Chamber and committees

There is no mandatory curriculum within Scottish schools and local authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of their lessons at the local level taking account of the needs and circumstances of children and young people in attendance at their schools.

However it is important that we all know how to stay safe in and around Scotland’s waters. We are fully aware that conditions in open water sites change constantly and can be dangerous. Indeed, there is a significant difference between swimming in a heated indoor swimming pool and a cold open water site such as a loch. Therefore issues such as the importance of floating to live or the dangers of cold water shock also must be communicated in order to prevent drownings.

Water Safety Scotland and Education Scotland have launched a full progression pathway for water safety education for schools in Scotland. This pathway focuses on the provision of age and stage appropriate water safety education to support all children and young people aged 3-18 to develop valuable lifesaving knowledge, skills and understanding.

This pathway is available for use by all school practitioners when delivering water safety education, and it is available on Education Scotland’s website through the following link: Water Safety | Learning resources | National Improvement Hub (education.gov.scot) .

Furthermore, the Scottish Government will continue to work with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportscotland and Scottish Water to develop interventions and approaches to provide opportunities for children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers.

We plan to consider the potential of an evaluation once the fund is well established. As part of any evaluation we will consider how we get direct feedback from people about their experiences of using it and impact.

The Scottish Government's "A Fairer Scotland for Older People: Framework for Action" outlines the steps we are taking to ensure Older People are healthy, happy and secure. As part of the Framework Scottish Government is working to ensure access to measures to improve community safety and reduce vulnerability to scam callers and other kinds of elder abuse.

As Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees, I have portfolio responsibility for older people and this Scottish Government remains committed to delivering access to opportunities and services people need to ensure they are healthy, happy and secure in older age.

We will continue to work closely with the Older People’s Strategic Action Forum to review progress on the 2019 “A Fairer Scotland for Older People: framework for action” to ensure it remains fit for purpose.

In letters of 16 February 2023 and 27 March 2023, the Scottish Government offered the Church of Scotland the option of another meeting with Registers of Scotland and Scottish Government officials to discuss how they can work together to help achieve compliance. The Scottish Government has not yet received a response to that offer, however officials will be in touch with the Church of Scotland to follow up on this.

The Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland are working together to deliver an additional engagement plan to raise awareness and help support stakeholders through the process. This will include a programme of additional awareness raising and reviewing the existing guidance, however this will not include further legislative intervention or legal advice.

Transport Scotland officials have not met the leader of Glasgow City Council regarding the Low Emission Zone (LEZ), however officials continue to meet with councillors and officials on a regular basis. As part of the LEZ governance structure, Transport Scotland convenes several LEZ working groups, including the LEZ Leadership Group.

The LEZ Leadership Group is chaired by Scottish Ministers and held every six months. The group is made up of convenors/councillors and senior officials from the four local authorities implementing LEZs. Topics raised at the Leadership Group include (but are not limited to), LEZ support funding, city specific topics, operational matters and risk.

Throughout the LEZ consultation process both Transport Scotland and the four local authorities have listened to the views of businesses. The minimum and maximum grace periods reflect feedback from stakeholders, including the Federation for Small Businesses.

Whilst the Scottish Government has set the national framework for LEZs, it is for local authorities to design their LEZs as they see fit, which includes choosing an enforcement timeline (and associated grace period) which best fits their city.

A total of 56 homes have been completed through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund since November 2021. The following table provides a breakdown by local authority area.

There is no reliable data held or published which we can refer to answer this question: Whilst Public Health Scotland publish the total number of patients waiting for specialist mental health services, detail of the individual types of assessment or diagnosis is not held.

The publications for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting times for the quarter ending December 2022 can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government’s National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs receive the support that they require. The Specification is purposefully inclusive and includes support for those who may be identified with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

We have made significant investment to introduce more than 80 extra counsellors across institutions and have committed funding to maintain support through to the end of this academic year.

No decision has yet been taken with regard to funding beyond the current academic year.

The Fund's focus in 2023-24 will be on deploying £25 million in capital grants, as part of the £50 million multi-year programme that was announced last year.

Additionally, £25 million has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24 to invest on a commercial basis, in line with the Bank's Investment Strategy.

Utilising the commercial investment expertise and experience of the Bank offers a key opportunity to unlock third party finance at the scale required to meet our ambitions for a just transition in North East and Moray.