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The Scottish Government provision of devices and connectivity packages during the pandemic was an emergency response to ensure disadvantaged learners could remain in contact with schools, teachers and learning during the periods when schools were closed.

The remainder of the devices have been funded, procured and distributed by local authorities themselves, in line with local learning strategies. Local authorities are ultimately responsible for delivery of education, including decisions around how, when and why to deploy any technology. Therefore, it would be for local authorities to undertake any evaluation of local device rollout programmes.

The Scottish Government takes the privacy of citizen’s data very seriously and is committed to ensuring that the personal data we hold complies with the Data Protection Act and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

The UK GDPR gives individuals the right to have personal data erased, and requests for deletion can be made to the data controller(s) of the personal data. However, the right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances.

The right to erasure does not apply if processing is necessary for some specific purposes, including for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, or for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific research, historical research or statistical purposes where erasure is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of that processing.

The £15 million per annum funding for Children and Young People’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services is provided by grants from the Scottish Government to all 32 local authorities. The funding allocations are calculated and distributed based on the number of children and young people in each local authority area, with appropriate adjustments made to take account of the deprivation level and rurality of each area.

Local authorities administer the funding at a local level and determine which supports and services to implement on the basis of locally-identified need and in line with the Children and Young People’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework.

Local authorities are required to provide the Scottish Government with annual profiles of expenditure and statements of compliance at the end of the financial year, and must keep the Scottish Government informed of any changes to estimated expenditure each year.

Local authorities also report annually on data including numbers of people accessing support, age and gender of service users, reasons for presenting at the services, and numbers of people reporting an improved outcome. Summaries of this information are published retrospectively by the Scottish Government at https://www.gov.scot/publications/access-to-counsellors-in-secondary-schools-and-children-and-young-peoples-community-mental-health-services-summary-reports/.

In our pilot programme, all 107 pilot entries are undergoing necessary pre-assessment checks, if in scope they will proceed to a developer or Government led Single Building Assessment (SBA). We have identified 12 pilot entries in scope, without a linked developer, and have confirmed that we are commissioning SBAs as a priority. This includes 4 in Edinburgh and 8 in Glasgow.

Information on the level of spend by the Cladding Remediation Programme is proactively published and broken down by local authority.

Latest published data shows the aggregated spend by local authorities on single building assessments, fire risk measures and remediation is just over £9m to the end of quarter one 2024-25; spend is updated quarterly, the next update will be proactively published in quarter three 2024-25. Single Building Assessment programme: spending information (gov.scot).

The Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group consists of representatives from across Scottish Government, Food Standards Scotland, COSLA, the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland and SOLACE.

Should matters arise concerning educational and wider regulatory interests, then members representing these organisations are advised and invited to attend the group for awareness or to provide relevant updates.

Therefore, the University of West of Scotland and the Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland are invited to attend meetings, when there is an update which is of interest to group members.

Within the scope of the size thresholds stated in the question there are a total of 355 land parcels in public ownership in Scotland. The following table breaks this down by the size thresholds requested.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for natural restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment while maximising the value of public spending.

I routinely discuss the development of education policy, including in respect of qualifications and assessment, with young people through frequent visits to schools and a range of other events and meetings. The Scottish Government does not intend to publish details of this range of engagements.

I also met with representatives of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) on the 19th of September, prior to the statement, to provide an overview of the Scottish Government response to the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment ahead of its publication.

The views of young people have, and continue to be, vital to informing our approach to evolving the qualifications and assessment system and I remain committed to meaningfully engaging with young people (including the SYP) as we take this work forward.

West Lothian Council (WLC) is the Planning Authority, who granted the planning permission in principle for the Winchburgh development in April 2012.

As a statutory consultee, Transport Scotland, acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers, provided a response prior to this decision which included reasonings for why it did not support the provision of a station, at that time.

The content of the Section 75 Agreement and Decision Notice was decided upon by WLC.

Transport Scotland does not have the powers to prevent WLC applying Section 75 developer obligations.