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The UK Government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill is currently at House of Lords Committee stage, and is therefore still subject to change. As it stands, it is clear that this disproportionate and unnecessary legislation is likely to significantly affect the ways in which public bodies can take human rights concerns into account when making certain decisions. We will make a full assessment of the Bill, its coverage and its impact on public bodies in Scotland when it is in its final form, and will make any necessary adjustments to our Human Rights Due Diligence guidance, and any other relevant guidance, accordingly.

People who have had a clinical diagnosis of coeliac disease or dermatitis herpetiformis are eligible to access staple gluten-free food products on NHS prescription. There are no current plans to change the criteria.

Coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease whereas wheat intolerance alone does not meet the criteria for gluten-free food products on prescription. Patients with a wheat intolerance should be encouraged to be tested for coeliac disease. If coeliac disease has already been ruled out, they could request referral to the local Dietetic Service for dietary advice and support to help manage a wheat free diet.

This relates to indicative figures provided by universities at the start of the academic session. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) will publish the 2023-24 academic year Official Statistics data in 2025. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into modern language Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.

This information is informing the work of Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail, together with work to improving the promotion of teaching as a valued career.

Modern languages are classified as a priority subject for ITE intakes by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Both the Scottish Government and SFC have offered to work with universities to develop alternative routes into subjects which have traditionally been difficult to recruit to.

Over the past 10 years the number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at over 80%, and since 2014 the number of school teachers in post has increased by 8%, from 49,521 to 53,331 in 2023. Our overall teacher ratio is the lowest in the UK at 13.2.

Whilst the recruitment and employment of teachers is a matter for local authorities, we are committed to supporting the recruitment of teachers, and we are providing local authorities with £145.5m in this year’s budget to protect teacher numbers. This additional funding provides assurance of funding for councils and should remove this as a barrier to employing staff on permanent contracts.

The Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, is looking at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.

Children’s palliative care is an integral part of the new strategy on palliative care currently being developed. In addition to representatives of palliative care for children and young people on the Strategy Steering Group, we have established a Children and Young People’s Working Group to develop new actions which will contribute to meeting the needs of children and young people and their families.

The Scottish Government does not hold central information on NHS boards’ provision of 24/7 end of life care at home for children.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is currently in the final stages of evaluating the work of the Integrated Clinical Hub (ICH) across 2023 and this evaluation will be shared with Scottish Government.

As set out in answer S6W-26209 on 19 April 2024, the information requested on how many cancer nurses have been employed in each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board area is not centrally available. 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 future investment in our transport network will be set out in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) Delivery Plan. This will align with the sustainable mode and investment hierarchies. New roads projects will normally only be taken forward where they reduce the maintenance backlog; address road safety concerns or adapt the network to deal with the impacts of climate change or benefit communities such as bypassing settlements.

The impact of climate change is built into Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) with a specific Climate Change criteria introduced in the latest update. As part of this approach two transport modelling scenarios in transport appraisal ensure that the 20% car km reduction target is a key part of the appraisal of transport projects, including road project appraisal. As such, climate change impacts are a key part of our investment decision making processes, including prioritising investment in line with the sustainable investment hierarchy.

We will publish a final 20% reduction in car use route map by autumn 2024 which includes a timeline for implementing demand management. This will include consideration of how local government action can further incentivise the switch to EVs in addition to reducing overall car km.

We will carefully consider the UK Climate Change Committee report recommendations and provide a Scottish Government response in due course.

Budgets for Modern and Foundation Apprenticeships for 2024-25 have been agreed and there are currently no plans to review the contribution rates.