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Thriving businesses are key to Scotland’s prosperity, and their success is critical to delivering the First Minister’s priorities.

The statistics for Scotland’s gross domestic product (GDP) cannot be split precisely into separate contributions from the public and private sectors. This is because they are produced using data classified by industry and there are public sector bodies in many part of the economy. As an approximation, the contribution to GDP growth over the last two years from the public sector dominated industries of public administration and defence, education, health and social work is presented in the following table. Note that there are some public sector bodies in the rest of the economy, and the education, health and social work industries also contain private sector businesses and organisations. These contributions are calculated using the latest quarterly GDP statistics available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-estimate-of-gdp-2025-q2/.

The information as requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government funds hundreds of organisations and does not monitor which organisations have campaigned for gender self-identification.

On 7 August, the Scottish Government published the latest 6-month prison population projections, based on court activity and prison population data, up to the end of 2025. Due to the uncertainty surrounding factors that influence prison population flows - such as crime rates and justice system activity - the projections included several possible scenarios, including a reasonable upper estimate and a reasonable lower estimate. Taking the scenarios together and assuming that recent trends in justice demand, policy and practice continue, it was projected that the average daily prison population could be between 7,950 and 8,750 in December 2025. The design capacity of the prison estate is currently 7,805.

Conditions attached to Scottish Government grant funding will vary based on the organisation and project being funded. Some organisations are given core funding to meet general costs while others receive funding strictly associated to a specific project. The specific details of these conditions are set out individually in grant offer letters for each piece of funding.

All grants are actively managed in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual: Grant and grant in aid - Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot. In particular, grants have outcomes and objectives associated to them which mean that payments are only made when the grant manager is content that value for money is being achieved. Furthermore, all Scottish Government grant offer letters specify that funds are not to be used for party political purposes. Beyond the auspices of projects for which organisations have been given grant funding, organisations are free to campaign on any issues as we would expect in a democratic society. It is not for the Scottish Government to interfere with this freedom, to ensure that the third sector can have an independent voice.

The establishment of the National Social Work Agency is underway. It will be an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government and will be established by Spring 2026. Recruitment for the Chief Executive of the agency is underway to support the transition from the Scottish Government and is line with existing policies and procedures.

The Scottish Government’s hybrid working policy outlines that organisations outside of Scottish Government core, for example, executive agencies will set out their own local approaches. Once the Chief Executive is in post and with the supporting structures in place, the future policy on hybrid working within the National Social Work Agency will be a matter for the Chief Executive and the Board to lead, in consultation with staff and the unions.

The fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas, as well as the regulatory regimes for licensing and consenting, are all matters that are currently reserved to the UK Government.

We continue to call on the UK Government to listen carefully to concerns being expressed by businesses and trade bodies around the impacts of its Energy Profits Levy.

We are now awaiting the UK Government’s response to its recent consultation, which must clearly set out how a stable and long-term fiscal regime will be used to deliver business and investor certainty for the North Sea. The Energy Profits Levy was always supposed to be a temporary measure and we must see the earliest possible end date, as it is now affecting investment and jobs in the North East.

Our flagship Childsmile programme has supported a reduction in child oral health inequality over the long term, with the latest National Dental Inspection Programme results showing that the gap between P1 children with no obvious tooth decay living in the most and least deprived areas, is at its lowest on record – decreasing from 32.2 percentage points in 2010 to 23.5 percentage points in 2024.

However we know there is more to do. We continue to invest in our flagship Childsmile programme, which offers universal oral health interventions including supervised toothbrushing, fluoride varnish application and dietary advice to children and young people in nurseries, early years schooling and in dental practices - with targeted interventions for children living in the most deprived areas.

Since 2022-23 we have provided additional annual funding of £1.85m to NHS Boards to scale up delivery of the Programme, including through the recruitment of additional Dental Health Support Workers who work directly with more vulnerable communities.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are independent, operationally and constitutionally, from the Scottish Government.

The rising and increasingly complex prison population remains a major challenge as it does across the UK, and we are taking sustained action to reduce it. This includes the Prisoners (Early Release) Scotland Act 2025 which changes the point of release for some short-term prisoners and regulations to widen the use of home detention curfew. Additional funding of £25m over two years has been provided to increase the capacity of community justice services to support a sustained increase, where appropriate, in the use of alternatives to custody. This brings the total funding for community justice to £159m in 2025-26.

We have also established the independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission to review how custody and community-based interventions are used, with a focus on reducing crime, supporting rehabilitation, and ensuring a sustainable prison population. Final recommendations will be delivered by the end of 2025 and will inform further action in this area.

The Scottish Government continues to progress a range of actions in collaboration with justice partners to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population, whilst maintaining a focus on protecting the public.

At present, Community Payback Orders (CPOs) are the most commonly used alternative to a custodial sentence, with over 15,100 commenced in 2023-24. CPOs are a flexible and robust disposal which make people pay back to their community and can include one or more of a range of requirements which can be tailored to fit the circumstances of individual cases (including unpaid work, supervision by justice social work, and addressing addiction issues). The evidence shows that community-based interventions and sentences can be more effective in addressing offending behaviour and assisting with rehabilitation than short-term custodial sentences, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.

We have increased community justice funding by £25 million over two years, bringing the total to £159 million in 2025-26. This has increased the use of alternatives to custody and supports a range of community justice services, including diversion from prosecution, alternatives to remand and community sentencing.

Looking ahead, we have also established an independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, with final recommendations to be presented to the Scottish Government by the end of this year to help ensure that Scotland has a sustainable prison population over the longer term. This important work will consider how imprisonment and community-based interventions are currently used and what improvements can be made in dealing with offending behaviour in an effective and proportionate manner.