Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The health and wellbeing of those in our care is of critical importance; we not only recognise, but are tackling, the risks posed by illicit substances within our establishments.

Preventing the introduction of illicit substances is not only important to the health and wellbeing of people in custody, but also to the establishments’ wider safety and security.

SPS continue to look at a range of tactical and technological measures to keep illicit substances from being introduced into prisons.

The tables below show the drug finds each month in both HMPs Greenock and Kilmarnock between January 2021 and May 2025:

The following table shows the number of crimes involving the illegal use of an air weapon, by Local Authority, split by main perpetrator age (where identified). This is sourced from the Crimes and offences involving a firearm Official Statistics, for which the latest published year is 2021-22. Future updates will follow the conclusion of a review by analysts from Scottish Government and Police Scotland into the methodology for producing this data. Unlike other crime-based official statistics, the current approach relies on the manual review of crime records to identify relevant cases, which is resource intensive and requires significant time to complete. An update on the outcome of this work is planned for early Autumn, and users can register for this through the SCOTSTAT network.

Crimes involving illegal use of an air weapon 2018-19 to 2021-22

The number of prosecutions in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017, to 2022-23, is noted below. Criminal proceedings data was most recently published in December 2024.

The number of convictions and sentence imposed in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017 to 2022-23 are as follows:

Data are available on the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) share of businesses, jobs and turnover. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: SME share of businesses, jobs and turnover – Scotland – 2019 to 2024

We recognise the importance of the shipbuilding sector for Scotland’s economy including its strategic importance in shaping Scotland’s future workforce. That is why we are already undertaking a major programme of reform to the skills system to ensure that it meets Scotland’s needs, including investing up to £2 million to develop engineering skills in the Glasgow City Region, designed by the Clyde Maritime Cluster in partnership with Skills Development Scotland. We are also actively engaging with the UK Government on the development of its forthcoming Industrial Strategy and its planned review of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, emphasising Scotland's strengths in shipbuilding and maritime technology. However, the Scottish Government’s long-standing policy position is that neither the Government nor its agencies use public money to support the manufacture of munitions.

The Scottish Government supports the full range of businesses primarily through its enterprise agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. As such the allocation of this direct funding to the size of businesses is held by each agency along with the number of businesses supported outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please email Scottish Government Enterprise Sponsorship team on [email protected] if you would like to contact the agencies directly.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish employment rate estimates for 16 to 64 year olds by Scottish parliamentary constituency from the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS). The latest available estimates are for January to December 2024:

LI02.1 Regional labour market: local indicators for constituencies of the Scottish Parliament - Office for National Statistics

ONS state that although the APS estimates are robust at headline regional level, there are concerns with the quality of the estimates in recent years for smaller groups of the population such as local authority and Scottish parliamentary constituency level estimates.

The Scottish Government provides direct funding for Business Gateway but does not hold information on how that funding is spent within each hub. Please contact Business Gateway on [email protected] if you would like to address this question to them directly.

Local authorities have duties under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 to provide adult carer support plans or young carer statements for any carer that wants one and to provide support to carers according to their eligible needs. These responsibilities and carers’ associated rights are set out in the Carers’ Charter.

We are working to extend these rights by establishing a right to breaks from caring by amending the 2016 Act through the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, to support people to protect their wellbeing and sustain caring relationships. The Bill also gives Ministers a new duty to make regulations setting timescales for local authorities to prepare adult carer support plans and young carer statements to help ensure carers can access support in a timely fashion and reduce differences between areas.

Our National Carers Strategy sets out our intentions regarding carers’ rights and support which takes a cross-government approach to carers’ issues including through social care policies, social security and supporting carers in employment and education. It recognises that carers come from all walks of life and many of their needs overlap with those of other groups.

There is a wide range of support available to unpaid carers, as summarised at Help if you're a carer - mygov.scot,