The latest data on pupil support assistants is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing teacher numbers to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people.

The number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at more than 80% over the past 10 years. In addition, the number of teachers in Scotland's classrooms has increased by more than 2,500 over the past decade, as a result of investment by the Scottish Government. While we cannot direct teachers where to work, it is important to note that teacher vacancies arise across Scotland throughout the year.

We recently agreed with local government a commitment to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025-2026, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers.

In order to support each of these measures, the Scottish Government is increasing the funding available to local government to £186.5 million in 2025-2026, and will issue £145.5 million to local government in full this financial year.

Local government will also receive additional funding of £28 million from 2025-2026 to develop the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) education workforce with further funding of £1 million being made available to support national initiatives which will help to recruit and train more ASL teachers.

Data on post-induction scheme teacher employment broken down by subject, Local Authority, contract type (permanent/temporary) and mode of working are published on the Post-Probationer Teacher Employment Dashboard, here: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-post-probationer-employment-dashboard/

While financial challenges have caused this programme to remain paused since 2022, we remain committed to delivering increased mental health and wellbeing workforce capacity in general practice, when budgets permit.

The Scottish Government’s Draft Budget proposes a significant allocation for Natural Resources which includes funding for Atlantic Rainforest restoration, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to this important priority. Budget allocation at the project/programme level is still to be finalised and will be considered following passage of the Budget Bill through Parliament.

Since the publication of the research report, ‘Public Space CCTV in Scotland’, the Scottish Government has been engaging with COSLA and Police Scotland to consider what the next steps in relation to public space CCTV should be. This includes consideration of whether there needs to be an updated National Strategy for Public Space CCTV. This work is ongoing.

The latest data, as provided on our address checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com, shows that a total of 7,924 connections are expected to be delivered through the R100 North contract in 2025. This information is broken down by Local Authority in the following table.

Please note that these figures are subject to change, as connection plans can change, based on a number of factors such as adverse weather or issues with securing access to land or property, etc.

Given the significant challenges facing public finances at that time, utilising reserves that had been built up over time from underspend of previous allocations to reinvest in support of multidisciplinary team implementation was a prudent use of public funds. At the same time, the Scottish Government increased the recurring funding available for these teams through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) to £170 million in 2022-23 to support Integration Authorities to continue to work with local partners to increase and enhance capacity in primary care services. We are now investing over £190 million annually in the implementation of primary care multidisciplinary teams through the PCIF as well as additional funding for annual pay uplifts.

This report adds to understanding about what can happen early in the process of natural colonisation, when trees established in this way grow relatively slowly. The efficacy of tree planting for carbon capture must also consider their contribution to removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and then storing carbon in the longer term.

The UK Forestry Standard applies requirements to minimise soil carbon losses when creating new woodlands. No planting is supported in Scotland on soils with peat exceeding 50 cm depth. In addition recently revised guidance for soil cultivation effectively limits ploughing of organic soils of less than 10 cm depth.