A crime of drug possession may be disposed in criminal court or through direct measures such as a Fiscal Fine or Recorded Police Warning. The following tables provide the most recent five years of data for persons convicted in court, where main charge (Table 1) or given a non-court disposal (Table 2).

Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and should not be viewed as indicative of long term trends.

Table 1

The Scottish Government recognises the serious educational disruption that Scotland’s children and young people encountered during the pandemic. We have worked with partners to provide the following support:

• The provision of a National e-Learning Offer, was introduced in 2020, developed throughout the pandemic, and continues to support learners across Scotland, providing live, recorded and interactive online resources across the entire curriculum and age ranges including early years, primary and secondary. We continue to fund this innovative and empowering service, created and led by Scottish educators, with £1.5m support for 2023-24
• In 2020-21, we provided £25m for the procurement of over 70,000 digital devices and 14,000 connectivity packages to allow children to access learning when school buildings closed.
• Significant investment of £500 million over 2020-21 and 2021-22 to support in education recovery efforts including support for education authorities to recruit additional staff to provide additional support for learning and teaching. In addition a further £145.5m has been added permanently to the local government settlement from April 2022. This will allow local authorities to offer sustained employment of additional teachers and support staff.

In addition, our investment of £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge during this parliamentary term includes more than £520 million of Pupil Equity Funding that is issued directly to schools. Headteachers are empowered to use this funding to put in place evidence-based approaches to meet the needs of the children and young people in their schools who are impacted by poverty, including where appropriate provision of mentoring and tutoring.

We published “Education Recovery: Key Actions and Next Steps” on 5 October 2021, outlining the range of actions we are taking to support Scotland’s education system and young people to recover from the pandemic.

Every part of the education system, including Scottish Government, has sought to support children and young people through the unprecedented challenges they have faced during the pandemic. Teachers have done, and continue to do, a remarkable job and the quality of teaching during the pandemic remained strong. We know there is more still to do and will continue to prioritise and support education recovery.

The package of support this year, including the "sensitive approach" to grading was agreed following discussion with stakeholders, including through the National Qualifications Group on which Scottish Government is represented.

SQA’s approach to grading the exams in 2023 was based on its established awarding processes where grade boundaries are set to determine the marks needed for each grade.

The key difference when taking a "sensitive approach" to grading is that decisions on where the grade boundaries are set at each subject and level, consider all factors that could have impacted on performance, such as the impact of course modifications, to ensure fairness to young people while maintaining national standards. Full information on SQA’s approach to awarding, including grading, is available in their National Qualifications 2023 Awarding Methodology Report .

Adjustments to grade boundaries are smaller this year than in 2022, reflecting the continuing recovery in skills, knowledge and understanding on the part of students.

The monitoring of the quality of drinking water from private water supplies is the responsibility of their owners and users. For larger supplies and those used for commercial or public activities, the drinking water must be sampled once every year. This mandatory sampling is carried out by local authorities, who are also responsible under statute for any enforcement action.

In most cases it is a legal requirement to provide a Home Report to prospective buyers when selling a home. The home report comprises of a single survey, property questionnaire and energy report and is completed by a qualified surveyor. The energy report gives information on the home's energy efficiency in the form of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). An EPC states the energy efficiency of a building based on standardised assumptions about the way in which a building is used.

The Scottish Government published a consultation on EPC reform on 25 July 2023 seeking stakeholder views on proposals to reform the current metrics to provide more holistic information about the efficiency of a home that is relevant to current and potential owners and occupiers. Our reform proposals include responding to recommendations on improvements to the EPC scheme made by the Climate Change Committee, our statutory advisers on climate matters.

The 2022-23 Local Government Finance Settlement included £351 million for the Council Tax Reduction Scheme. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, on the basis of local needs and priorities. The Scottish Government has not allocated any funding to the Water Charges Reduction Scheme (WCRS); this is because the scheme is funded by Scottish Water’s general household customer base. In 2022-23, Scottish Water reported that the value of the WCRS discount was £58 million.

The Scottish Government have no current plans to publish a Ministerial statement.

Parliamentary scrutiny has been possible through two sessions the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has held with sport scotland and Cricket Scotland. In addition sport scotland publish quarterly updates on progress against the Changing The Boundaries report. The most recent update was published on 25 July and can be accessed on the sport scotland website.

We will continue to work with sport scotland and Cricket Scotland to ensure all recommendations in the Changing The Boundaries report are progressed and ensure lasting change within the sport.

We are committed to commencing the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 which will provide additional protection to those at risk of domestic abuse.

Part 1 of the 2021 Act will provide both Police Scotland and the court with new powers that will enable a person suspected of causing harm to be removed from the home they share some or all of the time with the person at risk of harm, through a scheme of domestic abuse protection notices and orders. This is with the intention of providing breathing space for up to three months so a person at risk can consider their longer term options.

Work to commence Part 1 of the 2021 Act is progressing. The purpose of the Act Implementation Board is to facilitate collaboration between key interests with a view to ensuring the legislation can be implemented effectively. Membership includes representatives from Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Legal Aid Board and Scottish Women's Aid. An Operational Working Group has also been established which includes operational justice partners directly impacted by the legislation. Together the detail is being worked through to consider how a number of aspects of the legislation can best be implemented including how the views of children can be captured in a way that does not cause additional harm or trauma.

Part 2 of the 2021 Act will, when implemented, allow social housing landlords to apply to the court for an order which will have the effect of permitting the landlord to end a sole tenancy of a perpetrator of domestic abuse or end a perpetrators interest in a joint tenancy, enabling the victim to remain in the family home. The provisions aim to help improve the immediate and longer term housing outcomes of domestic abuse victims living in social housing who wish to continue living in the family home. They also help address the very real concern as to why victims and their families, rather than the perpetrator, should have to leave their homes, belongings and community to seek safety, with the perpetrator remaining undisturbed in the family home.

Work on the wide range of tasks necessary to commence Part 2 of the 2021 Act is progressing as a priority. This includes secondary legislation, changes to court rules and forms, model tenancy agreements and the development of statutory guidance in consultation with stakeholders. The aim is to bring Part 2 of the 2021 Act into force by early 2024, subject to the necessary rules and forms of court also being in place.

Bellway is currently involved in delivering two projects through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and we do not anticipate any major impact to delivery of these projects or our wider programme.

Since 2015 a total of 22,817 initial applications to Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) did not progress to work being carried out under the scheme. The scheme is targeted at alleviating fuel poverty for the most vulnerable households and so the most common reason for an unsuccessful application to Warmer Homes Scotland is that the household does not meet the eligibility criteria for age or lower income.

Applications to the first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland closed on 31 March 2023 and at this time all households were required to meet all 6 of the high-level qualifying criteria:

• Be a homeowner or tenant of a private sector landlord
• Live in the home as a main residence
• Lived at the property for more than twelve months (unless in receipt of DS1500 or BASRiS certificate)
• Live in a property with a SAP of 72 or lower which is under 230m 2 in floor size
• Live in a home that meets the tolerable living standard set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006
• Not received support for energy efficiency measures though WHS funding in the last 5 years

As well as meeting the six high level criteria, customers must be 16 or over and be in receipt of certain benefits. The exception to this is if you are 75 or over with no working heating system, then there is no benefits receipt requirement.

The table below outline the most common areas of eligibility that are not met by households. This information is from the launch of WHS in September 2015 to the close of applications on 31 March 2023.