Chamber and committees

Spent convictions are excluded in a level 1 disclosure in Scotland therefore no legislative changes are required to achieve this policy.

The changes made to disclosure in England and Wales through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 relate to the periods of time before a conviction becomes spent. Changes to the length of time before a conviction becomes spent were legislated for in Scotland through the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 and came into force in August 2020. Scottish Government guidance was published to help individuals understand what the reforms meant for them and their individual circumstances.

Officials are working with Environmental Standards Scotland to look at the need for a definition taking into account current and future policies and guidance.

As the member is aware from my answers to his previous questions (most recently S7W-00613 on 8 June 2026), this work is on-going and is not at a point that it can be shared with Parliament. It is important that the work considers fully the consequences of any policy changes given the potential costs falling to customers of the investment consequences.

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.

Environmental performance is regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and this would be a matter for them to investigate.

Scottish Water’s recently published annual report and accounts for 2025-26 reported that environmental pollution incidents were reduced from 199 in 2024-25 to 191 in 2025-26. There were only two serious environmental pollution incidents in 2025-26, down from four in 2024-25.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

"Environmental Standards Scotland has previously welcomed that Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are working to develop an approach to identify overflows where action is needed to prevent dry weather spills from happening.

In the first instance, Scottish Water responds to and carries out any operational interventions to check for blockages, misconnections or other potential faults where any overflow events appear to be happening in dry weather. Scottish Water has also proposed a definition for dry day overflow events and is working in the background to investigate overflows using data from Event Duration Monitors installed as part of commitments made in its ‘Improving Urban Waters Route map’. Where overflow events are confirmed to be occurring in dry weather because of insufficient capacity in the sewerage system, a process is being developed whereby these will be identified as Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges (UIDs) and will be agreed with SEPA as a priority for improvement."

The Scottish Government has directly funded the remediation of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in a number of Health Boards and is expecting to directly fund several further RAAC remedial projects across the health estate in due course. However, as a matter of building maintenance, any remediation of RAAC is primarily considered the responsibility of building owners and estate managers, including public bodies such as NHS Health Boards and Local Authorities, with costs met directly from their own budgets.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00690 on 10 June 2026. 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.

In a letter to the Criminal Justice Committee dated 16 December 2025, the then Minister for Victims and Community Safety set out the Scottish Government’s response to the report published by the Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour. The response set out details about work that has been taken forward. A copy of the response can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/criminal-justice-committee/correspondence/2025/asb-iwg-response-letter-from-minister-vcs-16-december-2025.pdf. Since this letter was issued, work has continued in implementing the actions to which the Scottish Government committed.

Ministers regularly meet with Police Scotland to discuss a range of matters. Meetings between Ministers and Police Scotland since 1 January 2026 exclusively focused on the antisocial use of vehicles and the powers available to officers to address these issues took place on 24 February 2026, 4 March 2026, and 21 July 2026. I will write to the Member with summary notes of these meetings. A copy of that correspondence will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 66816). Separately, Scottish Government officials meet regularly with Police Scotland colleagues, including the Head of Roads Policing, to discuss a range of issues, including the antisocial and criminal use of vehicles.

In line with commitments in the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024–27, the next wave of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) is currently underway and the final report will be published in early 2027.

All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Education authorities are under a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and to review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs, including those who are deaf. They also have duties to employ teachers of deaf children and young people where support for a pupil is required.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the school workforce and the provision of additional support for learning. The 2026-27 Budget provides £186.5 million of additional resource to councils. This includes £28 million investment in the ASL workforce and builds on the £15 million each year for pupil support assistants. Councils have the flexibility to use this funding to increase the number of teachers of deaf children and young people in their area and provide other specialist support such as BSL Tutors and Communication Support Workers. Councils have also continued their record investment in additional support for learning, with almost £1.1 billion spent in 2024-25.

In addition to postgraduate qualifications in deaf education, professional learning opportunities in supporting children and young people with sensory needs are available via the Scottish Sensory Centre, Education Scotland and CALL Scotland.

Notwithstanding the support that the Scottish Government already provides to schools we recognise the need to go further and we have already committed to expanding the provision of BSL training for teachers and to ensuring that a pool of specialist teachers to support those children who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or deafblind. I will update Parliament on these plans in due course.

The Education (Scotland) Act 2025 ensures that the Qualifications Scotland and HMIE will have due regard to the specific needs and interests of those receiving BSL learner education or BSL medium education.