Shoplifting and other forms of retail crime causes considerable distress to their victims. We have seen a significant rise in recorded shoplifting throughout the UK according to our own figures and those released by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales and Scotland, part of which is being driven by organised criminal groups.

As announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government on 4 December 2024, £3 million will be specifically provided through the draft budget for 2025/26 to enable Police Scotland to work with the retail sector to target the unacceptable levels of crime on Scotland’s high streets.

This funding is an important step in the fight against retail crime which costs businesses millions each year, and has a knock-on effect on the prices we pay in the shops.

Our Public Sector Reform (PSR) programme is making a vital contribution to improving outcomes and achieving sustainable public finances in the longer term. We have set out a clear programme of PSR to Parliament, with a strong focus on the data, levers and workforce that will drive efficiency. To enable this work, we will implement an Invest to Save fund in 2025-26, backed by up to £30 million of new funding. This fund will support the cost of change to deliver improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, including cashable savings which will be recycled back into the fund, and we will work towards creating a self-sustaining fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31994 on 12 December 2024. 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 supports a range of SCQF-accredited courses and recognises the important role that many, like the ones referenced, play in supporting interdisciplinary learning. Such courses offer learners the opportunity to apply disciplinary knowledge and develop key skills in relation to complex, real world challenges and are relevant to future employment opportunities.

In 2022-23 the Scottish Government provided SCQF with total funding of £44,000, and then a further £30,000 in 2023-24 to deliver its small scale Learning for Sustainability (LfS) grant fund to ensure there is a better offer on LfS-related qualifications for learners. In both financial years SCQF then allocated funding from this pot to individual projects within the overall funding amount – proposals were invited and then assessed and decided by an assessment panel involving officials and run by SCQF, based on agreed criteria. Ministers were not involved in final funding decisions to applicants.

In 2023-24 the International Sustainability Diploma, developed by the Futures Institute at Dollar Academy (FIDA), was successful in securing £6,030 of funding to support its accreditation at SCQF Level 6 and the course’s promotion to other schools and centres. The course is being piloted in approximately seven schools this year with the intention to scale it up further following this initial pilot phase.

Most recently, in 2024-25 the Scottish Government awarded the established Powering Futures programme £250,000 through the Entrepreneurial Education Pathways Fund, which aims to create an entrepreneurial overlay to their current academic qualification, allowing it to be more explicit around entrepreneurial understanding and attributes. Powering Futures supports learners to develop crucial skills for the workplace as well as gaining an understanding of sustainability.

Both qualifications focus on sustainability but differ in a number of ways. In particular, the FIDA qualification offers 24 SCQF Credit points at Level 6, while Powering Futures is awarded at 8 SCQF Credit points at Level 6.

Members and the public are encouraged to use clips from Parliament TV on social media. This is an effective mechanism for sharing information about the work of Members and reaching new audiences.   

This material should not be used for party political purposes. This is set out in the Parliament’s copyright policy and license which governs the use of Parliament TV clips.  These restrictions apply to anyone using our clips, not only Members.    

The SPCB last considered this matter in April of this year when it agreed new guidance for Members and their staff on the use of clips for social media.    

The guidance was subsequently published in May 2024 and includes illustrative examples of what is and isn’t acceptable in line with both the copyright policy and the policy for MSPs’ on the use of parliamentary resources.  The material can be used to make a fair and accurate report of parliamentary proceedings and should not be edited, added to, distorted or digitally manipulated except to add accessibility features.  

SPCB policies and guidance are kept under review. Feedback is welcome so we can ensure they are as clear and useful to Members as possible.

We have allocated over £66 million of funding to Sustrans this financial year. This includes funding and support to Local Authorities and others to deliver infrastructure to help people walk, wheel or cycle, as well as support to upgrade and expand the National Cycle Network throughout Scotland. This is delivered by Sustrans’ Scotland based staff from their office in Edinburgh.

As part of our transformation of active travel delivery, the funding of the main Transport Scotland infrastructure programme, Places for Everyone, managed by Sustrans, winds down to December 2025.

The new Active Travel Infrastructure Fund which will see Transport Scotland directly award funding to Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Authorities.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

There is no place for harassment or abuse in any form in our schools. We published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence in March 2024. This framework helps to support schools both to prevent gender-based violence from occurring, and to respond appropriately when it does occur. To support its implementation, in September 2024 Education Scotland ran an information session on the framework for school staff. As part of that, they sought feedback on areas where more bespoke training may be helpful. We will commission an independent review of the framework to establish positive practice and further areas for improvement, before the end of this parliamentary session.

Misogynistic behaviour was identified as an emerging trend within the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2023. The relationships and behaviour in schools action plan contains a number of commitments to address this, including Action 10: Children and young people are supported to develop healthy relationships and behaviours, grounded in tolerance and respect. Delivery of this action is supported by our ongoing investment in the school-based peer education programme, Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), which was awarded £156,000 funding for 2024-25 to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls. Earlier this year, Education Scotland, who operate the programme, developed a new MVP scenario on misogyny. In addition, through our Delivering Equally Safe fund, we are also continuing to fund Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence prevention programme Equally Safe at School which is aimed at local authority secondary schools across Scotland.

We are committed to tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, including economic abuse, which as a tactic of coercive control and abuse can have lifelong impacts on victims.

Through our Delivering Equally Safe fund, we are providing approximately £600,000 over three and a half years to GEMAP, for their Financially Included project. This focuses on improving responses to economic abuse across the money advice and gender-based violence sectors, through development and delivery of training and resources. Additionally Financially Included use their learning to raise awareness of economic abuse and the economic impact of all forms of male violence against women and girls.

The Scottish Government continues to improve the information around government spending and its climate impact and has successfully completed a pilot of our new Net Zero Assessment (NZA) methodology which is now undergoing independent expert review.

In designing the approach, assessments used by other countries were reviewed, including new Zealand, drawing on key features while adapting them to the Scottish context.

The Scottish NZA process is similar to the New Zealand Climate Implications of Policy Assessment (CIPA), with assessment at the early stage of policy development and proportionate screening. The scope of the Scottish NZA is wider as it covers all policy areas, not just climate and energy policies.

I will write to the Convenor of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on the outcome of the pilot and next steps on the roll out of NZA in 2025.