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People engaged in sexual abuse of children outside the United Kingdom can be prosecuted in Scotland under either Sections 54 and 55 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 or Section 16(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995. Section 16(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 and Section 55 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 cover people who engage in child sex tourism, whilst Section 54 of the 2009 Act covers incitement to commit such offences.

Within the span of the financial years 1995-1996 to 2020-21 a total of eight people have been convicted in Scotland for sexual abuse of children outside the United Kingdom related charges. Specifically:

• Two people in 2007-08 (under Section 16(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995);
• One person in 2009-10 (under Section 16(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995);
• One person in 2010-11 (under Section 16(b) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995);
• One person in 2018-19 (under Section 54 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009);
• Two people in 2019-20 (one under Section 54 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 and one under Section 55 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009); and
• One person in 2020-21 (under Section 55 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009).

As set out in our recent draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan the Scottish Government’s position on traditional nuclear energy has not and will not change.

Given our long-standing position on nuclear, any such analysis would not be value for money and has not been pursued. Recent examples of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell clearly demonstrate that nuclear is considerably more expensive than renewables, which is why our position is to focus on renewables, coupled with storage and flexibility options.

The Scottish Government’s Directorate for International Trade and Investment directly manages the Trade and Investment Envoy Network.

We also work closely with the GlobalScot Network managed by the Scottish Enterprise to advance our trade and investment ambitions. Through GlobalScots, we engage with individual Scottish University alumni overseas to maintain good relations with Scotland and also offer a route for appropriate alumni to join the network, thereby adding to its diversity and reach.

The Directorate of International Trade and Investment has also worked with Scottish Government colleagues to develop the Scottish Government connections strategy, which is focused on developing stronger links with diaspora groups.

The Connecting Scotland programme aims to ensure that people in Scotland have access to digital services by providing them with opportunities to access and utilise devices, connectivity, skills, and support effectively. To date, the Scottish Government has committed over £48m to Connecting Scotland, through the Programme for Government and Winter Package for Social Support.

Responsibility for the management of the police estate sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland has advised that while they have no plans to build any new police stations in 2023, a new police station will be opened in spring 2023 at Newton House in Ayr, which is owned by South Ayrshire Council. This will provide a new, modern replacement for the existing Ayr police station.

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors. Our approach reflects a combination of the following measures; the annual iMatter survey, feedback from local and national staffside and other stakeholder channels, academic research, data collected by regulators and partners and evaluation of nationally-led initiatives. In addition, the Wellbeing Champions Network is now well-established to provide feedback on areas of priority need, and to share best practice across health, social care and social work organisations.

We are continuing to work with leaders across health, social care and social work, as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff. We are working on a range of local initiatives designed to meet the basic and practical needs of staff, and their teams. This includes access to quiet spaces to support health and wellbeing, and the installation of lockers.

The Scottish Government has established a Workforce Data Information and Intelligence Improvement Programme to support the ambition of the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland in achieving its vision of a ‘sustainable skilled workforce with attractive career choices and fair work where all are respected and valued for the work they do’.

This ring-fenced Programme of work focuses specifically on delivering actions which improve Health and Social Care workforce data, information and / or intelligence at national level which will contribute to better decision making, planning and strategy for the Health and Social Care Workforce in Scotland.

This work will be integrated, where appropriate with service delivery plans across the system, working towards a consistent approach to analysing the workforce and workforce data for future planning.

To ensure collaboration with stakeholders the programme is governed by the National Workforce Forum which has cross-sector representation from primary, secondary and social care. Two projects within the Programme are currently live, both governed and actioned by a cross-sector team of key stakeholders, including Project Teams and User Needs groups.

The first project is developing a process for annual workforce projections modelling. High level conclusions from initial projections modelling will be published in early 2023 and include details of assumptions and methodology used in development of the projections model.

This work will be further developed iteratively in response to emerging evidence and data and to capture the complexity of the health and social care workforce and its inter-dependency with financial and service planning.

The second project involves identifying key data links and gaps to address which will improve parity of data collection, design and data quality across the Health and Social Care workforce. User needs assessments of the current workforce data are currently underway across the Health and Care landscape.

The Programme’s medium and longer term plans will involve collaborating with service and financial planners to scope work to better integrate workforce data with service and financial delivery plans for health and social care.

An update on the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care will be published later this year.

Our aims for Digital Skills & Leadership for all staff across Health & Care in Scotland are delivered by the cross-sector Building Digital Skills & Leadership Programme hosted by NHS Education for Scotland.

This Programme that has funding in place until June 2023 has been incorporated into Priority Four of the ‘Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023’ that was published on 8 November 2022. Details of this programme within the delivery plan can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - Digital Skills & Leadership

We recognise that the opportunities offered by digital are continually evolving and we need to continually explore those opportunities to transform our services for patients and service users. Our further plans for Digital Skills & Leadership will be outlined as part of an update of the delivery plan by April 2023 taking account of the budget available for 23/24 and further opportunities to support and accelerate reform.

I refer the member to the Scottish Government’s publications webpage. You can find the framework here: Acute Oncology Service (AOS) in NHS Scotland: principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This Government firmly believes that every child growing up in Scotland, regardless of their background or gender, should have an equal chance of attending university and participating in higher education.

To date we have made progress on work to support fair access to higher education. The number of students attending university from the most deprived areas in Scotland is at a record high and we have exceeded the Commission on Widening Access target to have 16% of students from the most deprived areas at university by 2021. We recently appointed a new Commissioner for Fair Access, Professor John McKendrick, to continue to progress this important agenda.

Scottish universities are covered by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which requires them to, amongst other things, report on mainstreaming the equality duty; publish equality outcomes and report progress; and assess and review policies and practices.

As part of its March 2020 Memorandum of Understanding with the EHRC, the Scottish Funding Council developed a National Equality Outcomes framework to address the most persistent inequalities in further and higher education (HE) that institutions are asked to consider and report on as part of the 2021-25 PSED reporting cycle.

Sex, as one of the nine protected characteristics under The Equality Act (2010), is considered as part of the National Equality Outcomes, with outcomes including sex imbalance on courses and mental health support for male students.

The Scottish Government is committed to the production of a Student Mental Health Plan to support all students in further and higher education throughout their learner journey.

The Student Mental Health Plan will sit within and link to the wider actions across Scottish Government, including our Suicide Prevention Strategy, ‘ Creating Hope Together ’ which was developed and published in collaboration with COSLA in September 2022, and our forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.