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Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is designed to be flexible, allowing teachers to deliver a broad general education suited to the needs of learners in their own contexts, including on agriculture. For example, the Social Studies Experiences and Outcomes enable young people to explore foods produced in Scotland, discuss agricultural production methods and consider sustainability.

The Scottish Government funds the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) and Education Scotland for programmes helping ensure children can explore where food comes from and learn about careers in food and farming. Since 2012 the Scottish Government has given RHET £563,276 for such projects, and has provided £3.32m to Education Scotland for the Food for Thought Fund, which supports food education projects in schools.

We have set up a Commission to review learning in Scotland’s land-based and aquaculture sectors, and provide Scottish Ministers with independent advice on how to improve learning pathways and attract more people into these sectors, supporting the delivery of a just transition to net-zero.

A full and accurate report of numbers of people registered as sight impaired and severely sight impaired cannot be produced at this time, but the latest data received shows a snapshot of people registered across 16 local partnerships. In 2020 (1 January to 31 December), 405 people were registered as sight impaired and 382 people were registered as severely sight impaired. In 2021 (1 January to 25 November), 449 people were registered as sight impaired and 456 people were registered as severely sight impaired.

This information is kept by each local authority, but a number of issues have been experienced, including GDPR problems and under-utilisation of the web platform designed to capture this information.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to provide accurate diagnostic and registration data, in order to enable better access to services, support and care for people with sight loss. The GDPR issues relating to the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) (Scotland) form has been resolved, and we are currently working with PHS on the development of a data collection solution that will replace the current web platform.

GP practice records show lists of acute and repeat prescribed medication lists during consultations with quantities of medication prescribed. Over ordering of repeat medication (or repeated consultations for acute prescriptions) are therefore visible on the acute and repeat prescribing sections of the medical records. It is therefore possible to add minimum days before reordering of monthly repeat medications to help prevent medication being ordered early or alert future prescribers to the potential for suspected addiction. ‘Special notes’ can be added or alerts to the patient record in daytime practice to inform prescribers of previous medication seeking behaviour or suspected addiction to pain medication. This information can be added to the patients ‘Special notes’ to be visible to Out of Hours services. Scottish Government is developing tools to accurately display prescribing habits to clinicians during consultations in order to help identify medication (including analgesic) over/under use.

David MacBrayne Ltd is a Relevant Authority under the Islands Act. It is for individual bodies to consider their responsibilities under the Act when carrying out their activities.

CalMac Ferries ltd is not listed as a Relevant Authority in the Act, and is therefore not subject to the same duties under the Act.

Antibody tests measure the number of antibodies in the blood when the test is taken, however immunity is more complex than antibodies alone and we still do not know what level of antibodies offer protection from COVID-19 infection or reinfection. Research is underway to understand more about COVID-19 antibodies and reinfection and therefore antibody tests are currently only available as part of research and surveillance studies and in some specific circumstances for the clinical management of patients. There are currently no plans to introduce on-demand antibody testing in Scotland.

Current self-isolation policy does not permit a positive antibody test as an exemption to self-isolation, and there are no plans to introduce this at the present time. Adults aged over 18 years and 4 months can end self-isolation as a close contact if they remain without symptoms, are fully vaccinated and receive a negative PCR test result. If they are unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons, or are involved in a clinical trial which means they cannot take a vaccine as part of the trial, they are also allowed to leave self-isolation if they remain without symptoms and receive a negative PCR test result. If they test positive they will need to self-isolate for 10 days. If someone is identified as a close contact related to the Omicron variant, Test and Protect will phone them to give them specific advice.

The current advice for people at highest risk (who may formerly have been asked to shield) is for them to follow the same advice as the rest of the population.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that legal assistance continues to be available to all those facing legal concerns. In our Programme for Government we committed to engage with the legal professionals and other stakeholders to review the Legal Aid system, and to introduce a Legal Aid Reform Bill in this Parliament, to deliver a system that is flexible, easy to access and that meets the needs of those who use it.

The Scottish Government consulted on legal aid reform in 2019 and has stated its willingness to take forward supported recommendations that will deliver an enhanced system of legal aid across Scotland and reiterated its commitment to retaining a demand led Fund to support a wide scope of actions. Particular consideration will be given, during the development of the Bill, to how more targeted and planned interventions can support user need and align with identified government priorities. There is real value for both users and providers in achieving a user-focused and diverse delivery model; users can access appropriate interventions at the right time, and providers can better target their expertise to those who require it.

Following treatment for breast cancer, women are followed up by the symptomatic breast service annually, commonly for at least 5 years. After that, women who are aged between 50 and 70 years are invited to attend the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) every 3 years. Women who are aged 71 years or over following discharge from symptomatic breast cancer treatment and follow up appointments can ordinarily self-refer to the SBSP once every 3 years; however, self-referrals for women in this age-group are currently suspended due to capacity challenges in the programme associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of women who had breast cancer and self-referred into the SBSP following treatment is not routinely collected or reported, and therefore the Scottish government cannot provide this information.

The scope of legal aid will be considered as part of the development of a Bill, and I refer to my response to S6W-04609 on 8 December 2021 which provides information on the Scottish Government’s plans to reform legal aid. The Scottish Government has previously committed, in its response to the Independent Review on Legal Aid by Martyn Evan, that legal aid will continue to be available for a wide range of cases and proceedings.

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 was pleased to work with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and partners to deliver the Glasgow Climate Dialogues, and its communique which set out recommendations for COP26 from four thematic dialogues.

The Scottish Government has already advanced communique recommendations for our climate justice work, including our announcements on funding to address loss and damage, and – following the evaluation of the Climate Justice Fund - by committing to ensure communities themselves are central in future project design. The final Glasgow Climate Dialogues meeting, to take place in January, will discuss post-COP26 actions.

There is no system of coroners' inquests in Scotland unlike England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The responsibility for the investigation of any death that requires further explanation rests with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Any sudden, suspicious, unexpected or unexplained death and any death which has occurred in circumstances which give rise to public concern, can result in a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) a public examination of the circumstances of that death conducted before a sheriff.

Legal aid is available for relatives participating in an FAI on the same basis as for civil proceedings and the same statutory tests must be met.

Civil legal aid has generous financial eligibility thresholds and those who are entitled to participate in an FAI, such as family, are assumed to have probable cause. In terms of assessing ‘reasonableness’ the Scottish Legal Aid Board expects that the Procurator Fiscal will usually be able to represent the interests of the relatives. However, where a relative of a person who died in prison or police custody applies, SLAB will look favourably on the application.

SLAB holds data in respect of applications from 2012 only. In respect of FAIs I can confirm that since 2012 there has been a total of 134 applications received, of which 111 were granted. That is a grant rate of approximately 83%.

In the financial year 2012-13 90% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2013-14 78% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2014-15 71% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2015-16 93% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2016-17 88% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2017-18 87% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2018-19 79% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2019-20 81% of applications received were granted.

In the financial year 2020-21 86% of applications received were granted.