Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Chief Constable of Police Scotland is responsible for the policing of Scotland and is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for this, rather than to Scottish Ministers directly.

The Fire and Rescue Unit is part of the Scottish Government Safer Communities Division. In common with all Scottish Government Divisions, strategic oversight is provided through Directors and Director Generals reporting to the Scottish Ministers.

The Fire and Rescue Unit is part of the Scottish Government Safer Communities Division. The Fire and Rescue Unit has a risk register and contributes to the Safer Communities Division and Directorate risk registers. In line with good practice, these risk registers are kept under constant review.

The procurement of fire and rescue vehicles and operational equipment is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Oversight and Governance is provided by the SFRS Strategic Leadership Team and the SFRS Board.

The process of procuring and designing Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) off-road vehicles is based on the established operational needs of the organisation while taking into account feedback from internal and external stakeholders. Operational performance of these assets is routinely evaluated through SFRS’s Operational Assurance process and via internal and external debriefs. These evaluations and feedback are integral in developing future policy and procedure, as well as influencing future procurement processes.

Given the procurement and the performance assessment of its vehicles are operational matters for SFRS, it would be inappropriate for the Scottish Government to offer comment on such matters.

All vehicles listed in the answer to question S6W-42094 on 26 November 2025 have been deployed except for two of the Ford Ranger Multi-Role Units (which are at the final stage of commissioning work expected to be deployed by next month) and the Ford Ranger Ultra-Light Pumping Units. These units required additional configuration from the supplier. As present, five of eight are completed, and all eight units are expected to be deployed within the next few weeks. 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.

In the past three years, SFRS has procured the following 4x4 and multi-role vehicles:

• 10x Ford Ranger Wildfire Units for dedicated wildfire management @ £44,050 each (£440,500);
• 4x Iveco Daily Wildfire Support Units for supporting and providing additional equipment to Wildfire Units @ £95,394 each (£381,576);
• 10x Polaris Ranger 4x4 All-Terrain Vehicles for dedicated wildfire management @ £33,450 each (£334,500);
• 21x Ford Ranger Multi-Role Units for use in rural communities, adverse weather, towing, and off-road access as needed @ £35,402.93 each (£743,461.53); and
• 8x Ford Ranger Ultra-Light Pumping Units for wildfire management at volunteer stations, road traffic accidents, and other operational activities as needed @ £123,043.40 each (£984,347.20).

The most recent reconviction statistics were published on 27 August 2025 and are for the 2021-22 cohort

Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2021-22 Offender Cohort - gov.scot

A reconviction is defined in our statistics as someone who is reconvicted within 12 months of release from custody, or 12 months of being given a non-custodial sentence. Therefore, statistics on the 2021-22 cohort are people released from custody or given non-custodial sentences in 2021-22 who went on to be reconvicted in 2022-23. The most recent criminal proceedings data published is for 2022-23 so the 2021-22 cohort for reconvictions is the most up to date it can be.

Criminal proceedings data for 2023-24 will be published next month and after that, we can begin work on producing reconvictions statistics for the 2022-23 cohort.

The Scottish Government sits alongside Retailers Against Crime (RAC) in the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE) and are working collectively with other agencies to deliver upon the SPAACE Strategy 2023-2028. To date there have been three meetings of the SPAACE steering group, chaired by Police Scotland, where retail crime has consistently been top of the agenda.

Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Task Force (RCTF) have been working closely with RAC as they jointly aim to reduce the impact of retail crime across Scotland. Part of the Scottish Government’s additional £3 million funding to tackle retail crime has been used to support local policing divisions to work closely with RAC, with numerous joint days of action taking place in locations across Scotland including Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Furthermore, some of the funding has been granted to RAC to allow them to increase their operational capacity which will support retailers and police to prevent and detect crimes, thus reducing the financial impact of retail crime while protecting workers from crimes of violence and abuse.

While RAC are not members of the Retail Industry Leadership Group (RILG), representatives of key industry groups such as the Scottish Grocer’s Federation (SGF) and Scottish Retail Consortium are members of both SPAACE and the RILG. Police Scotland has also given regular updates on its work to tackle retail crime, ensuring joined up working across a number of sectors.

The Scottish Government is grateful to its partners for the continued efforts to tackle retail crime across the country.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41648 on 17 November 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.