The Scottish Government believes that Citizens’ Assemblies are an important and effective method to involve the public in policy and decision making.

The Scottish Government is currently engaged in developing the prospectus for independence through the Building a New Scotland papers, in order that people have information about the opportunities of independence and what it would mean for them. At this stage there are no plans for Citizens’ Assemblies on Scotland’s route to independence.

The Building a New Scotland paper on Scotland’s constitution makes a commitment to a legally mandated Constitutional Convention that would create the permanent constitution of an independent Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28357 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 .

The Scottish Government does not routinely collate pay and rewards package for college principals, however the information is publicly available through the colleges published accounts. The Scottish Funding Council, in its role, is responsible for monitoring Scotland's colleges financial accounts. To be clear, pay and rewards packages of College Principals are for individual colleges to determine.

Colleges are responsible for their own operational decisions. College Principals’ pay and conditions packages are for individual colleges to determine. Whilst Public Sector Pay Policy does not apply directly to colleges, the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memorandum states that colleges must have regard to it. The Scottish Government expects colleges and their Boards to be mindful of Public Sector Pay Policy Public sector pay policy 2024 to 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and demonstrate restraint when determining senior staff salaries.

An initial Equalities Impact Assessment , Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA): Purpose and Principles (www.gov.scot) for the Purpose and Principles for Post-School education, research and skills Post-school education, research and skills - purpose and principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) was published on 4 July 2023. Consideration of all protected characteristics, including gender, will continue to inform the design and delivery of post school education and skills reform.

This will build on our existing work to address barriers for women and girls, including:

•A range of resources developed by Education Scotland to address gender segregation in subject choices in schools

•Duties on colleges and universities to tackle inequality, including gender disparities within STEM subject areas

•Working with the Equally Safe in Colleges and Universities Core Leadership Group to address gender-based violence.

•The refreshed Fair Work Action Plan which was published in December 2022 and aims to take an intersectional approach, where possible, to tackling the structural labour market barriers faced by disadvantaged groups in Scotland’s labour market including women.

On the specifics of skills planning, consideration of all protected characteristics, including gender and socio-economically disadvantaged groups, will be embedded throughout the process.

I refer the member to my answer to question S6W-27963 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 .

In the 2023/24 Programme for Government we committed, as part of developing an approach to fairer funding for the third sector, to deliver improvements in grant-making arrangements, including providing greater clarity and consistency of practice.

Expanding on this, the Former First Minister committed to specific delivery goals for 24/25 in his speech at the Gathering third sector conference including a) prompt notification of funding to third sector organisations (before 31 March for funding due to commence on 1 April) b) an increase in the number of multi-year arrangements, where possible and c) a review of grant conditions.

I wrote to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 20 May to report on our progress against these delivery goals and our progress towards Fairer Funding more generally, setting out the challenges that we have met in the current financial context. I have committed to providing a further update as our work progresses.

I provided an update on our plans to introduce multi-year funding for the third sector in my letter to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 20th May. As noted in that letter, we remain committed to embedding a multi-year grant approach on third sector grants by 2026 including delivering increased numbers of multi-year funding awards, where possible and appropriate.

While it is very challenging to deliver in the current financial context, I have asked officials to do further work and have confirmed I will write to the committee again to update on progress.

There are no plans for the Scottish Government to publish open data on grant funding using the non-governmental 360 Giving Standard database. Existing reporting covering monthly spend over £25k is published on the Scottish Government website, providing details of payee and description. Government spend over £25,000: monthly reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Scottish Government recognises the value engagement to evaluate the impact of the measures we are progressing with respect to Fairer Funding. Officials in the Third Sector Unit are in regular contact with organisations like SCVO and the network of Third Sector Interfaces which provide a voice for the wider sector.

As I said in my letter to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 20 May we recognise, through our engagement, there is a need to ensure that we can work with them to identify solutions to the challenges facing us.