I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue and re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.

Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) are valued stakeholders and my officials at Transport Scotland engage frequently with the RTPs on various matters. However, whilst Strathclyde Partnership for Transport manages the Glasgow Subway, RTPs have no formal role in governance of ScotRail or Caledonian Sleeper services.

Similarly, as bus services operate in a deregulated market, they are not subject to governance from local authorities or RTPs. However, local transport authorities, which include the model 3 RTPs, have a range of powers available to them in relation to bus services, including flexible tools available through the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 and the ability to subsidise services, where they consider these to be socially necessary. As such, my officials engage with them regularly in relation to bus services.

The Additional Support for Learning Code of Practice is statutory guidance which explains the duties on education authorities and other agencies to support children’s and young people’s learning. It provides guidance on the provisions of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act as well as on the supporting framework of secondary legislation. Education authorities and agencies involved in advising or supporting children and young people with additional support needs and their families, should encourage and support their employees in gaining knowledge of the content of the code and understanding of its application in their day-to-day work. To ensure that it continues to fully support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duties under the ASL Act, we have committed to a refresh of the Supporting Children’s Learning Code of Practice during this parliamentary term. The update will take account of the incorporation of UNCRC.

In terms of funding to support local authorities, spending on additional support for learning by authorities reached a record high of £926m in 2022-23 an increase of £386m in the last 10 years. We have invested £75m since 2019-20 to help schools respond to the individual needs of children and young people, which has contributed to the highest recorded level of support staff in Scotland. We also provide over £11m of funding each year to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to support children and families.

The early resolution of concerns and disagreements is actively encouraged. Where this is not possible, the Additional Support for Learning legislation sets out a range of dispute resolution mechanisms and the Scottish Government provide for a range of services to support parents, carers and young people through this process.

In response to the Additional Support for Learning Review in 2020, Scottish Ministers are committed to ensuring that Additional Support for Learning legislation is UNCRC compliant, and will deliver this through the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue. He re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.

The national Centre for Sustainable Delivery (nhscfsd.co.uk) has undertaken significant work over the past year to diagnose the key challenges within Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Along with each local board across Scotland, NHS Lothian has a set of bespoke action plans which will bring about the greatest opportunities to create capacity in the system, resulting in lower occupancy and increased flow through the hospital. The Scottish Government will work with NHS Lothian to determine what support is required to embed these plans into business as usual that will allow sustainable improvements.

In terms of assessment of any impact of A&E pressures at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on the provision of pre-hospital critical care, the Scottish Government receives weekly performance reports which include details on response times to the most critical calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service and times for turnaround of ambulances at A&E departments throughout Scotland, including the Royal Infirmary. Clear escalation plans are in place for all Boards should pressures on A&E be impacting on any level of patient care and mechanisms in place for any escalation to be reported to us.

The Scottish Government is aware of the situation regarding the withdrawal of the advanced doctor-led Medic One prehospital critical care service (PHCC) within NHS Lothian, which forms part of the wider Scottish Trauma Network (STN) for the Southeast of Scotland.

It is the responsibility of NHS Boards to make appropriate operational decisions to ensure a high level quality of emergency medical care for the members of their communities and we are aware that NHS Lothian and the Scottish Ambulance Service have interim emergency arrangements in place while they develop a business case for a replacement service.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is responsible for the harmonisation and provision of consultant doctor-led Emergency Medical Retrieval Services across NHS boards which are implemented through the Scottish Trauma Network. They work collaboratively with pre-hospital trauma teams and boards across the country to deliver consistent high-quality person-centred and equitable critical care to the most seriously injured patients.

Whilst the Scottish Government meets regularly with the Scottish Ambulance Service on operational matters, we have had no recent discussions with them regarding advanced, doctor-led, pre-hospital critical care capabilities in NHS board areas, including NHS Lothian.

Contractual terms and conditions of Principals is a matter for individual colleges to determine. The Scottish Government therefore does not hold this information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28359 on 23 July 2024 All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .