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No One Left Behind is the approach to devolved employability support between Scottish and Local Government, which empowers Local Employability Partnerships to lead the design and delivery of services in each Local Authority area. These services are influenced by local need, and guided by co-produced national products in areas that require consistency, such as the Employability Service Standards, the Customer Charter, and the Shared Measurement Framework. Local Authorities may supplement funding provided through No One Left Behind with resources from other sources.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes experimental statistics on outcomes linked to the No One Left Behind strategic approach. These include the cumulative number of participants supported into employment, and the number of individuals who have sustained employment for defined time periods. The most recent statistics for Scottish Government funded employability support are available at: Scotland's Devolved Employment Services statistics - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government does not currently publish estimates of costs per sustained employment outcome for No One Left Behind at either Scotland or Local Authority level.

The Scottish Government is clear that abuse, violence, including gender based violence, and harassment of any kind, will not be tolerated in our schools. Misogynistic behaviour was identified as an emerging concern in the 2023 Behaviour in Schools Research, and we are taking forward a range of actions to tackle it.

In 2024, we published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence. It was developed by a working group, jointly chaired by Scottish Government, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Zero Tolerance. The framework provides guidance on how schools can address the underlying causes of gender-based violence, particularly gender inequality, and ensure appropriate action is taken in response to specific incidents.

Our Equally Safe Delivery Plan builds a robust and joined up approach to the prevention of violence against women and girls across all education settings in Scotland. In addition, we provide funding to Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme which engages young people to consider different forms of violence, including negative attitudes and behaviours to help them understand and speak out against gender-based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as being able to safely challenge the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

Council tax is a local tax, set and administered by individual local authorities, who had full flexibility in setting rates for 2025-26. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. It is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26).

The Scottish Government has considered the Grangemouth Refinery’s historical financial performance and, from the information available, has concluded that the asset is loss-making with significant capital investment required to retain operations.

Noting the fiscal constraints within which Scottish Ministers are required to operate, such an intervention would require the UK Government to intervene.

I continue to call on UK Government to leave no stone unturned to ensure a long term and sustainable future is secured for those who work and live at Grangemouth.

The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 establishes an important separation of roles between the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Government, whereby the statutory responsibility for decisions on funding to individual institutions sits with the SFC - not with government. However the Scottish Government continues to engage with the SFC and sector bodies on matters concerning funding allocations, including the SFC’s teaching grant.

Following discussions between the Scottish Government, SFC and Universities Scotland, the SFC’s indicative allocations for 2025-26 met an ask from Universities Scotland to remove 2,500 additional ‘SQA’ places introduced in academic year 2021-22 and repurpose the associated funding to enhance the teaching unit of resource – teaching subject prices for 2025-26 have therefore increased by 3.3% across all six subject price groups.

The Scottish Government is open to exploring the future funding model of our universities with the sector, from the clear starting point that we will not reintroduce tuition fees. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and I will continue to engage with Universities Scotland on the sector's future funding, and we welcome contributions from all stakeholders.

Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own academic misconduct policies, including in relation to students’ use of generative Artificial Intelligence tools.

The Scottish Government has engaged with key sector stakeholders, including the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), on the ways in which these bodies are supporting universities with use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and adaptations to academic integrity policies.

The SFC, as the body with statutory responsibility for quality assurance of provision by colleges and universities, has worked alongside the QAA to develop guidance and share best practice across the sector to address the risks and opportunities presented by generative AI tools, and their potential impact on assessments, academic integrity and standards.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory duty set out in the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure the coherent provision by the post-16 education bodies (as a whole) of a high quality of fundable further education and fundable higher education. As autonomous institutions, universities have the key role in mitigating financial pressures and external risks.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory duty set out in the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure the coherent provision by the post-16 education bodies (as a whole) of a high quality of fundable further education and fundable higher education. As autonomous institutions, universities have the key role in mitigating financial pressures and external risks.

The SFC monitors and assesses the financial health and the sustainability of universities through regular engagement and analysis of financial returns, which universities are required to submit to SFC each academic year. This includes consideration of a wide range of factors, including international enrolments.

Scotland’s first International Education Strategy (IES), published in February last year, highlighted the positive impact that international students make and sets out the actions that the Scottish Government will take to promote Scotland as a study destination and to attract and diversify our international student population.

Scottish Ministers, including the First Minister, have urged UK Ministers on numerous occasions to take tangible and decisive action to secure the site’s long term and sustainable future. We have continued to assert that the Scottish Government stands ready to play its part but that we require the weight of the UK Government’s vast resources to be deployed.

The UK Government’s commitment of £200 million from the National Wealth Fund to support Grangemouth’s transition is welcome but it must be available now. I hope the member will join me in calling on UK Ministers to provide clarity as to how businesses at Grangemouth can access this money to ensure new employment opportunities are made available in the near future and not much further down the line.

Under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships have a duty to assess the social care support needs of people and decide, in light of that assessment, arrange suitable services, if required.

We understand the pressures faced and addressing long waiting times for Social Care Assessment is one of the reasons that the 2025-26 Budget prioritised both the Local Government Settlement and the Health & Social Care portfolio with both receiving record funding allocations.

This includes almost £2.2bn for social care and integration – increasing investment by £1.2bn since 2021-22. On top of that, our Budget makes a record £15 billion available for councils for 2025-26.