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In the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021, 379 men were required to attend the Caledonian System as part of a Community Payback Order (CPO). In total, 1100 men were provided with the opportunity to access the programme in this period.

Prior to 2016 uptake of the Men's Programme is difficult to quantify precisely, because of limitations in the monitoring data. However, from the data available, the Caledonian System Evaluation in 2016 found that at least 941 men had started the Men’s Programme and 598 women had taken up the offer of support from the Women’s Service since September 2010.

Since the introduction of a new dataset from 1 May 2018, 1386 men have been required to attend the Caledonian System as part of a CPO. During this same period, 1934 women were also contacted, and offered the opportunity to contribute to the assessment process and have been offered safety planning.

As National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and most taxation levers are reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government does not have the range of options to provide support that are available to the UK Government. This is why I wrote to the Chancellor prior to the Spring Statement, urging him to consider all options to help those hardest pressed – from cutting existing VAT on energy bills, to a new windfall tax on those who have enjoyed excess profits from the Covid pandemic, cost of living crisis and now the situation in Ukraine. The Chancellor’s decision to ignore our calls and press ahead with the NICs rise was extremely disappointing. The increase in the payment threshold does nothing to help the lowest earners who need support now. That is why the Scottish Government is taking all measures we feasibly can under the current devolution settlement, such as the £290 million cost of living support package, uprating eight Scottish benefits by 6% from 1 April 2022, providing more than £4.5 billion to support businesses and keep people in employment, and doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 – with this increasing further to £25 by the end of 2022.

The Scottish Government takes the rate of inflation into account when making its spending decisions, but does not index or base all its spending decisions on a single specific measure of inflation.

The most frequently used measure of inflation is the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), prepared by the Office of National Statistics. The most recent data shows that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 7.0% in the 12 months to March 2022, up from 6.2% in February 2022.

Scottish Government's official forecaster is the Scottish Fiscal Commission, who in their December 2021 publication stated that CPI inflation for 2022 Q3 will be 3.9%. They will publish an updated forecast in May of this year.

Scotland is not participating in the NHS Pay Review Body process for 2022-23.

We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full learning potential.

Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 local authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those with disabilities. Local authorities and schools should continue to prioritise personalised support to meet the individual, physical and emotional needs of all children and young people, and particularly in light of the impact of Covid-19. This approach is set out in our continuity in learning guidance. As work to enable recovery progresses across Scotland, those working directly with children and young people remain best placed to identify needs and offer support within a model of inclusive learning policy and practice and in line with their statutory duties under the 2004 Act.

The report of the independently chaired review of additional support for learning implementation set a clear direction in how we can continue to build on progress in improving educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs. The joint action plan, published in October 2020 and updated in November 2021, set out the measures we will take to implement the report’s recommendations. Despite challenging circumstances we have made significant progress against a number of key actions. However, we recognise that there is more to do. We continue to work closely with the Additional Support for Learning Implementation Group (ASLIG) to review the action plan, take stock of our achievements and agree future priorities to deliver meaningful change.

During the COVID-19 pandemic children and young people with additional support needs were prioritised. In the initial phase of school closures educational hubs were made available for those children and young people who were the most vulnerable. During the 2 nd phase of school closures in January 2021 schools were asked to open and prioritise the attendance in person of those learners with additional support needs. In addition, our education recovery work has improving educational outcomes at its heart and the Scottish Government has put in place a number of measures including;

• Funding of 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this Parliamentary term – over and above the 1,400 teachers recruited during the pandemic – and ensuring more time for teachers to plan high quality learning and teaching by reducing their class contact by 1.5 hrs per week.
• 500m provided to support education recovery in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
• ?Investing £260m in 2021-22 to support local authorities to recruit additional teachers and other staff, including £20m to provide extra support such as tutoring and mentoring or other local interventions to support children and families.
• Delivery of £25m in 2020-21 for over 72,000 devices, and more than 14,000 internet connectivity packages distributed to learners across Scotland.
• Delivery of £3m for targeted youth work to support children and young people.

On the 30th March we also launched the refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge programme, with up to £200m funding for 2022-23, part of our increased £1bn investment over this Parliament, representing a substantial increase on last term’s £750m funding, to support our most disadvantaged children and young people.

The National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland, published on 11 March 2022, sets out a new framework to shape Scotland’s health and social care workforce over the next decade. It places training, wellbeing, job satisfaction and the principles of Fair Work at its heart. The Strategy, which was co-produced with COSLA, identifies the five key areas which will support the creation of a sustainable, skilled workforce as the sector rebuilds from the pandemic. Creating the right conditions for vacancies to be filled encompasses a much broader range of issues than pay, although ensuring that pay remains fair and competitive will always be an important part of any recruitment and retention strategy.

The Scottish Government has provided record-breaking levels of investment, including our £120 million Mental Health Recovery & Renewal Fund. As part of that work, we have made an additional £40 million available to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), with £4.25 million of that specifically dedicated to clearing waiting list backlogs by March 2023.

NHS Boards have submitted local improvement plans, setting out how they will meet the standard and eliminate long waits by end March 2023. In February 2020, the Scottish Government published a National CAMHS Service Specification, which included nationally agreed referral criteria and we are closely monitoring the implementation over the coming months, including, reviewing the numbers of referrals received by Boards, the numbers accepted for treatment on a regular basis and the numbers receiving personalised and meaningful signposting to other services.

The Scottish government’s principle engagement mechanism with disabled people and the organisations which represent them is through regular meetings with the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS), an independent advisory non-departmental public body. Their role is to consider matters about the needs of disabled persons in connection with transport that the committee think are appropriate.

Transport Scotland has consulted and engaged with disabled people’s groups to deliver updated Cycling by Design guidance, Inclusive Design Guidance for Town Centres and Busy Street and more specific work including Free Bikes for Children who cannot afford them and ongoing work on accessible bike hire.

Details of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) costs as of 1 April 2022 are set out in the following tables.

The original estimated costs of the R100 SBVS interim voucher was £3.3 million and the main voucher was between £12.8 million and £18 million. The SBVS continues to accept applications for main vouchers.

R100 SBVS Interim Voucher

As Starlink's satellite service currently costs £84 per month (set to rise to £94 per month from 9 May 2022), it does not meet the affordability requirement as set out in the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) terms and conditions and, therefore, Starlink is unable to register as a supplier. As paragraph 2.6 of the beneficiary terms and conditions for the R100 SBVS sets out, vouchers are for one-off installation and set-up costs only. Vouchers cannot be used to subsidise service charges.