The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘Creating a modern constitution for an independent Scotland’, are set out in the following table.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘Citizenship in an independent Scotland’, are set out in the following table.

Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026 sets out how each objective will be pursued, specifically:

• delivering robust and timely evidence to support the policy making process – through publishing a suite of research reports and official statistics, aligned to the Government’s research needs.
• collaboration with key partners – via the National Advisory Group and Academic Reference Group.
• supporting independent education research – through improved routes for knowledge exchange (such as the Education Research Seminar Series) and expanding membership of the Academic Reference Group to include early career researchers.
• continuing to improve data access – by continuing to make datasets available on Administrative Data Research Scotland platform and promoting available datasets and how to access them to the wider education research community.

The publication cost £479.75 to produce. Two Civil Servants were allocated to its production.

The Scottish Government uses a robust process to support the development and updating of all national COVID-19 guidance. This includes the use of national clinical expertise and consideration of evidence and research.

In this instance, in April 2023 Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland reviewed the latest scientific evidence and updated on the epidemiology of COVID-19, producing an evidence paper. The evidence paper, which is inclusive of an options appraisal from ARHAI Scotland can be found In the Scottish Parliament Reference centre, bib number is 64523.

Due to the risk of patient identification, a point has been redacted within the paper. ARHAI’s recommendation, based on the scientific evidence, was to withdraw the extended use of face masks and face coverings guidance across health and social care settings.

Scottish Government Professional Clinical Advisors in Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC), the Professional Advisory Group for health and social care, the National Clinical Director, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, the Director for Primary Care and the Interim Director of Social Care Resilience were engaged and agreed that services should revert to the guidance on personal protective equipment, including the use of face masks, contained within the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual.

The Scottish Government has not purchased any properties for the purpose of housing people seeking asylum.

Asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes responsibility for providing accommodation to people seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute while awaiting a decision on their asylum application from the Home Office. The Scottish Government has no control of these processes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21034 on 15 September 2023. 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 .

As referred to in answer to question S6W-21174 on 15 September 2023, the Scottish Government continue to keep the Fire (Scotland) Act (2005), related Fire Safety (Scotland) regulations (2006) and all relevant fire safety guidance under continuous review. 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 .

Workforce numbers are reviewed regularly to make sure the Scottish Government is delivering its policy priorities efficiently and effectively. Enhanced recruitment controls are in place to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money, however these operate at the level of the Scottish Government, and there is no specific recruitment cap set centrally with workforce decisions managed across directorates and their divisions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21034 on 15 September 2023. 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 .