Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not regard it as appropriate to engage in public comment in respect of live court proceedings.

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

The SPS Policy for the Management of Transgender People in Custody protects the rights and welfare of transgender people living in Scotland’s prisons in a way which promotes the safety of all people in custody.

When placing a transgender person within our estate, we adopt an individualised approach to ensure the safety of everyone in our care by assessing and managing identified known risk.

There is a total of 21 transgender people in custody representing 0.3% of the total prison population. As a public body we must uphold our statutory obligation to ensure everyone in our care has their personal information protected. Given these small numbers, we are unable to provide any further disaggregation of this data due to potential risk of identification of individuals.

SPS also aim to publish prison numbers and relevant data on a quarterly basis, the last of which can be found here.

The First Minister was approached by members of For Women Scotland while attending an International Women’s Day event on Saturday 8 March 2025. In conversation, it was proposed by a representative of For Women Scotland that a meeting take place with the First Minister after the UK Supreme Court had reached a decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. The Supreme Court published its judgment on 16 April and I, as the Cabinet Secretary with portfolio responsibility for equality, and the Minister for Equalities, met For Women Scotland on 22 May 2025.

No meeting has taken place between the First Minister and For Women Scotland since then, and we would not consider a meeting to be appropriate due to the live legal proceedings between For Women Scotland and the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government has been taking forward the detailed work that is necessary as a consequence of the ruling. Since the judgment, we have:

• Engaged with Health Boards on the requirement to implement the Supreme Court judgment in line with their own legal advice. On 30 September, the Director of Health Workforce wrote to Health Boards to reinforce the importance of complying with the law, and the Supreme Court judgment implemented. Application of the law following the Supreme Court ruling remains a matter for Boards, in accordance with their own legal advice.
• Published revised Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools Guidance, while recognising that the EHRC are also reviewing Technical Guidance for schools;
• Advanced joint work with Police Scotland, with a public consultation on the Stop and Search Code of Practice scheduled before the end of this year.
• There have been no changes to prisons guidance.

We have also:

• Updated our guidance for the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.
• Amended the public appointments recruitment process for public bodies subject to the Act, now collating and using biological sex at birth data to apply the Act.
• Moved to an interim Trans and Non-Binary Inclusion Policy, removing a line regarding facilities use, while we develop new policy and guidance in consultation with trade unions.
• Conducted an initial review of facilities across the SG estate with a more detailed review now underway to ensure our provision meets the needs of staff and legal requirements.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring those living with endometriosis can access the best possible care and support.

Endometriosis is a priority in the Women’s Health Plan and will continue to be so. Wide ranging progress, including action to support clinicians to better understand endometriosis is set out in the Women's health plan 2021 to 2024: final report - gov.scot published in November 2024.

The ongoing action we will take to support those living with endometriosis will be set out in the next phase of the Plan, which is expected to be published in January 2026.

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

Whilst SPS do not require prison officer applicants to complete a specific English language proficiency test as part of its recruitment process; verbal, written and comprehension skills are tested thoroughly throughout this operational recruitment process.

All applicants must successfully undergo and pass a comprehensive period of testing which includes a situational judgement test, cognitive ability test, a group and written exercise (for Residential Officer applicants only), and then finally a values-based job interview.

All offers of employment will however be subject to successful completion of all pre-employment checks, which include enhanced disclosure and right to work in the UK checks.

The Scottish Government does not regard it as appropriate to engage in public comment in respect of live court proceedings.

The public sector provides a range of digital public services and it is critical that these are secure and resilient.

Local Authorities are independent corporate bodies, entirely separate from the Scottish Government, and it is up to each council how it plans for, manages, and mitigates its risks. However, the Scottish Government does actively support and help build the cyber resilience of our local authorities, through the provision of guidance, resources, networking and skills development.

The Scottish Government encourages public sector organisations, including local authorities to adopt a proactive, risk-based governance approach, with board-level accountability to build and improve their cyber resilience. We have set out a framework that includes guidance on how to:

• Assess their cyber resilience maturity,
• Align with minimum security standards,
• Benchmark performance, and
• Prioritise investment based on risk.

The Scottish Government has in place a Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents Procedure. This is a voluntary process which encourages Scottish Public Sector bodies to report cyber incidents to the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3). The process also encourages reporting of cyber incidents to the UK Government National Cyber Security Centre and Police Scotland where appropriate.

The SC3 provides ongoing support to local authorities in the form of:

• 24/7 national incident response coordination
• Daily threat intelligence and early warning notifications
• Cyber exercising and preparedness programmes, and
• Guidance on standards and best practice.

This national support is helping to equip our public bodies with the tools, intelligence and skills needed to build and maintain strong cyber resilience.

As detailed in response to S6W-41997 on 9 December 2025, A&E activity data published by Public Health Scotland does not differentiate patients who were treated on trolleys. It is important to highlight that patients frequently spend time in a trolleyed area while undergoing assessment and treatment within our Emergency Departments in line with clinical need. In respect of patients being cared for in non-standard patient areas while awaiting admission to an inpatient bed, we are in active discussions with PHS regarding the feasibility of a national data collection however, our absolute focus is on addressing the cause of the conditions which lead to care in non-standard areas.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. A&E activity data is collected and published by Public Health Scotland. These statistics show the number of people attending A&E services, how long they are waiting and performance against the 4-hour access standard. The published data does not differentiate patients who were treated on trolleys.