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The Scottish Government values the teaching profession and the important work that teachers do is one of the key strengths of our education system.

We will continue to work with COSLA and the teaching unions to address concerns around teacher workload.

We are clear that reducing teachers’ class contact time by 90 minutes per week will help address critical concerns around teacher workload, including the retention of teachers.

We will continue to work with COSLA and the teaching unions to make meaningful progress on this important commitment.

Protecting children from harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government. Child sexual abuse and exploitation are abhorrent crimes and have a devastating impact on victims and their families. In Scotland, we are working closely with partners to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation in all its forms. We are committed to ensuring that robust measures are in place across Scotland to make sure our services can identify and support victims of online harm, including children and young people.

We are taking forward a range of work with our partners to both prevent abuse and intervene early to ensure that risk and harm to children and young people is recognised and acted on quickly and effectively. This includes the establishment of a new National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group, comprising of operational partners, including Police Scotland, and other expert stakeholders, to review current action and agree where additional focus is needed to better protect children from abuse and exploitation, including online-enabled harm. This group’s overarching priority is prevention. Members are working together to identify priorities and actions to more effectively prevent, disrupt and provide support to victims of child sexual abuse and their families, including those facing online harms.

The Scottish Government is also a member of Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Group on Preventing Online Child Sexual Abuse which monitors emerging online threats to develop a shared approach to using technological advancements to tackle abuse, improve data-gathering, improve support for victims and survivors and promote key activities delivered by our partners.

While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people. The Scottish Government is also working closely with the UK Government on extending relevant Crime and Policing Bill provisions to Scotland, including offences relating to the possession, creation and distribution of Artificial Intelligence tools designed to create child sexual abuse material.

It is also important to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms in protecting children and young people. This is why I met Ofcom in August and again last week alongside the Minister for Community Safety to ensure pressure is put on tech companies to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, including the need for more prescriptive guidance to providers. The First Minister wrote directly to tech firms last year to remind them of their responsibilities and, alongside the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, I recently wrote to social media companies to invite them to meet to discuss the protection of children and young people from online harm.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on implementation of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online.

We have carefully considered the impact that the proposals in Part 1 of the Land Reform Bill will have on landowners across Scotland. The 1000 hectare threshold means that only the largest 1.4% of Scotland’s farms are expected to be in scope, according to 2023 Agricultural Census figures.

For further assessment of the impacts of proposed measures in the Bill, please refer to the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA).

Local Government have the statutory responsibility for education so this information is not held centrally.

The stated aim of the Flanders-Scotland Memorandum of Understanding is further cooperation between the Scottish Government and Government of Flanders. The Joint Working Action Plan sets out specific areas for further cooperation. This will therefore be progressed by existing teams within our Directorate for External Affairs and EU Directorate and policy areas related to the themes of the Plan - responsible for strengthening Scotland’s energy, research, tourism, culture and other vital links with European partners.

There are no agreed plans at present but we will continue to consider the appropriate reporting on actions related to the Memorandum of Understanding, with the government and public agencies of Flanders.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of securing local consent in the establishment of any new Safer Drug Consumption Facilities (SDCFs). Evaluation of such consent would need to be undertaken by any Health Board area wishing to propose establishing an SDCF and will be guided by inclusive engagement with local partners, including health and social care bodies, local authorities, community representatives and local resident.

Findings from the Thistle evaluation will serve as a reference point, generating key learning on implementation processes, health and social impacts, community-level effects, and cost-effectiveness.

Any future proposals will be subject to careful assessment, must align with public health priorities and reflect local collaboration. They would also need to meet the various requirements set out by the Lord Advocate, including the need for public consultation.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect or publish data on drug deaths within a specified radius of individual facilities, including the Thistle facility in Glasgow.

Accredited official statistics on drug deaths in Scotland are published annually by Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2023 - National Records of Scotland (NRS) The most recent available statistics are for deaths registered in 2023. The next publication of these statistics is expected in September 2025 and can be found here Upcoming publications - National Records of Scotland (NRS) and will cover deaths registered in 2024. The most detailed geographical breakdown of these statistics is local authority area (i.e. Glasgow City).

Scottish Government publishes quarterly data to provide an indication of current trends in Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: January to March 2025 - gov.scot This data is operational information from Police Scotland who compile figures on the basis of reports from police officers attending scenes of death. This is management information and not subject to the same level of validation and quality assurance as official statistics. A geographical breakdown by Police Division is available for this data. Over the period January to March 2025, 61 suspected drug deaths were recorded in the G: Greater Glasgow Police Division.

At this time, no other proposal for any additional facilities has been brought to the Scottish Government for consideration. Any future proposals will be subject to careful assessment, must align with public health priorities and reflect local collaboration. They would also need to satisfy the Lord Advocate in relation to the various requirements previously set out by her in order to receive a similar statement of prosecution policy as that which is in place for The Thistle.

The Glasgow safer drug consumption facility, The Thistle, will undergo a comprehensive, independent evaluation led by a collaboration of academic institutions, including the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian University, and other expert research partners. The findings from that evaluation will be an essential reference point in informing the development, scale, and scope of any future facilities.

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressures on housebuilding and the importance of building more homes. We are aware of opposition from industry to the Scottish Building Safety Levy (SBSL). However, no immediate alternative solutions are being offered to address the scale of the funding challenge associated with cladding remediation. With developers contributing to cladding remediation in England through a Building Safety Levy, the Scottish Government considers it fair and proportionate that they are asked to do the same in Scotland.