Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.

The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as local authorities are responsible for the delivery of education. Local authorities may hold this information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38196 on 17 June 2025. 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

Responsibility for developing Skills Investment Plans currently sits with Skills Development Scotland (SDS). We are exploring an approach for skills planning in collaboration with SDS and the Scottish Funding Council as part of the Post School Education and Skills Reform Programme, which will clarify how these processes are run in future.

As part of ongoing social care improvement and reform activity, The Scottish Government is working with CoSLA to explore possible options for removing Non-Residential Social Care charges.

Annual bulletins containing accredited official statistics and information on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland are published by the Scottish Government. Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24 shows that the number of sexual crimes recorded by the police in Scotland decreased by 1% between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from 14,602 to 14,484.

That bulletin is clear that whilst there has been a small decrease in the last year, sexual crime has increased significantly since 2010-11. Over the last decade we have seen an increase in confidence to report incidents of sexual crime, in part reflecting a greater awareness and understanding of the issues among society as well as a move towards a more trauma informed and person-centred justice system.

We recognise that multiple factors lie behind the longer term trend of increasing reporting of sexual crime. Our action to tackle sexual offending includes increasing confidence in the justice system so more victims come forward, improving support for victims, modernising the law on sexual offences and investing a record £1.64 billion for policing this year. We continue to take robust action to tackle sexual offending through the Equally Safe Strategy – focusing on prevention, improving our laws, and encouraging more victims to come forward.

We recognise the key role that advocacy services can play in helping and supporting victims through the justice process. That is why the Scottish Government will provide over £32m to 23 organisations between 2025-2027, including £12m for specialist advocacy support, as part of its Victims Centred Approach Fund. In addition, the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill includes new proposals such as the establishment of a sexual offences court which aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our system at holding perpetrators to account whilst improving the experiences of victims and witnesses.

Scottish Government has not had discussions with Boards about expanding CAR-T cell therapy provision beyond the current centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Until late 2024, adult CAR-T cell therapy in Scotland was delivered through a single specialist centre. The move to a three-centre model from April 2025 reflects a clinically-led and phased approach to scaling this complex and resource-intensive treatment.

CAR T-cell therapy requires specialist facilities, accredited services, and expert clinical teams to manage serious side effects. Because only a small number of patients are eligible, concentrating treatment in a few centres helps maintain safety, quality, and clinical expertise.

It is too early to assess the need for further expansion. The impact of the current model must be fully evaluated before considering additional centres. Any future decisions will be based on clinical need, service capacity, and workforce sustainability.

The development and delivery of flood protection schemes is a local authority responsibility, and the Scottish Government provides funding to support them to do so.

The Scottish Government’s assessment of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) response to any incidents is informed by regular engagement (at various levels between SFRS and the Scottish Government), annual and mid-year performance reviews and HMFSI reports.

The Chief Fire Officer has provided assurances to the Scottish Government that SFRS remains ready and able to respond to all relevant non-fire related emergency incidents that may occur across Scotland.

As committed to in our Biodiversity Delivery Plan, we are revising the Scottish Biodiversity List of species and habitats. A process involving stakeholders is already underway to produce a revised list by the end of 2025. This summer, NatureScot and Scottish Government officials will be working with a range of stakeholders to prioritise habitats and species which are of principle importance for the conservation of biodiversity in Scotland and provide advice to Ministers. Workshops to consider these lists are planned for August and early September. The importance that species-rich grasslands have for biodiversity both as habitats, and for supporting species dependent on them, will form part of this exercise.

Assessing the total economic impact of cybercrime losses on households in Scotland is challenging, as a significant proportion of these crimes are not reported to the police. In recognising the value of improving the evidence base on this topic, new questions were added to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) for 2023-24 onwards. New headline findings were then published on the 10th June 2025 (Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2023/24 - gov.scot).

Further analysis of the survey shows that 2.2% of adults (aged 16+) living in private households in 2023-24 lost money as victims of a cyber-enabled fraud or computer misuse crime. The vast majority of these crimes were fraud. The median amount lost was £103 per crime, though a minority lost significantly more with 9% of crimes above £1,000. In around half of all cases (48%), the ultimate direct economic impact on the household was limited, as they received a full or partial refund (most often from a bank or building society).