Chamber and committees

Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children and young people of school age have the right to an education that helps them develop their abilities to their fullest potential. Local Authorities, who deliver education, also have a statutory duty to make special arrangements for any affected pupils to receive education elsewhere than at a school, or other educational establishment, if they are likely to be absent for a prolonged period as a result of ill health. This statutory duty applies regardless of the nature of the health condition keeping a pupil absent from school, including IBD, Crohn’s diseases and colitis.

The Scottish Government published guidance on the education of children unable to attend school due to ill health and, within this guidance, it states that legislation requires that local authorities make special arrangement for children and young people absent from school through ill health ‘without undue delay’.

The guidance on the education of children and young people unable to attend school due to ill health is available on our website through the following link: Introduction - Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot. Alternatively, this information is also summarised on user-friendly fact sheets which are available on the Enquire website through the following link: too-unwell-to-attend-school.pdf.

Artificial grass pitches play an important role in the delivery of sport and physical activity across Scotland, helping the nation to lead more active, healthy lives. Well maintained artificial pitches allow for year-round, intensive use and can provide significantly more playing hours than traditional grass pitches.

sportscotland, our national agency for sport, are part of the UK Artificial Grass Pitch forum monitoring work on the long-term viability of these products. sportscotland, continue to engage with sporting bodies, educational bodies and key partners across the sporting sector in the development of synthetic pitches and surfaces.

There are already alternatives on the market such as cork, corn husks and olive pits amongst others. St Andrews University has already installed a full-size 3G pitch with cork infill, and there is research and development continuing across the industry with more products in the market. Glasgow Life is also planning to trial the use of biodegradable corn as an alternative to 3G rubber crumb on two five-a-side courts at Glasgow Green – with further developments potentially taking place across the city.

Work is ongoing to establish whether Emergency Department (ED) opt-out testing for blood borne viruses would be acceptable, deliverable and cost-effective in areas of higher diagnosed prevalence, or across the whole of Scotland. Two of the pilot projects commenced later than originally planned, meaning that the evaluation process has not yet been completed. There has also been an extension to the Scottish Government-funded academic research on missed opportunities for blood borne virus testing, which will provide valuable information to inform future funding decisions.

An options appraisal is in development, which will be carefully considered alongside other potentially beneficial testing interventions.

The Scottish Government has provided specific funding (totalling around £145,000) for Emergency Department (ED) opt-out blood borne virus testing pilots in NHS Lothian, Grampian and Highland. At present, any other ED opt-out testing would be delivered by NHS Boards using the core funding they receive from the Scottish Government which includes baselined funding for sexual health improvement and blood borne virus elimination.

The recently approved 2025-26 Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for Health & Social Care next year, including £16.2 billion for NHS Boards.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place.

I expect any body responsible for planning and delivering health services to the public in Scotland to operate within the relevant strategic and statutory frameworks. Scottish Government officials are engaging with Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian about their plans.

We are working with NHS Boards and partners to improve access to diagnosis and we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to support local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services. As part of this, NAIT is also working with NHS Boards to build a neurodevelopmentally informed workforce in Scotland.

Through our £1 million Adult Autism Support Fund (AASF), the Scottish Government funds SensationALL, which provides support to autistic adults in both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Whilst this support does not include assessments, a diagnosis is not required to access the service, and the majority of service users have reported improved wellbeing as a consequence of this support.

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults is managed and distributed locally by Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs) across Scotland. Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire (VASLAN), the TSI for South Lanarkshire, was awarded £881,768 in Year 3 of the Fund to distribute to local projects. A full list of projects which received funding in Year 3 can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Projects awarded funding Year 3 - 2023/2024

In Year 4 VASLAN were awarded £890,697.55. We do not yet have the list of projects funded in this year, as TSIs are due to submit their end of year reports by 31 March 2025. A full list of projects funded in Year 4 will be made available on the Scottish Government website thereafter.

The Scottish Government provided £49,425 in 2022 and £40,000 in 2023 to support Scottish Games Week as the platform to bring industry together to showcase talent, share learnings, build networks, and highlight the potential of the sector.

Further to this, the Scottish Government has been engaged with the video game sector as it develops an industry led games action plan. It is our expectation that this plan, developed by the Scottish Games Network following a series of workshops hosted around Scotland, will set out what support is required to successfully grow the sector in Scotland.

As this action plan is being developed by industry we cannot definitively say what these actions will include but we expect to see the action plan in the coming months.

The Scottish Government has engaged with video game industry representatives, with Ministers attending the Industry Conference and Scottish Games Awards at the most recent Scottish Games Week. Further engagement over the past 12 months has primarily been between officials and the Scottish Games Network through regular meetings. Public bodies such as Creative Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and Education Scotland and our Enterprise Agencies will also engage with individual games companies, however, the Scottish Government does not keep a record of this.

The primary focus of our engagements has been the industry led games action plan which was backed by Scottish Government in a roundtable discussion between Ministers and industry figures in November 2023. The aim of this plan is to boost and accelerate growth and job creation, as well as amplifying the global reputation of one of Scotland’s most promising sectors.

The Scottish Government has not provided funding directly to video game development companies in the past five years through targeted schemes.

The Scottish Government does not provide specific support to independent video games developers. Developers can access bespoke business advice and support through our enterprise agencies.