Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of children eligible for free school meals in early learning and childcare (ELC) settings, or on the uptake of the offer of free school meals for those children. This information would be held at local authority level.

The Scottish Government’s expansion to 1140 funded hours of ELC will introduce a universal entitlement to a free meal for all children as part of the ELC day. This will not be based on any eligibility criteria beyond the child being eligible for funded ELC (all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds).

Work is progressing across all terms of the agreed motion. In considering any requirements for additional school staff we must take into account what local authorities are telling us about what would best meet the needs of children and young people in their areas. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has also announced plans to undertake pathfinder testing work from January. This will evaluate the deliverability of asymptomatic testing in the school environment with the objective of establishing a sustainable programme of asymptomatic testing amongst school staff. Consideration of these issues is ongoing, including through budget planning processes and I will provide a further update to Parliament in due course.

The Scottish Government received the final return from local authorities on 3 December and are now analysing the responses received. The analysis may lead to a requirement to engage further with local authorities to clarify some of the information provided. The Scottish Government will publish a summary of the returns and analysis early next year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-32993 on 19 November 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government is prioritising the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools. We have continued to fund local authorities with £16 million in this financial year to ensure access to a counsellor is available in every secondary school and have published, for the first time, a single document that highlights all of the resources that schools can utilise to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government has previously confirmed that every education authority had appropriate plans in place for delivery of this commitment and that almost all authorities having access to counselling services in every secondary school in place in response to the COVID pandemic. On 24 September we wrote to all local authorities to seek information on the number of counsellors currently allocated to schools. We are still awaiting returns from a small number of local authorities and we will make this information available once it has been received.

Whilst universities have not previously raised this particular topic with Scottish Government on 11 November I announced the voluntary testing of asymptomatic university students before they return home for the festive period. This, along with walkthrough test sites in university towns and the use of some academic laboratories to augment NHS Scotland capacity are being delivered in partnership with Scottish universities.

The Scottish Government is working closely and urgently with the sector and student bodies to put in place guidance so the students are able to return to their families at Christmas. We will publish this in the very near future.

Scottish Enterprise is working closely with Peel Ports to promote Hunterston PARC to companies looking to base or expand rail manufacturing related activity in Scotland.

This promotion, in partnership with North Ayrshire Council and Peel Ports is part of a wider approach to developing the site as a place in the Green and Blue Economy sectors – such as offshore renewables, aquaculture, low carbon energy and circular economy manufacturing.

These data are not currently available from Public Health Scotland (PHS).

A more detailed report of testing data from Term 1 of the 2020-21 academic year, including the distribution of cases by school type and area, will be published by PHS in late-November 2020.

Also, analysis of linkages between pupil cases and contacts in schools in Term 1 of the 2020-21 academic year is currently ongoing. Publication of findings relating to the primary school settings is planned for early December 2020.

The Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill passed its final Stage in the Scottish Parliament on 23 June 2020. It received Royal Assent on 28 July 2020 and became an Act on that date.

Since the Bill passed its final Stage in Parliament, the Scottish Government has been progressing the work required to bring into force each of the provisions in the 2020 Act, as well as taking forward other tasks required to make mixed sex civil partnership available in Scotland, including:

• Preparations for a package of secondary legislation in the Scottish Parliament
• Development of an Order under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998 to make provision for reserved and cross-border matters
• Consideration of the IT changes needed to registration systems
• Development of public-facing guidance on the Act
• Consideration of guidance and training needs for local registrars

On the main provisions in the Act, which - in conjunction with secondary legislation - will create the scheme of mixed sex civil partnership in Scotland, the Scottish Government is mindful that there are couples who are waiting for mixed sex civil partnership to become available in Scotland. We are committed to achieving that as soon as we can.

However, there is an ongoing need to prioritise measures which will manage the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland. This means that we are not able to provide guarantees on when mixed sex civil partnership registration will become available in Scotland.

The Act contains provisions in section 3 which will enable mixed sex civil partnerships from elsewhere to be temporarily recognised in Scotland as marriages until mixed sex civil partnership is available. After that, these relationships will be recognised as civil partnerships. The Scottish Government is progressing work on secondary legislation which seeks to bring into force this temporary scheme of recognition in late 2020 or early 2021. However, this aim is subject to the requirement to prioritise measures relating to managing the ongoing pandemic.

Sections 15, 16 and 17 of the Act are already in force. Respectively, these provide the Scottish Ministers with the power to make ancillary provision, for commencement and for the short title of the Act.

We will publish information about the implementation of mixed sex civil partnership on the Scottish Government website as our work in this area develops.