We have always been clear that prison is necessary for those that pose the greatest risk to our society. The Scottish Government is investing over £1 billion in Scottish prisons to maintain safety and security, progress improvements and maximise capacity.

Decisions regarding remand and sentencing are always a matter for the independent courts.

There are currently four gender identity services providing specialist gender identity healthcare to adults in NHS Scotland. A separate service for young people accepts referrals from across Scotland. The governance of each of gender identity healthcare service remains the responsibility of the respective Health Board running the service.

Several actions from the NHS Gender Identity Services: Strategic Action Framework 2022-2024, published in December 2021, jointly support the NHS Health Boards in strengthening governance arrangements to deliver safe and effective healthcare:

?Healthcare Improvement Scotland has published national Gender identity healthcare services standards. These support national consistency in the multidisciplinary delivery and coordination of high-quality gender identity healthcare, which is based on current evidence and best practice. Standards apply to all services where people may access gender identity healthcare and are clear in expectation that organisations must demonstrate effective and collaborative leadership, governance and partnership working.

• The Gender reassignment protocol for Scotland (September 2024) sets out expectations for pathways and delivery of NHS Scotland adult gender identity healthcare.
• NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) has published their Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills framework for adults and is now developing an annex to the Framework for staff supporting children and young people who are trans or gender-questioning
• On 28 October 2025, Public Health Scotland published, for the second time, nationally collated data on waiting times for accessing NHS gender identity clinics. This follows the first publication on 5 November 2024, which was the first of its kind in the UK.

As outlined on page 17 of the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: Major capital projects progress update (August 2025) the NHS Ayrshire and Arran National Treatment Centre has been paused.

We are currently working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland. This will support continued safe and effective use of existing facilities as well as informing future investment priorities based on assessment of need across the whole of Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) to ensure we have a robust independent oversight body to secure public confidence in policing.

The 2026-27 Scottish Budget provides funding of £8.5m for PIRC, an additional £1m (a 13.5% increase) compared to the 2025-26 ABR budget, in recognition of the additional demands being placed on the organisation.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with PIRC to understand the demands on the organisation and any requirement for additional resources, to ensure that it can continue to deliver a high level of service and fulfil its statutory responsibilities.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of violence against women and girls and to supporting specialist services, including Rape Crisis Centres, that provide vital support to victims and survivors of gender based violence.

Our Equally Safe strategy recognises that women in rural and island communities, and the specialist organisations that support them, can face particular challenges, and that abuse may be even more hidden than in urban areas.

Through our Delivering Equally Safe Fund we are supporting services across every local authority in Scotland. From the £21.6 million allocated in 2025-26, almost £2 million is going directly to Rape Crisis Centres that support women and girls in our most rural and island communities. We have provided a 5% uplift to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund from 2026-27.

At the time of awarding funding to the Delivering Equally Safe fund, applications were sought from service providers who were able to direct operational activity towards those most in need of assistance, based on an independent expert assessment of local and sectorial priorities. Funding decisions were determined by a range of measures including what funds were requested, ensuring funding coverage in every local authority area of Scotland and the overall amount of funding available.

Funding to Rape Crisis Centres is also provided through Victim Centred Approach funding of £2,017,872 for the National Advocacy Project, which supports advocacy for survivors within the criminal justice system and is distributed to the rape crisis network by Rape Crisis Scotland.

Scotland’s planning system has already undergone significant system changes including through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and the adoption of National Planning Framework 4, Scotland’s long-term spatial strategy, which sets out where development and infrastructure is needed. Our package of reforms is focused on incentivising development and delivering clear and quicker decisions which provide greater confidence and predictability to those who are planning to develop.

We have also significantly extended permitted development rights (PDR), including for renewable energy equipment and thermal efficiency measures, and developments in town and city centres and in ports. PDR allow certain types of development to be carried out without a planning application. In doing so, they help provide certainty and save the time and expense associated with applying for planning permission.

Alongside system reform, we have been progressing a range of measures to increase capacity and skills and improve practice in planning authorities which are helping to accelerate development delivery. This includes providing direct support via the National Planning Hub for additional surge capacity and expertise within planning authorities and funding the National Planning Improvement Champion to help share knowledge and best practice across the planning system.

We have taken significant steps to simplify navigating the planning system through withdrawing 27 historical Planning Advice Notes (PANs) and 19 other pieces of obsolete guidance. This equates to 71% of the planning advice and guidance (over 1000 pages).

The Scottish Government continues to seek solutions to address immediate risks and to progress with long-term remediation at the Tarbolton Moss former landfill site, engaging with partners including South Ayrshire Council and SEPA.

SEPA continues to monitor the site regularly. The most recent site assessments indicate that site conditions are stable. However, there continues to be an impact on local surface waters.

I refer the member to my response to S6W-34484 on 25 February 2026 which clarified that The Cass Review only considered services offered by NHS England. It also outlined how the Scottish Government considered its recommendations in the context of NHS Scotland services and the work underway at the time.

Since then, a number of workstreams have progressed:

In September 2025, the ‘Task and Finish Group, led by the Chief Operating Officer’s Directorate and supported by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), signed off on a new Target Operating Model (TOM) for young people’s gender identity services in Scotland. NHS Board Chief Executives are currently considering how they will support the implementation of the new model.

On 28 October 2025, Public Health Scotland published for the second time a set of nationally collated data on NHS gender identity clinics waiting times. This follows the first ever publication of such data in UK in November 2024. Both publications include data on the young person’s gender healthcare service.

Finally, following the publication of Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills Framework (Framework) for adults, NHS National Education for Scotland is now taking forward an annex to the Framework for staff supporting children and young people.

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.

There has been a significant increase in demand for neurodevelopmental diagnostic assessments in recent years, including for autism and ADHD, which is creating challenges for a range of services. In response to this, the Scottish Government is working with the National Autism Implementation Team to develop national Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways, building on learning from pilot programmes across NHS Boards.

We continue to support Health Boards and local authorities to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People, by taking forward actions from the review of its implementation in 2025. This work is being supported by the cross-sector Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopment Taskforce.

An additional £3.4 million has been invested in 2025-26 to support a range of projects aimed at improving access to neurodevelopmental support and information, as well as supplementing autism and ADHD assessment capacity in health boards. A further £7.65 million is included in the 2026-27 mental health programme budget to enable continued improvements in neurodevelopmental assessment and support for children and young people.

I have also brought together stakeholders and MSPs through two cross-party summits to support coordinated efforts to address these issues.