Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28663 on 15 August 2024.

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 .

The National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) aims to support sustainable development of our seas, protect our marine environment, and deliver for Scotland’s communities, in particular those living by, relying on, and visiting Scotland’s seas. The NMP2 will support our blue economy vision, helping to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change and realising the opportunities from the transition to net zero.

The NMP2 is already in development and stakeholder engagement has commenced on the plan policies, objectives and supporting assessments. Stakeholder involvement at every stage is essential to ensure that Scotland’s marine planning framework can continue to support sound decision-making to guide the future use of our seas. To maximise opportunities to meaningfully engage with stakeholders in the design of the Plan, the delivery timeline for the NMP2 and the accompanying Statement of Public Participation (SPP) have been updated.

Later in 2024, consultation on a marine Planning Position Statement will take place. This is a new stage of the NMP2’s development and will provide an invaluable and earlier opportunity for meaningful discourse. The Statement will set out the views gathered from stakeholders to date, and the Scottish Government’s commitments and aspirations for the new Plan. This will align the development of NMP2 with the approach taken for the National Planning Framework (NPF4), where consultation on the NPF4 position statement was carried out in 2021 and used to inform the development of the draft NPF4.

The feedback gathered from consultation on the statement and from the ongoing programme of stakeholder engagement will be used to produce a draft plan. The draft NMP2 will then be subject to public consultation in 2025.

These documents and further information are available at:

•  Statutory Statement of Public Participation

The refreshed Learning for Sustainability (LfS) Action Plan was published in June 2023. The Learning for Sustainability Leadership Group – which meets quarterly – is overseeing delivery. The Leadership Group commenced an annual stocktake process in July to assess progress against the Action Plan and to agree key priorities for 2024-25.

Further to the Scottish Government’s response to S6W-25156 on 22 February 2024, key areas of progress since publication of the Action Plan include:

? The development of a new LfS Mentor Network, which launched in February 2024 with over 97 engagements undertaken in its first 6 weeks, which reached more than 600 practitioners across 20 local authorities. The Network provides a forum for educators to provide peer-to-peer support and advice;

? The formation of a sub-working group leading on development of LfS Indicators that will support practitioners and wider stakeholders to embed a whole-school approach to LfS and delivery of our Target 2030 vision;

? The creation of a range of resources that draw on examples and activities from across Scotland to support educators to deliver good practice approaches to LfS. These resources will be hosted on the new and bespoke LfS online portal that launches in Autumn; and

? Continued close engagement with Education Scotland, His Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education (HMIE), the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council to help consider alignment of LfS principles and approaches as part of on-going reviews of relevant inspection frameworks and practitioner standards.

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 .

The Scottish Government has worked with partners to develop national guidance on school uniform and clothing in Scotland. This is expected to be published in autumn 2024. The guidance will support schools and education authorities to develop and implement affordable and sustainable uniform and clothing policies that recognise the individual needs, circumstances and identities of all pupils and reduce costs of families.

The guidance will encourage schools to regularly and actively promote the availability of the school clothing grant among pupils and their families, and offer appropriate support to apply for the school clothing grant wherever it is necessary to do so.

In addition to the guidance, we have developed a supporting resource for parents and carers. This will also be published in the autumn. The resource will highlight the key messages from the guidance and signpost families to sources of support, including information about the school clothing grant.

We are working with partners, including organisations who support parents and carers, to ensure that these resources are widely disseminated.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to explore further opportunities to highlight the availability of the school clothing grant to families to ensure that those who are eligible can access this vital support.

In line with the 2024-2025 delivery plan for the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, a range of practical education and training projects have begun, with an early emphasis on improved support and training for remote and rural dispensing practices, and developing supervisory training.

The current programme of work includes, but is not limited to, an education programme for Rural GP Dispensing Practices and a new Rural Advanced Practitioners Programme (RAP), MSc and PG Diploma.

In addition the Rural Practitioners Series of Learning is delivering two rural education sessions per month, with a menu of sessions agreed for the next 6 months, and more in the planning for the year ahead in response to priority educational needs.

The first stage of a Primary Care Community Training Hub Pilot project has also been initiated in partnership with three primary care practices.

Further detail on the work of the Centre can be found at the TURAS Information hub National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot)

The Scottish Government’s position is as set out in the draft Education (Scotland) Bill which indicates that the Board must consist of one or more members who have knowledge of the interests of the staff of Qualifications Scotland (QS).

Ensuring an effective staff voice in QS is a priority for the Scottish Government. We are committed to working with the SQA and their two recognised trade unions to explore all options to ensure effective engagement is established for QS and that it meets Fair Work requirements.

The SQA Chair, appointed in November 2023, has been tasked with leading the organisation through reform and the establishment of Qualifications Scotland. As part of this, the Chair has been commissioned to provide advice on how the organisational design and leadership structures of Qualifications Scotland can best deliver this Government’s reform commitments. This includes advice on structures which will ensure a greater focus on the delivery of qualifications and related support services to schools, as well as further strengthening of the separation between awarding and accreditation functions, building on the proposed measures in the Education (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken any further calculations of extra emissions that could be generated as a result of a third runway at Heathrow.

The Scottish Government publicly consulted on developing an Aviation Strategy, based on the questions in the Discussion document to inform the development of an Aviation Strategy (transport.gov.scot) . Officials also held four stakeholder workshops to examine specific issues in more depth. The workshops included representatives from the aviation sector and environmental organisations.

Transport Scotland published the non-confidential consultation responses and an independent analysis of these responses and the stakeholder workshops (which also notes all participants): Aviation Strategy - Analysis of consultation responses | Transport Scotland

Due to Covid restrictions, the consultation noted was conducted online only between October 2021 and February 2022.

The Scottish Government carries out its work to help improve Scotland’s direct international connectivity on an airport-neutral basis. By definition, our work on direct international connectivity does not apply to Heathrow or any other UK airport.