Seòmar agus comataidhean

Creative Scotland, in its role of supporting the growth of sustainable creative businesses in Scotland, has an explicit focus on environmental sustainability. This is detailed in their 2022 A Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan for Creative Scotland | Creative Scotland and subsequent annual reviews, Environmental Sustainability Review 2023/24 | Creative Scotland as well as in the detailed guidance in the form of funding criteria Environmental Sustainability | Creative Scotland that is employed in assessing applicants to its Grant-in-Aid and National Lottery funds.

The design sector, as defined by Scottish Government, reported GVA of £570.8m in 2022, but its impact and benefits are often overlooked. In response to this, Creative Scotland and V&A Dundee have been working together under the banner of ‘Design for Scotland’ to progress a project involving the design community responding to a call to action of ‘Ask not what Scotland can do for Design, but what Design can do for Scotland’. This has included consideration of the environmental impact of design.

In Scotland, we benefit from excellent design education in our colleges and Universities. Per head of population, Scotland has more of its art and design schools in the global top 100 ranking Universities than any other European country.

Furthermore, Architecture and Design Scotland helps support the design of sustainable buildings and places in Scotland, including with local authorities, agencies, stakeholders and communities to address environmental impacts of the built environment and promote positive environmental outcomes.

We can be confident that both the Design community and the structures that support them are looking forward to ensuring that their skills and aspirations are fully employed in ensuring that environmental impact is at the heart of the design process in Scotland.

The following table sets out the comparisons on passenger data for the Aberdeen to Inverness and Glasgow / Edinburgh to Inverness rail services prior and during the peak pilot.

We don’t hold a breakdown of the Perth to Inverness section due to the way the data is collated by route.

A complete ban on the use of snares, as provided for in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, subject to parliamentary procedure, is expected to come into force on 25 November 2024.

Public Health Scotland’s experimental core minimum dataset for the residential rehabilitation programme will include information on three core elements: client characteristics, client outcomes and the residential rehabilitation service pathways (including duration of placements and costs).

Scottish Government funding for the development and maintenance of the Scottish Youth Parliament/Children’s Parliament Mind Yer Time website is as follows:

The number of unique views to the Scottish Youth Parliament/Children’s Parliament Mind Yer Time website in each of the last 12 months are as follows:

Children and young people are not taught about their own gender identity in Scottish schools. That is a personal matter for any individual and, in the case of young people, their family.

Relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the school curriculum in Scotland. Learning and teaching focusses on equipping children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to make informed and positive choices about forming relationships. This aspect of the curriculum is intended to enable children and young people to build positive relationships as they grow older. Relationships, sexual health and parenthood education has been in place since 2010, the same year Curriculum for Excellence was implemented.

Scottish Government officials meet with St Mary’s Music School on a regular basis to discuss funding and other issues, for example the impact of the removal of VAT exemption on school fees. We also continue to work with the school to regularly update the St Mary’s Music School (Aided Places Scheme) (Scotland) Regulations 2015, which includes an examination of, for example, the income thresholds for parental contributions and ancillary grants.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29611 on 20 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is keen to come to a voluntary agreement with local government on protecting learning hours, but if no agreement is reached we will consider options including use of regulations. We continue to engage with local government on this matter.