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We have taken stock and listened to the initial feedback to the consultation, which showed that around 95% of respondents did not support the proposal. I can confirm that the Scottish Government will not change the Council Tax Multipliers to increase Council Tax for Bands E to H in 2024-25.

Actions taken by the Scottish Government to respond to the report’s recommendations are set out in the Equalities and Wellbeing in Manufacturing Working Group Recommendations: One Year Report, which was published on the Scottish Government website on 29 August 2023. Scottish Government Mental Health team in collaboration with Public Health Scotland, launched the Employer Mental Health Platform, a comprehensive and streamlined online service, which provides employers and employees access to a range of free resources from public, private and the third sector, to help promote a mentally healthy workplace. We will continue to work with partner organisations and industry to provide mental health and wellbeing resources that support employers and employees in the sector.

The Scottish Government has committed to develop plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children. Breakfasts are being provided across Scotland by a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We are working with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map existing provision. This will help us develop a plan for breakfast provision, designed around the needs of children and families, which will include delivery timescales.

Breakfasts are being provided across Scotland by a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We are working with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map existing provision. This will help us develop a plan for breakfast provision, designed around the needs of children and families, which will include estimated timescales.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data. The Teacher Induction Scheme is administered by the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS). As such, the GTCS is best placed to advise on how many newly qualified teachers are eligible each year to undertake probation, and subsequently how many teachers complete their probation year.  

All children and young people should receive the support they need to reach their full potential. In the most recently published figures, spending on additional support for learning by authorities reached a record high of £830m. We have invested an additional £15m per year since 2019-20 to support the recruitment of pupil support assistants to help local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people. In addition, we provide over £11m of funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.

We recognise that children and young people should learn in the environment which best suits their needs and there is a range of provision available to support the needs of learners. This includes 109 local authority special schools across Scotland, in addition to the specialist provision in place within mainstream schools. In 2022, we saw an increase in the number of pupils attending a special school by 222.

The Scottish Government is determined to improve the experiences of children and young people with additional support needs, and we work closely with local government partners to do so. We are currently implementing the actions in our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan, in response to the recommendations of the Morgan review, which were published in 2020. Progress reports were published in November 2021 and November 2022. A further update is due to be published in May 2024.

There is a currently a mixed delivery of breakfast provision across Scotland with a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We have conducted provisional modelling of breakfast provision and have begun work with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map provision in order to identify gaps in provision. This will help us develop a plan for breakfast provision, designed around the needs of children and families.

Breakfasts are being provided across Scotland by a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We do not collect national-level data associated with this provision.

As part of the development of our Just Transition Plans, we are assessing how best to support workers and businesses in upskilling and reskilling, as well as attracting new talent into the workforce. Our Just Transition Plan for the Built Environment and Construction sector, to be published next year, will set out how we plan to enable a fair transition in the construction sector and support workers to take advantage of good, green job opportunities. This will draw upon the recent Sectoral Skills Assessment of construction conducted by Skills Development Scotland.

The Construction Leadership Forum, comprised of government and industry representatives, also has a dedicated working group progressing the commitments set out in the Construction Accord to ensure the competency of the construction workforce for current and future industry needs.

The objectives in the July 2020 Rail services Decarbonisation Action Plan DAP currently remain. Any updates will be included in the refreshed plan, which is under development, and is due to be published in the near future.