The Small Vessel Replacement Programme is complex. Costs, delivery timescales and funding profiles evolve as details develop through the ongoing outline business case process. The re-profiling of budget from 2023-24 will not impact on the timelines for delivery as set out in recent public engagement events. The first vessel is currently expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2026 with further vessels at four to six month intervals thereafter until 2028.

Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) are funded through Skills Development Scotland (SDS) via a competitive procurement process, with contracts issued to successful bidders on an annual basis. SDS contract with a wide range of providers for the delivery of MAs including employers, independent training providers, colleges, universities, third sector, local authorities and managing agents.

SDS do not contract places at a framework level and instead contract at an Occupational Grouping level to allow for flex within the system. It is up to providers to best utilise these places based on demand.

The most relevant frameworks relating to heat engineer occupations are “Plumbing and Heating” and “Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration”. Statistics published by SDS show there were the following number of starts on each framework:

All domestic owner occupied householders in Scotland are eligible for the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme, which offers householders up to £7,500 of grant funding for the installation of a heat pump or £9,000 for households which qualify for the rural uplift. Up to £7,500 is available on top of this as an optional interest free loan.

The Scottish Government also funds installation of heat pumps targeted at fuel poor households through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes.

Householders can find additional information about heat pumps and the funding available on the Home Energy Scotland website. www.homeenergyscotland.org

Some householders may also be able to benefit from the installation of a heat pump through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which is a UK Government scheme delivered via energy suppliers. These improvements are provided as benefits-in-kind.

We value our teachers and education professionals and are committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support. Since October 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce.

This year we are providing £200,000 to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scottish schools and early learning facilities.

We are also funding the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland to deliver an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of current practice about how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce.

HM Chief Inspector is committed to promoting openness and transparency in the inspection process. Educators and practitioners are kept well-informed about inspections, including the focus areas and methodologies employed by inspection teams.

HM Inspectors assess the quality of education in Scottish schools using various quality indicators from 'How good is our school? (4th edition).' This document outlines the evidence collected during school inspections. Additionally, briefings for headteachers, parents, and Parent Councils are provided and updated annually at the beginning of each academic year. These updates are available on Education Scotland’s website. Moreover, when specific or mid-year changes occur, separate advice notes are published on the website.

In November 2023, I requested that the interim Chief Inspector enhance the evidence collected about behaviour during inspections.

Consequently, HM Inspectors will place greater emphasis on gathering evidence about behaviour and strategies for promoting positive relationships during inspections. An Advice Note for schools outlining the approach will be published in early January 2024, and will apply to inspections notified from January 2024.

The interim Chief Inspector will continue to issue additional inspection advice notes as needed, ensuring the inspection process remains transparent.

The Scottish Government continues to deliver on its commitment to give people the information they need to make an informed choice about their future, and I’m pleased to confirm that today the First Minister is launching a series of speeches on the opportunities independence would bring to Scotland’s economy.

The speeches will set out the Scottish Government's vision for a stronger and more productive economy that could be delivered with independence, further developing the economic strand of the Building a New Scotland (BaNS) prospectus.

The speech also sets out three key measures for a successful industrial policy for an independent Scotland:

• Joining the EU as an independent country;
• Establishing a dynamic government Ministry for Industrial Policy and consensus building institutions to drive the strategy;
• Targeted capital spending investment in key areas of comparative advantage, a proposal for a Building a New Scotland Fund already set out in the third BaNS paper: A Stronger Economy with Independence .

Ministers will deliver further speeches on the opportunities independence would bring to Scotland’s economy in the coming months. The speech text “Building a New Scotland: Industrial Strategy in an Independent Scotland” is available to view on the Scottish Government website from today at www.gov.scot/newscotland .

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Higher Property Rate (HPR) in 2024-2025 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the below tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by council area. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on the non-domestic valuation roll as at 1 October 2023.

Figures in these tables are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for HPR in 2024-2025 by property class

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

When an individual is allocated a prison cell in any establishment, the cell is equipped with furnishings such as a table/tabletop, seating, a bed and bedding.

The occasion where this may not occur is when an individual is located in a safer cell if it is considered that they are a risk to themselves. These cells are equipped with a bed and bedding, but they may not have a chair or a separate table. Items in use within a safer cell are allocated on an individualised basis.

The following table shows the number of safer cells across the prison estate:

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

As defined in the Prison and Young Offenders Rules (Scotland) 2011, all female prisoners who require sanitary products are provided with them free of charge. There is therefore no need to record instances of products not being provided.

As I set out in Parliament on 18 December during the statement on implementing the medication assisted treatment we are preparing for changes to the drug supply with synthetic opioids becoming more prevalent. At the National Mission Oversight Group meeting on 14 November 2023 Dr Sharon Stancliff, Associate Medical Director of Harm Reduction in Healthcare New York State, and Professor Thomas Kerr, Director of Research with the British Columba Centre on Substance Use, gave presentations on their experiences of fentanyl and the impact this has had since becoming prevalent in the drug supply in New York State and British Columba respectively. An overview of fentanyl was given, the differences between opiates and synthetics and the differences in overdose presentations were covered. The use of naloxone and fentanyl testing strips, along with the need for buprenorphine and harm reduction practices generally, were discussed. The presentations also covered use of safer drug consumption facilities, drug checking and the decriminalisation pilot which took place in British Columbia. They shared their views on what is needed here in Scotland, based on their respective experiences with fentanyl epidemics in their countries, to help address the risks that synthetics pose.

Officials recently met with stakeholders who are involved in the delivery of drug and housing services to discuss the roundtable event taking place this year on synthetic opioids and those areas they would want to cover. Planning is continuing for this to take place at the start of 2024, the event will cover all synthetic opioids including nitazenes.

The Scottish Drugs Forum have launched resources on synthetic opioids and nitazenes to get information out to people that they are in the illegal drug supply Resources — Stop The Deaths . Public Health Scotland have also recently issued an update to their alert via RADAR to healthcare staff and the public to highlight the increased dangers associated with the drugs ( RADAR Nitazenes alert 2023 ).