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I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS do not currently calculate the total spent on prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration programmes therefore this level of detail is not available in the format requested.

Current procurement legislation and guidance enables multi-year contracts for social care services. Scottish Government is working with procurement professionals and providers to consider how national procurement guidance can be updated to deliver on the Feeley Review recommendations which includes consideration of longer term contracts for providers, including not for profit providers. Scottish Government does not hold contracts for delivery of social care services. Local Government are the contract holders for social care services and will make decisions on contract terms including length.

Dundee City Council have submitted an application to Tier 2 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for design funding to develop active travel options for the Western Gateway development area. These include a segregated cycle route, speed limit reduction measures, pedestrian and cycle crossings, modal filters, a cycle-friendly road project, and shared use paths.

Successful Active Travel Infrastructure Fund applications for 2025-26 for design are yet to be awarded.

The right to demonstrate and protest are fundamental human rights which the Scottish Government is committed to upholding. Those simply going about their business should be able to do so without the fear of any form of abusive behaviour. Where such behaviour occurs it should be reported to the police to allow them to take action.

The Scottish Government fully supports Police Scotland to take appropriate and proportionate action to safeguard public safety including at protests. Police Scotland has powers to tackle any behaviour which is antisocial or criminal, as well as public order powers to impose directions or conditions on, or disperse, public assemblies where this is deemed necessary.

Scottish Government funds the Scottish Rural Colleague, SRUC, which supports investigations and analytical testing on complex mastitis cases. SRUC also provides education, advise and consultancy services for private vets and farmers as part of our funding. Scottish Government also funds Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service (FAS) as part of the Scottish Rural Development Program (SRDP) which provides information and resources aimed at increase the profitability and sustainability of farms and crofts, including education and guidance for farmers and vets on mastitis in cattle.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data centrally. Complaints about care services, including care homes, are investigated by the Care Inspectorate, the independent body responsible for the scrutiny and improvement of care and social work services in Scotland.

Scottish Income Tax is forecast to raise a record £20.5 billion in 2025-26, £763 million more than they forecast at the Scottish Budget last year. We continue to use the additional revenue raised to support our investment in public services.

Latest figures show that Scotland continues to attract taxpayers from the rest of the UK with net migration of taxpayers positive across all tax bands and almost all age groups in 2021-22 Intra-UK migration of individuals: movements in numbers and income - GOV.UK.

Scottish Government officials engage regularly with the three approved tenancy deposit schemes on a range of policy and operational matters, including formal engagement as part of monitoring each scheme for compliance with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

To ensure there are protections for women and girls in law, we have laid in draft an SSI to add the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. This ensures that women and girls will have the same protections as other groups protected by that Act. If passed, it will make it an offence for a person to stir up hatred against women and girls, and where an offender is motivated by, or demonstrates, malice and ill-will towards women and girls in committing a criminal offence, that offence will be aggravated by prejudice relating to the characteristic of sex.

This SSI is subject to super affirmative process and is therefore subject to consultation prior to the final version being laid in Parliament. The draft SSI, accompanying explanatory note, policy note and consultation paper can be found online at Draft SSI to add 'sex' as a characteristic to the hate crime and public order (Scotland) Act 2021 - gov.scot and the consultation itself can be found online at SSI to add "sex" as a characteristic to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space. The consultation will run until 10 October 2025.

Further, we continue to take forward a range of actions in schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment. Our Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Scotland Programme is working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls, and addresses a range of behaviours including name-calling, sexting, controlling behaviour and harassment. We have also published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Rape Crisis Scotland also provide a national sexual violence prevention programme to local authority secondary schools across Scotland. The programme aims to provide consistency in approaches to the prevention of sexual violence and contributes to Equally Safe (our strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls). Since the programme started in 2016, it has reached over 48,000 pupils.

I meet regularly with CMAL CEO to receive updates and explore progress on a range of live projects. I last met with Kevin Hobbs on 27 August and status of the commercially sensitive negotiations around Ardrossan was discussed.

Updates to the NZET Committee and Ardrossan Task Force were provided on 1 September and I look forward to further updating Parliament in due course.