Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s public health approach to violence has prevention at its core and our focus is aimed at preventing and reducing harm for people in Scotland’s communities.

My heartfelt condolences go to Lisa Petrie for the heartbreaking loss of her son, John. I commend Lisa on the work she has been doing to educate young people on the dangers of carrying knives as well as her campaign to roll out bleed kits which helped inform our commitment.

The SG will now engage with partners to inform how bleeding control kits are rolled out to community settings and engage with areas which have already done so.

The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 will commence provisions extending the existing Retail Register, so that any retailer selling nicotine products and herbal smoking products must register in the same way as retailers selling tobacco and vaping products are already required to do.

Following the statutory review, Ministers committed the Scottish Government to a period of reform of the National Performance Framework (NPF). During this period, no changes were made to the current national outcomes and indicators. These remain in operation as is the duty, under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, on public bodies to have regard to them.

We are making positive progress on reform of the NPF. The intention is to deliver a reformed NPF which will be Scotland’s wellbeing framework, setting the vision for the kind of Scotland we would all like to see, and providing strategic direction for better public services.

Subject to final decisions by Ministers, we expect to launch the reformed NPF and national outcomes soon. We will provide an update to Parliament in due course.

In March 2021, we published Scotland’s first population strategy, A Scotland for the future: opportunities and challenges of Scotland's changing population. It sets out the cross-cutting demographic challenges that Scotland faces at national and local level, and sets out a new programme of work to address these challenges and harness new opportunities.

There is an increased need for housing adaptations to support people as they age to live safely and independently at home which is why we have protected the Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) Adaptations Programme budget, maintaining this at £20.9 million for 2026-27. This commitment allows us to continue to support approximately 85 RSLs meet their responsibilities to deliver housing adaptations to disabled tenants.

It is vital that planning authorities have sufficient capacity to support economic growth. We have already invested £850,000 to reverse the decline of planners and boost public sector capacity. This has secured a path into planning for 48 new student planners through our award winning Future Planners Programme, and our Planning Bursary Scheme which is supporting students as they undertake professionally accredited planning degrees. Our National Planning Hub is directly supporting planning authorities in the short term to increase capacity. It is providing surge support, expert brokerage and sharing learning and knowledge to bridge any skills gaps.

Alongside increasing capacity we are also working to streamline, simplify and accelerate the planning system.

We will continue to work in partnership with planning authorities and other stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions to increase our resilience.

The Scottish Government routinely engages with a broad range of stakeholders and is committed to sustaining meaningful and constructive engagement throughout the policy making process.

The Sexual Offences Court was legislated for as part of the landmark Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025. The Act makes a range of significant reforms to the justice system to deliver meaningful improvements for victims and witnesses. Implementation of its provisions is being phased, reflecting the constrained financial environment and the time needed by justice partners to plan and deliver fundamental change in an effective and managed way.

The establishment of the Court will be led by the judiciary and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and will involve close collaboration with a range of stakeholders. Given the scale and complexity of this change, when the transformational court will become operational will be determined by a range of factors including the capacity of the partners and agencies involved in delivering this milestone reform. The Scottish Government will work closely with all those involved to support the effective implementation of the Court. Ministers will keep Parliament updated on anticipated timescales for the establishment of the Court.

Helping people with the cost of living is a top priority of this government.

The information requested is not held centrally. Information on the outcome of court cases is held by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Services (SCTS). Scottish Government (SG) receive a subset of information regularly for use in the Criminal Disposals Dashboard this provides information on the disposal for all charges convicted in court. This shows the number of custodial and non-custodial disposals from each type of court. This dataset also contains the verdict for each charge although this is not currently published. The dataset only relates to disposed cases so information on electronically monitored bail is not held.

Information on the length of time spent on remand is regularly published by SG and is available here: Scottish Prison Population Statistics.

SG is currently developing a research project to link data from SCTS and SPS which may help answer some of these questions. However, an individual can be held on remand for different charges in different cases so determining how the outcome of a court case relates to time spent on remand is not straightforward.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with local authorities and industry partners to identify and address barriers to the delivery of housing, including those related to planning and contaminated land.

During 2025, a total of 114 sites across Scotland were assessed as part of this work. Of these, 11 sites were located within the Glasgow City Council area. None of these 11 sites were identified as being stalled due to issues relating to contaminated land or the cost of associated remediation works.

The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) provides funding through local authorities for project proposals that support place based regeneration, including the remediation of vacant and derelict land to unlock sites for development of new homes.

Further assistance is provided through the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund (VDLF), a ring-fenced element of the local government finance settlement targeted at local authorities with the greatest levels of long-term vacant and derelict land and deprivation.

In terms of supporting the delivery of social housing on land requiring remediation, the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) allows for grant funding to contribute towards eligible remediation costs within the curtilage of a development site.

Under the Transfer of the Management of Development Funding (TMDF) arrangements, the assessment and administration of these funding applications in Glasgow is conducted by Glasgow City Council on behalf of Scottish Ministers.