotland. The plan will set a clear roadmap for the sustainable delivery of offshore wind in Scottish waters.

A programme of work to streamline the consent process, to meet and, where possible, reduce timescales in relation to application determination and post-consent approvals for offshore wind projects and associated infrastructure, has also been undertaken. Officials sought views from industry, regulators and other stakeholders on proposed improvements to the consenting and licensing process and intended updates to the guidance. Improvements have now been implemented through engagement with developers, updates to external guidance and updates to internal procedures including:

• Promotion of effective stakeholder engagement earlier in the process including updated guidance on pre-application engagement with stakeholders
• Front loading the consenting process and reduced post consent consultation and approvals by requiring certain information on mitigation with applications that was previously required post consent
• Supporting high quality applications through engagement with developers and updated guidance and checklist on information required to support applications for offshore renewable energy projects
• Improvements to planning authority consultation on applications, including clarifying timescales and provisions for planning authority consultation on applications

Marketing expenditure of £3.8m was spent on the Let's Do Net Zero campaign, covering the period from its development in 2020-21 through to the current financial year 2024-25.

This campaign is delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Public Engagement Strategy and specifically supports the strategic objective to ensure that people are aware of the action that all of Scotland is taking to tackle climate change and understand how it relates to their lives. The campaign seeks to motivate households to take action in the areas that will have the biggest impact in reducing emissions. Evidence, including from the Climate Change Committee’s Citizen panels, suggest that communications of this nature are both necessary and welcome as part of Scotland’s journey towards net zero.

The Scottish Government recently published the Climate Change – public engagement strategy:mid point review (April 2025) which reflects on the results delivered to date and includes a summary of outcomes and learning related to the Let’s Do Net Zero campaign. Independent evaluation shows that:

• Paid-for Let’s Do Net Zero campaigns typically reach a large proportion of people in Scotland: for example, the October 2021 communications activity reached 3,475,000 (75%) of adults in Scotland, who saw the activity on average 9.7 times.
• Seeing messaging relating to the need to take action to tackle climate change has a positive impact on the target audience’s commitment to taking action: for example, 76% of campaign recognisers were motivated to take action in November 2024 versus 49% of non-recognisers.

The Review’s findings indicate that the public want to see more mass communication on climate change from the Scottish Government and want to hear more on the urgency of the climate crisis from Government, balanced with communication on the practical actions that people can take, and their co-benefits.

Vaccination is globally recognised as being second only to clean water in terms of its transformative impact. The Scottish Government is working with NHS Health Boards and Public Health Scotland through the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP) to improve public confidence in vaccination.

Scotland's 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan, published in November 2024, includes goals to increase uptake and reduce inequalities in vaccination. To do this, SVIP will continue to build on existing practice to build confidence through a range of actions, including: making vaccination, and information about vaccines, more easily accessible; improving the patient experience; working with different communities to understand and respond to any concerns or questions; and supporting the workforce to have confident conversations about vaccines with patients and members of the public.

SVIP continues to build on and develop partnerships with community, third sector and religious organisations to co-produce and disseminate factual information for those who have questions about vaccination.

The Scottish Government is also aware of the harms false health information can cause and is looking at what approaches can be taken based on the latest evidence.

Regulations for hydrogen transport through pipelines and storage are reserved to the UK Government. As such, Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with UK Government counterparts on these matters as they relate to Scotland's hydrogen interests.

The UK Government has recently published a consultation on the economic regulatory framework for 100% hydrogen pipelines. This was published on the 15th of July and will run until the 9th of September and invites stakeholder's views on the suitability of the regulatory framework set out under the Gas Act 1986 for the needs of the hydrogen economy. The Scottish Government is currently considering the framework proposed and is formulating our response to be submitted in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to ensure the geographical variations across the UK, particularly in Scotland, are considered in any changes to hydrogen regulations, as well to ensure the UK Government develops a fit for purpose regulatory regime that enables us to achieve our shared hydrogen ambitions.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a programme of Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits to Scottish territorial NHS Boards which provides an opportunity to explore the levels of psychological support available for people living with HIV.

Throughout visits we have observed areas of excellent practice in relation to psychological support for people living with HIV, including some Boards bringing clinical psychology pathways into routine HIV care to ensure holistic HIV management and digital solutions for those who live in more rural areas where peer support may be more challenging. We continue to work with NHS Boards and encourage sharing best practices to address any gaps identified throughout these visits.

The Scottish Government has allocated a budget of around £1.7m per year to support delivery of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26. This funding includes a range of projects focused on HIV testing and prevention including Terrence Higgins Trust HIV Self-Test service, three Emergency Department opt-out testing pilots and a workforce education project led by Waverley Care to reduce stigma in health and social care settings.

In addition to this, we are also proving funding for the roll out of blood borne virus opt-out testing in Emergency Departments starting with those NHS Boards with the highest prevalence.

The dates of Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) meetings since January 2023 are listed below and hyperlinked to the published minutes where available.

18 April 2023 Scottish Screening Committee minutes

The SSC last met on 6 March 2024. The minutes for this meeting are due to be published shortly.