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The Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards were published on 31 May 2021, and the Scottish Government made a commitment that Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) will embed the standards by April 2022.

Work to embed the MAT standards by local services and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is a crucial and significant undertaking. To support progress, we are providing multi-year funding to HSCPs specifically for the standards and have set up a MAT support team, based within Public Health Scotland to lead this work.

I have committed to update Parliament on the progress of MAT standards on a six monthly basis and will be returning to Parliament in June to provide an update on progress on embedding the standards.

Local progress from each HSCP area is currently being evaluated and a report will be published in June to coincide with the update to Parliament. This report will be a collation of process, data and lived experience evaluation. This will be followed in short order during the summer with a report providing more detail of work undertaken in each area.

April 2022 is not the end of line for the standards and what happens post April is as equally important. From now and over the life of the National Mission, work will continue on the standards to make sure they are not only embedded, but are improving and are sustainable.

I know that many rural households, living in off gas grid areas and reliant on heating oil, are likely to be facing difficulties as the price of kerosene has soared in recent months. We are doing all we can within our powers to assist those worst affected and have recently allocated a further £10 million to our Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF). The FIF is delivered through trusted third sector partners including the Fuel Bank Foundation and Advice Direct Scotland, who administer our Home Heating Support Fund. Both these organisations are able to provide direct assistance to households who rely upon solid, or liquid fuels such as kerosene, for their heating.

Following on from recent discussions with the heating oil trade body, UKIFDA, my officials have engaged with the UK Government to raise concerns about the recent unprecedented rises in heating fuel costs for off-gas-grid customers in parts of Scotland. However the UK Government has indicated that there are no plans to regulate the sector.

This Government’s recent manifesto included a commitment to establish a Youth National Performing Company. Work will commence soon setting out what this will look like and how it could be achieved. I will write to the Member to provide her with an update as work progresses.

The Scottish Government provides regular funding of £150,000 to the Scottish Youth Theatre per year. In addition, we have provided £130,000 of additional support in 2021-2022. The Scottish Youth Theatre was also awarded funding from the Creative Scotland Cultural Organisations Recovery Fund to support their recovery from the pandemic.

The Model Retirement policy (included within the Supporting the Work-Life Balance PIN policy 2015 ) asks that all NHS Scotland Boards arrange an individual interview with a member of staff 9 months before a proposed date of retiral in order that a ‘Retiral Plan’ may be drawn up. Each circumstance is different, however, this would provide an opportunity to discuss retaining staff where possible.

We want all pupils to respect their peers and staff, and are supporting a number of programmes to promote positive relationships and behaviour. This includes good behaviour management, restorative approaches and programmes to help develop social, emotional and behavioural skills.

There are a range of strategies and programmes which schools can and do use to improve relationships and behaviour in schools. These include a range of relationship based and trauma informed approaches including those that are nurturing and restorative, and curriculum based programmes that develop social, emotional and behavioural needs.

The National Improvement Hub provides all of our practitioners, parents and young people themselves with specific good practice models to review. We, and partners across the education sector, advocate an approach for schools and local authorities to work with pupils on the underlying reasons behind inappropriate behaviour. We published guidance in 2018 ‘Developing a positive whole school ethos and culture: relationships, learning and behaviour’ to support local authorities, education settings, practitioners and partners to further improve the ethos and culture, and relationships and behaviour in Scottish schools. This is in addition to national guidance on the prevention and management of exclusion from school which was published in 2017.

The Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools is considering the next round of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research which was delayed due to COVID-19. The research informs the further development of policy, guidance and support by providing a clear and robust picture of current relationships and behaviour, and of policy and practice in this area.

Since 2011 the Energy Saving Trust (EST),on behalf of the Scottish Government has maintained a database of all community and locally owned (CoLo) renewable energy installations in Scotland and produces a report on the information it contains each year.

The Scottish Government has not provided any direct financial support to the private sector for onshore or offshore wind energy projects in the last 10 years.

The Scottish Government has not provided any direct financial support to the public sector for onshore or offshore wind energy projects in the last 10 years.

Spending data on additional support for learning (ASL) is provided below. This data is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). In addition to 2020-21 expenditure data, figures for 2019-20 have also been provided due to revisions in LFR statistics since the response to S6W-00064 on 1 June 2021. These revisions reflect an upward revision in ASL spending reported by Aberdeen City, and a downwards revision in ASL spending reported by Renfrewshire local authority.

Local authorities are asked to provide this data in line with guidance to ensure returns are completed on a consistent basis to allow for a reasonable degree of comparability. However, these figures may be affected by variations in local accounting practices and education strategies. It is important to bear this in mind when making comparisons between local authorities and years.

Local authorities are asked to record all centrally funded ASL expenditure under Special Education, irrespective of where it is delivered. Decisions about prioritisation and budgets, including those for the provision of services for pupils with additional support needs, are a matter for individual councils. We recognise the challenges facing authorities in balancing their need to meet a wide range of statutory duties, local priorities and local circumstances.

Tables 1 and 2 show gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning (ASL) education from 2020-21 and 2019-20 respectively, split by Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Special Education.

Table 1 – 2020-21 ASL expenditure by Local Authority (£000)

The exact financial value of the electricity output from Scotland’s wind energy projects is not known. Electricity is traded on in the wholesale market where the price fluctuates continuously and precise data on prices is not publicly available.

? Also a large proportion of wind generators are subsidised through schemes such as the contracts for differences (CfD) and the Renewable Obligation (RO) so the revenues obtained will differ from the wholesale market price.

? However, taking estimates of annual average wholesale market prices together with the volume of electricity generated by Scottish wind farms, the estimated value of the electricity generated from 2012-2021 is approximately £9.5bn.

? Due to recent spikes in energy prices around 25% of the total value over the last 10 years occurred in 2021 alone.