³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024. The Scottish Government guidance provides definitions for terms such as ‘legal sex’ which can be used by users or producers of the data.

Our future decisions around the terminology to be adopted in proposed Scottish Government legislation will be made in the light of all relevant matters. This will include matters such as the proposed legislation’s operation in conjunction with existing law, or any need to maintain consistency when the proposed legislation would textually amend provisions in another enactment.

There is published information on the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting proposed Acts of this Parliament in the second edition of the Parliamentary Counsel Office drafting manual, Drafting Matters!: .

Civil Servants appointed to the Scottish Government must adhere to the Civil Service Code and Standards of Behaviour. They must act with integrity and impartiality, avoiding any appearance of bias or misuse of position and refrain from using their official role to advance personal interests. Failure to do so could result in disciplinary action being taken up to and including dismissal.

Network activity is governed by a network role descriptor “The core purpose of a staff network is in providing a space for peer support.” Internal Staff networks have no role in informing external policy.

This response addresses only the Scottish Government and its executive agencies. Public bodies have local responsibility for staff management.

Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

• Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
• Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
• Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
• Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.

Those working in our retail sector should be lauded for the important work they are continuing to do during such challenging economic circumstances. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse.

Retail workers (as well as all other workers) are protected by a wide range of criminal laws (i.e. the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour; the common law offence of assault; and the common law offence of breach of the peace).

In addition, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021(“the 2021 Act”) came into force in August 2021 and created a statutory offence of threatening, abusing, or assaulting a retail worker, adding to the offences that can already be used to prosecute those who abuse retail workers.

Scottish Government partners, like the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), share best guidance and resources, such as the free helpline, and , for victims of violence and abuse in a retail setting.

Throughout our engagement with COSLA, Councils, and opposition parties ahead of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget, there was a clear consensus that Councils should have full flexibility for decisions on Council Tax rates. The Scottish Budget delivered that ask in full, as part of a record Local Government Settlement worth over £15 billion including real terms protection of General Revenue Grant, another key ask of COSLA and opposition parties.

Council Tax is a local tax, and decisions on rates are therefore a matter for local authorities to take in consultation with local communities.

The most financially vulnerable will continue to be protected through the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme. The CTR scheme exists to ensure that nobody in Scotland should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford, and reduces a household’s liability based on an assessment of their income, capital, and other circumstances. Over 460,000 households receive some level of CTR, and on average recipients save over £850 a year.

Household water charges in Scotland are set by Scottish Water’s Board within the charge cap set for the regulatory period 2021-27, with approval from the independent economic regulator. Ministers do not have the powers to directly intervene in the process to set annual charges.

Charge increases in the first half of the regulatory period were significantly less than the charge cap, reflecting the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis on households. The average bill for 2025-26 is expected to be £490 (£446 in 2024-25), which we expect to remain lower than the average in England and Wales (expected to be £603 as published by Discover Water).

Support for households with their water charges is linked to the exemptions, discounts and reductions they receive on their Council Tax. 52% of households receive some form of discount or reduction on their water charges, automatically applied by local authorities alongside reductions in council tax. One such scheme is the Water Charges Reduction Scheme (WCRS) which is available to customers in receipt of full Council Tax Reduction – we’ve already increased the maximum reduction from to 25% to 35% and the estimated value of the reduction provided is £74m in 2025-26. Consumer Scotland’s October 2024 report on affordability of water charges report shows that the number of households in water poverty has remained largely unchanged over the current regulatory period. We will be working with Consumer Scotland to look into affordability measures for the next regulatory period starting in 2027.

On 1 April 2022 there were 134 men actively participating in the Caledonian System, and between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 a further 482 were given a Caledonian requirement. Currently 20 Local Authorities deliver the Caledonian System within Scotland, with another two areas, Moray and Shetland preparing to roll out this year. The Scottish Government is actively working with and encouraging those remaining local authority areas to consider adopting the Caledonian System over a phased period.

There are many factors that influence the average cost per offender for in-prison rehabilitation programmes, meaning that it is not possible to provide an average cost. These factors may include but are not limited to: the duration of the Offending Behaviour Programme (OBP), grades of staff involved in delivery/treatment management, training costs involved for staff to be able to deliver the OBP, and materials involved for delivery.

The current funding distributed by the Scottish Government to local authorities for the purpose of delivery of Caledonian includes: £2,557,547 for the Men's Programme and £1,910,119 for the Women and Children’s Service. For 2025-26 the total budget is £4,467,666. It is not possible to quantify an average cost per man on the Caledonian System, or that of women and children being supported, due to several varying factors. This includes: variation in cost to run the Men’s programme, as mentioned above, along with the intensity of the programme required which is equated to individual need. The Women and children’s service again will vary in cost per client, as support is very much tailored to individual needs.

This information is not centrally held. The staffing levels involved for supporting the management of registered sex offenders are a matter for each of the Responsible Authorities.

Data sourced from the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-2023 data set shows that 7807 people were convicted of aggravated offences under section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 in 2022-2023. Of those convicted, 251 were given prison sentences of 12 months or longer and, of those convicted, 2407 were given community payback orders. The remaining 5149, are made up of other disposals which may include: fines, short-term prison sentences (under 12 months) and admonishments.

Sentencing is of course a matter for the independent courts.

We have interpreted part (b) of the question as relating to sex offender notification requirements (SONR). Section 1(1)(a) of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 does not create an offence. It creates an aggravator which is something that is applied to an existing offence. Section 1(1)(a) (or section 1 as a whole) is not listed in Schedule 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (offences which trigger SONR).

Therefore, whether the offender would be subject to SONR would depend on the offence they were convicted of and whether that was on the list in Schedule 3. Schedule 3 of the 2003 Act does also contain paragraph 60 which is a provision which allows the court to trigger SONR where the offence is not on the list in Schedule 3 but the court determines that there was a significant sexual element in the offender’s behaviour.

Data on the numbers of those with this aggravator who are also subject to SONR is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.