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This five-fold increase refers only to primary pupils and the proportion of pupils absent for over 50% of the time remains very small at 1% of all primary pupils. The wider context is that in 2020-21 over 41% of pupils had attendance rates over 95%. It should be further noted that 2020-21 daily management information are not directly comparable to the 2018-19 National Statistics due to differences in collection methods, quality assurance undertaken and COVID-19 related school closures in 2020-21.

To ensure schools and local authorities are able to best support pupils’ education the Government has committed almost £500m funding during 2020-21 and 2021-22 to support education recovery, and we continue to prioritise support for children and young people in the continued navigation of the pandemic. We are investing £260m to recruit additional teachers, including £20m for tutoring and mentoring to help children and families, along with £90 million to support local authorities in implementing protection measures to ensure schools are safe, open and welcoming.

We also delivered £25m in 2020-21 for over 72,000 devices and more than 14,000 connectivity packages have been distributed to learners across Scotland and we remain committed to ensuring every child has access to a device and connectivity by the end of this Parliament.

Furthermore, record investment of £215 million in the Scottish Attainment Challenge this year, including a £20 million Pupil Equity Funding premium, is providing additional support for children and young people who need it most.

With the support of £1 billion over this parliamentary term, the refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge programme will support continued empowerment of school leaders through Pupil Equity Funding and a clearer and funded strategic role for all 32 local authorities. This will enable local authorities and schools to implement local, evidence based approaches to supporting children and young people impacted by poverty.

There is no legislative or other provisions which specifies timescales within which inspections must take place. The HM Chief Inspector of Education agrees on an annual basis with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills the scale and priorities of the inspection programme.

Schools are selected for inspection each year on a proportionate basis, using a sampling approach and predetermined set criteria rather than a cyclical approach. Therefore there is no set time between full inspections.

The criteria for selecting a school for inspection takes account of the context and characteristics of the school, the type of school, deprivation and balance across local authorities. Other factors include local circumstances as well as the length of time since the last inspection.

Education Scotland has strengthened its scrutiny functions and prior to COVID-19 had increased the number of school inspections carried out in each academic year. Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans to resume the routine programme of inspections under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government will begin accepting Adult Disability Payment (ADP) applications from new clients from spring 2022 and nationally from summer 2022. Existing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clients will begin to have their entitlements transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland, also from summer 2022. PIP clients will not have to apply for ADP and they will receive the same rate of ADP as they received for PIP at the point of transfer. They will continue to receive this amount until their ADP award is reviewed. The value of each component of ADP is the same as PIP so that we do not create a two-tier system with varying rules whilst Scottish disability benefit clients are transferred to Social Security Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting spending on PIP and ADP. The Commission has not reported a breakdown of the proportion of the ADP clients in receipt of greater, the same, or lesser amount of financial assistance under ADP compared with what they receive from the Department for Work and Pensions.

For new applications, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assume that 25 per cent of clients who would have received a nil award under PIP will now receive the standard rate under ADP, and that 15 per cent of those who would have received a standard award under PIP will now receive an enhanced award under ADP.

Once clients are in receipt of ADP, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assume that the proportion of clients disallowed at award review will decrease from 19% to 5%. The decrease in the number of clients disallowed at award review reflects the substantial differences in the PIP and ADP award review process and the effect of rolling and client-centred ADP awards.

Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. HM Inspectors of Education are aware of the ongoing challenges faced by local authority staff, education staff, learners and communities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Scottish Ministers requested HM Inspectors conduct an inspection of Spark of Genius Harbour Point School in accordance with section 66 (1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. This inspection was carried out in May 2021.

Between January and March 2021, to support and improve the delivery of high-quality and effective remote learning, HM Inspectors of Education developed a national overview of practice of remote learning. During this period HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities and 474 schools. They also reached 12,105 parents and 2,667 learners through surveys. This resulted in 12 weekly National Overview of Practice Reports publishing between January and April 2021.

In March to April 2021 HM Inspectors of Education undertook a national review of local authority approaches to quality assurance as part of the Alternative Certification Model. This review was to ensure that the range of measures being undertaken by local authorities ensured that the approach to certification delivered for young people across Scotland. As part of this review, HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities, headteachers, SQA co-ordinators, teachers and representatives of professional associations. This national review was published on the Education Scotland website.

On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

Between September and December 2021, HM Inspectors of Education visited over 200 schools and services. This included visits to establishments and services that were due to have a further inspection or as part of national thematic inspections.

