The £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), in collaboration with local authorities, commenced in 2021 and will deliver 47 school infrastructure projects across Scotland. The LEIP builds on the success of the £1.8bn Scotland's Schools for the Future Programme, which completed in 2021, and delivered 117 school infrastructure projects.

In the current parliamentary session to date, the Scottish Government has distributed a cumulative amount of £13.6m through the LEIP in revenue grant payments to projects that are open to pupils. For those open projects, we expect this to total £24m by the end of this parliamentary session.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, school design is ultimately a matter for them.

However, our Learning Estate Strategy - which was produced in collaboration with COSLA - underpins the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), and its guiding principles make clear that learning environments should support the wellbeing of all learners and meet varying needs to support inclusion.

All LEIP projects were announced prior to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s recommendations being published. To date, 10 projects are complete, 17 are in construction and the remainder are in development.

Guidance is currently being developed with a wide range of stakeholders, and is planned to be applicable to both existing and future projects either within the LEIP or across the learning estate as a whole. This guidance is expected to be published before the end of this year and, in the interim, local authorities can reference a publicly accessible standard which is titled: Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment.

Communications were discussed in detail at the ASL Project Board’s meeting on 30 January 2025 when the Project Board agreed to engage Enquire to draft a communications strategy.

It is anticipated that the strategy being produced by Enquire will focus on bespoke clear, key messages for a range of different audiences including children and young people, parents and carers. The work will also recommend bespoke communications channels for each audience.

Regular updates on the progress of the strategy will be provided to the ASL project Board. Further information, is available on the ASL Project Board’s dedicated Scottish Government webpage at: https://www.gov.scot/groups/additional-support-for-learning-project-board/.

Each Deal is required to produce a Benefits Realisation Plan setting both quantitative and qualitative objectives and measures for the programme. Each Deal produces an annual report detailing progress made on the delivery of agreed projects and programmes and on their intended outputs and outcomes. We monitor progress on outcomes on a regular basis via Annual Conversations which involve senior staff from both governments and local authority partners to review the past year’s activity and look ahead to future milestones. Annual reports for all deals are made publicly available on each deal’s website enabling visibility of what is being achieved.

The Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery (PNM) student financial support review is currently ongoing. This review will take time, as it is important that we clearly understand how we can support our PNM students to complete their studies. The options for consideration will be presented to the me before the end of the year. An equalities impact assessment will be published once the review has concluded.

Efficient and effective dissemination of wildfire prevention information to the public is key to preventing wildfires. Before igniting any flames in a rural or outdoor setting, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) encourage everyone to check which area of Scotland may be at threat of wildfires. If a threat is in place, the key prevention advice from SFRS is that people should refrain from igniting any flames.

When Scotland is at a high threat of wildfires, SFRS works in partnership with the Scottish Wildfire Forum (SWF), to alert the public and partners to the threat of wildfires by issuing Wildfire Danger Assessments. SFRS issues alerts through its social media channels, its website and local media outlets, and requests assistance from Local Authorities across Scotland to share safety messaging to seek engagement with as many members of public as possible. These warnings detail which areas across Scotland are most likely to be affected. SFRS also alerts the Scottish Government who proactively re-issue these warnings across digital and social media platforms.

The Scottish Government’s Ready Scotland marketing campaign can be activated at any time, using geographically targeted digital and local radio channels to inform the public about forecast extreme weather. In 2023, digital assets were developed for the campaign so that it can also be deployed in any area of Scotland at times of heightened risk of wildfires.

When areas are at risk from severe weather or severe wildfires, the Scottish Government, responder organisations and other resilience partners all work closely to share public safety advice through a variety of channels. Well-established processes are in place to consider the most appropriate methods of communication based on the specific circumstances.

The terms and conditions of firefighters are negotiated on a UK wide basis through the National Joint Council. The Fire Brigades Union is the largest staff representative body at those negotiations and that is the appropriate avenue to change pay and conditions for firefighters. The Scottish Government is not part of those negotiations as that is rightly a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as the employer.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership, which is working to ensure that all school aged children in Scotland will be given the opportunity to be equipped with CPR skills.

This has included delivery of Restart a Heart Day Live last year. This was a live stream CPR training event targeted at school-age children. The Scottish Government has committed to working with Save a Life for Scotland to deliver Restart a Heart Day Live again in 2025.

The Save a Life for Scotland partnership have a range of resources available on their website for both adults and children to safely learn how to perform CPR.

The consultation on the Heat in Buildings Bill included a range of proposals regarding the use of waste heat by heat networks. The final decision on the provisions of the Bill, to be introduced later this year, will be made collectively by Cabinet ahead of its introduction.