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The Leading in the Digital Age Board Development Workshops has undergone two stages of development. The first stage was the design of the content which involved engaging with users and stakeholders to inform the resources required and workshop content. The next stage has involved training the facilitators and further development of content. This work is now moving into the testing phase.

Initial work to capture the position of learning and development in digital skills has been undertaken. This will help inform our review of governance and the associated programme for digital capabilities across health and care.

As set out in the Scottish Government’s Framework for Tax, engagement is one of the six principles for good tax policymaking. We already consult widely on tax ahead of each Budget, listening to the views of tax experts, trade unions, anti-poverty campaigners, wider civic society and business organisations before making tax decisions. The Tax Advisory Group will build on this inclusive approach. It will be a key part of achieving our ambitions for Open Government and greater engagement on tax policy, including as part of the policy cycle for Budget 2024-25.

Local authorities are not required to indicate to the Scottish Government their intentions for kerbside glass recycling collections after the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme. All local authorities will consider and monitor the impact of the scheme on recycling collections after implementation.

In the Programme for Government 2021-22, the Scottish Government pledged to develop a Scottish Education Exchange Programme to support the international mobility of staff and learners.

The Scottish Government is working as quickly as possible to provide information to partners on the timetable for the delivery of a Scottish Education Exchange Programme.

I will shortly be sending invitations to join the group and further details on membership will be set out later this month.

Transport Scotland are undertaking an evaluation of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme to assess whether the scheme is working as expected in achieving its objectives and benefits, and to assess any potential impacts of the scheme on other policy aims and other modes of transport.

The Baseline Study was completed prior to the launch of the scheme and the Baseline Study report was published on Transport Scotland’s website in 2022.

Fieldwork for the 1 Year After Evaluation is currently underway. This includes an online survey for children, their families and young people. Over 7000 responses to the survey were received within the first two weeks. The final evaluation report is expected to be completed by end of summer 2023.

Summer 2022 was the first time that SEPA has imposed suspensions on abstraction licences, imposing both full (a complete suspension on all water abstractions) and partial (allowing for a reduced volume to be abstracted) suspensions.

All abstraction suspension decisions by SEPA were made in August 2022 but the suspensions for two catchments were effective from 1st September 2022. The breakdown of suspensions are as follows: August 2022, 87 full suspensions and 39 partial suspensions; September 2022, 30 full suspensions and 19 partial suspensions. There were no other suspensions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18810 on 20 June 2023. 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 are following the Scottish Approach to Service Design. All our work will be person-centred and we will be working closely with those who will use the record – including those in receipt of care and frontline staff – to understand what is important for the integrated social care and health record.

We have also largely concluded technical research to understand what digital approaches, services and products have enabled similar services outside of Scotland and what lessons can be learned from both successful and unsuccessful digital projects and programmes We have also reviewed the technology, service and digital architectural landscape across the public, private and third sector organisations who are involved in the delivery of social care services in Scotland to understand how best to implement an integrated record.