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Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 sets out the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland. After section 1 of the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 has been commenced, children under 12 whose behaviour has caused significant harm to others will be eligible for support provided by the Bairns’ Hoose.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people with additional support needs are supported. Under the Additional Support for Learning Act education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils. This includes the employment and provision of appropriate resources, including teaching and support staff, to meet children’s needs.

The Scottish Government remains committed to maintaining teacher numbers nationally and ensuring we have the right number of teachers, with the right skills, in the right places to educate our children and young people.

Figures published in December 2020 show that teacher numbers increased for the fifth year in a row – rising to 53,400 in 2020, an increase of 1,153 on the previous year. There are now more teachers than at any time since 2008, and the ratio of pupils to teachers is at its lowest since 2010.

We also continue to provide additional support to education authorities through investment of £15 million per year to further enhance capacity in education authorities and schools to respond effectively to the individual needs of children and young people, through the provision of support staff.

The Scottish Government has also established a Pupil Support Staff Working Group to explore how best we can empower and support pupil support staff, including taking action in response to the recommendations of the additional support for learning review. As part of this a Professional Learning Framework for Pupil Support Staff was launched at the Scottish Learning Festival, on 22 September 2021 .

We are extremely grateful to everyone who has volunteered for vaccine trials in Scotland. We are committed to ensuring that these volunteers are not disadvantaged in any way, and work is on-going to ensure their vaccine status is correctly presented on the vaccine database.

If a person has participated in coronavirus vaccine clinical trials in Scotland, they should have already received a letter from their Chief Investigator confirming their involvement. The letter allows them to attend events or access services throughout the UK in the same way as those who are fully vaccinated. They will also soon be able to obtain a record of their vaccination status that contains a barcode to enable easier access to venues.

Further information is available here at NHS Inform: Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination status for clinical trial participants | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot)

As part of the Reaching 100% (R100) North lot contract, 16 subsea cables will be delivered to 15 Scottish islands - Colonsay, Iona and Lismore in the Argyll & Bute local authority area; Eigg in the Highland local authority area; Eday, Flotta, Hoy, Rousay, Sanday, Shapinsay and Stronsay in the Orkney Islands local authority area and Fair Isle, Unst, Whalsey and Yell in the Shetland Islands local authority area.

Initial survey work is now complete and we expect all cables to be laid by the end of 2022, subject to favourable weather conditions.

The 2021 Programme for Scotland announced a short-life Business Purpose Commission for Scotland to promote more purposeful businesses and better corporate governance.

The Business Purpose Commission is tasked with considering whether there would be benefits to a distinct agenda for Purposeful Business in Scotland, and how business and government can better embed this to become a leading Purposeful Business nation. It aims to shed light on purposeful business in Scotland, to gather an evidence base identifying champions of the issue in Scotland and to generate new ideas of ways to drive change towards purposeful business policies and practice in Scotland, whether through advocacy, influence, or policy.

The current membership of the Commission is as follows. A small steering group of around 7 people will be drawn from the Commission’s full membership of around 25:

Co-Chairs

Colin Mayer CBE, Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, The University of Oxford/ Academic Lead, The Future of the Corporation Programme, The British Academy*

Amanda Young, Global Head of Responsible Investment, Aberdeen Standard Investments*

Commission

Stephen Boyd, Senior Economic Policy Officer, Scottish Government*

Sarah Davidson, Chief Executive, Carnegie Trust UK

Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work, Employment and Organisation, University of Strathclyde*

Crawford Gillies, Chair, Edrington

Alison Graham, Company Secretary, Baillie Gifford

Jamie Grant, Owner & Director, Glen Lyon Coffee

Poonam Gupta OBE, CEO, PG Paper Company Ltd

Dr Ifeyniwa Kanu, CEO & Founder, IntelliDigest

David McNeill, Director of Development, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

Jamie Maxton, Head of External Relations (Scotland), SSE Renewables

Andrew Murphy, Group Operations Director, John Lewis Partnership*

Paula Murphy, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, Wood Group

Brie Read, Entrepreneur and Founder, Snag Tights

Clare Reid, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, SCDI*

Dr Lesley Sawers OBE, Non-Executive Director, Crosswind Developments

Ian Walker, Global Programme Lead, Essential Surgery, Janssen*

Scott Wilson, Executive Director – Development, Robertson Group

Eliot Wishlade, Director, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd

* Members of Steering Group

The Scottish Government has published the Evaluation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism 2011-21 on 24 September. In response I was delighted to announce £650k this financial year, for tests of change on adult neurodevelopmental pathways. Additionally I announced new funding of £425k to trial the Scottish Government’s new Learning Disability and Autism leadership and engagement work and £400k for the understanding autism project charity funding.

The evaluation can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802013696

The Scottish Government has consulted on the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) report recommendations and draft Bill on Judicial factors. The provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (“2017 Act”) was raised in the consultation along with a question asking consultees whether any provisions of the 2017 Act could be usefully replicated in any Scottish Legislation.

The consultation responses suggest that some aspects of the 2017 Act could be considered: Judicial factors: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The issues brought to light in the consultation responses will be explored further when work to consider a programme of the implementation of SLC Reports during this Parliament - which includes Judicial Factors - is commenced.

CalMac Ferries Ltd negotiated the time charter of the MV Arrow with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, in line with the industry standard practice. Responsibility for crewing, repairs & maintenance and regulatory compliance rests with the Seatruck, as the owner of the vessel. CalMac Ferries Ltd did not pay a charter fee for to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for the MV Arrow when the vessel was not available for deployment as a result of mechanical failure.

The Scottish Marine Energy Research Programme (ScotMER), a Scottish Government initiative, is actively developing the evidence base required to facilitate the sustainable development of offshore wind. This programme works with key stakeholders and scientific experts to identify and address priority evidence gaps across environmental and socioeconomic interests.

Under this programme, the implications of underwater noise and efficacy of mitigation techniques have been identified as key evidence gaps, and we are working with industry and academia to deliver new research to inform future planning, consenting and licensing of offshore wind.

More information on ScotMER is available on: https://www.gov.scot/policies/marine-renewable-energy/science-and-research/

Government Business is conducted on the Scottish Government’s internal IT system, "SCOTS," which is available to all Ministers and staff. It runs on a secure network and, using an approved SCOTS laptop or tablet, is accessible from all Scottish Government offices, including London and Brussels, as well as remotely via most home broadband connections (subject to location).

The IT equipment provided in the Scottish Government has been specifically designed to support the secure drafting, sending and storing of digital information classified at OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE level.