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NHS Boards have reporting systems to capture data on violence and aggression - including sexual assault. I strongly encourage staff to report any and all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour.

Health Improvement Scotland are working with all NHS boards and partner organisations to standardise the reporting of adverse events, and have developed a national framework which was published in February.

This details the importance of national standards of reporting and the requirement for monitoring and publishing of data. This will facilitate the collation of accurate data nationally.

The courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with sexual offending. All instances of such behaviour should be reported and escalated to Police Scotland as quickly as possible for consideration of necessary action.

Under current constitutional arrangements in the UK, asylum is reserved to the UK.

Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes the provision of accommodation for people seeking asylum if they would otherwise be destitute while waiting for a decision on their asylum application from the Home Office. The Scottish Government has no control of these processes.

The Scottish Government is aware that hotels have been procured as contingency asylum accommodation in Scotland. Published Home Office statistics indicate that at the end of December 2024 there were 1,421 people seeking asylum accommodated in contingency hotels in Scotland. As the Home Office is responsible for the provision of asylum accommodation, including the use of contingency hotels, questions relating to their operation should be directed to the Home Office.

Scotland’s partnership with Pakistan is long-standing, with a highly active diaspora, and Pakistan being the 4th largest international student community in our own universities. Our commitment for the Scotland Pakistan Scholarships for Young Women and Girls has been to provide £400,000 a year, through British Council Pakistan who manage the scholarships, though we have provided further financing in year 2022 to support women and girls affected by floods, and year in 2023-24 and 2024-25 because the high level of demand on the scheme.

This is in a country with significant gender disparities in education ranking 145 out of 146 countries on the Gender Parity Index for literacy and educational attainment (in 2018 that was 146 out of 148 countries). Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, close to 60% of which are girls. Pakistan has one of the highest amount of out of school girls. Only about 22% of the workforce are women while women's representation in professional and managerial positions remains low, with only 7.4% of STEM professionals being female.

Inspired by a courageous campaign for better education for girls in Pakistan led by Malala Yousafzai, a young female education activist and the youngest Nobel laureate who was shot by the Taliban, the Scottish Government set up the Scotland Pakistan Scholarships for Young Women and Girls to support equality for women and girls in Pakistan. Since 2013, I am proud to say that Scottish Government has supported over 20,000 women and girls to get Secondary education and a further 2,000 to attend University education including at postgraduate level (16300 for secondary education and 1,200 for University in the last 5 years).

To support work with refugees, people seeking asylum and local communities, the Scottish Government provides funding to organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council to ensure that all people seeking refugee protection in Scotland are welcome, where women, children and men are protected, find safety and support, have their human rights and dignity respected and are able to achieve their full potential.

The following table contains a list of the funding the Scottish Government has provided to the Scottish Refugee Council since March 2020. It is a condition of all Scottish Government grants that recipients deliver the objectives set out in the grant offer letter. The funding below has been assessed through a combination of written and financial reporting and deemed to be effective.

Australian Council for Educational Research International UK (ACER UK) were awarded a contract to support the Scottish Government, in consultation with its partner country Governments, to provide a needs analysis in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda to inform the design of our new Inclusive Education programmes, with a focus on improving access to education for the most marginalised – particularly girls and learners with disabilities. The total amount paid to ACER UK for their services in FY2023-24 was £54,172.

Support from the Scottish Government for Inclusive Education was a specific ask during discussions with all three partner countries of Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, and is provided in line with commitments made in Scotland’s International Strategy: Delivering for Scotland and the Programme for Government in 2023.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Government carried out a review of its approach to International Development in light of COVID-19 which deepened pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems. The results of that Review were announced to the Scottish Parliament through a Ministerial Statement on 3 March 2021 which included agreeing priority focus areas for future international development programming, ensuring SG is supporting its partners to address the impacts of COVID-19; education was one of the priority areas.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. The member may find it useful to consult the Public Health Scotland ‘Cancer incidence in Scotland’ publication. This had its most recent release in November 2024 and is accessible at the following link: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-incidence-in-scotland/cancer-incidence-in-scotland-to-december-2022/

The third sector plays a critical role in the Scottish Government’s ambition to improve outcomes for children, young people, families and adult learners particularly given the ongoing cost of living crisis. Since 2016, the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund has supported 122 organisations with just over £112m in funding. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has supported a further 22 organisations, providing core funding of over £6m, through the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector fund. Core funding delivered through these funds has helped to support a range of action to deliver on priorities including tackling child poverty, supporting Children’s Rights, Keeping the Promise and promoting positive mental and physical health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government appointed a fund administrator – the Corra Foundation – to work closely with all 137 organisations to support delivery of the funding outcomes that were set out in grant offers. As part of the conditions of grant, funded organisations are required to report on their progress towards delivery of the agreed funding outcomes. In the most recent reporting period from April to September 2024 around 1.3 million people – children, families and adult learners - across Scotland were directly supported as a result of this funding. Some of the key benefits of the funding identified by the Corra Foundation through their support for organisations include high quality support for children and families; improved knowledge and confidence in children, families and adult learners; improved outcomes for families, and enhanced partnership working across the third sector.

NHS Boards have reporting systems to capture data on violence and aggression - including sexual assault. I strongly encourage staff to report any and all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour.

Health Improvement Scotland are working with all NHS boards and partner organisations to standardise the reporting of adverse events, and have developed a national framework which was published in February.

This details the importance of national standards of reporting and the requirement for monitoring and publishing of data. This will facilitate the collation of accurate data nationally.

The courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with sexual offending. All instances of such behaviour should be reported and escalated to Police Scotland as quickly as possible for consideration of necessary action.

Local Government funding allocations are routinely published in Local Government Finance Circulars. The allocations in question are available at:

2013-14 - Circular 2/2013

2014-15 - Circular 2/2014

2015-16 - Circular 2/2015

2016-17 - Circular 1/2016

2017-18 - Circular 1/2017

2018-19 - Circular 4/2018

2019-20 - Circular 2/2019

2020-21 - Circular 4/2020

2021-22 - Circular 5/2021

2022-23 - Circular 1/2022

2023-24 - Circular 3/2023

2024-25 - Circular 2/2024

2025-26 - Circular 1/2025

Comparing the figures published in Local Government Finance Circular 2/2013 with those in Local Government Finance Circular 1/2025, the total Local Government finance settlement has increased by over £5 billion or 49.7% since 2013-14, that’s a real terms increase of 8.4%.