Chamber and committees

Keeping families safe online is of paramount importance for the Scottish Government and prevention is key.

The Scottish Government’s Parent Club resource is one of the ways that we support parents and carers, providing advice, information and guidance through a website, social media channels and email programme. Parent Club offers policy-led, empathetic advice and support across a wide range of topics. It provides practical advice, information and tips on many topics - from online safety for young children and teenagers to establishing healthy sleep routines and supporting the overall wellbeing of the whole family.

The performance of the Parent Club website is monitored regularly using Google Analytics. Since 1 April 2026 the pages relating to online safety have been viewed 8,010 times by 5,180 users, with users spending an average of 53 seconds per page.

In 2022, the Scottish Government carried user testing on the pages with parents and teachers which confirmed that the participants found the content timely, relevant, inclusive, informative, engaging, actionable, user-friendly and supportive of their needs.

In addition to Parent Club, the Scottish Government funds the Scottish Youth Parliament’s “Mind Yer Time” online resource which includes tips for adults written by young people. The Scottish Government meets regularly with the Scottish Youth Parliament and receive annual reports on the impact of “Mind Yer Time”.

This year, the Scottish Government has also provided funding to Fathers Network Scotland to issue a national Dads Survey 2026. The survey asked a range of questions on how dads across Scotland access digital resources, including Parent Club.

The Scottish Government has also launched two Digital Wellbeing surveys: for children and young people and parents and carers, on 19 August 2026. The surveys will be open until 30 September and seek to gather the views and experiences of children and young people and their parents and carers in relation to their online activities, digital wellbeing, online safety, use of social media and digital devices, and the support and information they may find helpful. Once analysed, the results of these surveys and the Dads survey will inform the strengthening of Scottish Government policy and guidance relating to online safety and digital wellbeing.

The responsibility for the delivery of education rests with individual local authorities. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (the Act) enables local authorities and schools to make such arrangements for the day-to-day delivery of education as they see fit.

The ongoing Curriculum Improvement Cycle, led by Education Scotland, is considering the skills, knowledge and understanding that children and young people will be required to develop, including in relation to Digital Skills and how this should be managed as a crucial element of the updated curriculum. This work has been co-created with a group of practitioners and non-education stakeholders and will help improve learning and teaching in digital literacy.

The Curriculum Improvement Cycle will update and strengthen Scotland’s 3-18 curriculum supporting more consistent teaching and learning experiences, and improved attainment and achievement of our children and young people. This is being undertaken in tandem with the dialogue with local government on public sector reform and our ambition, set out in the Programme for Government to empower school leaders, raise standards and reduce variation.

The associated headteacher questionnaire as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Results 2025 indicate that pupils in Scotland attended schools where headteachers agreed or strongly agreed that teachers had the necessary skills to integrate digital devices into teaching (64.9%) and that professional learning resources were available to support teachers in using digital devices (68.7%). Around three quarters of pupils (77.8%) attended schools where an effective online learning platform was available, while two thirds (66.9%) attended schools where headteachers agreed that the curriculum supported the effective use of digital devices.

The ongoing Curriculum Improvement Cycle, led by Education Scotland, is considering the skills, knowledge and understanding that children and young people will be required to develop, including in relation to Digital Skills and how this should be managed as a crucial element of the updated curriculum. This work has been co-created with a group of practitioners and stakeholders and will help improve learning and teaching in digital literacy.

Our schools can have a key role in ensuring children and young people are safe, resilient and equipped to respond to the challenges and opportunities that the internet brings. At the core of this learning is the values of healthy, safe and respectful relationships, including those that take place online. Education Scotland have provided guidance on digilearn.scot for teachers on what digital skills they should have and what digital skills learners should be developing in the Teacher and learner digital toolkits. They have developed a Teacher and Educator Digital Skills toolkits to help develop a baseline of digital skills. The toolkits support the GTCS professional standards which require all teachers to know how to embed digital technologies safely and effectively to enhance learning and teaching.

The Government is pursuing a suite of action to protect young people from online harm. By way of example, by late Autumn 2026, Education Scotland will commence a focused programme of work to support educators in learning about online harms and online safety, the identification of risks and how they can respond to concerns. The work will involve pre and post participation evaluation to assess participant understanding of the online harms that young people are facing, and of their confidence to recognise and escalate concerns appropriately through established child protection procedures.

Education Scotland currently supports educators through providing information and links to resources via their Safegaurding and Child Protection webpages, one of which is specifically focused on Online Abuse and Exploitation. They also link closely with partners across child protection agencies, law enforcement and the third sector to ensure that their networks are provided with timely information and advice in relation to emerging threats and current online harms.

Responsibility for ensuring and monitoring effective safeguarding practice rests with local Child Protection Committees, local authorities and their child protection partners, operating within the national child protection framework. The Scottish Government considers evidence from a range of existing assurance, inspection and review activity to inform understanding of safeguarding arrangements. This includes the recently published National Review of Group-based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, which found that Chief Officers’ Groups reported confidence that education services had established policies, procedures, guidance and learning to identify children and young people at increased risk of significant harm.

Protecting, managing and restoring degraded peatlands is a vital part of mitigating and adapting to the linked climate and nature emergencies.

Improving the condition of degraded peatlands contributes to mitigation by reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases, and to adaptation by increasing ecosystem resilience and reducing flood risk and the severity of wildfires.

Our Climate Change Plan and carbon budgets incorporate the modelled emissions reductions associated with the measures we set out in the Plan to protect, manage and restore Scotland’s peatlands.

The Scottish Government remains committed to our longstanding intention to ban the sale of peat for horticulture, as set out in our 2026 Climate Change Plan.

Following discussion during passage of the Natural Environment Act 2026, and to overcome the challenges posed by the UK Internal Market Act, Scottish Ministers called on UK Ministers to support a collaborative cross-UK approach. We are now engaged in preparatory work with the other UK nations towards joint legislation to establish an effective ban.

As set out in the debate on Expanding Childcare on 27 May 2026, the Scottish Government has committed to expanding funded childcare to children from 9 months to the end of primary school, in this parliamentary term. As we shape our approach to expansion, we are committed to working in partnership with the childcare sector, parents, carers and children to ensure any future developments create a system that responds to the needs of families across Scotland and helps build a strong, sustainable and resilient childcare sector.

National Concessionary Travel Schemes reimbursement rates are negotiated annually between Transport Scotland and the Confederation of Passenger Transport on behalf of bus operators, using an agreed economic model. The model is updated annually to take into account the latest developments in fares, operating costs, passenger behaviours and travel demand, to ensure that the rates are set to leave operators financially no better and no worse off for their participation in the schemes. The model uses a weighted average fare, which reflects the fares and relative volume of concessionary journeys made on all services under the scheme.

Proposals announced by The Department for Education in April 2026 seek to implement major structural change to the system of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

As part of the proposals, expert panels are being established to develop recommendations on the design, structure and content of the National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages. These expert panels will establish the recommended level of support required for children and young people in both mainstream settings and specialist provisions as well as identifying the appropriate means of delivering this support.

Scottish Government officials are actively engaged with colleagues within the Department for Education on the ongoing reforms, and will engage with the Expert Panels for National Inclusions Standards and Specialist Provision Packages where appropriate.