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Building safety is a matter for the owner - who in this case would be individual local authorities - acting in accordance with the relevant health and safety legislation. Before any decisions can be taken on funding, it is important to understand the scope and nature of the issue.

Health and Safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government. The Health & Safety Executive is the UK-wide regulator for health and safety and they intend to carry out research into buildings which contain RAAC. The research methodology is in the final stages of development which includes assessment tools to help measure the risks associated with RAAC planks. We will monitor the research when it is commissioned and apply the findings and recommendations appropriately.

I refer the Member to the response to S6W-20057. Additionally, following the UK Government letter on IMA exclusion late on 26 May, I , on 27 May 2023, and the First Minister, on 2 June 2023, wrote to the UK Government outlining the impact of the decision. Officials have also been in regular contact across administrations around the Deposit Return Scheme and the impact of Circularity Scotland going in to administration.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Scotland’s airports, including Glasgow Airport, to help them grow international connectivity, while not returning to previous levels of emissions. Our aim is for Scotland to be as well connected as peer nations and regions, and we have regular engagement with Glasgow Airport to discuss potential opportunities. Our engagement with Scotland’s airports is commercially sensitive and I am unable to share specific details.

Transport Scotland, in partnership with VisitScotland and Scottish Development International, works to help Scotland’s airports secure new routes that are essential for inbound tourism, business connectivity and the economy as a whole. In May, representatives from this cross government partnership attended the route development forum Routes Europe 2023, supporting Glasgow Airport and the other Scottish airports in attendance.

In March this year, the Scottish Government supported VisitScotland in rolling out a demand-building campaign to encourage travellers to seek direct flights to Scotland from across our key markets, with airlines serving Glasgow included in this campaign.

Biffa, a former contractor of Circularity Scotland, attended a Deposit Return Scheme Four Nations Interoperability Workshop in Edinburgh on 27 June 2023 following Circularity Scotland going into administration to provide insight into their experience in Scotland. Throughout the period Scottish Government has continued to work closely with staff acting for Circularity Scotland, administrators and partners.

Former employees of Circularity Scotland attended a Deposit Return Scheme Four Nations Interoperability Workshop in Edinburgh on 27 June 2023 following the organisation going into administration to provide insight into their experience of DRS in Scotland. Scottish Government officials have continued to work with staff acting for Circularity Scotland, administrators and partners.

It is the responsibility of the relevant local authority to comply with the provisions of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”).

The Scottish Government has a power to call in a proposal to permanently discontinue a school or a stage of education if it appears to Ministers that one of the grounds in section 17(2) of the 2010 Act applies. Where a call-in notice has been issued, Ministers must refer the proposal to the Convener of the School Closure Review Panel.

If Ministers are of the view that a local authority has failed to discharge a statutory duty relating to school education, they may take action under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (“the 1980 Act”) in certain circumstances. Ministers would require evidence of such a failure before taking the action permitted by the 1980 Act.

In addition, Judicial Review may be available in respect of a failure of a public authority to comply with its statutory obligations.

We recognises that disabled women and girls are at greater risk of violence than non-disabled women and girls, and women with a learning/ intellectual disability are more likely to experience sexual abuse than other disabled people.

Through our Delivering Equally Safe (DES) fund, we are providing £19m per year to support 121 projects that focus on early intervention, prevention. This includes projects that provide advocacy support to disabled women. We have extended the fund till 2025.

We have also, along with our partners, established a Gender Based Violence Steering Group to reduce incidences of violence and empower women with learning/intellectual disabilities and/or autistic women to have safe and loving relationships.

The latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) results estimate that 3.4% of females aged 16+ with a disability experienced at least one violent crime in 2019/20, which is above that for all females aged 16+ (2.0%). The survey defines disability as a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last at least 12 months, and which reduces a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

We will continue to gather this evidence, including publication of the next SCJS findings in Autumn 2023. These results will cover a full years’ worth of interviews through to December 2022, with the prolonged gap since 2019/20 due to the earlier suspension of the survey in March 2020 to restrict social contact during the pandemic.

We also recently incorporated updated questions on partner abuse and violence against women and girls into the 2023/24 survey, which were identified as a key priority by survey users.

The Scottish Government considers the conversion of temporary to permanent accommodation an effective measure to increase the number of social homes. We encourage local authorities to ‘flip’ a tenancy wherever the property is in the right location, and of the right size and type to meet the household’s requirements. Large scale flipping of tenancies can be particularly effective in areas where the greatest pressures in temporary accommodation are experienced.

In our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, we said that we will work with COSLA, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to develop national guidance to encourage more effective stock management by the end of this year.

As outlined in the answer to S6W-20375 on 16 August 2023, the national acquisition programme is part of the wider Affordable Housing Supply Programme. No civil servants will be assigned solely to work on the national acquisition programme.

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

We have not yet set key performance indicators for the national acquisition programme.