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The Dalzell Steelworks were owned for a short period of time by the Scottish Government to assist in the facilitation of the transfer of ownership of the Steelworks between TATA Steel UK and Liberty House.

On 2 September 2021 the Scottish Government published the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, which replaces the 2014 National Child Protection Guidance.

The revision of this guidance was undertaken through a collaborative process informed by extensive public and stakeholder engagement over a period of two and a half years. The review was overseen by a National Guidance Steering Group comprised of representatives from stakeholder organisations and other key interests.

The Scottish Government ran a formal public consultation on draft guidance between 21 October 2020 and 31 January 2021. A total of 159 consultation responses were received from a wide range of organisations and individuals. Where respondents have given their permission, responses have been published on Citizen Space . In addition to the public consultation, seven virtual stakeholder engagement events were held during November and December 2020. These events were used to engage with Child Protection Committees and practitioners, with a facilitated discussion structured around the consultation questions. An independent analysis of consultation responses was commissioned and engagement was undertaken with many respondents to better understand their views and reflect in final draft.

The key themes emerging from the engagement process were: status of the guidance and degree of local variance; ensuring an appropriate balance between the current context and direction of travel as the aspirations of The Promise are realised; clarity on the timing of the refresh of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and further guidance on the role of the named person; the balance of support and protection regarding poverty and neglect; accessibility and usability of the guidance; inclusion of practice notes; expectations of timescales for implementation.

Feedback and proposed changes were considered by the Steering Group at every stage of the engagement process. Where there was agreement, the drafts were updated. Feedback along with rationale for decisions was then given to those who had provided comment. On 2 September 2021 the Scottish Government published a consultation report which included the independent analysis of consultation responses and engagement activity and the Scottish Government’s response.

The Scottish Government has invested over £11.5 million in the last three academic years, to support our commitment to introduce more than 80 additional counsellors in colleges and universities. We are well on our way to achieving this target.

Funding for the 2021-22 Academic Year has been set at £4.23 million, an increase of almost £0.6 million on last year’s budget.

Furthermore, we remain committed to the development of a Student Mental Health National Action Plan, which will address waiting times, ensure equity of access to counsellors, and embed mental health and wellbeing into the curriculum. We will be reforming the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group in February 2022 to help shape that Plan.

I recently met with Universities Scotland on 12 January 2022, to discuss the appropriate referral pathways for students across Scotland and specific challenges they may face in accessing support. At this meeting, we agreed that, as part of the development of a Student Mental Health and Wellbeing National Action Plan, representatives from NHS Health Boards, the higher education sector and representatives from Scottish Government will work to understand the specific needs of students and where improvements to student mental health support may be facilitated.

Whilst the Scottish Government supports the Accreditation Programme for Psychological Therapies Services, there is no requirement to make an application. The Scottish Government is developing a Psychological Therapies and Services standard for Scotland by June 2022 which is being developed with Stakeholders and those with lived experience. This will link very closely with the Psychological Therapies MATRIX for Scotland which is a stepped guide to planning and delivering evidence-based psychological therapies within NHS Boards in Scotland.

This will describe what good quality evidence based psychological care will look like for all ages, all levels of need, and in all settings (such as health, education, and prisons) and will describe not only what applied psychologists do but also the high standards expected of those delivering psychological therapies

Psychological therapies and psychological services across Scotland will then be expected to deliver care that meets this standard including quality and quantity of care delivered.

This is an option that the Scottish Government has considered in the past, but it was agreed that hotels were not suitable places to provide health and social care. For a facility to operate as a care home in Scotland, it must be registered with the Care Inspectorate. When registering a service, the Care Inspectorate will consider if the premises in which the proposed service will be provided is fit to be used for the intended purpose. In the case of using hotel rooms as care homes, it is likely the case that such premises would not be suitable to meet people's needs in a person centred way. We recently issued £40m for interim care to make use of spare capacity in settings that are able to provide care in this way

We also aim to create additional capacity in the community by scaling up the provision of Hospital at Home services and £500,000 has been specifically invested to support the creation of a Covid remote monitoring pathway which will support people to stay safe at home through the provision of remote monitoring kits and dedicated support teams.

The Scottish Government has not carried out an overarching assessment of the typical environmental remediation costs for sites of former steelworks in Scotland. Due to Scotland’s long history of iron and steel making such activity has taken place in a range of locations and circumstances over differing time periods and has involved many different processes and scales of production. Hence land remediation costs at any particular former steelworks site will depend on a multitude of site-specific factors and the owners’ planned future uses of the land.

The Scottish Government’s actions saved both the Dalzell steelworks and the jobs of those that work there, protecting an important component of the Scottish economy.

A soil and groundwater contamination liability assessment covering the Lanarkshire steelworks was prepared for the Scottish Government in 2016.

A copy of the report with redactions in line with FOISA exemptions is available from the Scottish Government website here

( https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/foi-eir-release/2021/07/foi-202100216003/documents/foi202100216003---information-released-2/foi202100216003---information-released-2/govscot%3Adocument/FOI202100216003%2B-%2BInformation%2Breleased%2B2.pdf ).

As stated in the responses to the Freedom of information requests the information is in the Business contracts and is commercially sensitive.

In relation to measures taken before the end of transition, under Articles 93(1) and 95(1) of the Withdrawal Agreement, the European Commission remains competent until 31 December 2024 to open a State aid investigation in relation to any such measure, and the results of any such investigation are binding on the United Kingdom (and have direct effect in UK law by virtue of Article 4 of the Withdrawal Agreement and section 7A of the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 (“the 2018 Act”)).