Chamber and committees

Information is not held centrally on the full range of individual characteristics that Police Scotland collect in their crime recording system. Further advice may be available from contacting them directly through the office of the Chief Constable. It is an operational matter for Police Scotland to determine the specific categories of information gathered and recorded, in the pursuit of their duties.

The Scottish Government is taking robust action to tackle sexual offending through the Equally Safe Strategy – focusing on prevention, improving our laws, and encouraging more victims to come forward. The Scottish Government has provided funding of over £6 million to Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Advocacy Service over the last three years, and over £2 million in 2025-26. This funding provides a key support worker in every centre in Scotland, recognising the important role of advocacy services in supporting victims and giving them confidence to come forward to engage with the justice process. In addition, support for victims is available from the Victim Centred Approach Fund. We will provide £32 million to 23 organisations between 2025-2027 from this Fund, including £12 million to Victim Support Scotland.

The new Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Act introduces several measures to improve police complaints and misconduct systems, including enhancing integrity and accountability of police officers and providing for ongoing vetting throughout all officers' careers. We are consulting on proposals for further changes to police conduct regulations, including accelerated misconduct proceedings.

Universities are autonomous bodies and operate within a legal framework which places duties on them to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom, most notably under the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Act 2016. These duties apply alongside legal obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality (Scotland) Act 2010. This includes the Public Sector Equality Duty reporting and the statutory requirement that Universities undertake Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessments of their policies.

Universities must also comply with the Scottish Code of Good Higher Education Governance. Institutions are required to report on their compliance with the Code in their annual accounts.

Compliance with the Code of Good Governance is a condition of grant from the Scottish Funding Council. Regulatory bodies including the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman also have an interest in how institutions exercise their legal responsibilities.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have asked for. This is because payment data available for reporting from the Scottish Government financial management system does not provide the level of detail needed to breakdown the individual items included within the total amount invoiced, therefore we are not able to split out the costs for advertising and consultancy fees.

Scottish Government marketing spend is published annually on gov.scot and includes cost breakdown per consultancy.

The SQA are currently located in the Lowden Building in Dalkeith and Optima Building in Glasgow. These locations will transfer to Qualifications Scotland and so there will be no relocation cost.

The transition from the Scottish Qualifications Authority to Qualifications Scotland through our Education Reform Programme in 2025-26 is forecast to cost approximately £0.3m for rebranding and £0.436m for restructuring, to meet the Bill requirements, as voted for by Parliament in June 2025.

The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 provides the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland to issue property factor enforcement orders and to determine whether or not that Enforcement Order has been met.

A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a property factor enforcement order commits an offence. Any further action in relation to non-compliance with a property factor enforcement order (PFEO) is an operational matter that fall within the responsibilities of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). These matters have been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 also provides that the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland serves Notices to Scottish Ministers of a failure to comply with a PFEO. To date 79 Notice to Ministers have been received. This figure may not be fully comprehensive as information may not be available due to the Scottish Government’s data retention policy.

On receipt of a Notice, the first aim is to encourage compliance and address the issue. If this cannot be achieved, Scottish Ministers will remove registration as this will prevent the entity from legally operating as a property factor in Scotland. To date, the Scottish Ministers have removed registration from 3 property factors for failing to meet the requirements of the fit and proper person test, part of which included failing to comply with a PFEO. These property factors were removed in January 2015, January 2016, and April 2019 respectively.

Scottish Ministers have sought additional powers in the Housing (Scotland) Bill to obtain further information and to carry out inspections with a view to supporting compliance and providing information to fully re-assess the fit and proper person test, if required.

Serco NorthLink Ferries (SNF) carry out ongoing assessments to monitor capacity across the Northern Isles routes.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a programme of Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits to Scottish territorial NHS Boards which provides an opportunity to explore the levels of psychological support available for people living with HIV.

Throughout visits we have observed areas of excellent practice in relation to psychological support for people living with HIV, including some Boards bringing clinical psychology pathways into routine HIV care to ensure holistic HIV management and digital solutions for those who live in more rural areas where peer support may be more challenging. We continue to work with NHS Boards and encourage sharing best practices to address any gaps identified throughout these visits.

Regulations for hydrogen transport through pipelines and storage are reserved to the UK Government. As such, Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with UK Government counterparts on these matters as they relate to Scotland's hydrogen interests.

The UK Government has recently published a consultation on the economic regulatory framework for 100% hydrogen pipelines. This was published on the 15th of July and will run until the 9th of September and invites stakeholder's views on the suitability of the regulatory framework set out under the Gas Act 1986 for the needs of the hydrogen economy. The Scottish Government is currently considering the framework proposed and is formulating our response to be submitted in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to ensure the geographical variations across the UK, particularly in Scotland, are considered in any changes to hydrogen regulations, as well to ensure the UK Government develops a fit for purpose regulatory regime that enables us to achieve our shared hydrogen ambitions.

The Scottish Government published its Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework (SRF) on 17 June 2025. This Framework provides a high-level guide for change, to ensure the sustainability, efficiency, quality, and accessibility of health and social care services in Scotland. Within the SRF, we set out our commitment to publish the Long-Term Conditions Framework and its aim and outcomes will be closely linked to the principles of the SRF.