Chamber and committees

Information is not held centrally on the full range of individual characteristics that Police Scotland collect in their crime recording system. Further advice may be available from contacting them directly through the office of the Chief Constable. It is an operational matter for Police Scotland to determine the specific categories of information gathered and recorded, in the pursuit of their duties.

I have regular meetings with the Chief Constable where discuss relevant issues. Whilst this is an operational matter for Police Scotland, we have discussed the impact that mental health issues have on officers. most recently at our meetings on 27 February and 30 April 2025.

Minutes of these meetings can be found at:

Police Scotland and Scottish Government meeting: February 2025 - gov.scot

Police Scotland and Scottish Government meeting: April 2025 - gov.scot

The following table provides the number of injury road collisions recorded by Police Scotland as taking place on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass.

Whilst this is an operational matter for the Chief Constable, I am pleased that Police Scotland has signed up to the Mental Health at Work Commitment, which prioritises mental health in the workplace. In addition to Trauma Risk Incident Management assessments and Occupational Health counselling, Police Scotland has invested £17 million to enhance welfare provision. This included a new 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, direct access to occupational health services and a greater focus on mental health.

This highlights the priority that Police Scotland places on supporting the health and wellbeing of the workforce, supported by a Health and Wellbeing Action Plan to underpin delivery.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government introduced new Building Guidance on the installation of charge points in new buildings and developments to help further increase the provision of electric vehicle charging. These regulations mandate the provision of electric vehicle charging in new domestic dwellings to support the transition to electric vehicles.

For households that require on-street solutions Section 59 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 prohibits placing anything on the public road that could cause an obstruction without the written consent of the local authority. Under Section 109 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, a local authority has the power to regulate the installation and use of equipment in or under public roads, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It is under this Act that permission may be granted by local authorities for the installation of on-street charging solutions.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the transition to electric vehicles and is supporting the Scottish Collaboration of Transport Specialists (SCOTS), a network representing transport officers from Scotland’s local authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships, to develop guidance on cross-pavement charging which addresses legal and safety issues and supports all local authorities to enable cross-pavement charging.

Whilst this is an operational matter for the Chief Constable, I welcome Police Scotland’s commitment to supporting officers after critical incidents.

Scotland’s police officers and staff do a challenging job and I also welcome the Chief Constable’s commitment to workforce wellbeing. I am pleased that in addition to the provision of Trauma Risk Incident Management assessments and Occupational Health counselling, Police Scotland has invested £17 million to enhance welfare provision. This included a new 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme and direct access to occupational health services, where officers suffering psychological or physical trauma can be supported.

The Scottish Government’s Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics reports data on people convicted in Scottish courts. This data is drawn from a subset of Police Scotland’s Criminal History System, with only the minimum information required for statistical reporting and publication received. Alongside any crime(s) committed and the main sentence given, this includes data on a convicted person’s date of birth (used to calculate age at sentencing) and sex. In some cases their Local Authority of residence is also known. Although breakdowns by crime (main charge), sentence (main penalty), age (at sentencing) and sex are included in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland bulletin, there is currently no published disaggregation of those convicted of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The Scottish Government is committed to equitable access to HIV support services and we continue to work with NHS Boards who provide targeted community outreach, peer support initiatives and digital health solutions particularly focused on underserved groups.

The landmark anti-stigma campaign had a significant impact and laid strong foundations to challenging HIV-related stigma and reducing barriers to HIV prevention. Building on this successful campaign, we are funding further training for health and social care staff to increase awareness and reduce stigma, particularly for underserved groups.

Recently, in partnership with Scotland’s Migration Service, we have developed tailored information on accessing sexual health and HIV services for new arrivals to Scotland, which can be found here Healthcare in Scotland | Scotland.org.

The Scottish Government published its Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework (SRF) on 17 June 2025. This Framework provides a high-level guide for change, to ensure the sustainability, efficiency, quality, and accessibility of health and social care services in Scotland. Within the SRF, we set out our commitment to publish the Long-Term Conditions Framework and its aim and outcomes will be closely linked to the principles of the SRF.

Work is progressing to implement changes through Energy Act 2023 to establish a better enabling environment for offshore wind development. Scotland’s strategic compensation policy, including amendment to the Habitats Regulations, is now at consultation until 1 September 2025. The changes proposed seek to increase the availability of compensatory measures and give clarity on the requirements around environmental compensation for offshore wind development. These reforms have been developed in partnership with the UK Government to ensure a consistent approach across the whole of the UK.

Scottish Government is also working to establish a Scottish Marine Recovery Fund to deliver Strategic Compensation and a more streamlined process for securing compensation for adverse environmental effects of relevant offshore wind activities. Scottish Government has published Scottish Marine Recovery Fund Interim Guidance (available on the Scottish Government website) and consultation on these proposals will be undertaken in due course.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy in Scotland, is also now at consultation and a series of engagement events have been held around Scotland. The plan will set a clear roadmap for the sustainable delivery of offshore wind in Scottish waters.

A programme of work to streamline the consent process, to meet and, where possible, reduce timescales in relation to application determination and post-consent approvals for offshore wind projects and associated infrastructure, has also been undertaken. Officials sought views from industry, regulators and other stakeholders on proposed improvements to the consenting and licensing process and intended updates to the guidance. Improvements have now been implemented through engagement with developers, updates to external guidance and updates to internal procedures including:

• Promotion of effective stakeholder engagement earlier in the process including updated guidance on pre-application engagement with stakeholders
• Front loading the consenting process and reduced post consent consultation and approvals by requiring certain information on mitigation with applications that was previously required post consent
• Supporting high quality applications through engagement with developers and updated guidance and checklist on information required to support applications for offshore renewable energy projects
• Improvements to planning authority consultation on applications, including clarifying timescales and provisions for planning authority consultation on applications