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We continue to engage in international developments in relation to COVID-19, including guidance on the issue of vaccine certification, for those who have received both doses of the vaccine. These discussions are led by the World Health Organisation and include consideration of technical details, ethical and equality issues, and privacy standards. The outcome of those discussions will guide our work in this area.

Work at 4 nations level has started to scope and develop a technical solution to allow secure, authenticated access to Covid vaccination status. This is to ensure technology is not the limiting factor should the work underway indicate it would be appropriate to introduce certification at the right time.

We will continue to keep vaccine certification and guidance under review as further evidence around vaccines and immunity emerges. We regularly review our international travel regulations and will continue to do so in light of developments on vaccine certification.

We recognise the need to better understand the frequency, nature, and impact of Long COVID in the Scottish population and we have not ruled out the creation of a single healthcare database.

We are working to develop data, which will allow for future analysis of Long COVID in the community population in Scotland. This includes discussions with General Practice around clinical coding for Long COVID, and working closely with the Office for National Statistics to explore the data generated from the COVID-19 Infection Survey.

We have also funded nine extensive Scottish-led research projects on Long COVID through £2.5 million, which will greatly improve the clinically relevant knowledge base on the long-term effects of COVID-19.

At present, individuals who are well controlled on asthma inhalers are not eligible in priority group 6 for coronavirus vaccination (phase 1 of the vaccine rollout). However, a number of individuals with well controlled asthma may fall into the priority groups defined in phase 1 for other reasons, such as age, as phase 1 follows an age-based programme to capture those with clinical risk factors as the risk of death is very strongly linked with age. We expect to give first doses to all individuals in phase 1 by mid-April.

Younger individuals with well controlled asthma will be offered the vaccine during phase 2 of the vaccine rollout plan, again following an age-based approach starting with the oldest adults first and proceeding in the following order: all those aged 40 to 49 years; all those aged 30 to 39 years; all those aged 18 to 29 years. An age-based delivery model will facilitate rapid vaccine deployment.

This is in line with advice from the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination (JCVI).

There are no plans to provide guidance on this specific point. The existing schools guidance available at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on schools reopening - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) provides a range of information on preparing for and implementing the return to in-school learning. Schools and local authorities are best placed to make decisions on appropriate arrangements for individual learners during the return to school and beyond.

The new Higher Applications of Mathematics course is designed to get more young people studying mathematics and developing the skills they need for modern citizenry, such as statistical literacy, financial literacy and being able to use technology to solve problems and inform decision making.

The course has been in development for more than two years and the specification and specimen assessment materials were made available at the start of the current session for first teaching in 2021-22. An additional specimen paper and sample coursework will be made available in June 2021.

There is considerable interest in, and appetite for the new Higher, and there is no intention to delay the introduction of the course.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority is not prescribing particular software for the delivery of the course. Learners are expected to be able to use spreadsheets to explore mathematical models and manipulate data. R studio, freeware that is commonly used in industry and Higher Education, is expected to be used for undertaking statistical analysis and there is considerable support available to upskill teachers in the use of this software.

The Scottish Government's draft new air quality strategy includes a proposal to restrict the sulphur content of all smokeless fuels to 2%. A consultation on the draft strategy closed on 22 January 2021. The strategy will now be finalised, taking into account consultation responses, and published later in the year.

The Scottish Government is funding Scholar to provide online resources to support the Applications of Mathematics courses at National 5 and Higher level from 2021-22. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is developing resources, including additional question papers and exemplar coursework, and are working with Education Scotland and the University of Strathclyde to support teachers with the roll out of the qualification.

The University of Strathclyde secured funding from the Scottish Funding Council to develop and provide online courses to upskill teachers in statistics and mathematical modelling to enable them to be well prepared to deliver the new Higher. A significant number of teachers have successfully completed these online courses. In addition, information has been made available to teachers through events such as the Scottish Mathematical Council’s Annual Conference. The most recent online conference, held on 6 March, had almost 1000 participants, with 130 attending the SQA session on the new Higher course.

The Scottish Government's policy framework for reducing air pollution levels, including PM2.5, is set out in the Cleaner Air for Scotland strategy. Following an independent review of Cleaner Air for Scotland which identified priorities for additional action, a consultation was undertaken on a draft new air quality strategy which concluded on 22 January 2021. The final strategy, taking into account consultation responses, will be published later in the year.

Guidelines on physical education and dance have been prepared by Education Scotland to assist with decision-making and the safe implementation of timetabled physical education. The guidelines are continually updated to reflect any changes in the scientific advice. Currently, physical education and dance can only take place outdoors, which reflects the hierarchy of risk:

• outdoors being safer than indoors;

• activities undertaken at a quiet volume or that have lower respiratory exertion being safer than aerosol-generating activities;

On 9 February 2021, Education Scotland ran a webinar attended by 227 teachers to share online pedagogy and how to create a supportive learning environment. Through online learning, teachers have set physical activity challenges, both indoors and outdoors, so that learners can choose depending on their home setting. These practices were shared at the webinar and welcomed by the attendees. The webinar Teams space is now ‘live’ for teachers to continue to collaborate, share practice, and seek solutions in these challenging times. A recorded version of the webinar will be shared on DigiLearn in due course and similar events will be considered for the future.