For visits, HM Inspectors of Education will follow public health and local authority guidance complying with the COVID-19 mitigations for each establishment. Plans are continually reviewed and are linked with public health guidance and local circumstances.

From February 2022, if COVID-19 conditions have improved, HM Inspectors of Education will carry out ‘recovery focus’ visits to engage with a selection of early learning and childcare settings and schools to support the education sector as it continues to respond to the impact of the current pandemic. HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

Natural flood management measures reduce, slow or otherwise manage flood waters across catchments and along the coast; they include salt marsh creation, wetland restoration, floodplain reconnection and woodland planting.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 recognises the important role of natural flood management and promotes and encourages the use of natural flood management techniques.

Natural flood management aims to reduce, but not necessarily replace, the need for traditional engineering, and is often used as part of a blended approach where natural flood management techniques are used alongside traditional engineering as part of a whole catchment approach.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to take action to reduce the impacts of flooding through the flooding component of the general capital grant (currently £42m pa). 20% of this (£8.2m pa) is available for actions such as natural flood management. We have also increased the overall flooding budget by 70% from £210 to £360 million in the next 5 years. The distribution of this additional funding is currently under discussion with local authorities.

The Scottish Government is supporting the long term Eddleston Water research project which is developing an evidence base to improve our understanding of natural flood management . It shows that natural flood management can delay flood peaks, deliver multiple benefits and help mitigate climate change impacts.

We also recognise the important role natural features play in protecting the coastline from erosion and sea level rise. The Scottish Government funded Dynamic Coast 2 project helps us to identify where the greatest risks from coastal change erosion and sea level rise are, this decade and into the future. Output from this project indicates that natural coastal defences protect £14.5bn of assets.

Based on these research results we are taking an adaptive planning approach to building resilience to coastal change. We have introduced a new capital budget for £12m over 4 years for coastal change adaptation which will be available from 2022-23. Guidance on how to produce Coastal Change Adaptation Plans is also being developed to help local authorities.

The Scottish Government does not hold complete information on the number of birds killed by windfarm activity. Prior to consent, surveys are undertaken in relation to the impact any proposed windfarm would have on bird populations. The survey results then determine whether mitigation and/or further monitoring is required and a specific condition to that effect is included in the windfarm’s consent. The information gathered from this monitoring is provided to the relevant Planning Authority. Not all windfarms have significant levels of bird activity and therefore they are not all required to report collisions.

Since 2013 NatureScot has operated a voluntary reporting scheme via their website, and have received 51 collision reports.

Some collisions are recorded by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA), and these reports are published quarterly on the SASA website and can be found here: https://www.sasa.gov.uk/wildlife-environment/wildlife-incident-investigation-scheme-wiis .

We have heard directly from retail businesses advising that the impact of these changes are already being felt, and that the new rules put Scottish and UK-wide businesses at a disadvantage when compared to other European destinations who continue to operate VAT refund schemes.

Following the announcement of the changes to tax-free shopping on 11 September 2020, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, and I wrote a joint letter to the UK Chancellor opposing the proposed changes; especially at such a challenging time for businesses. No action was forthcoming from the UK Government, so on 20 December 2021 I sent a follow-up letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reiterate the Scottish Government’s concerns on the matter, and request any data and analysis on the impact of these changes.

From 30 November 2021 the eligibility criteria for the Self Isolation Support Grant was changed to enable close contacts of someone who has tested positive or has been asked to isolate as part of the exercise within the public health response to the Omicron variant if they have to isolate for the required 10-day period to be eligible.

Scottish Government currently owns 1081 registered domains. 629 of them are currently “active” and 452 are currently “inactive”.

This total includes domain name variants which are commonly registered to protect a domain from malicious use, as well as domains for expired websites which are retained in order to redirect users to suitable alternatives.

We have defined “active” as a domain that has DNS configuration applied to it. Any domain that is currently parked with our Registrar Com Laude or has no DNS configuration has been defined as “inactive”.

The Scottish 4G Infill Programme is investing £28.75M to build up to 55 mobile masts designed to bring 4G connectivity to rural and island communities around Scotland. Updates are published on a regular basis at Scottish 4G infill programme: progress update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In the areas specified, the current breakdown for new activated masts is:

(a) Argyll and Bute (2) – Bunessan, Glenbarr

(b) Western Isles (2) – Lemreway, Ranish

(c) Highland (8) – Applecross, Blairmore, Glenborrodale,, Killilan, Littlemill, Polbain, Strathconon, Tarskavaig

(d) Orkney (2) – Burray, Deerness

(e) Shetland (1) – Reawick

(f) Moray (1) – Chapeltown