Chamber and committees

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

SPS publishes prison numbers on a quarterly basis via the Prisoner Information Page (PIP), the most recent of which can be found here: Public Information Page

Additionally, SPS publish Prison Population Data Reports which illustrate the population in custody broken down by custody type, gender, and age, the most recent of which can be found here: Prison Population data 12 June 2026.xlsx.

As part of the National Action Plan for relationships and behaviour in schools, the Recording and Monitoring Short Life Working Group are developing a set of principles to underpin recording and monitoring of behaviour in schools. The Principles will support consistency in approach and process in recording and monitoring across Local Authorities and schools. These principles are expected to be published in Summer 2026.

The Scottish Government has spent a total of £2,577.32 in the last 5 financial years with Dance Ireland for the purpose of Supporting Dance Ireland/ Dance base Exchange Programme. £2,577.32 in Financial Year 2024-25 is the only expenditure.

It is the Scottish Government’s expectation that all violent and abusive incidents against school staff should be recorded. Guidance published as part of the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024-27 has provided clear messaging to schools and local authorities about recording and monitoring incidents, including incidents affecting school staff. Information should be recorded in a way that supports it being utilised for monitoring of trends and patterns. This allows schools and organisations to assess the effectiveness of policy and practice and to ensure the necessary support is in place for children, young people, and for staff.

The insolvency of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) is an ongoing legal process. The Scottish Government appreciates the challenges that this has created for the staff affected and for Glasgow’s cultural community more broadly.

The Scottish Government’s preference is to see 350 Sauchiehall Street re-open as an important asset to both Glasgow’s and Scotland’s culture and creative sector.

Creative Scotland, as owner of the building, continues to work on an open process for its future with the intention to sell the building as a cultural asset.

On Scotland’s national forests and land, tree felling associated with windfarm developments and associated infrastructure since 2022 is 922.30 hectares. Based on the average of 2000 trees per ha, this gives an estimated total of 1.84 million trees felled over this period.

Scotland’s schools should be safe, consistent learning environments for everyone. While the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) (2023), which surveyed almost 4000 school staff, showed the majority of school staff think children and young people behave well most or all of the time, the Scottish Government recognises concerns about violent incidents in schools and is taking action through our Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan and wider investment in prevention.

Local Authorities are responsible for employment of staff in schools.

We published our Early Years Speech Language and Communication Action Plan in December last year. This plan sets out a preventative, system-wide approach to improving early speech, language and communication outcomes through leadership, support for families and a skilled workforce, at the earliest opportunity.

On behavioural psychologists, we are investing £1.9m per annum with local government in the training of educational psychologists to ensure that they are available across Scotland to support children and young people with additional support needs.

As regards Additional Support Needs (ASN), the Scottish Ministers are committed to improving the educational experiences of children and young people with ASN and recognise the vital role all staff play in this. 2026-27 budget set out a further £29m of investment for local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce. We will also continue to work in partnership with local government support schools to develop positive learning environments and promote positive relationships and behaviour through the delivery of our Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan.

While the Scottish Government continues to monitor commercial delivery plans to inform eligibility for publicly subsidised intervention, it does not have the power to mandate publication of these commercial plans. We will however continue to publish build plans for publicly subsidised interventions through our address checker which can be found at: Faster broadband in Scotlandhttps://broadbandchecker.service.gov.scot/.

Restoring degraded peatlands involves taking measures such as drain blocking, creating bunds and reprofiling gullies in order to reinstate the site’s natural hydrology, raise the water table and increase wetness. This plays an important role in halting the spread and extent of fires, and in reducing their intensity and the risk of them burning deep into the peat.

Our Climate Change Plan commits to restoring more than 400,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2040. Recent successes in upscaling continued in 2025-26 with the restoration of 15,448 hectares – the highest area ever in a single year.

Our recently published Peatland Action Partnership Plan commits to working with our delivery partners to strategically prioritise peatland restoration where it can maximise the multiple benefits for climate, nature and people. Understanding which parts of Scotland face the greatest risk from wildfire as the climate changes, and which could benefit most from rewetting degraded peatlands, will be part of this work.

The Orkney Ferry Replacement Task Force last met on 29 January 2026 and minutes of that meeting are published on the Transport Scotland website.