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Scotland already has one of the most generous childcare offers in the UK. In 2023-24 we are investing around £1 billion in the delivery of 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to all three and four year olds and about a quarter of two year olds who face the most disadvantage.

The 1140 hours offer already equates to 30 hours per week during term time for all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds regardless of their parents' working status – putting children first.

The First Minister recently announced in the Programme for Government that over the next year we will work with local government and partners in the ELC sector to significantly expand our childcare programme, including our targeted offer for two year olds, focusing on those who will benefit the most.

From December 2022 to April 2023, The Scottish Government consulted on the proposal to introduce Highly Protected Marine Areas across 10% of Scotland’s seas by 2026. In June 2023, ahead of providing a fuller update, I announced that the Scottish Government would no longer seek to progress this proposal. A full analysis of consultation responses was carried out over the summer and on 7 November 2023, a detailed analysis report was published alongside the Scottish Government’s response .

The Scottish Government published data on children in temporary accommodation as returned via the HL3 collection alongside the annual Homelessness in Scotland 2022-23 publication. This can be found in the supporting documents webpage here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-2022-23/documents/

This was the first time this data has been published as all local authorities have only been able to provide this data from April 2022. The data prior to 2022 has not been published as it is incomplete and not of sufficient quality.

The data published shows snapshot figures as at 31 March 2023 for a) all households in temporary accommodation, b) the number of households with children or a pregnant woman in temporary accommodation, and c) the number of children in temporary accommodation, by accommodation type and local authority. This replicates the headline figures that are published from the snapshot aggregate (HL2) data collection. To protect the confidentially of individuals and households, Scottish Government only releases aggregated statistics and not individual application level data. Additionally, figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure control purposes.

Comparisons between HL2 and HL3 snapshot figures were published in the supporting document above. This showed differences between the two sets of data and confirmed that further quality assurance with Local Authorities is required. Further information on the quality assurance can be found on the “Additional information” worksheet in the children in temporary accommodation excel workbook in the link above.

The Scottish Government is currently undergoing Official Statistics quality assurance with local authorities to assess and improve the quality of the data that has been received since April 2023. The current plan is to publish snapshot HL3 data, with necessary caveats annually, with the next publication of this data due in Summer 2024.

The Scottish Government are working with their appointed contract administrators to obtain completion certification on works connected with the recent essential repairs at Bute House.

Once certification is in place all costs associated with the fabric of the building repairs and fire compartmentation will be proactively released.

Under Section 29 of the Scottish National Investment Bank Scottish Ministers must establish and maintain an advisory group.

As outlined in response to question S6W-20679 on 31 August 2023, now that the Bank is fully established, and has a growing portfolio of investments work is underway to advise ministers on the establishment of the advisory group.

Details such as: membership, recruitment and appointment processes, remuneration and meeting frequency remain under consideration. We will provide an update on this work in 2024.

On 6 October 2023 Student Awards Agency Scotland wrote to colleges and universities confirming the 2023-24 Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds allocations and guidance. The funds were issued to the sector during the week commencing 9 October 2023. Approximately £8m has been issued. Colleges and universities were notified on 17 th October that a further £4m will be issued in April 2024.

The Scottish Government supports the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) to offer a part-time PGDE Primary programme. UHI plan to extend this to their PGDE Secondary programmes. The Scottish Government has had discussions with universities about the need for flexibility in delivery of ITE programmes and will continue to engage with them on this issue.

The Scottish Government’s Teaching bursary scheme provides bursaries of £20,000 for career changers wishing to undertake a one year PGDE in hard to fill STEM subjects. These are Physics, Maths, Technical Education, Computing Science, Chemistry and Home Economics. The scheme has recently been extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.

Additionally, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.

Group membership has been identified through dialogue between Scottish Government officials and organisations representing carers, local carer centres and statutory organisations expected to be involved in implementing the proposed right to breaks from caring. Further members were invited following a discussion at the group’s first meeting, to help ensure a good spread of expertise to enable the group to fulfil its remit.

In October 2022, we announced that further Scottish Government funding of £8m was being made available to recruit allied health professionals and midwives from overseas for the first time alongside nurses whereas the £4.5m funding in 2021 for international recruitment was provided solely for registered nurses.

I am pleased to advise that between October 2022 and 30 September 2023, a total of 109 AHPs have been recruited from overseas and are in posts across NHS Scotland, with further arrivals expected as we continue to support international recruitment. The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally relating to the AHP professions recruited to, that information is held by employing health boards.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does have accommodation within our estate which has an average of less than 8m² of living space and is occupied by more than one person in our care.

The following list indicates the establishments where the majority of cells that are currently being utilised for double (or more) occupancy have a cell average of under 8m² living space, as at 1 November 2023:

• HMP Barlinnie
• HMP Dumfries
• HMP Edinburgh
• HMP Glenochil
• HMP Grampian
• HMP Low Moss
• HMP Perth
• HMP&HMYOI Polmont

Whilst the Council of Prevention of Torture’s (CPT) minimum standard for personal living space in prison establishments for multiple occupancy cells is 4m² plus fully-partitioned sanitary facility, not complying with this standard does not constitute a breach of the law.