Chamber and committees

VAT is a reserved matter and outwith the responsibility of the Scottish Government. This includes decisions on the interaction between VAT and the visitor levy. The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act allows for local authorities to make the levy not payable by accommodation which has an annual turnover below the VAT threshold. This in effect, exempts small businesses from the visitor levy.

Despite unprecedented challenges to public finances, the 2025-26 Scottish Police Authority budget has increased to £1.64 billion, an increase of almost £90 million when compared to the 2024-25 budget.

The operation of Police Scotland, including decisions on the allocation of resources and the deployment of officers and staff, is for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. This includes the allocation of resources to specialist sex crimes units.

The Scottish Government invited the OECD to assess the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in primary and secondary schools in 2020. The OECD report Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence - Into the Future endorsed CfE as the right approach for Scottish education and made a number of recommendations for further improvement. Education Scotland are now taking forward the Curriculum Improvement Cycle to ensure Scotland’s curriculum remains forward looking and supports high quality teaching and learning, with Numeracy and Mathematics and Literacy and English the first curricular areas to be reviewed.

We continue monitoring literacy and numeracy levels through the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels which are published annually and present proportions of pupils from P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils who have achieved the expected CfE Levels in Reading, Writing, Listening & Talking, Literacy and Numeracy. The latest data available (2023-24) shows record levels of literacy and numeracy by primary (P1, P4 and P7) and secondary (S3) pupils.

In Literacy, the proportion of pupils achieving their expected CfE level are at their highest ever level in both primary (74%) and secondary schools (88%). In Numeracy, 80% of primary and 90% of secondary pupils achieved the expected CfE levels.

We will continue to expand the data and evidence available to the system, by joining the next cycle of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) in 2026 and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) in 2027, while continuing to participate in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) this year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service. We have invested £39 million to date on expanding access to thrombectomy. While we continue to face significant financial challenges, we are committed to further expanding the service, ensuring access is as equitable as possible.

Whilst the Scottish Government cannot currently provide a timeline for expanding the service, Scottish Government officials and NHS planners have been asked to work at pace on developing a plan for the next steps for service expansion.

We have also provided funding for thrombectomy nurse posts in spoke sites with high rates of ischaemic stroke and this will support maximising access to thrombectomy across Scotland. Procurement of a national artificial intelligence imaging tool is also underway and, once implemented, this will help improve detection of patients with strokes suitable for thrombectomy.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as local authorities are responsible for the delivery of education. Local authorities may hold this information.

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressures on the sector including affordability and ensuring the right conditions are created for building new homes.

It is not possible to provide this information.

The most recent available data on conviction rates for rape and attempted rape were published in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-23. The figures for the most recent available five years are set out in Table 1. This shows the conviction rates for people prosecuted in court.

Table 1: Conviction rate for rape and attempted rape

The following table shows the Social Security Assistance final outturn for each financial year since 2018, when the Scottish Government began to deliver devolved Social Security benefits, split by category.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Whilst the Scottish Government publish data on both Recorded Crime in Scotland and Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, these are based on distinct and unlinked data sets and it is not possible to directly compare them.

New information will be published later this year as part of delivering Section 15 of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which requires an annual report to parliament on the characteristics of hate crime in Scotland. This will include the total number of hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland in 2024-25, and the number that were cleared up (i.e. where there exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots law to justify consideration of criminal proceedings).

In addition to the above, the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal service have also published Hate crime in Scotland, 2024-25.This provides details on hate crime-related charges reported to COPFS in Scotland, including decisions on how those charges will proceed (such as to Court proceedings, direct measures, no action etc.)

The Fostering a positive, inclusive and safe school environment guidance was published on 17 June.

This non-statutory guidance aims to support schools to foster a positive, inclusive and safe school environment through their approaches to positive relationships and behaviour. In particular, it provides clarity to all members of a school community – staff, parents and children and young people – on the use of consequences as part of relationships and behaviour policies.

We have also published new guidance for local authorities and schools on using risk assessment processes to mitigate or minimise violent, aggressive and dangerous behaviours exhibited by children and young people at school.