a) The Scottish Government publishes details of Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot containing information about Ministerial engagements, overseas travel, car journeys, domestic travel and gifts received.

b) The Scottish Government publishes details of Special advisers: gifts and hospitality - gov.scot, which includes information on travel expenses claimed.

ci & cii) The following table gives the relevant data for the last available 5 years:

1.Senior Civil Service;

2.Staff Below Senior Civil Service; and

3.Seafaring Staff.

The Scottish Government will encourage local delivery partners such as Health and Social Care Partnerships to identify training needs and ensure staff are able to receive all relevant training.

The need for more specific training on ARBD is now something local delivery partners should be addressing and the Scottish Government will be keen to promote this wherever possible.

We have committed to publishing a National Specification for alcohol and drug treatment and support services. The Specification will set out what services are required to implement the Charter of Rights for people affected by substance use, which includes those impacted by ARBD.

The Scottish Government has committed in our Cross Government Plan for tackling substance use harms to publishing a National Specification for alcohol and drug treatment and support services.

The Specification will include advice and requirements for local areas to make the public and people impacted by alcohol aware of the full range of services available, including for ARBD.

The Scottish Government’s Agriculture and Rural Economy (ARE) Directorate relies on several IT systems, integrations and infrastructure to conduct its business with appropriate cyber security and supporting applications to protect and operate these systems and infrastructure effectively.

In addition to rural payment systems, we maintain and rely on a number of other IT systems such as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), Estate Management Database (EMA), Drawing Office, Plant Health, Livestock Inspection System (LIS). These systems collectively assure eligibility for payments, support of inspections, responding to legislative requirements and supporting corporate systems.

ARE IT/Digital services and the data within them support a range of other government departments, functions and agencies including NatureScot, Forestry, Estates Management, Plant Health and Livestock Inspections meaning our IT/Digital services support a wider range of stakeholders.

The IT costs are those costs (not including the Scottish Government’s employees) required to operate and maintain the reliability and resilience of rural payments and are made up of many aspects such as recurring maintenance charges for software and hardware, licence charges, major upgrades in infrastructure that are needed from time to time, and charges under the Maintenance and Modernisation service contracts which includes the cost of service providers. It is also essential that we continue to make proportionate investment in our cyber capabilities to protect these systems and customers’ data. There is an on-going programme of modernising or decommissioning of older IT systems to reduce costs and obtain the efficiencies possible from more modern technology. The costs do not include those associated with the design and development of completely new services.

Many of these IT systems also rely on the Scottish Government’s Shared IT infrastructure and services that are maintained as a common service to deliver economies of scale. These costs are not included in the following table.

Due to sharing of common services and the integration of IT systems, it is not possible to separately identify the cost elements that relate specifically to rural payments systems from the overall cost for all systems.

The IT staff in the Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate (including those in Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA)) are involved in a range of digital activities from maintaining and supporting current services to developing the future services.

In addition to rural payments systems, we maintain and rely on other IT systems such as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), Estate Management Database (EMA), Drawing Office, Plant Health, Livestock Inspection System (LIS). These systems collectively assure eligibility for payments, support of inspections, responding to legislative requirements and supporting corporate systems.

ARE IT/Digital services and the data within them support a range of other government departments, functions and agencies including NatureScot, Forestry, Estates Management, Plant Health and Livestock Inspections meaning our IT / Digital services support a wider range of stakeholders.

IT staff in the Scottish Government’s Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate (ARE) are members of the Government Digital and Data Profession covering an array of professional IT roles.

Many of these IT systems also rely on aspects of the shared Scottish Government IT infrastructure supported by other SG IT staff. The staff supporting these corporate systems are not included in the following table.

Due to the flexible deployment of IT staff based on skills and knowledge to where they provide the greatest benefit at a point in time aligned with priorities it is not possible to separately identify the staff costs solely associated with rural payments IT systems.

The salary cost (including overtime) of all directly employed IT staff in ARE for the four years 2021-2025 is as follows:

NHS GGC agreed in May 2024 that its PCANOS model and staff would be embedded into their specialist Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services in order to ensure long term sustainability. The realignment of PCANOS expertise into Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services ensures that staff are fully supported by the wider Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service team to provide a full range of clinical, medical and psychosocial support services to individuals.

Glasgow City ADP greatly value the variety of specialist alcohol services across the city in dealing with the public health crisis in relation to alcohol. The Managed Alcohol Programme, the Fibro scanner pilot and the community and residential Alcohol Related Brain Damage Services are just some examples of the innovative and impactful provision in the city.

The Scottish Government is fully supportive of the actions being taken by both NHS GGC and Glasgow City ADP.

The following table provides information from 2009-10 to 2023-24. Information is not available on a comparable basis for earlier years.

Leavers with no passes in National Qualifications at SCQF Level 3 or better.

The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) supports the Scottish Government, local authorities and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of children and young people. The SYP is the democratic voice of Scotland’s young people. Their vision for Scotland is of a nation that actively listens to and values the meaningful participation of its young people. Their goal is to make this vision a reality, in order to ensure young people in Scotland grow up loved, safe and respected, and able to realise their full potential.

The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) do not publish or hold an electoral register. However, SYP work with all 32 local authorities and 9 National Voluntary Organisations as Election Partners to run the SYP Elections. All young people who are aged between 14 and 25 who also live, work or study in Scotland, are eligible to stand for election, and all young people 12-25 are eligible to vote via election partners online with the SYP Election Rules and Procedures.

The total number of counted votes cast in the last elections was 33,608.

(a)The Scottish Government is taking a phased approach to the development of Bairns’ Hoose, to create a system that works nationally and allows for flexibility to accommodate the needs of different areas (urban, rural, island) across Scotland. The first – Pathfinder - phase began in October 2023 with the announcement of six Pathfinder and four Affiliate partnerships. Each partnership is delivering some Bairns’ Hoose services with four partnerships currently delivering these from Bairns’ Hoose sites. We continue to work collaboratively with all ten partnerships as they trial the Bairns’ Hoose Standards.

(b)The Bairns’ Hoose programme is already improving children and young people’s experiences of the child protection, justice and health services as partnerships start to introduce Bairns’ Hoose services across Scotland.

One of the strands of the Pathfinder phase is to establish a core indicator set which will include information on the numbers of children accessing services.

The Scottish Government invested approximately £40k to support the important work of the National Bairns' Hoose Governance Group. The Group held its final meeting in June 2024 and has since been replaced by the National Bairns Hoose Implementation Group.