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The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit has been central to making Scotland a safer place since this government took office, with recorded non-sexual violent crime reducing by 25% since 2006-07. The work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is overseen by a governance board and is delivered through various programmes which are evaluated and measured for effectiveness. While progress has been made to reduce violence across Scotland, we recognise we must continue to do more.

The SPCB’s procurement function operates in accordance with its published Procurement Strategy and established industry practice including guidance published by the Scottish Government. There are robust processes in place to deliver sustainable contracts that provide best value for money and resilient supply chain governance.

To support this strategy, and in line with procurement regulations, as a matter of policy the SPCB does not publish specific information regarding contracts or tenders which might prejudice fair competition, which would prejudice the commercial interests of any person or organisation or otherwise be contrary to the public interest.

I am therefore limited in the detail I can provide in response to your questions. I can confirm that two quotations were submitted for the contract advertised as FEB471362.

According to Police Scotland's most up to date information, there are 101 mapped Organised Crime Groups in Scotland as at 31 March 2023.

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

On 10 March 2023, there were 7 transgender women located within the female estate in the care of the SPS. Out of those 7; 4 individuals were sentenced, and 3 were held on remand.

The 4 sentenced individuals all had an index offence in the Non-sexual crimes of violence group. The remanded individuals are alleged to have committed index offences in the Non-sexual crimes of violence group and the Crimes against society group.

The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners including representatives from the major events sector to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking, which they are adopting.

With concerts, festivals and other events resuming following the pandemic, Police Scotland have been working with partners to identify appropriate vehicles for the delivery of the key messaging. For example, as an interim measure and in advance of the Harry Styles concert at Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow on 11 June 2022, an overview of ByStander theory was provided to the event organiser for inclusion in Steward’s briefings, in lieu of being able to facilitate a full ByStander awareness session. Feedback from this approach was very positive and Police Scotland rolled this out nationally for Event Policing Leads in advance of a number of events scheduled over the summer 2022 period.

We have also worked with members of the roundtable to bring together the range of initiatives and key messaging on safer.scot to reassure the public that there is a coordinated response to the dangers of spiking, in whatever form it might take.

Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking.

Roundtable discussions have and will continue to include the consideration of spiking test kits. It was discussed that strips vary widely in terms of what they can test for and are not a reliable diagnostic tool.

Key outcomes from roundtable discussions focussed on messaging, training and prevention, with the Violence Reduction Unit supporting Police Scotland and businesses within the night-time economy sector to continue roll out of the bystander training to raise awareness for staff to help keep people safe.

The act of spiking is utterly abhorrent and we remain absolutely committed to working with partners to tackle all forms of violence against women.

The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Since November 2021, several roundtable meetings have taken place to bring together partners from across the justice system including policing, victims organisations and prosecution in addition to representatives from colleges and universities, community safety and night-time economy sector. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Information is available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This is being updated on a quarterly basis.

Analysis of spiking incidents by Police Scotland is undertaken on a weekly basis to ensure national oversight is maintained and understanding evolves. The Scottish Government is kept informed about any changes in the prevalence of spiking. The number of reported incidents related to spiking are published annually within the National Statistics bulletin on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland.

Spiking can be prosecuted under the common law offence of drugging, which is a broad offence covering all types of drink spiking. Another common law offence which may be relevant depending on the individual facts and circumstances of each case is assault. There is also a more specific statutory offence contained in section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 called administering a substance for sexual purposes. This provides it is an offence for a person to intentionally administer a substance, or cause a substance to be taken by another person, without the other person knowing, and without any reasonable belief that the other person knows, for a sexual purpose. A sexual purpose is for the purpose of stupefying or overpowering someone, so as to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity which involves the person who administered the substance.

We have no plans at this time to create a specific criminal offence of spiking however we keep all laws under review.

We expect universities and colleges to be places where students and staff are free from all forms of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including spiking.

Universities and colleges are autonomous bodies. However, they have a responsibility for the welfare and safety of their students and it is for each institution to determine procedures to keep students safe from spiking.

The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners including representatives from colleges and universities to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking for students.

Representatives from College Development Network, Universities Scotland, NUS Scotland and The Student Services Organisation (AMOSSHE) were involved in these roundtable discussions. Significant collaborative work through the roundtable format was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses.

The Scottish Government currently funds the Emily Test charity to develop the Emily Test Charter and the accompanying LISTEN Risk Assessment Tool. The Charter provides a framework to help institutions start or improve their work in tackling GBV, and we would encourage all institutions to engage with it.

We will continue to work closely with the university and college sectors, and their representatives, through the Equally Safe in Colleges and Universities Core Leadership Group, as part of our approach to tackling all forms of GBV.