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A response to this question was provided in S6W-24652 issued on 7 February 2024.

The Scottish Government is aware of correspondence in which Community has raised concerns regarding aspects of the transition process and trade union recognition. Myself and the Scottish Prison Service have responded.

The impact assessments for the E&S portfolio were prepared collectively and reflected in the Education and Skills portfolio analysis section in Annex B of the Equality and Fairer Scotland statement available at this link Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Current guidelines for healthcare professionals regarding fibromyalgia are available from authoritative professional sources such as the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) - https://www.sign.ac.uk/our-guidelines/management-of-chronic-pain/ and the Royal College of Physicians https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/guidelines-policy/diagnosis-fibromyalgia-syndrome

The National Pain Education Group is developing a Chronic Pain Toolkit for all health and social care staff across Scotland - it will be Scotland's first national chronic pain training resource. It will be hosted on TURAS on a dedicated page called The Chronic Pain Knowledge Hub. This has been developed with lived experience input and NHS Education for Scotland colleagues.

(a) The Pain management - service delivery framework: implementation plan sets out the actions we will take to reduce the impact of chronic pain on quality of life and wellbeing and improve information, care and services for people in Scotland, which includes people living with chronic pain as a result of fibromyalgia. A report on the progress on the 18 initial actions was published on the 15 November 2023 Pain management service delivery implementation plan: progress report .

Additionally in November 2024, we published an updated Implementation Plan with updated actions following a period of stakeholder engagement. Progress on actions is discussed bi-monthly at the Pain Management Task Force , the minutes of which are available on the Scottish Government website.

We will continue to consult with people with lived experience of chronic pain, including those with fibromyalgia, throughout the development and delivery of actions outlined in the plan.

(b)The Short Life Working Groups (SLWGs) and Pain Management Networks established to support implementation of the Framework continue to evolve and develop the current actions. All the professional network leads (allied health professionals, pain psychologists, medics, pharmacist and nurses) are specialist pain management clinicians who have expert skills in supporting people with fibromyalgia.

Details on the role and membership of the Pain Management Task Force can be found at Pain Management Task Force .

Data on the full time equivalent home-school link workers from 2017 onwards can be found in the School Support Staff Statistics, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

Prior to 2017, this data can be found in the Teacher Census Supplementary Statistics tables 'Teacher Census 2016' and earlier editions, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

School support staff statistics from the 2023 school staff and pupils census are due to be published on 19 February 2024.

The Scottish Government seconded one individual to provide a Secretariat function to the Independent Advisor on the Ministerial Code while he conducted his review. Ahead of publication, Mr Hamilton requested additional secretariat support. Four additional permanent civil servants below the grade of Senior Civil Service were seconded to support the Secretariat from the SG Organisational Continuity Team (OCT) for a limited period from 15 March 2021, primarily to support the redaction and publication process. None of those civil servants was a Special Adviser and Special Advisers were not involved in the process of deciding what parts of the Hamilton Report to redact.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

No ministerial direction was made in relation to the redactions to the Hamilton Report. The Ministerial Code sets out the appropriate process for any referrals by the First Minister to the independent advisors. In accordance with that process, the former Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, was the Minister with overall responsibility however he had no involvement in the redaction process.

The report was redacted for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the court orders, and to redact any personal data where processing of personal data would not be lawful under data protection law, by the Scottish Government’s Organisational Continuity Team. None of the civil servants from the Organisational Continuity Team was a special adviser and no Special Advisers were involved in the redaction process of the Hamilton Report.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Further to the response given by Miri McAllan MSP, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. Our block grant funding, derived from the UK Government’s spending decisions, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23 and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years. Furthermore, the Spring Budget includes no new capital funding.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system. This has been compounded by continuing high inflation, which has further reduced our room for manoeuvre.

It is within these challenging circumstances that we have had to make difficult decisions to achieve a fiscally sustainable budget.

As Miri McAllan MSP indicated, the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment were published alongside this Budget. These impact assessments not only analyse the budget and the impact of the decisions contained in it, they also consider the process of making those decisions, and how we make sure the needs of all people are actively considered. The Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio was actively engaged in the analysis and production of these assessments.

The impact assessments for the E&S portfolio were prepared collectively and reflected in the Education and Skills portfolio analysis section in Annex B of the Equality and Fairer Scotland statement available at this link: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .