The deployment of officers and staff are a matter for the Chief Constable.

I have regular meetings with the Chief Constable where we discuss relevant issues. Minutes of these meetings can be found at: Police Scotland and Scottish Government meeting: June 2025 - gov.scot

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as this is a matter for the Chief Constable.

I am pleased that 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.

The deployment and management of police officers are matters for the Chief Constable.

The Scottish Government is investing a record £1.64 billion in policing in 2025-26, an increase of almost £90 million of additional funding from the 2024-25 budget. Our investment in policing has enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception in the last financial year. Around 1,370 new officers have joined since the start of 2024 including a further 100 new recruits on 7 July.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation which aims to bring frontline policing to its strongest possible position.

While deployment of resources and any subsequent impact are operational matters for Police Scotland, I regularly meet with the Scottish Police Federation and previously met them on 11 June 2025, where we discussed the health and wellbeing of the workforce and related operational impacts.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail Trains Ltd. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail Trains Ltd directly to obtain this information.

The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund was paused in 2024-25 and no applications were received.

In April 2025, the Centre of Expertise for Waters published research into the feasibility of wastewater monitoring for psychoactive substances in Scotland. The research publication is available here: https://www.crew.ac.uk/publications/review-psychoactive-substances-wastewater-monitoring-approaches-and-recommendations

While the research found that there were potential benefits of wastewater monitoring, and recommended piloting this in Scotland, there is further consideration required to understand how this would inform our future policy and enhance existing public health surveillance systems. The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to consider these issues as part of our wider work to extend our surveillance abilities.

A total of £756 million was generated from the initial ScotWind leasing round.

To date £96 million of this funding has been spent, all of it in 2022-23. This was used to support the overall fiscal position, with pressures set out as part of the Emergency Budget Review in Autumn 2022.

£364 million of ScotWind revenues have been profiled into 2025-26. Final decisions on formally drawing down the funding will be made at the end of the financial year.

The remaining £296 million has not yet been allocated with decisions on their deployment to be taken at individual Budgets, in line with Scottish Government priorities.

The current profiled utilisation of Scotwind funding in 2025-26 is as follows;

Section 298 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 establishes a legal obligation which applies at both at an organisational level to Police Scotland, and to the individual officer carrying out a place of safety removal. The constable who took the person to the place of safety is to, as soon as is practicable, inform the local authority in whose area the place of safety is situated and inform the nearest relative of the person who has been removed. They should also inform the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland within 14 days. Police Scotland, as a corporate body, has a duty to ensure policies, procedures and training enables officers to comply with the duties in Section 298.

The Mental Welfare Commission, as the body who monitor the use of the 2003 Act, are best placed to explore why this data may be missing and to work with Police Scotland to improve compliance. My officials meet regularly with the Commission and will work with them to resolve this issue.

In the event of Scotland becoming an independent country, decisions about membership of international organisations or groupings of countries would be a matter for the government of the time, elected by the people of Scotland.