Chamber and committees

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. When local authority trading standards services find products that are non-compliant with the relevant product safety legislation this should be input into the Product Safety Database. This is operated by the UK Government’s Office of Product Safety and Standards.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. I have asked Police Scotland to write to you on this matter.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the UK Government to disrupt organised crime groups involved in the illicit drugs trade and the misery it causes to individuals and communities. As I explained in my answer to Parliamentary Question S6W-32543 on 10 January 2025, we had previously promoted a Legislative Consent Memorandum in the Scottish Parliament in relation to the provisions in the previous UK Government’s Criminal Justice Bill creating a new offence of importing, making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply a relevant article for use in serious crime. This offence would have included pill presses in addition to other articles but the legislation fell due to the change of administration.

My officials are continuing to engage with the Home Office to explore the potential for this offence, and others that disrupt aspects of the illicit drug trade such as cuckooing, to be taken forward in one of the bills that will be introduced in early 2025. In the event that such legislation is brought forward, we will give careful consideration to the possibility of extending such measures to Scotland.

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

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32496 on 10 January 2025. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32496 on 10 January 2025. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32496 on 10 January 2025. 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.

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) statistics are published annually with latest data covering the 2022-23 academic year - https://www.gov.scot/publications/education-maintenance-allowances-2022-23/

Information broken down by local authority area, back to 2006-07, can be found in the supporting documents area of the publication, within the ‘Spend’ and ‘Age’ background tables.

Whilst EMA was introduced in academic year 2004-05, data prior to 2006-07 is not included in the above publication as EMA in 2004-05 and 2005-06 did not cover all 16 to 18 year olds and therefore is not comparable. Historic data can be accessed on the Scottish Government archived website:

2004-05 - https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20170831150034/http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2005/11/02112052/20531

2005-06 - https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20170717072945/http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2006/11/13100200/0

No review has been undertaken of the threshold for the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) threshold since its introduction. The setting of the threshold for the ADS reflects that The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 provides that land transactions with a chargeable consideration of less than £40,000 are not notifiable and that no tax return is thus required.

The Scottish Government’s Strengthening Communities Programme (SCP) is a revenue fund which provides support to community anchor organisations to build capacity and sustainability. No funding from the SCP has therefore been spent on building new houses since 2021, however SCP provides organisations with capacity building funding which can include support for delivering new housing developments.

The Partnership Delivery Group (PDG) continues to work across organisational boundaries to identify and deliver support to individuals that can be delivered in a person centred and trauma informed way.

The PDG has worked together to support the Scottish Government to develop a Framework for Collaboration (FfC). Subject to publishing timescales, this Framework along with the PDG’s cross-sector Collaborative Commitment Action Plan will be published imminently.