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Teaching is a rewarding and exciting career, with opportunities to share passion and expertise to inspire young people on their future pathways. While it is encouraging that intakes for primary teaching are overall above target, we are taking action to encourage more people into teaching, including in the hardest to fill teaching subjects.

These are long-term systemic challenges being faced globally, and we are committed to working together with partners, including teachers, unions, and COSLA, to develop solutions.

With COSLA, we are committed to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers.. This will help ease teacher workload and improve outcomes for our children and young people.

Work is being taken forward through the joint Education and Childcare Assurance Board with COSLA on pupil behaviour and workload to overcome some of the challenges facing the profession and encouraging more people to consider teaching as a career.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37086 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

It is a matter for the Scottish Funding Council to allocate funding to individual institutions, including whether there is a need to apply any conditions as part of this process.

The member may be interested to know that the Scottish Funding Council wrote to the Convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 20 March outlining the conditions applied to the liquidity support for the University of Dundee. A link to the letter is as follows:

Letter from the Scottish Funding Council to the Convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 20 March 2025

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.

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

Where Ministers have agreed that an appointee should be remunerated, the Daily Fee Framework for Chairs, Board Members and Public Appointments must be used to determine the appropriate Daily Fee. The framework does not mandate that a fee be paid.

It is open to the Sponsor Team to decide whether a payment need be made. Remuneration may be proposed where it is particularly important to have representation from as wide and diverse a range of candidates as possible, or where there is specific need for appointees to be drawn from otherwise under-represented groups.

Any remuneration payable is not intended to meet the market rate that could be commanded by the individuals concerned.

The relevant Scottish Government approval must be obtained prior to implementing any daily fee and prior to advertising, negotiating a remuneration package or confirmation of appointment.

Recent and ongoing global events show the fragility of food security, and we are taking action to improve Scotland’s food resilience and strengthen our supply chains. The Scottish Government has created a Food Security Unit, to monitor risks or threats to the supply chain and help mitigate future shocks and impacts on food security.

For further details, 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37056 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 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.