Chamber and committees

Emergency early release regulations have been utilised twice within the last five years (May 2020 & June/July 2024). On both occasions, the conditions of release were as they would have been at the individuals original scheduled liberation date, with no additional conditions or sentences applied.

Those released were approaching the end of their short-term prison sentences, and such individuals are not routinely subject to additional monitoring or community service requirements following their release. Therefore, those released via emergency early release were not subject to such conditions.

Individuals whose sentence would require post-release supervision or monitoring requirements were automatically excluded from both emergency early release processes.

The requirement for an individual to complete any kind of community sentence is a matter for the independent courts to decide at the point of sentencing, after consideration of the full facts and circumstances of the case.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to ending violence against women and girls. As part of this commitment, in March 2024, the Scottish Government published a new framework on preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

The framework sets out guidance for schools on recording and monitoring incidents of gender-based violence. Schools will have their own reporting and recording systems connected to their local authority system or as a grant-aided or independent school. If a behaviour is covered by the definition of GBV provided in the framework, it should be recorded in the Bullying and Equalities module of SEEMiS, or under an equivalent section of a schools’ recording system. The Bullying and Equalities Module of SEEMiS should not be interpreted as being focused solely on bullying; it is designed to capture a range of behaviours related to equalities, and includes ‘GBV’ as a specific category.

Schools will have separate recording systems for incidents where a staff member is affected by a GBV incident, connected to their Health and Safety at Work or Dignity at Work policies. It is important that such incidents are part of the same monitoring and evaluation systems to capture a whole school picture of prevalence.

Finally, the joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan includes an action to review all current processes for recording incidents, to identify potential means of streamlining processes and improving consistency. That work is scheduled to begin later this year.

The Scottish Government undertakes a detailed annual workforce planning process to determine intake targets for Initial Teacher Education (ITE), based on data from the annual Summary statistics for schools in Scotland and following consultation with the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group.

To inform this process, we develop and publish an annual statistical model on future teacher number requirements. We also engage with universities throughout the year to collect data and monitor progress of intakes against targets.

As part of December’s education agreement with COSLA, we are also committed to working with local government to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025-26, and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers. Medium and long-term joint workforce planning will take into account the importance of responding to these issues, including different local needs.

Improving employment opportunities for Scotland’s teaching workforce will also be a key feature of the Education Assurance Board, that we are working with COSLA to establish, noting that the recruitment and deployment of teachers is the responsibility of local authorities.

Improving gender balance and tackling inequity within STEM learning and careers is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s STEM Education and Training Strategy. To support schools challenge long-established stereotypes, a range of resources have been developed by Education Scotland, based around understanding bias and highlighting the impact of inequality.

Education Scotland also work with organisations, including Tech She Can and Code Club, to promote female role models and provide professional learning for Computing Science teachers. In addition, the Scottish Government has provided over £800,000 to Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) to promote Computing Science as a subject for all, helping to challenge gender stereotypes.

As a result of the STEM Education and Training Strategy, SSERC continues to deliver the Young STEM Leader Programme which enables young people to inspire, lead and mentor through delivery of inspirational STEM activities. Since its inception, over 20,000 young people have engaged with the programme, with 51% of awards being completed by female participants.

The Scottish Government is also investing in programmes designed to increase the engagement of young people in STEM activity. This includes £70,000 of funding to Digital Xtra to support their work on the development of digital technology skills and over £90,000 to support Edinburgh Science’s ‘Generation Science’ workshops and Prosper’s ‘Stemovators’ programme.

Through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle we have established a systematic approach to curriculum improvement including in respect of Science and Technology. This exercise provides a further opportunity to ensure STEM subjects are attractive to all learners, particularly girls.

It is for individual local authorities, as employers, to manage their own practices regarding the employment of teachers and provision of individual employment contracts.

In December 2024 the Scottish Government reached an agreement with local government to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels and we are providing £186.5 million in the 2025-26 Financial Year for this purpose and to give local authorities the support they have requested to increase the number of teaching jobs. In addition we are also providing Local Authorities with £28 million to support ASN provision in schools, which may be used for measures such as the employment of ASN teachers.

As part of our joint agreement Scottish Government and CoSLA will also work together on the establishment of an Education Assurance Board. Improving employment opportunities for Scotland’s teaching workforce will be a key feature of the Education Assurance Board. The board will allow us to work together to review national employment practices, highlight best practice and use this to work in partnership with our councils to improve the availability of permanent teaching contracts nationally.

Each school should have a relationships and behaviour policy setting out clear expectations of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and the responses which staff can utilise. Staff should respond to behaviour in line with this policy. The existing Scottish Government policy framework, including the national policy on exclusion, allows the use of consequences.

This government is committed to doing what it can to provide support and direction at a national level, informed by our national evidence base. Ultimately, it is the responsibility local authorities to decide how to promote positive relationships and behaviour in their schools. We expect local authorities to consider how best to implement our national guidance to meet particular needs and experiences at a local level, identifying areas of local challenge or concern.

As part of the relationships and behaviour action plan, we will be providing clarity on the range of approaches and consequences that are available, including exclusion where there is no appropriate alternative. This guidance is being developed by a sub-group of the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, together with the Head Teacher Taskforce and will be published later this year.

Individual Local Authorities, as employers, are responsible for managing teaching vacancies and providing job opportunities across Scotland.

Teaching vacancies are advertised across Scotland, throughout the year, through a process of fair and open recruitment. Local authorities must balance the teaching jobs they advertise with their local needs and contexts.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes annual data on the number of teachers employed across Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities through the Annual Teacher Census. This data can be accessed at: School education statistics - gov.scot.

The Establishment of an Education Assurance Board, which was part of Scottish Government and local government’s joint agreement published in December 2024, will provide a forum by which we can carry out joint monitoring of employment practices, share best practice and ensure that teacher numbers return to 2023 levels; while understanding and considering local needs and geographical and subject recruitment challenges.

We recognise that online platforms, including social media, can have both positive and negative impacts on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and that support must be in place to help children use social media in a healthy and balanced way. It is important to note that regulation of the internet is a reserved matter to the UK Government, however we have previously successfully engaged on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people.

The Scottish Government's ambition is for everyone to have a safe, good quality and affordable home that meets their needs in the place where they want to be. Housing to 2040 remains our key overarching long-term strategy that sets out a vision and roadmap to ensuring everyone in Scotland has a safe, good quality and affordable home by 2040, and as part of that we remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas.

Between 23 March 2022 and end of September 2024, we have delivered 24,382 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 18,000 (76%) have been homes for social rent. Based on management figures, we have delivered over 12,000 affordable homes in rural and island communities, between April 2016 and March 2024.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Statistics to end December 2024 are due to be published on Tuesday 25 March 2025.