Chamber and committees

At 1 December 2023:

• the total number of people registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections was 4,241,800;
• just under 189,500 qualifying foreign nationals resident in Scotland were registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections.

Updated information on the electoral register at 1 December 2024 is due to be published on the National Records of Scotland website: People registered to vote - National Records of Scotland (NRS) at 9.30am on 24 April 2025.

Using the supplier registration address information from Public Contracts Scotland, the following table shows the total number of awarded procurement frameworks and contracts over the last two years:

The draft 2025-26 Scottish Budget provides additional investment of £139 million for NHS infrastructure. This provides increased core capital funding for NHS Boards and, as a first step to lifting the capital pause, allows work on the replacement of some acute facilities to resume, as well as providing funding to address NHS Boards’ priority areas for infrastructure investment.

Despite this additional investment, the capital funding position remains challenging and there remains uncertainty in the longer-term funding position, as we await the outcome of the UK Government’s spending review. All due consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable, deliverable and provide best value, following the outcome of that review, this will include the National Treatment Centre in Livingston.

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

HMP Glasgow is a nationally important infrastructure project which is committed to working with, and employing, local people.

Whilst this is a matter for the contractor, I understand Kier Construction has been actively engaged with representatives of Unite and met with them as recently as 1 April for further discussions.

The original National Treatment Centre (NTC) programme included 6 centres with an initial cost estimate of £200 million, though budgets were not allocated for individual projects at that point.

As the name suggests, England is piloting a Quota Application Mechanism (QAM). The QAM initiative commenced in 2024 and included three of the roughly 100 stocks which Fisheries Administrations distribute. In 2025 they have expanded the pilot to include five stocks.

The Scottish Government has implemented an initiative for application for quota in 2025 for West of Scotland cod. In allocating this quota, we seek to incentivise vessels which can evidence a reduced environmental impact and/or greater selectivity of catch in their fishing operations.

Fixed Quota Allocation units (FQAs) are used to apportion the larger portion of the UK’s quotas (roughly 85% in 2025) between the four fisheries administrations. Therefore, any discussion as to the Fixed Quota Allocation system being fit for purpose would require to be held between the devolved administrations, UK Government, the fishing industry (and associated stakeholders) and through public consultation.

The Scottish Government has been clear, since the publication of its outcomes to public consultations in 2021 and in 2024, that it will not use FQAs to distribute a defined share of its quotas. That equates to 15% of Scotland’s total quotas in 2025; this is roughly analogous to the methodology by which the UK distributes these fishing opportunities between the devolved administrations.

Our future decisions around the terminology to be adopted in proposed Scottish Government legislation will be made in the light of all relevant matters. This will include matters such as the proposed legislation’s operation in conjunction with existing law, or any need to maintain consistency when the proposed legislation would textually amend provisions in another enactment.

There is published information on the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting proposed Acts of this Parliament in the second edition of the Parliamentary Counsel Office drafting manual, Drafting Matters!: https://www.gov.scot/publications/drafting-matters/pages/1/.

It is not possible to provide all incidences where either REM or VMS indicated that a scallop vessel fished inside a nature conservation area since 2014. Our retention policy for camera data is one year and for position data as long as we feel necessary as per our privacy notice REM privacy statement found at: Remote Electronic Monitoring ("REM") systems on fishing vessels (2024): Privacy Notice - Fishing - remote electronic monitoring: privacy notice - gov.scot. We also do not have access to VMS data going back to 2014.

We can provide the number of detected cases submitted for enforcement action where VMS and/or REM was the initial method of detection since 2020.

2020 – 1

2021 – 2

2022 – 2

2023 – 2 (note these were for incursion into the Mull Crab box, designated to protect crab stocks)

2024 – 1

The number of fines issued for breaches of the landing obligation (discarding) since 2020 were.

0 issued in 2020

4 issued 2021

9 issued 2022

4 issued 2023

1 issued 2024

The Thistle operates like any other NHS facility, working closely with community safety partners to prevent and address antisocial behaviour, including the abandonment of drug paraphernalia. While the Scottish Government does not directly collect data on this, local partners such as Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland monitor and report on related public safety concerns. For example, the Council records incidents of discarded needles, and in 2024 Police Scotland reported the disposal of approximately 5,000 needles across two city locations. This data is used by local agencies as part of a coordinated approach to ensure safety.