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The £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), in collaboration with local authorities, commenced in 2021 and will deliver 47 school infrastructure projects across Scotland. The LEIP builds on the success of the £1.8bn Scotland's Schools for the Future Programme, which completed in 2021, and delivered 117 school infrastructure projects.

In the current parliamentary session to date, the Scottish Government has distributed a cumulative amount of £13.6m through the LEIP in revenue grant payments to projects that are open to pupils. For those open projects, we expect this to total £24m by the end of this parliamentary session.

The outline business case estimated costs at £1.3 billion. Design and expected costs will be confirmed as part of the Full Business Case (FBC) submission which is expected in late 2025- early 2026. The 2025-26 budget provides funding to support development of the FBC. Funding for construction is not allocated until the business case process is complete; this ensures appropriate due diligence of major capital projects.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, school design is ultimately a matter for them.

However, our Learning Estate Strategy - which was produced in collaboration with COSLA - underpins the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), and its guiding principles make clear that learning environments should support the wellbeing of all learners and meet varying needs to support inclusion.

All LEIP projects were announced prior to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s recommendations being published. To date, 10 projects are complete, 17 are in construction and the remainder are in development.

Guidance is currently being developed with a wide range of stakeholders, and is planned to be applicable to both existing and future projects either within the LEIP or across the learning estate as a whole. This guidance is expected to be published before the end of this year and, in the interim, local authorities can reference a publicly accessible standard which is titled: Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment.

Communications were discussed in detail at the ASL Project Board’s meeting on 30 January 2025 when the Project Board agreed to engage Enquire to draft a communications strategy.

It is anticipated that the strategy being produced by Enquire will focus on bespoke clear, key messages for a range of different audiences including children and young people, parents and carers. The work will also recommend bespoke communications channels for each audience.

Regular updates on the progress of the strategy will be provided to the ASL project Board. Further information, is available on the ASL Project Board’s dedicated Scottish Government webpage at: https://www.gov.scot/groups/additional-support-for-learning-project-board/.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals, including racehorses, very seriously and the fatalities that occurred are clearly distressing.

Horse racing in Scotland is already tightly governed and regulated by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). The BHA aims to ensure racehorse welfare, including compliance with all aspects of the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, through its Rules of Racing, the licensing and inspection of participants, education, training and monitoring. The BHA also works closely with a range of animal welfare organisations such as World Horse Welfare to maintain and promote horse welfare and constantly reviews its rules and procedures to ensure that they are as effective as they can be in safeguarding equine welfare.

The BHA also seeks to minimise the risk of injury and fatalities to thoroughbred horses on racecourses, and records and analyses injuries sustained with a view to future prevention.

The Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery (PNM) student financial support review is currently ongoing. This review will take time, as it is important that we clearly understand how we can support our PNM students to complete their studies. The options for consideration will be presented to the me before the end of the year. An equalities impact assessment will be published once the review has concluded.

With regard to the Marine Fund Scotland, publication of individual data is not standard practice, but the analysis of post project monitoring contributes, as part of a range of information, to Scotland's Fisheries Management strategy. This, in turn, informs Marine Fund Scotland assessment and will inform future funding decisions.

The following table shows the intake targets for medicine from 2019-20 to 2025-26.

For some, but not all, of the requested years, a minimum Scottish Domicile intake was set and where applicable this is indicated

Our Fisheries Management Strategy sets out actions to support the fishing fleet to modernise, and for appropriate use to be made of new and additional technology and gear innovation. As part of this the Scottish Government has delivered on our commitment to introduce remote electronic monitoring requirements for pelagic and scallop vessels, with legislation being passed in June 2024. The legislation can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2024/165/contents/made

Our commitment to improve the inshore fisheries evidence base through the use of appropriate and proportionate onboard electronic technology monitoring on under 12 metre vessels is currently being progressed.

Through our Future Catching Policy will take further action to improve selectivity by introducing additional technical measures to reduce unwanted catch and tackle discarding and bycatch of sensitive marine species, which will improve sustainability. Stakeholder engagement is ongoing to explore various selectivity proposals to deliver pragmatic solutions.

In regard to Marine Fund Scotland and post project monitoring, publication of individual data is not standard practice, but the analysis of post project monitoring contributes, as part of a range of information, to Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy. This published strategy, in turn, informs Marine Fund Scotland assessment and will inform future decisions.

The independent evaluation of the fish farm pre-application consenting pilots is in progress.

The final report had been expected in April 2025, however this timescale has been delayed to allow for the completion of the gathering and analysis of important data on the pre-application consenting pilots.

The Report is now expected to be finalised and published in the summer.