In 2021, the Scottish Government formed a working group to develop Action 4 from the Rights, Respect and Recovery Action Plan. The aim of the working group is to ensure that good quality early intervention support services are available across Scotland for young people with emerging problematic drug and alcohol use.

The first phase of this work involved the working group gathering data from a range of sources to understand the size of the problem of younger people using drugs and alcohol as well as risk factors.

In 2022, we commissioned We Are With You to engage with young people in order to learn from their experiences of drug and alcohol use. This engagement has helped the working group to understand young people’s preferences for seeking help and the perceived barriers they face and this insight will aid the development of support for young people at risk from drugs/alcohol harms.

In Spring 2023, the working group began engaging with young people, using a co-design approach, to gather their views of good support. These findings, along with existing international evidence of good practice will be used by the working group to develop standards of support for children and young people.

The working group will outline the minimum principles of support that is required to meet the needs of children and young people and provide early intervention support in a way they want.

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) currently have ample PPE stockpiled and approved for medical use and that is supplied to NHS Boards as required.

Social care providers operate independently of Scottish Government and we do not, therefore, hold information centrally on the availability of PPE for them. It is for employers to provide appropriate PPE where it is required based on assessed risk.

The 2023-24 Scottish budget provides over £250 million funding to NHS Boards to support Covid-19 and other services. This funding is used to support the Covid-19 vaccination programme, testing, personal protection equipment and public health measures.

Within monthly financial returns issued to Scottish Government from NHS Boards on their Covid-19 expenditure with over £45 million of reported expenditure as at month 4. Please note, this total is based on the most recent figures reported by NHS Boards.

Council Tax is a local tax and the responsibility for the administration of the system, including the application of any reductions, rests with each individual local authority.

Properties that are incapable of being occupied, that are undergoing, or which have undergone, major repairs or structural alterations are exempt from Council Tax for up to 12 months. Local authorities also have discretionary powers to reduce the Council Tax liability of unoccupied properties by up to 50% for an unlimited period.

The Scottish Government’s target is to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2023, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent and 10% will be in our remote, rural and island communities. We do not have targets by local authority area.

Regular updates are provided by CMAL to The Scottish Government and the new ferries at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey for the Islay and Little Minch routes are on schedule and on budget.

Following the recommendations by the Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee in its report on A Modern and Sustainable Ferry Service for Scotland, Ministers have agreed that quarterly reports will also be shared with the Committee. The format of these reports is currently being finalised.

In order to determine the number and distribution of the additional graduate posts across local authorities, datasets are used from the Care Inspectorate on the postcode location of Early Learning and Childcare settings, as well as the latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The most disadvantaged areas are defined by the latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which identifies the 20% most deprived postcode areas in Scotland. Funding for Equity and Excellence Leads has been allocated to local authorities based on their share of the nurseries located in the 20% most deprived postcode areas, according to Care Inspectorate data on the location of nurseries. To ensure that this commitment benefits as many children as possible local authorities have flexibility to draw on their local data to prioritise how they allocate their additional teachers or graduates across settings.

The 3 local authorities without a nursery in the 20% most deprived postcode areas (Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles) each receive funding for 1 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) teacher or graduate.

The Scottish Government is deeply concerned about the impact that scams can have on individuals and our wider economy, particularly given the ongoing cost of living crisis.

As well as working closely with partners such as Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and Fraud Centre Scotland, we support the publication of a regular CyberScotland Bulletin which provides information on the latest cyber threats, scams, and news.

We have also partnered with The Data Lab to create the Scottish AI Alliance who deliver a free online course, Living with AI (available at livingwithai.me ). This is designed to help people inform themselves about AI and how it is used in our daily lives.

Anybody who has fallen victim to a scam should contact Police Scotland in the first instance. However, they should also be aware of the Scottish Government funded services - Victim Support Scotland and consumeradvice.scot who can help by providing free, emotional and practical help.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to recruit Equity and Excellence Lead posts across all 32 local authorities, but does not monitor the movement of specific staff.

Scottish Government publishes snapshot figures of graduate level posts in funded Early Learning and Childcare in each local authority annually in ‘Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland’ report. The latest figures were collected in the week commencing 12 September 2022 and published on 13 December 2022, in Table 19 of the ‘Additional early learning and childcare tables’: Supporting documents - Summary Statistics For Schools In Scotland 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This showed that 422 Equity and Excellence Leads were in post at that point in time, 376 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This was an increase from 2021 when there were 356 (327 FTE).