Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10989 on 3 October 2022. 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 .

The Scottish Government seeks legal advice on an ongoing basis as appropriate and I can confirm that legal advice has been sought on this matter.

The recommendations for the Scottish Government included within the Equality and Human Rights Commission report, Housing and Disabled People: Scotland’s Hidden Crisis are being taken forward as part of the implementation of our Housing to 2040 strategy published in 2021. The specific recommendations regarding Relevant Adjustments to Common Parts (Disabled Persons) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 and guidance to local authorities on setting targets for wheelchair accessible housing were completed in advance of the publication of Housing to 2040.

No plans were made for the First Minister, or any other Minister, to attend the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The Minister for Environment and Land Reform represented Scotland at the Under 2 Coalition General Assembly, held during the recent 'Climate Week NYC'. Further details of this engagement will be reported to Parliament shortly.

Protecting children from online harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government. We are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people.

In October 2021, a National Hub was established to review all deaths of children. This will channel learning in order to reduce preventable deaths of, and harm to, children and young people. It is jointly operated by Health Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate with £550,000 funding from the Scottish Government.

Recognising that public engagement is vital, we ran a communications campaign giving advice to parents and carers on how to help keep children safe online. Across February and March, that campaign reached hundreds of thousands of Scots. It linked to the Scottish Government’s Parent Club website and a newly created Online Safety Hub .

With regards to education, the technologies area of the curriculum includes learning on internet safety and cyber resilience. Children and young people will learn about the safe and responsible use of different technologies, including the internet and social media, as part of their broad general education under Curriculum for Excellence. Education Scotland’s DigiLearn website provides training, resources and tailored guidance to support teachers to embed cyber resilience and internet safety learning across the curriculum.

The regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government. The UK Government’s Online Safety Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 17 March 2022, and has begun its passage through the Houses of Parliament. The legislation contains a number of important provisions which have the potential to keep children in Scotland safer online while enjoying the benefits the internet has to offer. The Scottish Government continues to work with UK Government counterparts and Ofcom on the implications of this legislation for Scotland.

While funding for the national collections is a direct responsibility of the Scottish Government, other museums and galleries are core funded from a variety of sources including local government. The Scottish Government is in discussion with Museums Galleries Scotland to understand the current challenges facing smaller organisations. Museums Galleries Scotland provides development and project funding to the sector on behalf of the Scottish Government. In view of cost increases museums across Scotland are facing, Museums Galleries Scotland has decided to pause its planned grants programme in order to review whether it is the most effective way to meet the needs of the sector at this challenging time. They are working on this as a matter of urgency and will announce any revisions to their programme to the sector as soon as possible.

Figures for the area of woodland and the areas of new planting / restocking in Scotland on land owned by the Scottish Government and/or its agencies are published annually as National Statistics by Forest Research and are available from the Forest Research web site at https://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8w3lv3 .

The Scottish Government is committed to building resilience to the locked-in impacts of climate change, as part of a just transition.

The approach to planning for adaptation in Scotland follows the statutory requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Alongside continuing to deliver the wide range of actions set out under the current statutory Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (2019 – 2024), the Scottish Government is also now developing the next such Programme for publication in 2024. This Programme will respond to the full range of current and future climate risks for Scotland, as independently identified by the Climate Change Committee in its evidence base for the January 2022 update to the statutory UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

As part of preparing the next Adaptation Programme, the Scottish Government is currently looking at options for early actions to enhance responses in the highest priority risk areas identified by the Climate Change Committee. These priority risk areas include both the impacts on food supply chains and distribution networks from climate-related disruption and those on human health, wellbeing and productivity from increased exposure to heat in homes and other buildings.

The UK immigration system is not working for Scotland’s economy, our public services or our communities. While responsibility for immigration rests with the UK Government, the Scottish Government will do all we can to attract and retain people in Scotland. That is why we have committed to launching a Talent Attraction and Migration Service that will attract people to come and live in Scotland, help those moving to Scotland settle into their communities and support employers to navigate the immigration system.

We are currently designing the service to ensure it achieves these outcomes and once we have completed this phase, will launch the service during 2023.

The Talent Attraction and Migration Service will play a key role in attracting and retaining people who chose to move to Scotland. The investment in the service will match our commitment to ensuring people are attracted to, and want to stay in, Scotland. The budget for the service is still being finalised but the service will be appropriately resourced, including ensuring the staffing levels meet the needs of those using the service.