Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01503 on 17 July 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The complexity of large scale data centre developments, and interplay across reserved and devolved policy areas, makes discussions with UK Government across a range of areas particularly important. To this end, the Scottish Government has met with UK Government counterparts across HM Treasury (HMT), Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

In respect of a co-ordinated framework, we have, together with the UK and Welsh Governments, jointly commissioned NESO to produce a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) for Great Britain. The SSEP will spatially optimise a specified volume of flexible data centre demand (1-2GW). This will indicate where opportunities for energy system benefits exist, such as co-location of renewables and data centres, supporting the development of government policy on the spatial location of data centre demand. The Regional Energy Strategic Plan for Scotland will further enable the coordinated development of the energy system across multiple vectors.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01371 on 17 July 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Table 1 shows the average combined police custody waiting and processing times from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Waiting time is the time spent from the point the person arrested and the arresting officers arrive at a custody centre, to the point police custody officers and staff began to process and in effect book the person into custody. Police Scotland always try to ensure that this time is as minimal as possible, however waiting times can be impacted by a range of operational matters, which include more than one person needing to be processed or booked in at similar times, custody staff responding to a medical emergency etc.

Processing time is the time taken to book the person into custody. This involves the arrested person being searched and asked questions to allow for an assessment of vulnerability, including medical conditions, which is critical to ensure a safe environment for people in police custody.

Table 1: Average Combined Waiting and Processing time in minutes, 2021-22 to 2025-26

The information requested is not held centrally.

The data held by Scottish Government (SG) on individuals held on remand is taken from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) Prisoner Records System. SG do publish information on the number of departures from the remand population and the number of transitions from the remand population into the sentenced population in each financial year here: Supporting documents - Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2024-25 - gov.scot. However, this indicates prisoner movement rather than the outcome of the case/s individuals are involved in. Prisoner records do not contain information on the outcomes of court cases.

The Scottish Government works in close partnership with stakeholders to tackle hatred and prejudice in all of its forms to ensure proportionate responses to a broad spectrum of threat, including through the ongoing delivery of Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy. We maintain well-established relationships with our faith and belief communities, which are strengthened by regular and meaningful engagement at both ministerial and official level.

The ways people can be radicalised are continuously evolving, and we recognise that there is no single pathway or single set of factors. That is why we must remain alert and flexible to ensure our wider efforts, across multiple policy areas, build inclusive communities that are resistant to radicalisation and equipped to challenge extremist narratives. We continue to work with national and local partners to build trust and resilience.

The spend to date forms part of the development of the Monklands Replacement Project and includes the purchase of the Wester Moffat site. This funding has supported essential preparatory activity, including site preparation, ground investigations, surveys, planning and design work, and the approvals required to progress an infrastructure project of this scale and complexity.

Development costs are a normal part of major infrastructure planning and have brought us to an informed decision point. The spend to date, will be used to support the revised proposal on the Wester Moffat site.

In terms of spend to date, NHS Lanarkshire have published a Q&A which includes this detail available here: Reset Phase Q & A | New University Hospital Monklands.

Any changes in slot provision at slot constrained airports are a matter for the airlines involved. The Scottish Government was not consulted about any changes and has no information on whether any revenue was generated as a result of any changes.

I have portfolio responsibility for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. I have not yet had the opportunity to meet with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) but as a key stakeholder a meeting with FBU Scottish officials will be scheduled in due course.

The crime codes exist to convert breaches of criminal law into useable operational data, and ultimately the Official Statistics on recorded crime in Scotland. For those codes that specifically relate to crimes committed against children under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, the age of 15 and under is used as the Act effectively provides the age of consent in Scotland at 16 years old. The one exception to this is the Section 42 offence of sexual abuse of trust, which relates to those aged under 18. As such, the approach taken with the crime codes reflects the criminal law as agreed by the Scottish Parliament, with sexual offences committed against 16 or 17 year olds (excluding Section 42) continuing to be recorded using the relevant crime code for all adults.