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There is no mandatory curriculum in Scotland and the Scottish Government does not prescribe the content of lessons taught within Scottish schools. The Curriculum for Excellence framework allows teachers to plan and deliver learning which meets the needs of learners at every age and stage. This includes delivering learning and teaching on first aid.

There are a range of "experiences and outcomes", which outline expectations for learning and progression in the curriculum in Scottish schools. The section on Physical Wellbeing includes the statement, ‘I know and can demonstrate how to keep myself and others safe and how to respond in a range of emergency situations.’ This means both first aid and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) can be taught as a part of the curriculum in Scotland. Resources used in schools include the Save a Life for Scotland approach, which provides training and advice on taking account of any healthcare needs of particular pupils. The Scottish Primary School First Aid Programme, launched by St Andrew’s First Aid, also provides free and easy online access for primary teachers to download and teach first aid in their class.

The Scottish Government has committed to launching the AI Scotland programme, announced in the Programme for Government in May, to lead the development of a refreshed national AI plan. This builds on the current AI Strategy, which concludes in 2026.

AI Scotland will be a national transformation programme aimed at accelerating AI adoption and innovation across sectors. It is being delivered through close collaboration between business, academia, government, and public agencies.

The refresh process is currently underway. Further updates will be shared publicly as new commitments and deliverables are finalised under the AI Scotland programme.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) is a reserved matter, and enforcement falls under the remit of Ofcom, which is developing codes of practice and guidance for platform providers. These include requirements for platforms to implement age assurance systems to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.

We continue to monitor developments in online safety regulation and work with UK counterparts to ensure that children and young people in Scotland are protected online.

The Scottish Government remains committed to making free school meals available for all children in primary schools, saving families taking those meals approximately £450 per child, per year.

Currently all primary school pupils in primaries one to five, all children in special schools, and eligible pupils in Primary 6 through to Secondary 6 can already benefit from free school meals during term-time in Scotland. This policy saves families taking those meals approximately £450 per child, per year.

We are focused on delivering the latest phase of our free school meal expansion programme, taking a targeted approach to support those children most in need in Primary 6 and 7 whose families are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment. This phase began in February of this year. In addition, our test of change policy offering free school meals to pupils in secondaries 1 to 3 whose families receive the Scottish Child Payment will run at selected schools across 8 local authority areas from August 2025 to July 2026.

In order to maximise uptake of free school meals, we have established data sharing arrangements between local authorities and Social Security Scotland. The Social Security Information-sharing (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 were approved unanimously by the Scottish Parliament on 30 April 2025 and the legislation came in effect on 19 May 2025. This arrangement enables those eligible pupils to be identified more quickly, therefore allowing them to benefit from the offer of free school meals.

The Scottish Government recognises the concerns raised by residents living near major transport corridors, including the M90, regarding environmental impacts such as excessive noise and dust.

We recognise transport noise is a concern, can be distressing, and has an impact on health and well being, and we are committed to working collaboratively in partnership with others to manage this.

As part of the fourth round of noise mapping for Scotland, under the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006, the Scottish Government have recently completed modelling and mapping to identify key areas impacted by noise exposure in Scotland. This will inform the development of the Transport Noise Action Plan (TNAP) 2025 to 2029.

You mentioned the M90 motorway specifically in your correspondence. Analysis undertaken to date, in preparation for the new TNAP 2025 to 2029, suggests no significant noise impacts have been identified on or around the M90. Where specific noise impacts are identified anywhere on the trunk road network Transport Scotland will review these, and, where appropriate, will apply noise management interventions on a prioritised basis during existing maintenance and improvement programmes where reasonably practicable.

The TNAP will be published for public consultation in due course, and the document will be available on the Scottish Government Consultation Citizen’s Space website, at https://consult.gov.scot/, and on the Transport Scotland Consultation Page at https://www.transport.gov.scot/consultations.

All projects and maintenance works on the trunk road network are robustly assessed for their potential environmental impact. This ensures legislative requirements are met, best practices are implemented, and environmental effects are minimised.

In relation to managing dust, our Operating Companies, sweep our motorways at regular intervals, using water-assisted dust sweepers, to ensure dust is minimised.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware that many women are experiencing long waits for gynaecological appointments and procedures, including colposcopy, and this is not good enough.

As the first country in the UK to publish a Women’s Health Plan we are committed to reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes for women and girls. Timely access to gynaecology services must be addressed and the Scottish Government is committed to including gynaecology as a priority in the next phase of the Plan.

As a starting point, the Government has allocated over £8.8 million to Health Boards to target long waits for gynaecology and the Scottish Government expects this to deliver significant improvements to the backlog in the coming year through waiting list initiatives and recruitment.

The investment is part of the £200 million announced as part of the Programme for Government to build capacity, tackle delayed discharge and improve patient flow through hospitals.

The delivery of the McCloud Remedy is the key priority for the SPPA, balancing the significant and complex work associated with delivery alongside routine administration.

The scale of challenge that SPPA has faced in delivering the McCloud Remedy cannot be overstated and is one shared by other public sector pension scheme managers across the UK. Although progress is being made, SPPA took the difficult decision to extend the target date of 31 July 2025 for delivery to retired officers to the end of 2025.

This did not constitute a regulatory breach as the extension was made in accordance with the legislation. The SPPA CEO has discussed the decision with both the Pensions Regulator and the Scottish Police Pension Board, and SPPA has written to the remaining members directly to ensure they are kept informed.

SPPA has invested time and personnel to address this broader exercise and has introduced new automated processes that will begin to deliver at pace. SPPA has already delivered approximately 98% of RSS to serving officers and 85% of RSS to retired officers. The remaining cases are more complex, and will take longer to complete manually as they cannot yet be produced through automated processes.

The Scottish Government has allocated over £2.5 million to NHS Lothian for dermatology services and is currently working with the Board to develop a plan to support further reductions to the waiting list backlog.

The activity supported by the additional £2.5 million investment will require a lead-in period for full implementation; therefore, it is too early to observe a noticeable difference to waiting times at this stage.

In addition to the £106 million targeted investment announced in May 2025 to address at the longest waits, the Government has now committed a further £4 million to deliver extra dermatology activity, bringing total additional funding for this year to over £110 million.

The additional dermatology funding was allocated to the three NHS Boards with the largest volumes of long waits and is broken down as follows:

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive a broad, inclusive, and supportive education that meets their individual needs. Within Curriculum for Excellence, health and wellbeing is a key area of learning and a shared responsibility across the school community.

While the Experiences and Outcomes within Health and Wellbeing and Science currently do not refer explicitly to chronic illnesses, they do provide a framework for exploring the impact of health and wellbeing on learning, resilience, and quality of life. Schools are encouraged to tailor this learning to reflect the needs and experiences of their learners, including increasing awareness and understanding of long-term health conditions where appropriate.

Support for children and young people living with chronic illness is addressed through wider inclusive practices, including the Additional Support for Learning framework and Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). These policies ensure that individual health needs can be considered through personalised support planning and whole-school approaches to wellbeing.