Duties relating to secure transport lie principally with the local authority responsible for the child’s placement. Information is not held centrally on these arrangements or the use of handcuffs.

A sub-group of the National Secure Care Group is developing a service specification that can be used consistently by local authorities and sets out the principles and standards wherever secure transport requires to be commissioned. It covers areas such as data gathering and staff training and prohibits the use of mechanical restraints or handcuffs.

The Scottish Government has a contract with GEOAmey to provide secure transport for children convicted on indictment and given a custodial sentence. GEOAmey must ensure that the child being transported, staff and the general public are protected by robust arrangements throughout each journey, including the prevention of escape. Multi-purpose vehicles are used to escort children, rather than the prison vans used to transport adult prisoners. Because of this, handcuffs are used for each journey.

Full fibre is now available to over 1.2 million properties in Scotland, with coverage now standing at 45% – an increase of 14 percentage points from January 2022 and 26 percentage points from January 2021.

This represents an increase of over 400,000 premises in the past 12 months – the largest year-on-year increase in full fibre coverage we have seen in Scotland to date.

The Scottish Government's Reaching 100% (R100) programme is contributing to this by delivering a significant number of fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections through the R100 contracts.

In order to ensure that customers on lower incomes can access reliable broadband at a more affordable cost Ofcom, as telecoms regulator, is urging internet service providers to offer a social tariff.

Social tariffs are more affordable broadband and phone packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit and some other benefits.

Details of social tariffs that are currently available are provided on the Ofcom website: Social tariffs: Cheaper broadband and phone packages - Ofcom .

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the UK Government on Project Gigabit activity in Scotland.

In March 2023, the Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) carried out Procurement Area Market Engagement, engaging with broadband infrastructure suppliers to gauge the level of market interest in bidding for new gigabit-capable broadband contracts in Scotland.

On 23 March 2023, the Scottish Government launched a Scotland-wide Public Review (PR). The PR collected information about suppliers’ delivered and planned gigabit-capable networks across Scotland and will confirm eligible premises for public investment via Project Gigabit.

The PR closed on 24 April 2023 and the responses are being analysed.

The first Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland are expected to launch later in 2023.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including the details requested about repair and maintenance works, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

The Director for Agriculture and Rural Economy was the only person from the Scottish Government who received an invite to the “Farm to Fork” Summit at 10 Downing Street on 16 May, and he attended. No Ministers were invited to the event.

Counter-terrorism policy is Reserved. As such, the monitored recommendations within the Manchester Arena Inquiry fall to the UK Government for consideration.

In response to the recommendations outlined in Volume 1 of the Manchester Arena Inquiry the UK Government has published a draft Bill – The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) (previously referred to as Martyn’s law) for pre-legislative scrutiny on 2 nd May, ahead of a full Bill being introduced to UK Parliament in the next UK parliamentary session.

Scottish Government is working closely with the UK Government in the development and progression of this Bill, which aims to enhance public safety at Publicly Accessible Locations and Events across the UK including Scotland.

The UK Government in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) developed a website “Protect UK” which is available to members of the public and organisations. This website includes guidance on First Aid preparedness for organisations. This was in response to the recommendation to create a central library for guidance and advice that organisations and members of the public could access.

Scottish Government has promoted the use of the guidance and advice available through this platform to all relevant Scottish stakeholders.

The Scottish Government is working with all relevant partners to ensure that relevant recommendations from Volume 2 (Emergency Response) of the Manchester Arena Inquiry are appropriately implemented in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will also be taking account of the findings of Volume 3 and the Independent Review of Prevent in their ongoing work to refresh the Prevent Duty Guidance for Scotland, with the aim of ensuring delivery of Prevent in Scotland remains as effective as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18115 on 6 June 2023. 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

All data is provided by the Scottish Funding Council. Details are as follows:

(a) Uptake

A summary of enrolments for all courses in each of the academic years (AY) since 2019-20 is as follows:-

19-20 – 4,041 enrolments

20-21 – 7,056 enrolments

21-22 – 7,144 enrolments

(b) Type of learner

Data on type of learner is not complete due to reductions in reporting requirements during Covid for 2019-20 and due to limitations in Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) reporting which covers students studying for a qualification or credit at HE level only.

The data included below has been recorded in the HESA returns for 2020-21 and 2021-22, with the caveat that this is not a complete dataset.

The following table has been taken from HESA returns

The first stage of the Circular Textile Fund is the submission of an Expression of Interest, a high-level overview of the project, and the 5 week timescale provides a suitable amount of time to prepare this. Zero Waste Scotland runs weekly webinars during this period to support applicants. Feedback received from applicants, following round 1, was that increasing the time available for the second stage submission phase, where detailed information is needed, would be welcomed. Accordingly, Zero Waste Scotland extended time for the second stage of submissions to 8 weeks.

The independent review of the role of incineration published a study, alongside its second and final report, that explored the impact of diverting plastics away from incineration.

The report is available here: Supporting documents - Decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)