The Scottish Government has committed to rejoining the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) with the next cycles, PIRLS 2026 and TIMSS 2027, reporting in 2027 and 2028 respectively.

Data on reading, mathematics and science performance will continue to be available in the interim period from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 results which are being published in December 2023 and PISA 2025 results, which will be published in 2026. In addition, literacy and numeracy attainment results from the Achievement of CfE Levels data collection are published each year in December for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils.

The Scottish Government will publish a statistical report on the results of the PISA 2022 assessments on 5 December 2023, which will include internationally comparable results on maths, science and reading. The publication is timed to coincide with the release of the international results by the OECD, which will include the results of all 81 participating countries and economies.

The most recent data on sports participation is from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey, which shows that the average percentage of children aged between 11 and 15 that had taken part in a sport activity in the past week was 65%.

The Scottish Government does not track the participation of children aged between 10 and 15 in cultural activities.

We are aware of local authority interest in Compulsory Sales Orders and continue to work with them to explore the justification for, and potential practical operation of this tool. In the meantime, Compulsory Purchase Order powers are available, and are being well utilised to return empty homes into use. We have committed to progress work to reform and modernise Compulsory Purchase Orders, starting with the appointment of an expert advisory group in 2023-24.

Following a successful pilot, COPFS commenced the Custody Deaths Unit (CDU) on 1 August 2022.

The Unit investigates all deaths in legal custody, including deaths in police custody.

The establishment of a dedicated unit will ensure further improvements in the quality and effectiveness of such investigations, prosecutions and FAIs and consistency of process throughout the country.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days .

From 2007 to 2016, full-time equivalent was defined as between 35 and 37 hours per week depending on the local authority in which the staff were employed. From 2017 full-time equivalent has been calculated using a standard 35 hours per week across all local authorities.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has recently begun collecting students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

Data from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service show, for the period 2018-19 to 2022-23, 17 charges were reported in relation to selling a nicotine vapour product to a person under the age 18.

In total, 9 of these charges were prosecuted, of which 4 were convicted. 3 charges were marked no further action and 2 are ongoing. 3 charges were marked for a Direct Measure (Warning) and 5 marked for No Action.

A breakdown of charges for each year is shown in the following table:

The Scottish Government last received an update from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) on the national Community Asset Register (CAR) at a meeting in early June 2023. SFRS confirmed that a CAR ‘action plan’ has been developed, to monitor progress of the actions required to improve the CAR, and SFRS will keep SG officials updated as progress is made. Before the end of 2023, SFRS plans to carry out further promotion of the CAR internally, and to review the Service Level Agreement between SFRS and the other emergency responders. SFRS also reiterated its intention to continue to further develop the digital platform currently being used for the CAR but has stated, however, that the planned Information & Communication Technology (ICT) improvements could not be delivered in the current financial year due to existing demands within the current SFRS ICT work plan. The necessary improvements are to be tabled for discussion as a priority for inclusion in the 2024-2025 ICT work plan.