Chamber and committees

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 is the legislation which outlines the categorised responders, and their duty to prepare for civil emergencies within Scotland.

The CCA divides responders into two categories, category 1 and category 2, with local authorities included as a category 1 responder. The CCA imposes a set of duties on each category of responders, but it does not confer any powers upon the categorised responders.

The UK Government has a legal obligation to review the CCA every 5 years. The most recent review was published in 2022 and the report, including the findings and recommendations, can be viewed here - Civil Contingencies Act 2004: post implementation review report (2022) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to review the accompanying regulations to the CCA.

We are working with local authorities on the infrastructure required to deliver our commitment to the expansion of free school meals.

The 2024-25 budget has made provision for £43m of capital funding for school infrastructure, in addition to the £10m of capital funding provided in 2023-24.

This will support the expansion to P6 & P7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, as part of our wider commitment to expansion.

In recognition of the ongoing pressures on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, including the Office of the Public Guardian, additional funding for SCTS in 2024-25 was prioritised. The 2024-25 budget provides an additional £9.7 million resource and £3.9 million additional capital budget . As a non-Ministerial public body, d ecisions on the allocation of these additional resources are for the judicially-led SCTS Board.

The majority of data against which we measure our national-level Active Travel Framework Indicators comes from the questions on transport and travel asked in the Scottish Household Survey (SHS), an annual, cross-sectional national survey looking at the composition, characteristics, attitudes and behaviour of private households. The survey includes a range of questions related to transport and travel. It also includes the travel diary, in which respondents provide detailed information on all the journeys they made the previous day.

At city-level, the Walking and Cycling Index (WACI) compiled every two years combines local walking and cycling data, modelling, and an independent representative survey of at least 1,100 respondents aged 16 and above in each place.

Covering cycling specifically, the Cycling Open Data (COD) portal combines cycling statistics from the Scottish Household Survey, Sustrans, Living Streets Scotland and Transport Scotland, with a National Monitoring Framework of real-time automatic cycle counter data and traffic survey data from across Scotland, alongside Cycling Scotland programme data from Bikeability Scotland, the Big Count, YouGov Surveys, and the Cycling Friendly awards.

Covering travel to schools specifically, the Hands Up Scotland Survey (HUSS) is a joint annual survey across all 32 Scottish local authorities asking pupils ‘How do you normally travel to school?’.

All of the above is supplemented by programme level data monitoring and evaluation carried out as a condition of grant by Transport Scotland Active Travel Delivery Partners (ATDPs).

The Used Electric Vehicle Loan Scheme (‘The Low Carbon Transport Loan’) is administered on behalf of Scottish Ministers by Energy Saving Trust, who are an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency. Funding has been provided to EST to administer this service on an annual basis and since the scheme launched over a decade ago it has successfully supported over 7,400 individuals and businesses across Scotland make the transition to EVs and ultra-low emission vehicles by providing interest free loans worth over £207M.

Due to high demand, the LCTL has closed for 2023-2024 as the full budget has been allocated. Currently this scheme is being evaluated and reviewed by Transport Scotland to ensure the scheme continues to meet its intended objectives. The Scottish Budget is set on an annual basis and is impacted by the UK Budget setting process and funding consequentials received from the UK Government. These are unprecedented times with significant pressures on financial resources and difficult decisions had to be taken when setting the 2024-25 Scottish Budget. Currently no budget has been confirmed to continue this scheme in 2024-25 and officials are currently working on forward business plans for review by senior management within Transport Scotland. Individuals and businesses can register their interest on the EST website for further information on the loan - Used Electric Vehicle Loan - Energy Saving Trust .

We have announced £900,000 for local councils to aid training of support staff who are responding to the new challenges in our schools, post-Covid. This announcement was made in direct response to the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, which indicated that it is school support staff who have the most challenging experiences in dealing with negative behaviours, and that support staff themselves would welcome more training to support them in their roles.

Allocation and use of the funding was agreed at the meeting of COSLA leaders on 26 January 2024. Each local authority will receive a minimum of £10,000 of funding, with the remaining funding distributed on the basis of pupil numbers. A letter was issued to local authorities on 7 February 2024 advising them of their funding allocation. Local authorities will decide how best to use their allocated funding to help the support staff in their area.

As noted in the answer to question S6W-24947 on 19 February 2024, the draft Professional Framework will undergo further evaluation and consultation about ease of use from now until March 2024.

This evaluation evidence will be used to inform further development with another opportunity for users to provide feedback on the content from March 2024 to June 2024. The evaluation will be provided by users of the Framework and is included at the end of the material. It will also be gathered by Education Scotland staff delivering content from the Framework. Other on-going consultation and feedback will occur through our Networks and programme boards which Education Scotland attend.

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 .

As announced in the statement to the Scottish Parliament on 12 December 2023, the Council of Deans agreed to reconvene their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) National Maths Group.

The first meeting of the reconvened group took place on 29 January 2024 and we understand that the Council of Deans will be communicating with members in due course about the timings and focus for future meetings.

The ITE Maths group will meet up to four times per year. An Education Scotland representative will be invited to each meeting. Contact details for the Council of Deans are available at: https://www.scde.ac.uk/contact-us/ .

Work to refresh guidance on the use of mobile phones in schools is underway. There have been high level discussions with local authority and school representatives as part of that process. The Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, which includes a wide range of representative interests, including local authorities and others, will oversee the development of the refreshed guidance, which will be published in the Spring.

The curriculum improvement cycle for Literacy and English will commence later in 2024 and will be informed by a range of evidence, including The Education Scotland pilot curriculum review, which will commence in March 2024, the thematic inspection of Literacy and English, also announced on 12 December.