Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16260 on 17 April 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

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However the Scottish Social Services Council estimated that in 2021, approximately 10% of social care sector staff are employed on zero hours or equivalent contracts. Their Report on Workforce Data can be reached at the following link; https://data.sssc.uk.com/data-publications/22-workforce-data-report/295-scottish-social-service-sector-report-on-2021-workforce-data

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect data on mothballed schools in Scotland. The Scottish Government does collect data from local authorities in order to collate a list of schools regarded as rural for the purposes of the Schools (Consultation)(Scotland) Act 2010. The most recent rural schools list was published on 25 October 2021 - Rural schools in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The rural schools list includes those schools the relevant local authority has mothballed. The 2021 rural schools list shows that 21 schools were reported as being mothballed. The following table shows how many rural schools are mothballed by local authority area.

We recognise that rises in the cost of living are putting a huge strain on some families and they are facing unforeseen challenges.

The management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments. Councils have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.

COSLA, working with partners from across Local Government, have developed a set of good practice principles for the management of school meal debt, which were published on 20 February 2023. The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff. The principles can be accessed through the following link: COSLA Publish Good Practice Principles for Managing School Meal Debt - 20th February 2023 | COSLA .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16260 on 17 April 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

The Scottish Government does not provide annual guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education. The experiences and outcomes for relationships, sexual health and parenthood are set within the health and wellbeing organiser of curriculum for excellence. Information is available from https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5/experiences-and-outcomes/#hwb .

For the current guidance on RSHP education, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16187 on 17 April 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15126 on‎ 15 March 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

The Scottish Government will publish the commissioned demand management research in the coming months.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information: Health Boards are responsible for making Golden Hello payments to eligible GPs.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recognition of the need for urgent action in order to deliver our climate policies and deliver a net zero Scotland by 2045. As outlined in our route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA, the scale of the climate challenge means that we need to take forward a broad combination of interventions including infrastructure, incentives and regulatory actions, taking into account the needs of people on low incomes to help ensure a just transition to net-zero.

A key interdependency of the Scottish Government’s approach to demand management and car use dis-incentivisation is the position of the UK Government on the future of motoring taxes. The most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved to the UK Government, who acknowledged in their Net Zero Review that revenues from existing motoring taxes will decline sharply this decade as we transition away from fossil fuels and the taxes based on them. However the UK Government has so far consistently failed to set out how they will address this.

The development and publication of the demand management framework by 2025 does not, however, preclude earlier action. Existing legislation provides a suite of options for local authorities to implement according to their local needs and circumstances and Transport Scotland will continue to work with local and regional partners as part of its collaborative approach.