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Protecting children from harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government. I welcome the findings of Baroness Casey’s Audit. We are working at pace with partners including Police Scotland to assess its findings and recommendations to understand how they might apply in Scotland.

Police Scotland has advised that there are no current investigations in Scotland involving offences against children which would mirror the investigations described in Baroness Casey’s audit as being perpetrated by “grooming gangs”. However, there is absolutely no place for complacency. That is why Police Scotland are carrying out their deep dive into previous investigations of the type referred to in the Baroness Casey audit. This is expected to be completed in a matter of weeks.

It should also be noted, that as a single force, with one vulnerability database feeding local and national child protection procedures, and a National Intelligence database, Police Scotland is well placed to address the information and intelligence sharing challenges highlighted in Baroness Casey’s Audit. Police Scotland will work closely with the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council leads in Child Protection to ensure mutual sharing of best practice and learning on this issue.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry currently taking place is one of the widest ranging ever undertaken in Scotland, and includes an extensive review of child protection policy and practice in Scotland. Baroness Casey’s report specifically highlights the vulnerability of children in care to sexual exploitation and is likely to be a further source of evidence for the Scottish Inquiry to draw on.

Baroness Casey’s audit will also be considered by the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group, members of which include Police Scotland and Professor Alexis Jay, as it considers opportunities to improve our response to child sexual abuse and exploitation in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with UK Government counterparts to identify opportunities for improved collaboration. We are committed to working in partnership with UK Ministers to tackle child abuse and exploitation.

The Scottish Government recognises the distinct challenges faced by the deafblind community and we want to ensure that those living with deafblindness in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support.

We intend to take forward work to adopt the Nordic definition of deafblindness as a functional model in Scotland to help ensure individuals receive the recognition and support they need.

We appreciate the hard work undertaken by Deafblind Scotland, the CPG on Deafness and the CPG on Visual Impairment to raise awareness of the definition and progress towards its adoption in Scotland. We will work closely with them on the next steps to implement this definition.

The Scottish Government is committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop and grow to realise an ambition of generating 5GW of green and low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 and 25GW by 2045. Working with our Enterprise Agencies, we are actively engaging with developers to support and encourage hydrogen production projects across Scotland. Given the nascent nature of the sector, and the pace of the developing global hydrogen economy, future production capacity levels are subject to many factors and are challenging to forecast.

Since 2020-21, 50 grants worth a total of £44.57m have been allocated to projects to support and develop green hydrogen production, as detailed in the following table.

The Scottish Government recognise that lowering the production cost of green hydrogen is a key factor in the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. We are supportive of innovation and technological advances that could support this aim.

The Scottish Government is clear in our support for a just transition for Scotland’s valued oil and gas sector, which recognises the maturity of the North Sea basin and is in line with our climate change commitments and energy security.

Decisions on licensing, consenting and the associated fiscal regime for offshore oil and gas are all matters currently reserved to the UK Government.

The UK Government consultation ‘Building the North Sea’s Energy Future’ closed on 30 April and we are now awaiting the Government’s response.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials engage with UK Government counterparts and a wide range of stakeholders when considering all of these issues and will continue to do so.

The Green Jobs Fund has provided £38.7 million in grant funding.

Violence towards pupils or staff is unacceptable.

The new consequences guidance, which has been co-created with headteachers and educational experts, is clear that the safety of pupils and staff must always be a priority for attention.

The guidance provides illustrative, non-prescriptive examples to support de-escalation, risk assessment and safety planning. It sets out processes for reporting, monitoring and escalation in situations of violence.

We have also published more detailed guidance on risk-assessments to support school staff responding to violent, aggressive and dangerous behaviour.

The Scottish Government takes the accuracy of its commissioned reports seriously and aims to ensure that work carried out on its behalf is appropriate.

In April 2025, the First Minister, Ministers, and Law Officers received ministerial waiver mandate letters. As the mandates contain data which is personal to the individuals concerned the Scottish Parliament, as a data controller, will not publish them. It is a matter for individuals to decide if they wish to publish information contained within their own mandate letters.

The SPCB publishes up to date information about salaries for MSP, Ministers, Law Officers and Office Holders on its website.