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As set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the Chief Constable of Police Scotland is responsible for the policing of Scotland, and is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for this, rather than to Scottish Ministers directly.

It is therefore not the place of Ministers to issue guidance on operational policing matters. The member may wish to write to the Chief Constable on this issue.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. As of August 2023, there were 79 schools registered with an ESAS account.

We have taken action to increase supply of social homes, with a focus on larger family homes, through increasing funding to local authorities for voids and acquisitions as set out in the answer to S6W-35453 on 19 March 2025.

We continue to support local authorities to transition to rapid rehousing, which is the best way to reduce the use of temporary accommodation in the longer term. Where temporary accommodation is required, it should meet the needs of the household.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework, published in 2023, sets out the physical, location, service and management standards to ensure consistency in standards across all local authority areas. All local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and is safe, warm and affordable.

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

The Scottish Government’s new homelessness prevention measures will mean families at risk of homelessness get help earlier, and other relevant bodies do more to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place.

The Scottish Government provided funding to support the development of the Housing Options Training Toolkit, a learning and development, training and resource platform that supports local authorities to provide housing advice in Scotland.

We know some bodies will already be carrying out effective work to prevent homelessness and others will have mixed levels of knowledge about homelessness. We are making £4 million available for homelessness prevention pilots in 2025-26. This funding will enable relevant bodies and local partners to pilot and share learning on the steps, resources and services needed to resolve crises and effectively prevent homelessness.

Local authorities need to ensure that all temporary accommodation is of a high quality and meets the needs of the people that are living there. The Temporary Accommodation Standards Framework was published in 2023 and all local authorities are expected to work towards meeting these standards.

The ‘tolerable standard’, which applies to all dwellings in Scotland, is a basic level of repair that applies to all property to make it habitable. In addition, the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, also applies to social rented sector properties, was introduced in 2004 to ensure properties are energy efficient, safe and secure; are not seriously damaged; and have kitchens and bathrooms that are in good condition.

The Scottish Government has increased the Affordable Housing Supply Budget by £211.8 million for 2025-26 when compared to 2024-25. This will bring the investment in housing in 2025-26 to £768 million, which will enable delivery of more than 8,000 homes in Scotland. In 2024-25, we targeted £42 million of funding to the local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures. To date, this has supported local authorities to bring 1,000 homes back into use through acquisitions and reduced the number of empty social homes. We have also worked with utility providers on energy supply issues to social rented homes to reduce the turnaround time for void properties.

1.Acquiring larger properties suitable for families will help to reduce the number of households, including families with children, in temporary accommodation. The targeted funding of £42 million will help to increase the supply of social housing of the right type and size where it is needed most. Our most recent statistics show that 20 councils have reduced the number of children in temporary accommodation as at 30 September 2024.

2.All local authorities should ensure that the temporary accommodation they provide to fulfil their duty to accommodate homeless households meets the temporary accommodation standards framework, published by the Scottish Government in 2023. The Scottish Government will provide record funding of more than £15 billion to councils in 2025-26 to support the delivery of a range of services, including homelessness services – an increase of £1,008 million on 2024-25. The Scottish Government allows local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently, and local authorities are best placed to identify and respond to local needs and priorities.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role health services can play in helping to prevent homelessness, including for households with children. We will introduce new ask and act duties on named relevant bodies so that a wider range of services do more to prevent homelessness.

The relevant bodies include health boards, special health boards and integrated health boards. While GPs are not on the named bodies list, we anticipate that the duties on other health professionals, such as community link workers in GP practices, will ensure GPs and other practice staff are kept informed and involved in homelessness prevention.

We will work closely with stakeholders in health to ensure the regulations, guidance and training for the implementation of the new duties are fit for purpose and take into account the specific needs of particular households, including those with children. We will be funding a series of pilot projects in 2025-26 that will help inform the best approach to take.

We also know that there is good practice in preventing homelessness across Scotland and we would encourage health and other services to work together and in co-operation with other partners to prevent homelessness now rather than to wait for new homelessness prevention duties.

We recognise the very challenging conditions for Scottish retail businesses. NIC decisions are reserved to the UK Government and it is regrettable that the Chancellor’s changes places additional pressures on Scottish retailers. We have called on the UK Government to reverse this decision, as debated in Parliament on 18 February. SG continues supporting businesses and workers through the Fair Work Framework, skills programmes and business support. The latest Scottish Budget maintains a competitive non-domestic rates regime, ensuring over 95% of properties in Scotland are liable for a lower property tax rate than elsewhere in the UK. A £3 million fund has also been introduced to tackle retail crime, reinforcing our commitment to supporting businesses, protecting jobs and strengthening Scotland’s retail industry.

Emergency early release regulations have been utilised twice within the last five years (May 2020 & June/July 2024). On both occasions, the conditions of release were as they would have been at the individuals original scheduled liberation date, with no additional conditions or sentences applied.

Those released were approaching the end of their short-term prison sentences, and such individuals are not routinely subject to additional monitoring or community service requirements following their release. Therefore, those released via emergency early release were not subject to such conditions.

Individuals whose sentence would require post-release supervision or monitoring requirements were automatically excluded from both emergency early release processes.

The requirement for an individual to complete any kind of community sentence is a matter for the independent courts to decide at the point of sentencing, after consideration of the full facts and circumstances of the case.

The Scottish Government undertakes a detailed annual workforce planning process to determine intake targets for Initial Teacher Education (ITE), based on data from the annual Summary statistics for schools in Scotland and following consultation with the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group.

To inform this process, we develop and publish an annual statistical model on future teacher number requirements. We also engage with universities throughout the year to collect data and monitor progress of intakes against targets.

As part of December’s education agreement with COSLA, we are also committed to working with local government to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025-26, and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers. Medium and long-term joint workforce planning will take into account the importance of responding to these issues, including different local needs.

Improving employment opportunities for Scotland’s teaching workforce will also be a key feature of the Education Assurance Board, that we are working with COSLA to establish, noting that the recruitment and deployment of teachers is the responsibility of local authorities.