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The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels publication provides information on the number of publicly funded school children in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 who have achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in the literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) and numeracy.

Schools were closed in Scotland between March 2020 and the end of the academic year as a result of the pandemic meaning that they were closed on the date of 8 June 2020. It was concluded that it would not be possible to collect consistent data that was fit for purpose and that any attempt to do so would add considerably to other pressures on school and education authority staff. The decision was therefore taken to suspend the data collection in 2019-20.

The latest publication collected data for 2020-21 for Primary school (P1, P4 and P7) pupils only. Secondary school and special school data was not collected due to other pressures on these schools including implementation of the SQA National Qualifications Alternative Certification Model which was used to award National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers in 2021.

The current intention is to collect all data– for Primary, Secondary and Special school pupils – in 2021-22, although this will be kept under review.

The latest information on Reading can be found at the following table and the link provided:

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The recently published report on the Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that Scottish Government and local authorities should work with industry to develop a strategic approach to planning and deploying waste collection, reprocessing and management facilities. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

In the meantime, we have launched our consultation on Delivering Scotland's circular economy– a Route Map to 2025 and beyond. The Route Map takes a whole systems approach to set out interventions to reduce waste and meet our recycling and waste targets in a way that maximises carbon saving potential. The consultation paper is available here: Delivering Scotland’s circular economy: A Route Map to 2025 and beyond - Scottish Government - Citizen Space (consult.gov.scot)

Scotland has budgeted £429.4 million in total for Discretionary Housing Payments since DHPs were devolved in 2017 to the 2022-23 financial year. This is broken down into £349 million for mitigation of the bedroom tax and £80.4 million for mitigating the impact of other welfare reforms. From that national figure, £16,369,752 has been allocated to Dundee City in total for DHPs which includes (a) £13,407,801 for bedroom tax and (b) £2,961,950 for “Other DHP”, used to mitigate welfare reforms.

SG funding for DHPs for Dundee City 2017-18 to 2022-23

There are a range of factors which must be considered as part of our developing model for Scotland to effectively tackle and challenge men’s demand for prostitution, including online aspects, such as “online pimping”.

The regulation of internet and online service providers is a reserved matter and we are continuing to liaise closely with the UK Government and Ofcom on the UK Online Safety Bill.

Procuring for the purposes of prostitution is still an offence if committed online and Police Scotland will actively investigate all reports of sexual exploitation, including online sexual exploitation.

The final formal meeting of the short life working group was held on 19 April 2022. The insights from the group and it’s reference group are being taken into account in the drafting of the fundamental principles, with further targeted stakeholder engagement planned prior to their finalisation, including further discussion with the short life working group planned for later this month. The principles will be published later this year.

Eliminating Hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024 remains a priority target for the Scottish Government. The Scottish Health Protection Hepatitis C Network is made up of clinical leads and HCV co-ordinators, local health protection organisations and third sector agencies works to promote and support a ‘once for Scotland approach’. A key principle of the Network is to target specific populations, particularly those most at risk.

Following a recommendation in the last iteration of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework to introduce opt-out BBV testing within the Scottish Prison Establishment. Specific guidance was produced to support the delivery and monitoring of opt-out BBV testing within prison which is in line with the National guidelines and public health policies. We will continue to build on this progress as we develop the next iteration of the Framework.

Scottish Ministers have committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. In the update to our Climate Change Plan, we also committed to extend the ban to include biodegradable non-municipal waste, subject to appropriate consultation and work to provide assurance around some specific waste streams..

The Scottish Government, working with Zero Waste Scotland and local government partners, is providing centrally co-ordinated procurement support for local authorities without a solution in place in preparation for the ban coming into force in 2025. As part of this collaborative procurement programme, we are funding the provision of expert procurement, legal and technical support to local authorities to enable them to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste.

ZWS commissions research and policy reports for a variety of reasons. In some cases ZWS commissions reports which are intentionally aimed at wider public audiences, and in other cases, ZWS commissions reports to inform the development of programmes and interventions, or of Scottish Government policy.

In addition to the reports listed in my answer to S6W-08230, ZWS may have commissioned additional work that was not intended for publication. This includes commercially sensitive work that was undertaken specifically for individual organisations, work solely undertaken in-house by Zero Waste Scotland staff, and data generated to inform input to further published reports or to assist Zero Waste Scotland’s Strategic development.

The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

The National Lottery is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government were advised that the Gambling Commission’s board had named Allwyn Entertainment Ltd as the preferred applicant in March 2022.

In accordance with relevant legislation, this decision has been made by the Gambling Commission’s Board.