Chamber and committees

Funding for the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit for 2025-26 has not been reduced.

The Scottish Government grant to the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit has been increased from £1.17 million in 2024-25 to just over £1.2 million for 2025-26. This represents an increase of £47000 (4%) on the Unit’s grant allocation in 2024-25, and is a £82000 (7%) increase on the Unit’s indicative grant allocation for 2025-26.

Economic inactivity due to long-term sickness and disability is a problem across the UK and each nation has seen increases since the pandemic.

In January to December 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS), an estimated 269,000 people in Scotland aged 16-64 gave their reason for being inactive as long-term sick or disabled, 33.7% of Scotland’s economically inactive people aged 16-64.

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

Due to the increased volatility in the APS local authority estimates in recent years, National Records of Scotland Census 2022 results have been provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of 16-64 year olds who are economically inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled by Local Authority, Scotland, 2022

An open and transparent criminal justice system is important to allow for justice to be delivered and seen to be delivered so communities can have confidence in how offending behaviour is being dealt with. However, there can be areas of the operation of the criminal justice system where it is considered appropriate to allow certain individuals to remain anonymous to protect their dignity and privacy while still ensuring justice is able to be delivered.

Provisions to introduce new statutory anonymity protections for sexual offence victims as well as victims of certain other offences are contained in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill which is currently before Parliament. If approved, the legislation will introduce these new protections to help protect the dignity of victims of these offences.

We held a public consultation on media reporting on child homicide victims between 9 July 2024 and 1 October 2024. We asked for views on a range of possible approaches to reducing the trauma that media reporting can have on bereaved families, and on the wider impacts those approaches might have. This included inviting views on legislating to provide automatic or ‘on application’ anonymity for child victims. The analysis of consultation responses was published on 24 February 2025.

The consultation made clear that there would be serious complexities with legislating to anonymise the victims of child homicide in a way that avoided unintended consequences (like criminalising bereaved family members); that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice. However, many of the experiences highlighted in consultation responses vividly illustrate the need for more sensitive reporting on these cases. We are therefore working with stakeholders to explore a range of non-legislative measures including support materials for bereaved families, media guidance and training. Further detail is available on the Scottish Government website.

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill – which underwent Parliamentary consideration from 2022 to 2024 – contained provisions, on introduction, extending the anonymity for child suspects, accused, victims or witnesses both prior to and subsequent to any criminal court proceedings. This followed public consultation, with the analysis published on 8 September 2022. The provisions were further amended at Stage 2 to extend that, in relation to child victims and witnesses, anonymity could continue after a person turns 18 just as was the case for child suspects/accused. These provisions were amended out at Stage 3. Scottish Ministers gave a full account of the reasoning to the Parliamentary chamber. This is contained in the Official Report of 24 April 2024.

The proportion of orders where an individual was taken to a police station as a place of safety has differed over the years but has decreased from 6.6% in 2014-15 to 1.8% in 2023-24.

Additionally, following the publication of HMICS’ thematic review of policing mental health in October 2023, the Scottish Government is working with its partners through the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network to take forward the recommendations of the national review of psychiatric emergency plans (PEPs) to improve the detention process and removing barriers to multi-agency working when responding to a psychiatric emergency. A national PEP template and accompanying guidance are in development to improve national consistency and ensure that local roles, responsibilities and processes are clearly articulated.

The Scottish Government also published its Safe Spaces Scoping Report in October 2024. It explores the feasibility of implementing additional safe spaces for people experiencing crisis and acute emotional distress as an alternative to Emergency Departments and place of safety. Following the publication, we continue to consider with our stakeholders, the next steps.

The Scottish Government’s supplementary Financial Memorandum, to reflect the scaled-back care reform proposals for the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, was published on the Health, Social Care & Sport Committee’s website on 25 March 2025.

The Scottish Government is considering carefully the implications of the UK Supreme Court judgment. In taking any steps to implement the judgment, we will do so in a manner that is consistent with our human rights obligations, including those under the Human Rights Act 1998. In our updates to public bodies, we have highlighted the importance of compliance with legal obligations.

The Scottish Government is unequivocal in its support for Scotland’s red meat supply chain given its vital role in underpinning our rural communities and making possible our world-class produce.

We are committed to transforming Scottish agriculture, and we will continue to champion our positive vision for Scottish food production. Central to this vision is our commitment to support livestock production right here in Scotland.

We will continue to provide Scotland’s farmers and crofters with direct support including through the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme and Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme. These are key components of the Scottish Government investment in agriculture which is over £660 million per year.

The Scottish Government has not made an assessment of any long-term economic benefits of replacing methadone with Buvidal for eligible patients

The Scottish Government does intend to update its policies to reflect the 2025 recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. This Government is pressing ahead with the policy development to ensure that proposals can be brought forward to Parliament at the earliest opportunity, subject to the outcome of the 2026 elections.

The Scottish Government has launched the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme to improve CVD outcomes with an aim to ‘reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years’. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

Our Population Health Framework, soon to be published in partnership with COSLA, will support the creation of environments that positively supports health and wellbeing. It will focus on prevention and tackling the building blocks of health—including good early years and education, fair work and income, healthy places, equitable healthcare, and the broader social and economic drivers of ill health.