Chamber and committees

Addressing violence against women and girls remains a key focus of the Scottish Government through the Equally Safe strategy, which is co-owned with COSLA. The Equally Safe strategy focuses on violence and abusive behaviour carried out predominately by men and directed at women and girls precisely because they are women and girls. It explicitly lays out that to tackle this violence and abuse, we need to prioritise addressing the root causes of gender inequality, challenging outdated stereotypes and societal attitudes that allow violence against women and girls to persist. That is why Equally Safe places emphasis on challenging gender inequality and norms, and the underpinning attitudes that perpetuate and condone such violence. Under the auspices of Equally Safe, we have strengthened the law in relation to violence against women and girls; and we have taken forward a great deal of work to ensure those working in the public sector are equipped with the resource and knowledge to confidently and sensitively work with those affected.

Specifically, we are implementing the Equally Safe Delivery Plan. The delivery plan consists of 14 deliverables and associated actions which represent a commitment to act from partners across the public and third sector at a local and national level. The plan covers the period from Summer 2024 to Spring 2026. This collaborative approach is vital as it is essential that all spheres of society are involved in the work to tackle violence against violence against women and girls. Development of the delivery plan was informed by extensive engagement with our stakeholders, both internally and externally - including with Public Health Scotland, the Improvement Service, those working within the specialist violence against women sector, COSLA and its allied organisations, and the Equally Safe Joint Strategic Board.

Additionally, we have confirmed that the Delivering Equally Safe Fund will be extended into 2025-26, benefiting from a £2.4m uplift, taking the total Scottish Government investment in the Delivering Equally Safe Fund up to £21.6m for the year ahead. The Delivering Equally Safe fund supports the work of the Equally Safe strategy, which underpins Scotland’s approach to preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. It supports 115 projects from 107 organisations across every local authority in Scotland.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory duty set out in the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure the coherent provision by the post-16 education bodies (as a whole) of a high quality of fundable further education and fundable higher education. As autonomous institutions, universities have the key role in mitigating financial pressures and external risks.

The SFC monitors and assesses the financial health and the sustainability of universities through regular engagement and analysis of financial returns, which universities are required to submit to SFC each academic year. This includes consideration of a wide range of factors, including international enrolments.

Scotland’s first International Education Strategy (IES), published in February last year, highlighted the positive impact that international students make and sets out the actions that the Scottish Government will take to promote Scotland as a study destination and to attract and diversify our international student population.

Under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships have a duty to assess the social care support needs of people and decide, in light of that assessment, arrange suitable services, if required.

We understand the pressures faced and addressing long waiting times for Social Care Assessment is one of the reasons that the 2025-26 Budget prioritised both the Local Government Settlement and the Health & Social Care portfolio with both receiving record funding allocations.

This includes almost £2.2bn for social care and integration – increasing investment by £1.2bn since 2021-22. On top of that, our Budget makes a record £15 billion available for councils for 2025-26.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has statutory responsibility for quality assurance of provision by colleges and universities, including in relation to academic standards. With the support of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the SFC is continuing to work with universities to address the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, and its potential impact on assessments, academic integrity and standards. This includes guidance on quality and academic standards issued by the SFC, and guidance issued by QAA to support universities with the use of generative Artificial Intelligence tools.

This matter is still subject to ongoing judicial proceedings, as such, it would not be appropriate for Scottish Government officials or Ministers to comment.

We expect all NHS Scotland Boards to operate with the highest standards of transparency, accountability and compliance with employment and equalities legislation.

I refer the member to the publication, A stronger economy with independence, which sets out detailed proposals on how the Scottish Government would use the full powers of independence to build an inclusive, fair, wellbeing economy that works for everyone in Scotland, and will allow us to replicate the success of many neighbouring countries which are more prosperous, productive and fairer than the UK.

Following your topical question S6T-02471 on 22 April 2025 in relation to sex offender name change. I subsequently wrote to you about sex offender name change on 30 April 2025. In that response, I set out additional background, including that - as various names can be held in relation to the same individual: "instances of name change", is not necessarily the same as individuals who have changed their given name. I also highlighted to you that as the management of registration records of a Registered Sex Offender (RSO) is an operational matter for Police Scotland, they are therefore best placed to provide you with additional details on what their records do or do not show.

All answers to Topical Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

We are committed to working in partnership with our fisheries stakeholders and coastal communities to develop and deliver proportionate fisheries and marine conservation measures which align environmental protection with a flourishing and profitable fishing industry.

A range of measures are already in place to ensure that the marine environment is protected, including the use of quotas to support fishing within sustainable limits. We also support and encourage best practice within the fishing industry in relation to handling of sensitive marine species, including returning them to the sea unharmed where practical to do so. We will be taking further action through our Future Catching Policy to minimise and, where possible, eliminate bycatch of sensitive marine species as part of wider efforts to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries.

We are building on existing measures through a range of initiatives, including taking forward the outcomes of a consultation on requiring tracking and monitoring technology on all under 12 metre fishing vessels in Scottish waters. In addition, one of our top priorities is putting in place the remaining fisheries management measures for MPAs and the 11 priority marine features most at risk from bottom trawling. We consulted in October 2024 on the proposed fisheries management options for 20 protected areas in the offshore marine region. We remain committed to implementing measures for offshore MPAs in 2025 and we will also consult on measures for inshore MPAs once the statutory assessments are completed.

We know that some of our stakeholders would like to see the Scottish Government introduce a three-mile limit restricting mobile fishing gear. We have no plans to do so. Such blanket spatial restrictions are not consistent with an evidence-based approach, do not embrace the benefits of new technology and are inconsistent with the nuanced approach outlined in our 2020-2030 Fisheries Management Strategy.

Depending on the circumstances of the case, financial contributions in connection with planning consent may be secured either by conditions or by planning obligations. The use of both planning conditions and obligations is subject to a series of tests: the former contained in Scottish Government Circular 4/1998; the latter in Circular 3/2012. In summary, the tests provide that any financial contributions must be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the proposed development, and reasonable in all other respects. These are matters of judgement for the relevant decision maker, whether the Scottish Government or local authority.

The Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) as proposed by the council, is exceptional in terms of scale and financial cost and requires careful consideration to ensure that it delivers for the local community.

The Scottish Government must weigh up any investment decision both in terms of the impact to the individual project, but also to the impact any individual project has on its ability to invest in other areas. As such, in 2023, Ministers and Falkirk Council agreed that the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme would be removed from consideration as part of the existing national funding agreement with local authorities for flood protection schemes because its size had a distorting effect on the affordability of the overall programme.

A Task Force approach has instead been used to examine how to take forward improved and affordable flood resilience for Falkirk and Grangemouth residents and local communities.