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The Scottish Government is working with partners to identifying suitable long term sustainable accommodation so we can continue to support displaced people whilst they are in Scotland.

On 22 September, we introduced a new fund with up to £50m to bring void council and Registered Social Landlord properties into use and to increase available housing supply. We are working closely with Local Government resettlement teams across the country to support those currently in hotel and ship accommodation transition into longer term accommodation and host offers.

The Programme for Government 2022 to 2023 on 6 September 2022, outlined that a dedicated Food Security Unit would be established within the Scottish Government with a view to monitoring ongoing supply chain vulnerabilities and linking with future food security work’. The Food Security unit is in the process of being established.

However, until the unit is officially established and underway, work is being taken forward by officials in regards to food security including the completion of other recommendations from the Short Life Food Security and Supply Taskforce Report as well as regular engagement with the Food and Drink industry.

The Scottish Government takes the topic of food security in Scotland seriously and I, as well as my fellow Scottish Ministers continue to press the UK Government, urging them to take action immediately on particular issues they have control over. I also recently wrote to the UK Government again to highlight the cumulative impact on the food and drink sector of labour and skills shortages and now rising costs.

We also continue to have a range of regular engagement with the EU, including on the important issue of food security and the associated work of the European Food Security Crisis preparedness and response Mechanism.

Scottish Ministers and officials will continue to work closely with industry representatives, and continue to engage across the sectors and governments in relation to food security and supply issues.

This information requested is not held centrally.

We are currently in the process of evaluating minimum unit pricing (MUP) as a whole over its first five years of operation. Public Health Scotland will be producing a final report on MUP in 2023, which will inform our evaluation report which will be laid in Parliament and published in 2023.

Work on reviewing the level of MUP has started as part of our overall evaluation, as the impact of MUP is connected to the unit price. We are evaluating the impact of MUP at the current price of 50 pence per unit and will assess what level MUP should be set at going forward, if MUP is to continue. It is important that we have a robust evidence base to support any decision on a change in the level of MUP.

Part of this work includes a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which will look at the likely costs, benefits and risk of any proposed legislation. This will include how any changes to MUP will interact with any potential changes to excise duty.

The Scottish Government has had regular discussions with Museums Galleries Scotland on its decision to pause its small grants programme during the current cost of living crisis. It was jointly agreed that MGS would pause its programme to determine the best way to make use of the remaining funds it receives from the government and address the sector’s needs and priorities at this time.

MGS has created a new Resilience Fund to better support the sector for the remainder of the year. This was announced to the sector on 12 October.

Education Scotland are currently learning more about the evidence-based Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme and a related screening tool, Language Screen, which assesses four components of oral language skills. However, it is for individual schools and local authorities to decide if specific literacy screening tools and interventions such as NELI and Language Screen meet their strategic aims.

Continued partnership is at the core of delivering and improving the Super Sponsor Scheme. The Scottish Government is grateful to the continued work of local authorities, including City of Edinburgh Council, in their support to displaced people who have had to flee their homeland.

The Scottish Government understand that arrangements underpinning the Super Sponsor Scheme have incurred costs which could be considered out of scope of the various UK tariffs. We continue to urge the UK Government to have parity of funding no matter the route through which someone arrives.

Officials are in discussions with COSLA to finalise a framework through which local authorities will be reimbursed for costs incurred due to the super sponsor scheme as well as engaging directly with City of Edinburgh council to understand and agree costs incurred by the council since the scheme opened for applications.

The Scottish Government would like to offer reassurance that reasonable costs associated with the super sponsor scheme will be met by the Scottish Government.

Funding decisions will be set out in the 2023-24 Scottish Budget later this year.

The announcement of the emergency budget review, as noted in the response to question S6W-11144 on 19 October 2022, confirmed a pause to all non-contracted spend, which included the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget.

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

Non-contracted spend, including the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget, was considered as part of the cost of living emergency budget review following the announcement of the review by the First Minister on 11 August, which was further outlined in the Deputy First Minister’s statement to Parliament on 7 September.