Chamber and committees

Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to the provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets.

The latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes the 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding. We do not have additional information regarding device rollout in either South Ayrshire or East Ayrshire beyond that included in the answer to S6W-06933.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.

CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.

Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

CSO funded research project start dates are confirmed through submission by the corresponding host institution of a completed start certificate ( Form7-Start-Certificate.docx (live.com) )

The following table shows the confirmed start dates and derived end dates for the 9 projects funded through the Long-term effects of COVID-19 call

The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with Health Boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HPV and teenage booster programmes were delayed due to school closures. Pupils who were not offered their vaccines or who missed the immunisation sessions at their school, were offered the vaccine during catch-up sessions arranged by their Health Board. Health Boards have confirmed that these catch-up sessions have now been fully completed.

Therefore, all Health Boards have returned to a routine vaccination schedule for HPV and teenage boosters for the 2021-22 academic year.

Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2021-22 will be collated in autumn 2022 and published in December 2022.

The most recent PHS publications can be found online: Publications - Public Health Scotland

Scottish Ministers have committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. In the update to our Climate Change Plan, we also committed to extend the ban to include biodegradable non-municipal waste, subject to appropriate consultation and work to provide assurance around some specific waste streams..

The Scottish Government, working with Zero Waste Scotland and local government partners, is providing centrally co-ordinated procurement support for local authorities without a solution in place in preparation for the ban coming into force in 2025. As part of this collaborative procurement programme, we are funding the provision of expert procurement, legal and technical support to local authorities to enable them to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste.

We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report on the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy, and will set out our initial response in June. This includes the recommendation that industry, local authorities and the Scottish Government should do more to make data around waste in general, and around incineration in particular, more transparent and accessible for all stakeholders.

The UK Government regularly publishes data relating to visas and arrivals under the Homes for Ukraine scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukraine-family-scheme-application-data/ukraine-family-scheme-and-ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-homes-for-ukraine-visa-data--2 .

Publications include information broken down by devolved administration and local authority area: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority .

There is already a substantial body of evidence which shows that the areas with the highest levels of deprivation are disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to health inequalities. For example, Healthy Life Expectancy data shows that those living in the most deprived communities spend on average 24 years fewer in good health than those living in the least deprived communities. Those in the most deprived areas also die younger and spend more than one third of their lives in poor health. Evidence also shows that the cost of living is considerably higher for households in the lowest income deciles compared to those with higher incomes. These households will therefore be hit hardest by any increases in the cost of living.

The Scottish Government is taking action to offset these challenges and minimise these harms, for example, by tackling child poverty and supporting households and businesses with the cost of living through £22.9 billion for social security assistance, increasing the Scottish Child Payment from £10 to £25 and expanding eligibility by the end of this year, providing universal free school meals to primary school children in P1-5 and expanding provision beyond that and uprating devolved benefits.

The Scottish Government works with other organisations such as Public Health Scotland and other stakeholders to ensure that our evidence base is as up to date as possible and focused on current and emerging priorities and challenges including work to understand the nature and impact of inequalities on health.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.