Chamber and committees

All children and young people living in Scotland are entitled to an education whatever their immigration status. We are proud of the welcome that Scottish local authorities have given to displaced people from Ukraine, welcoming more than 3,000 children and young people into Scottish schools over the last year.

The Scottish Government set out in a joint letter with COSLA in August 2022 the sources of advice and support available to local authorities to help displaced children and young people from Ukraine.

We also established the Ukraine Education Partners Group, jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, with representation from ADES, Education Scotland, the Scottish Refugee Council and individual local authorities, to help co-ordinate work on this issue.

Firearms holders must be licensed by Police Scotland and may only shoot over land where they have permission, and where it is safe to do so without risk to public safety or the peace. Most firearms licensing law is reserved and Police Scotland are responsible for its enforcement. Any concerns about reckless or unsafe shooting should be reported to Police Scotland in the first instance.

The legislation underpinning Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) requires that NatureScot identifies any activities that are likely to damage the natural features for which the site is designated. These activities are listed for each site as ‘Operations Requiring Consent’ (ORC).

Before a private owner or occupier of a SSSI carries out any activity listed on the ORC list, permission must be sought from NatureScot and a consent issued. A SSSI Consent may be required by the landowner/occupier to undertake wildfowling on a specific SSSI if ORC 10 ‘The killing or removal of any wild mammal, bird, fish or invertebrate’ is in place for the SSSI in question, as this indicates that such activity has the potential to adversely affect nationally important bird populations. Further information on ORC can be found on the NatureScot website .

Most, if not all National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are also SSSIs, and so the provisions above for ORC would also apply. There is also provision in the underpinning legislation for NNRs for the creation of bye-laws to prevent damaging activity.

Where wildfowling takes place on Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) local authorities have powers to make bylaws to protect the interests of LNRs.

The Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led scheme, delivered by industry, led by the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd. The Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations were laid in 2020 and businesses have now had three years to prepare for the launch of the scheme.

There are many companies providing these services in Scotland, and an assessment is not considered to be necessary or appropriate for Government to carry out.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Information on entrants and enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is collect by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Between 2018-19 and 2019-20 HESA introduced a new subject classification system moving from JACS over to HECOS. As such, a continuous time series can not be provided and information has been put into two different tables below.

First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine courses at Scottish HEIs, JACS subject classification

The Scottish Government is providing local authorities with funding to make free school lunches available, during school term-time, to all children in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools. This policy has given 280,723 children access to nutritionally balanced school lunches, as well as eligible pupils in primary 6 to secondary 6, saving families approximately £400 per child, per year.

On 15 December 2022, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery announced the next phase of our free school meals expansion programme which will see them being made available for children in primaries 6 and 7 whose families are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.

Also announced was £21.75 million for local authorities to provide assistance with the cost of buying food during the 2023-24 school holidays to all families who are eligible for free school meals on the basis of low income.

The Scottish Government contributes funding to national activity to support Meal Makers and Eat Well Age Well (EWAW), which are projects provided by Food Train .

Meal Makers connects older people locally with volunteers who are happy to deliver and share extra portions of a home cooked meal. It is designed to enhance an older person’s existing food intake with fresh nutritious home cooked meals, provide them with regular social contact and help reduce their risk of malnutrition and associated health impacts. EWAW is a national, five-year project of Food Train to support the prevention of malnutrition and dehydration among older people in the community. It began in early 2018, and quickly became the country’s leading project addressing and improving the prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition among older people.

We have provided £2.4m funding in 2022/23 to support people struggling over this winter. We know the costs crisis is impacting those on the lowest incomes the hardest, with food price inflation at 16.4% and food bank demand in Scotland up 34% compared to this time last year. This funding is providing vital support, including helping people access emergency cash in their local communities so they can buy the food they need. The funding has the potential to directly reach 7,500 people, and many more will benefit than this, as the Corra Foundation and Fareshare will between them distribute it further to an estimated 900 organisations.

This is in addition to the almost £3bn we have allocated in this financial year that will be helping households face the increased cost of living, including £1bn for services and financial support not available elsewhere in the UK. We are investing £41m in the Scottish Welfare Fund each year to provide a vital safety net for those facing an emergency or crisis.

Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016. The Open Government team works collaboratively with civil society to promote transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability across the Scottish Government and internationally. This includes sharing learning with governments around the world, and funding to promote participation and co-production work in Scotland. Scottish Government strongly supports these priorities and recognises the value of this work. We are currently delivering Scotland’s third Open Government Action Plan, which includes a focus on health and social care, climate change, fiscal transparency, improving participation, and data and digital.

It is not possible to accurately identify costs to support membership of the Open Government Partnership for the years 2016 - 2020. This is due to changes in the organisation of teams and categorisation of resources.

The number of staff working to support membership of the Open Government Partnership since 2016 is comparable to current numbers of staff.

You will also want to note that the costs of the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights’ attendance at the OGP Europe Regional Meeting in October 2022 were recently published in response to S6W-13376 on 17 January 2023.

Breakdown of Open Government team approximate spend, excluding staff costs

All Ukrainian displaced persons have the right to access free NHS dental care in Scotland. They are also entitled to register as a NHS patient with a General Dental Practitioner, depending on whether the practice is taking on new NHS patients.

For children and adults under the age of 26, exemption from NHS dental charges is automatically applied. For Ukrainian displaced persons aged 26 or over, dentists have been advised to select ‘Universal Credit’ and then ‘evidence not produced’ when submitting GP17 claim forms for payment. Guidance on this was issued to Health Boards on 6 April 2022: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/nhs-scotland-services-ukraine.pdf .

Public Library services in Scotland are devolved to local authorities which have a statutory duty to secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area.

No Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years. The following table from the Scottish Library and Information Council provides data, compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), capturing the number of service points and net increase / decrease per year between 2009-10 – 2021-22. Information for 2022-23 will be available at the end of the current financial year.