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The Scottish Government has been reviewing the hybrid working policy for civil servants it employs and decisions on future arrangements will be announced shortly. Working from home can be more productive than working from an office. Hybrid meetings can be much more productive than in person meetings in many cases as they reduce travelling time between individual meetings.

Growing the economy is at heart of the Scottish Government's agenda. The First Minister has announced that the next Programme for Government will be published on Tuesday 6 May. It will be focused on targeted initiatives to boost Scotland’s economic prospects, now and for the long term – in particular sustainable and renewable energy resources – to draw in new investment and create rewarding and well-paid jobs.

The Scottish Government recognises that global economic conditions are creating a challenges economic environment for Scotland’s businesses. In addition, the Scottish Government has consistently called on the UK Government to reverse in full its decision to increase employer national insurance contributions from April 2025.

Recognising the challenges faced by the hospitality sector, in 2025-26 the Scottish Government is offering 40% relief for hospitality premises liable for the Basic Property Rate, with 100% relief for premises located on islands as defined by the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 to tackle the specific pressures they face. A number of measures in the Budget will also benefit properties in the retail and leisure sectors including freezing the Basic Property Rate and the most generous small business rates relief in the UK.

The Budget provides capital investment in offshore wind, almost tripling the current support to £150 million and investment of £100 million will continue to rollout of the digital connectivity programmes across Scotland. Investment of over £2 billion in Scotland’s colleges, universities and skills system recognises their contribution to driving economic growth and to help ensure businesses have access to a skilled workforce.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36866 on 6 May 2025. 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 recognises the growth in the number of pupils with an additional support need since the pandemic.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education and for ensuring that those pupils identified with an additional support need are fully supported to learn, in the environment that best suits their needs. Most children and young people’s needs are met through a universal level of support and 95% of children and young people with ASN were educated in mainstream classes in 2024. This includes adapting learning and teaching approaches to support children in the classroom. There remains a broad consensus from children and young people, parents and carers, the teaching profession and others that the Scottish approach to inclusive education continues to be the right one.

We continue to seek ways to improve the experience of inclusion for all of our young people and the 2025-26 budget sets out an additional £29 million for additional support needs.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a top priority for the Scottish Government. We continue to provide £16 million per year to enable local authorities to provide access to school counselling services for pupils aged 10 and over.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6O-04553 on 23 April 2025. All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a top priority for the Scottish Government.

We continue to provide £16 million per year to enable local authorities to support access to school counselling services for pupils aged 10 and over. Local authorities provide annual reports to the Scottish Government which show the overall picture on improving children and young people’s outcomes is positive. Whilst the reports do not focus specifically on capturing data on school absences, local authorities may hold this information.

The Scottish Government publishes national data on attendance annually through the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland.

More than £1bn will be provided through the Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap during this parliamentary term. This funding can be used to provide additional tutoring support, if headteachers and education authorities want to deploy this support in a way that targets those who will most benefit from this kind of intervention.

The Scottish Government has provided multi-year funding for mentoring programmes, which has been shown to support confidence building and attainment in care-experienced children and young people and those affected by poverty. In March 2021, the Scottish Government announced a £19.4 million fund over five years for mentoring programmes to support young people as part of the Scottish Mentoring and Leadership Programme (SMLP), including funding for MCR Pathways to further rollout provision across Scotland to a much larger cohort of young people.

An interim evaluation report on the SMLP programme published in December 2024 found that mentoring had increased participant’s academic confidence, attainment/achievement, social confidence, and confidence in doing well at a job in the future. A Value for Money and Impact Evaluation report is due to be published in 2025. Previous independent evaluation of the MCR Pathways mentoring programme showed that there were statistically significant positive differences between the outcomes of care-experienced young people who were mentored and care-experienced young people who were not mentored, in staying on rates, attainment, and positive destinations.

More than £1bn will be provided through the Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap during this parliamentary term. Headteachers and education authorities are free to decide to use this funding to provide additional tutoring support.

Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all young people have the opportunity to develop core STEM skills and knowledge, which is why tackling inequity within STEM learning and careers is at the heart of our STEM Education and Training Strategy. Through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, we have established a systematic approach to curriculum improvement which will help to ensure that STEM subjects are attractive and accessible to all learners.

Specialist STEM programmes for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are currently being delivered across Scotland. These include SSERC’s Research Placements Programme, funded by a range of partners, which provides S5 pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to undertake online modules to develop their professional skills, followed by a two-week STEM research placement.

In addition, Strathclyde University run an Engineering Scholars Programme open to senior phase pupils from under-represented groups who are interested in studying Engineering at university. The opportunity includes a scholarship package featuring personal or small group tutoring.

A small number of local authorities have provided indicative figures for the number of pupils enrolling in state schools from independent schools.

However, the annual fluctuation of pupil rolls in those local authorities is typically significantly larger than the increase in the number of pupils enrolling in schools from the independent sector that has been reported. We do not therefore anticipate the number of pupils transferring representing a significant issue for Local Authorities.

In terms of funding, the Scottish Government collects information on the number of pupils in state schools every September as part of the pupil census. The distribution methodology for calculating the Local Government Settlement is agreed with local authorities and is informed by a number of indicators including pupil numbers from the latest annual school census.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide education for children and young people in their area.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6O-04553 on 23 April 2025. All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website