- Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its Stabilisation, detoxification and other crisis support in Scotland: Service mapping and capacity survey 2022–2023, what the annual cost is of operating stabilisation centres, broken down by (a) total programme expenditure to date, (b) annual budgeted running costs per centre and (c) average per bed or per service user costs.
Answer
Scottish Government does not directly fund any standalone stabilisation centres and so do not hold this information. Facilities that offer stabilisation and detoxification alongside other residential services will often be commissioned and funded locally by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships using baseline of National Mission funding that we provide annually, however they do not provide the breakdown to Scottish Government for which you have asked.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it completed its information-gathering exercise to verify the cladding status of buildings between 11 and 18 metres in height by the end of August 2025.
Answer
There has been a strong response to our information-gathering exercise on social housing. This is allowing us to work with partners to determine, drive and prioritise the necessary action on assessment and mitigation, on which the Scottish Government is offering substantial financial support to the sector. In the minority of cases where information is yet to be received, I have written to ask owners to respond as a matter of urgency. We will publish further information in due course on this information exercise.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many vessels have been found to be in breach of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 in each of the last five years, also broken down by whether the vessel was (a) UK-flagged, (b) EU-flagged and (c) non-EU-flagged.
Answer
There were fifteen Marine Licensing offences detected under the 2010 Act, these were by year, 2019 X1, 2020 X2, 2021 X2, 2022 X5, 2024 X5. Marine licensing offences are not fishery offences.
Additionally, there were forty-three breaches of Nature Conservation Orders which are enabled by the 2010 Act. These were by year, 2019 7, 2020 5, 2021 11, 2022 9, 2023 5, 2024 6, 2025 none as yet. These were all committed by UK vessels.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made of the outcomes of take-home naloxone and opioid-substitution programmes in prisons, including relapse and re-offending rates post-release.
Answer
The provision of opioid-substitution treatment in prisons is a matter for local services. The Scottish Government notes that the transition from prison to the community is a high-risk event in a recovery journey and welcomes moves to join up prison health services with the support available in local communities.
Through the National Naloxone Programme, we work in partnership with the Scottish Prison Service, NHS Boards and third sector partners to ensure Naloxone is routinely offered prior to liberation. The number of take-home naloxone kits issued by SPS is published quarterly by Public Health Scotland through the programme’s Quarterly Monitoring Bulletin, which provides data to track trends, compare outcomes over time, and assess the impact of the programme on preventing overdose deaths.
Further integration across services and consistent data collection are essential to fully assess the impacts on post-release relapse and re-offending rates.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent reports regarding the quality of police officer uniforms, what assessment it has made of the impact of poor-quality uniforms on officer safety, morale and operational effectiveness.
Answer
The provision and procurement of uniforms and equipment is an operational matter for the Chief Constable. The Frontline focus review of tools of the trade Report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, (HMICS),identified a number of areas where Police Scotland can make improvements, including in the provision of uniforms. Police Scotland has stated its intention to take account of this review and listen to its officers and staff, to ensure they get the uniform and kit they need to deliver for communities.
The Scottish Government’s record £1.64 billion investment in policing is helping equip officers with modern tools like body worn video, ensuring they have the right resources to keep communities safe.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it will publish on reoffending rates of people released early under the previous emergency release scheme.
Answer
In February 2025, the Scottish Prison Service published a report on the number of prisoners released under emergency early release (EER) in June-July 2024, who returned to custody before the date when they would originally have been liberated had EER not been implemented. The report shows that 61 of the 477 prisoners (13%) released under EER returned to custody before their original planned release date. The report can be found here - Returns to Custody Analysis .
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care last met with the Chief (a) Executive of NHS Grampian and (b) Officer of Health and Social Care Moray.
Answer
I last met with the Interim Chief Executive of NHS Grampian on 3 September 2025. I attended the Collaborative Response and Assurance Group on 2 June 2025 which the Chief Officer of Health and Social Care Moray attended.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of future demand for care home places, and how it plans to meet this demand.
Answer
Future demand for care home places will be influenced by a multitude of factors, including population demographics and residents' needs, future balance of care across care home and community settings, and technological change.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s recent Fiscal Sustainability Report – April 2025 included long term projections of social care spending (including but not limited to care home expenditure). The SFC projected, based on current levels of provision, that social care spending in Scotland would increase in real terms from £5 billion in 2029-30 to £11 billion in 2074-75.
Under the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 the Scottish Government will, before the end of 2026, prepare and make publicly available a report on projected social care needs in Scotland over the ten-year period from 2027. Work is underway to plan the and deliver evidential work for this reporting requirement. Further, the recently published Service Renewal Framework Foreword - Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework - gov.scot sets out commitments to develop population level strategic needs assessments for health and social care. It is expected that these areas of work will add to the current evidence - such as the SFC's long term projections - and give a fuller picture of the demands for social care services in the coming years.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many care home places will be needed by 2050.
Answer
The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s recent Fiscal Sustainability Report included long term projections of social care spending (including but not limited to care home expenditure). The SFC projected, based on current levels of provision, that social care spending in Scotland would increase in real terms from £5 billion in 2029-30 to £11 billion in 2074-75.
Under the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 the Scottish Government will, before the end of 2026, prepare and make publicly available a report on projected social care needs in Scotland over the ten-year period from 2027. Work is underway to plan the and deliver evidential work for this reporting requirement. Further, the recently published Service Renewal Framework sets out commitments to develop population level strategic needs assessments for health and social care. It is expected that these areas of work will add to the current evidence - such as the SFC's long term projections - and give a fuller picture of the demands for social care services in the coming years.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 September 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many knife-related offences have been prosecuted in each year since 2015, and how many subsequent convictions there were.
Answer
The following table provides data on proceedings and convictions for ‘having an article with a blade or point’. It is not possible to disaggregate these figures by the specific type of weapon involved.
The most recent information on proceedings and convictions is available for the financial year 2022-23.
Number of people prosecuted in Scottish courts for crimes related to having an article with a blade or point, where main charge, 2013-14 to 2022-23.
| | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Restriction of offensive weapons | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point | 1,256 | 1,118 | 1,118 | 1,075 | 1,091 | 1,155 | 1,267 | 861 | 1,138 | 1,266 |
Having in a prison an article with a blade or point | - | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - |
Possession of an offensive weapon (not elsewhere specified) in a prison | 11 | 15 | 22 | 16 | 12 | 21 | 30 | 32 | 40 | 22 |
All | 1,269 | 1,136 | 1,141 | 1,091 | 1,107 | 1,178 | 1,297 | 894 | 1,180 | 1,288 |
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.
Number of people convicted in Scottish courts for crimes related to having an article with a blade or point, where main charge, 2013-14 to 2022-23.
| | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Restriction of offensive weapons | 2 | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point | 1,053 | 942 | 941 | 917 | 958 | 1,009 | 1,119 | 795 | 1,020 | 1,103 |
Having in a prison an article with a blade or point | - | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - |
Possession of an offensive weapon (not elsewhere specified) in a prison | 9 | 14 | 19 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 22 | 28 | 34 | 17 |
All | 1,064 | 956 | 961 | 928 | 971 | 1,028 | 1,141 | 824 | 1,056 | 1,120 |
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.
Please note: data for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 are affected by the pandemic, subsequent court closures, reduced court capacity due to physical distancing measures and delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, and the subsequent court recovery from the pandemic and may not be considered indicative of long term trends.