The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of digital skills across the public sector, with the Scottish Digital Academy serving as the centre of excellence for digital capability. While there have been no specific funding allocations solely for AI skills training, the Academy is actively building on existing capability and provision, including through the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession and strategic partnerships with organisations such as The Data Lab and the Scottish AI Alliance.

Rather than duplicating effort, the Scottish Government takes a collaborative approach, sharing resources where appropriate with the UK Government Digital Service and engaging through the national Digital Capability Advisory Group to identify and address digital skills gaps across the public sector. This ensures a more strategic, joined-up response to emerging technologies like AI, while leveraging existing investment and expertise.

There are no plans for Transport Scotland to introduce a formal reporting and tracking system for antisocial behaviour as there is no requirement on all operators in this deregulated sector to collect and share this data, which will affect the coverage of any data collected. Additionally, operator thresholds for reporting antisocial behaviour will vary affecting the consistency of any shared data.

Nevertheless, Transport Scotland is working with the Confederation of Passenger Transport and operators to encourage the industry to collect more data and to similar standards to improve knowledge of antisocial behaviour on buses. This supports the recommendations from the Independent Working Group on antisocial behaviour. Furthermore, the Transport Focus Your Bus Journey survey provides an indication of perceived trends in behaviour on buses. The results for Scotland show that in 2023 5% of respondents stated that passenger behaviour caused concern (8% in England). This increased to 6% in 2024.

For disability benefit applications, Social Security Scotland requires one piece of supporting evidence on an individual’s condition or disability to understand the impact their condition has on their daily life.

Applicants can request Social Security Scotland collects supporting evidence on their behalf. While gathering this information can take time, it allows for robust decision-making.

Social Security Scotland works with Local Authorities, Health Boards and GP practices across the country to make it faster and easier for them to send supporting information. Social Security Scotland also encourages people to provide supporting information which they may not realise they have, such as prescription lists, medical reports, and social care assessments.

The Adult and Child Disability Payment application forms also invite clients to tell Social Security Scotland about any supporting information to allow their application to be processed more efficiently. Supporting Information can be uploaded digitally or sent to Social Security Scotland in the post.

Social Security Scotland has a dedicated application route for terminally ill children and young people, and anyone in Scotland diagnosed with a terminal illness by their healthcare professional can apply for disability benefits under Special Rules for Terminal Illness.

Social Security Scotland has reduced processing times for disability benefits, with latest statistics showing decisions on new applications have been made faster than the previous financial year. Latest statistics can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics.

Through the actions in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options, so that waiting times for diagnosis can improve.

This includes the development of an Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland; funding the development of educational resources for healthcare professionals and our Women’s Health Platform on NHS Inform which aims to provide women with the information and tools they need to make informed decisions about their health.

The Women’s Health Plan highlights the need to improve the data on women’s health. That is why we published the Women’s Health Plan Data Landscape Review in November 2024. Improving data on women’s health and on endometriosis will continue to be a priority as we develop the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.

The Scottish Government have no plans to review the criteria for trunk roads. The extents of trunk road network was last considered in 2008 by the first Strategic Transport Projects Review with no changes noted.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review, published in 2022, considered local roads to be “out of scope” unless they provided direct access to a major port or airport; linked to a nationally significant National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) development site; or where a local road intersected a trunk road where bus priority or active travel measures where proposed. None of these criteria applied to the A890.

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, the statutory responsibility for the provision of education in Scotland rests with individual local authorities.

School catchment arrangements are a matter for individual local authorities, which have the responsibility to manage their own school estates in consultation with local communities.

Any proposal to redraw school catchment areas is subject to the requirements of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010, which sets out clear procedures for public consultation to ensure that local communities have the opportunity to express their views.

There have been no discussions between Scottish Ministers and COSLA about the redrawing of school catchment areas – that is because a decision pertaining to changing catchment areas for Schools in Scotland is a matter for Local Authorities, not Scottish Ministers.

I am pleased to confirm that the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan has published today: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914556

The plan focuses on the following four critical aspects to help protect the quality and safety of care, supported by the increased investment for health and social care in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget:

• improving access to treatment;
• shifting the balance of care;
• digital and technological innovation;
• prevention.

It details how the specific commitments outlined in the answer to question S6W-34287 will be delivered – building on health boards’ own delivery planning to prioritise how services will be improved across NHS Scotland. This plan will be followed by publication of a population health framework later in the spring and a health and social care service renewal framework in June.

It is the responsibility of each local authority, who operates Decriminalised Parking Enforcement to ensure their parking attendants are issuing Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) lawfully and the level of discretion that can be applied in individual situations. It is not for the Scottish Government to specify when discretion should be applied. Stringent appeals processes are also in place to assist those who feel they may have been issued a PCN unfairly.

Soon, Scottish Enterprise will publish analysis which assesses the economic opportunities for AI in Scotland including Scotland’s AI strengths as well as how Scotland’s AI ecosystem compares to other countries. Scottish Government also regularly measures and assesses business activity and the use of AI amongst businesses through the Scottish Government BICS survey.

To ensure that Scotland competes globally in AI innovation, The Scottish Government is working with our enterprise agencies to promote investment and growth for Scotland’s AI ecosystem. Our agencies and partners are working to support AI companies at all stages of growth and to facilitate collaboration between AI companies, academic institutions and other partners for knowledge exchange and innovation. We are working closely with the Data Lab and the National Robotarium, to maximise the impact of our programmes and help the AI sector to flourish. We also support economic opportunities for AI through the Scottish AI Alliance, which is the delivery body for our AI strategy.

Scotland's current and future technology-enabled businesses depend on a strong and growing supply of people equipped with the appropriate skills for careers in AI.

AI skills needs are diverse and, beyond the more obvious Science and Engineering specialisms, include non tech skills from the humanities and also more foundational tech skills (which apply to careers outside AI).

Among the more foundational tech skills, highlighted as a key theme in the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review (STER), we are addressing provision of tech skills through the teacher-led body – Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science. STACS runs extra-curricular activities, promotes computing science as a valued career option and provides a resource centre allowing teachers to enhance their learning support for young people.

Widening access to careers in AI through upskilling is also key for building an inclusive and future-ready workforce. Skills programmes which support widening access are being delivered by the AI Alliance through our free national AI literacy programme and our AI Playbook which provides AI upskilling for SMEs and businesses.

Scottish ministers have been consistently clear about the devastating consequences that the UK Government’s approach to migration has had on Scotland’s education sector and our economy to date. International students, academics and research staff in our world-class universities make a vital contribution to Scotland's prosperity.

We need meaningful engagement with the UK Government on migration and we welcome further clarity on the UK Government’s approach, aligning migration policy with skills policy and look forward to more detail on the anticipated role of the Devolved Governments in this approach.