Chamber and committees

Although the Scottish Government has not made an assessment of historical artefacts within Scottish educational institutions obtained as a result of colonialism, it has encouraged public collections to consider the method of acquisition of all objects in their care, the vast majority of which were obtained ethically and legally.

Any consideration to return historical artefacts would be a matter for the relevant institutions, including universities as autonomous bodies with responsibility for their own strategic and operational decisions. The Scottish Government expects institutions to follow best practice and ensure that decisions in respect of any requests for the return of objects of cultural significance from their collections conform to international standards.

Scottish Government officials continue to engage with the museums sector on these matters, including those museums hosted by universities.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of political integrity and transparency, and takes these issues seriously. We review and update guidance when necessary. Since 2016 Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership, a global partnership with civil society that works to make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. As part of this work, we will consider the options for a review of political integrity and transparency in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of good governance, and takes this issue seriously. We undertake regular reviews of our corporate governance system and will consider the matter of a Good Governance Champion as part of this work.

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with food banks and other food aid organisations, including the Trussell Trust and Independent Food Aid Network to discuss overall demand for their services and any specific issues arising.

As set out in our Programme for Government, we will soon publish a plan, grounded in human rights, that sets out what we will do to improve the response to financial hardship so as to reduce the need for food banks. We are committed to improving access to emergency payments and wider supports for households facing crisis, and the Trussell Trust and the Independent Food Aid Network agree that cash-first is the best approach.

Officials recently convened a roundtable of stakeholders, including food banks and other charities, to discuss infant food insecurity and support provided to families with infants under 1 facing a crisis. The next steps for this work will be to identify good practice in emergency pathways and ensure that such mechanisms are in place locally across Scotland so that families receive timely and coordinated support in an emergency.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) have assured the Scottish Government that they have a range of measures in place to help protect staff, including training and risk assessments. We will continue to work closely with SAS to monitor the safety and wellbeing of their staff.

NHSScotland has joined the multi-agency Your Safety Matters (YSM) initiative, led by Police Scotland. YSM aims to minimise incidents of violence and aggression in workplaces, through campaigns, sharing resources and good practice.

Abuse towards NHS staff is unacceptable, and the courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who carry out such appalling behaviour on emergency workers.

The Scottish Government has no plans to build or install a Scottish independence readiness thermometer at any location.

Following detailed partnership working between the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership, Police Scotland and the Crown Office (COPFS), facilitated by the Scottish Government, details of a new service specification have been developed and shared with COPFS.

The specification, which seeks to meet the parameters set out in the Lord Advocate’s statement from November 2021, will now be considered by COPFS.

If appropriate, it will then be referred to the Lord Advocate for consideration of any related statement of prosecution policy

We have worked carefully with partners to help them develop a sustainable approach which will allow for any such facility to operate to maximum effect.

Parliament will be notified when further updates become available.

Trade Ministers from the Scottish, Welsh and UK Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive meet quarterly as the Inter Ministerial Group for Trade. The last meeting of this group took place on 9 January 2023, and was attended by the then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, Ivan McKee MSP; Minister for Economy in the Welsh Government, Vaughan Gething MS; and the then UK Minister for Trade, Greg Hands MP. The UK Government provided an update on the CPTPP negotiations. Subsequent developments towards accession to CPTPP have been covered in official engagement and Ministerial correspondence.

The £25 million allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank from the Just Transition Fund is part of the Fund’s existing £500 million commitment over ten years, and will be invested by the Bank on a commercial basis, in line with its Investment Strategy and in support of the just transition to net zero in the North East.

The Bank reports publicly on the performance of its investments including through their annual Impact Report.

I welcome the innovative approach that Glasgow City Council have chosen to take on school meal debt.

Councils have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.