Chamber and committees

According to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Incident Statistics, in 2020-2021 the total number of dwelling fire fatalities was 46. For 2021-22 the total number of fatal casualties from fires in dwellings were 30.

SFRS Fire and Rescue Incident statistics are published annually and include figures on fire fatalities and trends. These can be found here https://www.firescotland.gov.uk/about-us/fire-and-rescue-statistics.aspx .

Any death from fire is one too many and that is why effective fire safety, to prevent fires and reduce their impact, remains a priority for the Scottish Government and SFRS. Whilst fire safety priority groups, themes and actions are operational matters for SFRS, the Scottish Government actively supports measures to reduce fires and fire fatalities.

Officials have met with the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) to discuss attracting more people to apply for environmental health courses and to work in local authorities.

The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health is due to meet with REHIS soon to discuss these themes.

Trade Ministers from the Scottish, Welsh and UK Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive meet quarterly as the Inter Ministerial Group for Trade. The last meeting of this group took place on 9 January 2023, and was attended by the then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, Ivan McKee MSP; Minister for Economy in the Welsh Government, Vaughan Gething MS; and the then UK Minister for Trade, Greg Hands MP. The UK Government provided an update on the CPTPP negotiations. Subsequent developments towards accession to CPTPP have been covered in official engagement and Ministerial correspondence.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with COSLA and representatives from local authorities regarding the expansion of free school meals.

In response to question (a) There were a total of 44 deaths in SPS custody during 2022.

In response to question (b) There have been a total of 4 deaths in SPS custody during the first quarter of 2023.

The SPS publishes information regarding all deaths in our custody in calendar years on the SPS website. This information is updated on a quarterly basis and can be accessed using the following link: Prisoner Deaths (sps.gov.uk) .

The next quarterly update will be published on the SPS website in April 2023 which will provide information on deaths in custody up to and including 31 March 202

Colleges operate independently of government, it is for them to decide on the shape of their curriculum, taking into account the needs of the region and communities they serve.

In terms of the delivery of national courses (such as national 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers), schools select topics from the relevant SQA units. Within the context of a history course framework, schools may opt to include topics that examine Scotland's role in the British Empire or the Atlantic Slave Trade.

For more information on how this topic might be covered in the school curriculum, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16999 on 2 May 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 has not met with COSLA or individual local authorities to discuss reusable nappies. We promote and raise awareness of reusable nappies direct to families by including a voucher for one waterproof nappy wrap, with five stay dry nappy pads inside Scotland’s Baby Box.

In our engagement with the UK Government on accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as with all developing trade agreements, the Scottish Government has consistently requested an assessment of the economic impacts on Scotland. We believe that before embarking on the negotiation of such agreements, the UK Government should be fully aware of their likely impacts across all parts of the UK.

As part of its Strategic Approach to accession to the CPTPP the UK Government produced a Scoping Assessment covering the UK-wide economic benefits expected as part of membership of the trade pact. This analysis suggested that CPTPP membership will result in a long-term increase of 0.08% in UK GDP.

While the UK Government’s Scoping Assessment does consider regional value added, and suggests an indicative change of £163 million in Scotland, or a 0.12% benefit in regional value added, this analysis is not disaggregated to local authority level. Nor is there any information on the expected impacts on employment or on expected changes to sectoral output at a Scotland-specific level. This limits our capacity to understand the potential impacts of this agreement in Scotland.

Data currently available does not allow the Scottish Government to undertake such an assessment itself, however in line with commitments in our Vision for Trade, we are working to gather evidence to better understand the impacts of trade across our society and economy. We recognise that trade has a net positive effect but that increased openness to trade can create “winners” and “losers”, including across particular local authorities and groups. In line with this commitment the Scottish Government has been building our evidence base on trade impacts and we are considering how to further improve the data available to us on this and the options we can take forward to address these differential impacts of trade.

Curriculum for Excellence is a flexible curriculum, and History sits within the wider curriculum area of social studies, with experiences and outcomes that allow for teaching and learning of a very wide range of topics. This ensures that practitioners are able to deliver a curriculum that is best suited to their learners in their circumstances and local context.

It also means that for the “broad general education” phase in particular (ages 3-15), whilst individual schools are able to draw on education resources which may include specific teaching on the British Empire, content on the British Empire is not embedded in a specific way within curriculum framework documentation. Nonetheless, within the broad general education there is the opportunity to teach the topic of the British Empire, including Scotland’s role, within the people, past events and societies section of social studies. Education Scotland provide a range of resources to support teachers, including for example on historical enslavement.

There is also an opportunity to teach the topic of the British Empire within the History qualifications in the senior phase, for example through the ‘Migration and Empire’ topic (for instance, the National 5 SQA Course Specification references “impact of the Empire on Scotland” and the Higher History SQA Course Specification refers to “the impact of Scots emigrants on the empire” and “The effects of migration and empire on Scotland, to 1939”) and ‘Atlantic Slave Trade’ topic.

More broadly, ensuring that the curriculum is taught in a culturally-responsive way that acknowledges Scotland’s role in historical world events, including trans-Atlantic enslavement and colonial histories, and their continuing impact today is part of a much wider set of ambitions which are included in the Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism in Education Programme.

Education Scotland’s guidance on promoting and developing race equality and anti-racism in education notes the value of nurturing a historical literacy in learners which helps them to understand all of Scotland’s history, including our historical role in empire, colonialism and trans-Atlantic slavery, and helps learners understand how Scotland’s colonial past plays a role in their current everyday lives.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16884 on 25 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 .