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Since 2008-09, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) has included questions on how confident respondents are in the ability of police in their local area across seven key areas (including preventing crime, catching criminals and supporting victims of crime). In addition, respondents have been asked since 2012-13 about how good a job they think the police in their local area are doing overall. The latest findings for the 2023-24 reporting year can be found here.

The next set of results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey for the 2024-25 financial year will be published on 17 March 2026.

In addition to the above, Police Scotland collect views of the public through their own surveys, specifically their Your Police Survey and Local policing user experience survey (as part of their wider User Experience Surveys). Feedback from these surveys are regularly presented at the Scottish Police Authority's Policing Performance Committee. The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) also conducts regular polling of Scottish adults (aged 16 and over) on policing in Scotland and other related interests. The SPA polling reports can be found here.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering on mental health distress response, with continued delivery on Programme for Government commitments since 2023 to reducing mental health demands on police officers and protecting people in mental health distress through improved frontline multi-agency responses.

Data on how many mental-health related calls Police Officers have attended in each year since the creation of Police Scotland is not held by the Scottish Government. Statistics reported to the Scottish Police Authority Policing and Performance Committee in September 2025 show that mental health related incidents recorded by Police Scotland are dropping, so far reducing by 1% between 2023-24 and 2024-25.

We have invested over £6m to support implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework since its implementation in May 2023. Total recorded crime is down 38% since 2006-07 and half the level of 1991; homicide is at its lowest level since comparable records began in 1976; and the number of emergency hospital admissions due to a sharp object fell by 72% between 2006-07 and 2024-25.

However, any increase in reported crimes is of concern – particularly those relating to sexual offences and domestic abuse. We recognise that some of this may be due to actions to increase confidence in the justice system so more victims come forward to report sexual crimes. It is abhorrent that such crimes, which are mainly against women, take place.

In response we remain steadfast in our commitment to preventing and eradicating all violence against women and girls and addressing the underlying attitudes and systems that perpetuate it. That’s why we are increasing the Delivering Equally Safe Fund by 5%, bringing total investment to almost £46 million over 2026–2028, to ensure organisations continue their vital work to prevent violence and support survivors.

It is also vital that women and children have access to frontline services dealing with violence and domestic abuse - that is why, through the Victim Centred Approach Fund, we are also investing £12 million between 2025-27 for specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence.

We have also made changes to the justice system to make it easier to report incidents and legislated to give police, prosecutors, and the courts greater powers to tackle domestic abuse crimes. We are also commencing provisions with the Victims Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, a landmark piece of legislation, that aims to transform the Justice system in Scotland through significant reforms to ensure that victims and witnesses are treated with compassion and supported throughout the legal process.

The production of the Accredited Official Statistics on recorded crime in Scotland was amended to allow the separate identification of assaults against police officers/staff from the reporting year of 2024-25 onwards. These can be further broken down into Serious assault, Common assault (with injury) and Common assault (without injury).

The number of these crimes recorded in 2024-25 is provided below. The next full year will be available in June 2026 as part of the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26 Accredited Official Statistics.

Police recorded crimes of assaults on police officer/staff, by type, 2024-25, Scotland.

The legislative requirements for Early Learning and Childcare settings falls under The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act which was enacted on 1 April 2024. The Act is applicable to all health and care staff in Scotland. Statutory guidance was published on 1 April 2024 alongside the Act to support services to understand their responsibilities and ensure staffing arrangements meet the individual needs of people using care services.

The Health and Social Care Standards also detail expectations in relation to meeting the needs of people experiencing care, which includes children in ELC settings. In particular, section 3 includes details about staffing arrangements to meet individual needs.

The Care Inspectorate guidance on adult to child ratios in early learning and childcare settings sets out the minimum expectations for staffing levels in children's services. However, all children should have a personal plan where the service would capture, among other things, children's support needs, interests and stage of development, and this should be used to inform decisions about staffing levels. The ongoing maintenance of this guidance is the responsibility of the Care Inspectorate.

Under the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Act 2004, education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of children in ELC settings. In line with the National Standard, we expect local authorities and funded providers to work together to support children with additional support needs to access appropriate support to ensure that children's disabilities or additional support needs do not provide a barrier to them accessing a full range of experiences, and meets their individual needs. It is for education authorities to determine the most appropriate provision for children and young people with ASN, taking account of their legislative responsibilities and the individual circumstances and wishes of children, young people and their families. Education authorities are supported with these decisions through the statutory supporting learners' code of practice guidance, which is accessible online at Additional support for learning: statutory guidance 2017

I recognise the dedication and bravery of our Police Officers, who place themselves in harms way to protect the people and communities they serve, and it is simply not acceptable that our police officers are attacked or abused while going about their daily duty. Courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who carry out such appalling behaviour towards police officers and staff.

While provision of training and equipment are matters for the Chief Constable, I am clear that police officers and staff should be provided with the correct tools for the job. I am also aware that our officers receive a wide range of training, including officer safety training and the use of Personal Protective Equipment. Our record £1.7 billion investment in policing in 2026-27 is helping equip officers with modern tools like body worn video, ensuring they have the right resources to keep themselves and our communities safe.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) revenue and capital budgets, as allocated at the annual Budget Bill from 2013-14 to 2026-27, are detailed in the following table. It is for the SPA to allocate its annual budget to support SPA Corporate, SPA Forensic Services and Police Scotland, to maintain policing in Scotland.

We are currently working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland. This will support continued safe and effective use of existing facilities as well as informing future investment priorities based on assessment of need across the whole of Scotland.

The cost incurred to date in relation to the planned National Treatment Centre in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Grampian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside, the figure for NTCs in the planning stage, has not changed since the response to S6W-41671 was issued on 18 November 2025.

See following table for capital allocations provided by SG in relation to NTC projects including phase 1 & 2 of Golden Jubilee (24-25 year ended):

Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that robust child protection measures are in place across Scotland, and continue to be followed at all times. This includes for children with a learning disability, autism or neurodiversity.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) operates independently of the Scottish Government and uses a risk based, proportionate and intelligence led approach. HIS determines inspection activity by applying a data informed prioritisation process to decide how often to inspect and which service areas require review. This strategic approach ensures resources are targeted where they are most needed. A list of inspections carried out by HIS can be found here on the HIS website: Inspections of NHS hospitals and services – Healthcare Improvement Scotland.