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The Scottish Government is committed to improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heating systems in Scotland’s buildings to support improvements in fuel poverty and to help meet our climate target to reach net zero by 2045.

We have committed to investing over £300m in our Heat in Buildings programme in 2025-26. The support is aimed at reducing emissions from heating and improving energy efficiency in homes and other buildings across Scotland, as well as developing heat networks.

The definition of “backlog” in this context is referred to by the Auditor General report as the increase in criminal court cases waiting to be heard during the Covid 19 pandemic. At its peak, this reached 43,606 cases in January 2022.

The number of scheduled trials across all criminal business types has now returned to below 20,000. This is considered a manageable level of workload by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the justice system.

SCTS is independent of Scottish Government and therefore entrusted to make determinations of what an efficient system for them looks like and what a normal volume of scheduled criminal trials would be.

In 2023 we published a Heat in Buildings Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (Heat in buildings monitoring and evaluation Framework - gov.scot). This described the different elements that need to come together to enable us to deliver the heat transition and indicators to track progress in each of these areas.

Our annual Heat in Buildings Progress Reports (last published on 10 October 2024: Heat in Buildings: progress report 2024 - gov.scot), reported against the indicators described in the Framework and described the action we are taking to support delivery.

We are continuing to work in partnership with the sector and with installers to ensure that the appropriate support and training provision are aligned locally with business needs and future demands.

Our proposed Heat in Buildings Bill will provide clarity and confidence to boost consumer demand for clean heat and build market confidence.

The Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill seeks to make permanent a number of measures introduced over five years ago through emergency legislation designed to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes the greater use of virtual attendance at criminal courts which has made our criminal justice system more modern, responsive and accessible. The Scottish Government has consulted extensively on the continued use of virtual attendance since 2020 including through the pre-legislative consultation on the Bill.

Since the conclusion of the Stage 1 debate, the Scottish Government has engaged further with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Lord Justice General and the Law Society of Scotland on the provisions relating to virtual attendance

Emissions in the buildings sector have decreased 31% since 1990 - mainly due to heating system and energy efficiency improvements. However, we know we need to go further and faster. That is why we will introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill this year which sets a target for decarbonising heat by 2045.

The Bill will result in a blueprint for the transition to clean heating and better energy efficiency, based on collective measures as well as individual action. Our plan sets out a positive and fair approach that supports a just transition and keeps us on track to deliver the heat transition.

In the meantime, our schemes continue to support the public to access funding to decarbonise their homes. It is also down to the UK Government to ensure that the transition to clean heat is attractive to consumers by taking action on energy prices.

An open and transparent criminal justice system is important to allow for justice to be delivered and seen to be delivered so communities can have confidence in how offending behaviour is being dealt with. However, there can be areas of the operation of the criminal justice system where it is considered appropriate to allow certain individuals to remain anonymous to protect their dignity and privacy while still ensuring justice is able to be delivered.

Provisions to introduce new statutory anonymity protections for sexual offence victims as well as victims of certain other offences are contained in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill which is currently before Parliament. If approved, the legislation will introduce these new protections to help protect the dignity of victims of these offences.

We held a public consultation on media reporting on child homicide victims between 9 July 2024 and 1 October 2024. We asked for views on a range of possible approaches to reducing the trauma that media reporting can have on bereaved families, and on the wider impacts those approaches might have. This included inviting views on legislating to provide automatic or ‘on application’ anonymity for child victims. The analysis of consultation responses was published on 24 February 2025.

The consultation made clear that there would be serious complexities with legislating to anonymise the victims of child homicide in a way that avoided unintended consequences (like criminalising bereaved family members); that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice. However, many of the experiences highlighted in consultation responses vividly illustrate the need for more sensitive reporting on these cases. We are therefore working with stakeholders to explore a range of non-legislative measures including support materials for bereaved families, media guidance and training. Further detail is available on the Scottish Government website.

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill – which underwent Parliamentary consideration from 2022 to 2024 – contained provisions, on introduction, extending the anonymity for child suspects, accused, victims or witnesses both prior to and subsequent to any criminal court proceedings. This followed public consultation, with the analysis published on 8 September 2022. The provisions were further amended at Stage 2 to extend that, in relation to child victims and witnesses, anonymity could continue after a person turns 18 just as was the case for child suspects/accused. These provisions were amended out at Stage 3. Scottish Ministers gave a full account of the reasoning to the Parliamentary chamber. This is contained in the Official Report of 24 April 2024.

The proportion of orders where an individual was taken to a police station as a place of safety has differed over the years but has decreased from 6.6% in 2014-15 to 1.8% in 2023-24.

Additionally, following the publication of HMICS’ thematic review of policing mental health in October 2023, the Scottish Government is working with its partners through the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network to take forward the recommendations of the national review of psychiatric emergency plans (PEPs) to improve the detention process and removing barriers to multi-agency working when responding to a psychiatric emergency. A national PEP template and accompanying guidance are in development to improve national consistency and ensure that local roles, responsibilities and processes are clearly articulated.

The Scottish Government also published its Safe Spaces Scoping Report in October 2024. It explores the feasibility of implementing additional safe spaces for people experiencing crisis and acute emotional distress as an alternative to Emergency Departments and place of safety. Following the publication, we continue to consider with our stakeholders, the next steps.

The Mental Welfare Commission publishes percentage of all place of safety orders under 18 but not the numbers.

In addition, the Commission does not publish numbers that small: as a rule it suppresses any figures equal to and under 5 and in some cases it uses secondary suppression to ensure that there is no statistical disclosure.

The data for 2024-25 is not yet available; the Mental Welfare Commission is currently in the process of extracting and validating this data. It will be included in the Commission’s Mental Health Act Monitoring report 2024-25 which is due to be published this Autumn.