I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Based on our knowledge of the SPS estate, we do not believe that RAAC is present within the prison estate.

SPS is however conducting a further evidence based scoping exercise to identify any buildings that cannot be categorically ruled out as containing RAAC. Any buildings identified will require further investigation and may need more intrusive testing/inspection by specialist consultants.

The initial scoping exercise should be concluded by 30 September 2023.

Scottish Government grant making is allocated across portfolios to various parts of the third sector to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will also be issued through independent grant makers or intermediary organisations. Any impact assessments will be carried out by the individual portfolios. This information is not centrally collated.

Although Pupil Equity Funding is allocated directly to schools on the basis of the estimated number of children and young people in P1-S3 registered for free school meals, headteachers can use their professional judgement to identify any children in their school who may benefit from the targeted interventions and approaches, with the aim of closing the poverty-related attainment gap. Pupils who speak English as a second language are therefore already eligible to benefit from Pupil Equity Funding under the existing allocation criteria, with headteachers having discretion to make decisions about which children and young people would benefit most from any particular intervention or approach, whilst keeping a clear focus on delivering equity through improving outcomes for learners impacted by poverty.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

In addition, both Schools of Pharmacy work towards the widening access targets set by the Commission on Widening Access for universities to drive forward the delivery of equal access in Scotland.

There are also wider initiatives such as The Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP). The partnership develops access programmes for adults returning to education, and targets adults who reside in the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland and particularly those who have no, few or out of date qualifications. This can help support people with few suitable qualifications to progress to degree level Pharmacy studies.

To promote pharmacy technician recruitment, a number of senior pharmacy technicians attend school careers fairs etc to raise awareness of the role. All vacancies for the Pharmacy Technician Technical Apprenticeship are advertised on the Apprenticeships.scot website.

At this time, the only form of electronic monitoring available in Scotland is radio frequency monitoring (RF).

As at 11 September 2023 the number of non-custodial sentences being electronically monitored was 1,583. This compares to 1,177 non-custodial sentences being electronically monitored at the same time last year.

Scotland’s first Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDSs) – established within existing NHS infrastructure – are operational in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders. The Services provide primary care with access to a new referral pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, which is often the case for myeloma cancer presentations.

A new Detect Cancer Earlier campaign – Be The Early Bird - launched on 06 March 2023 and ran for four weeks, aiming to reduce fear of cancer and empower those with possible symptoms to act early. The campaign was developed with primary and secondary care clinical input. Following independent evaluation, the campaign will re-run in September 2023 to continue to raise awareness of the benefits of seeking help early.

Scottish Government grant making is allocated across portfolios to various parts of the third sector to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will also be issued through independent grant makers or intermediary organisations. General guidance is available for grant makers across Scottish Government but each grant funding programme will have its own specific application criteria related to desired policy outcomes. This information is not centrally collated.

Public Health Scotland continue to monitor all COVID-19 variants in Scotland and publish this regularly within the “National respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistics” report available at Publications - Public Health Scotland . The latest report was published on 14 September and included a section dedicated to EG.5.1.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published an initial Risk Evaluation for EG.5 and EG.5.1 on 9 August 2023 and has assessed the risk to global public health as low. 320 cases of EG.5 (or “Eris”) and its descendant lineages have been detected in Scotland as of 11 September 2023. The current risk in Scotland is low, we continue to advise, to prevent the spread of coronavirus, to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection. Vaccination remains the best way to protect ourselves and we encourage all those eligible to take up their invitation when they are offered.

The Government will continue to work closely with Public Health Scotland and other partners to monitor, assess and be ready to respond to any new outbreaks of COVID-19.

Local authorities have powers to award discretionary local relief under section 3A of the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962, as inserted by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. Table 1 shows relief awarded under these powers by local authority.

Table 1: Local relief awards by council area, 2016-17 to 2022-23, £000

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. Those local authorities affected have now published a list of any schools where RAAC has been identified, and it would be for those individual local authorities to decide if they publish the projected cost to remedy any issues within their school estate.

In addition, the First Minister has been clear, while we do not have contingencies within Scottish Government to spend on RAAC.

The UK Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer recently committed to spend what was necessary, and we would expect to see new funding made available. Continual UK Government cuts to capital budgets make responses across the public sector more difficult.

This is an issue we have been alive to for some time. On 16 th August, the Deputy First Minister wrote to the UK Government’s Treasury seeking clarity on new capital funding to deal with RAAC. Then, on 3 rd September, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Education seeking clarity on funding. Thus far, neither letter has received a response.