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We welcome the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s analysis and recognise the impact that changes in Scotland’s population health and demographics could have on fiscal sustainability, and we are taking steps to mitigate this.

The Scottish Government’s position is that we are unable to support long-term working outside of the UK unless there is a genuine requirement to do so in the role, i.e. working from one of our overseas Scottish Government offices. However, we do not consider staff who work permanently in one of our overseas offices to be working remotely from outside of the UK as the role that they are employed to undertake is fully based in the relevant overseas office. In addition, as such staff have diplomatic status, there are no residency or tax implications and they continue to be subject to paying income tax in the UK.

Staff may be required to work outside of the UK temporarily for brief periods when travelling on official business, for example, accompanying a minister overseas or attending a conference and they may be required to undertake work remotely during such events. In addition, consistent with other parts of the Civil Service, the Scottish Government allows staff to work remotely from outside of the UK for up to a maximum of four weeks per annum subject to meeting eligibility requirements, which includes having the right to work in the overseas country, and meeting any costs and potential liabilities from working abroad. Tax codes do not change when working abroad for these brief periods. We do not collate data that specifically captures instances of remote working from overseas.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of supporting young people to remain in education and has taken a range of measurable actions since the COVID-19 pandemic to address the financial pressures that can contribute to early school leaving. These actions include, the continuation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) programme, increased support for School Clothing Grants, investment in Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), support for a broad range of learner pathways and the continuation of record funding to Scotland’s schools through the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme, providing up to £1billion in additional funding.

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with local authorities, schools and third sector organisations to monitor these interventions and assess their impact on young people’s education.

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.

In 2025/26, an additional £28m will be invested in additional support for learning, to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce at a local level, to help enhance professional learning on inclusion for all teachers at all stages of their careers and to support teacher specialism in inclusion. A further £1 million will be provided to support national initiatives, which will enable us to build on the work being delivered through our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

Scotland does not have a mandatory curriculum. Instead, Curriculum for Excellence is a flexible framework for teachers to determine what they wish to teach and how, including providing learning and teaching about the Holocaust.

The Curriculum Improvement Cycle will begin the review of Social Studies this academic year, where all aspects of the social studies curriculum will be reviewed. Practitioners will play a central role in this process.

Scottish Government intends to provide estimates of the costs and benefits of the policies and proposals in the draft Climate Change Plan when that is published later this year. Information on the expected distribution of costs may not be available for all policies and proposals at the time of CCP publication but will be provided through the normal processes (impact assessments, financial memoranda) as the policies and proposals are developed and introduced over the coming years.

The Scottish Government is aware of the reports indicating that the cost of publicly funded care home beds in Scotland is higher than in England. This disparity is likely to be influenced by several factors, including differences in service models, staffing levels, and the geographical distribution of care facilities.

Myself and the previous Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills have supported the annual Vision Schools Scotland Awards ceremony by attending and contributing to the ceremonies where achievement of schools and pupils in Holocaust Education are recognised.

Since 2021, Scottish Government has provided £126,247 in funding to the Vision Schools Scotland programme to further support Holocaust education in schools. This includes funding up to £36,352 for the 2024-25 financial year.

The Official Statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland provide data on shoplifting and offences recorded under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. The statistics include the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, and the proportion cleared up (i.e. where there exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots law to justify consideration of criminal proceedings against the suspected perpetrator). Information is not held centrally by the 8 Scottish Parliamentary regions, as these do not fully align with local authority boundaries (which form the basis of how data is received from Police Scotland).

Data on recorded shoplifting and the proportion of cases cleared up is available in the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2023-24 publication. The number of crimes recorded is available in Table 1 with the percentage of recorded crimes cleared up by the police in Table 3. Both of these tables include the latest 10 years of data.

The following tables show both the number of crimes and offences recorded and the proportion cleared up under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 Data is available from 24 August 2021 (the point from which the Act came into force).

Crimes of assault or threaten a retail worker recorded in 2021-22 to 2023-24