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The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Firefighters in Scotland do not currently have wearable tracking devices but this is an area that SFRS are exploring for the future.

By learning from existing local authority and regionalised multidisciplinary models, Scotland could develop a network of community-based hubs that provide effective, rights-respecting alternatives to secure accommodation.

Our recently-published response to reimagining secure care confirms that the Scottish Government agrees with this proposal in principle. Further exploration will be necessary with COSLA – and with wider partners - regarding the scalability, impact and value of this model. That exploration and testing will feature in Phase 2 of our planned actions in this area.

The Scottish Government monitors the numbers of empty homes annually when it publishes the statistical bulletin on empty properties, unoccupied exemptions and second homes. The data is sourced from council tax base returns collected from local authorities and includes stock of all tenures i.e. social housing, private rented housing, and owner-occupied homes. Further information is available from the Scottish Government website at: Second homes and empty properties in September 2024 - gov.scot.

Short term empty homes are a natural feature of the housing market. However when homes in private ownership lay empty for longer than 6 months the reasons can be complex and building relationships with owners is often the key to unlocking them. That is why we continue to invest in the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and our network of empty homes officers. Our investment of £3.7 million has helped to bring more than 11,000 privately owned empty homes to active use since 2010. Building on this success we are investing a further £2 million in 2025-26 that will enhance the support local authorities receive from the Partnership, increase the numbers of empty homes officers and fund a range of initiatives aimed at overcoming common barriers. This record level of investment seeks to increase the scale of work taking place and enable better targeting of resources to help return more homes to active use in places where they have the most impact. On enforcement we are taking forward a compulsory purchase reform programme which aims to make the process clearer, fairer and faster. In the meantime, the Partnership are working with local authorities to increase the use of the existing system through the development of a new hub project which aims to provide support to help identify suitable cases and bring them forward.

For homes in the social sector we have placed a specific focus on bringing voids back in to use and are already seeing the impacts of this work with numbers reducing significantly. In Edinburgh, for example, the Council’s management information shows that void levels have been cut by over 50% since June 2023. This progress is down to work of local authorities together with the £40m acquisition and social voids funding which Scottish Government has provided. We are now taking this learning to other areas.

The Scottish Government undertake a range of regulatory and advisory activities to support the delivery of good indoor air quality in our homes. This includes:

• All new homes and new building work are subject to building regulations which include provisions on the supply of outside air and removal of pollutants to address indoor air quality.
• To comply with the statutory Tolerable Standard, all housing in Scotland must have satisfactory provision for lighting, ventilation and heating.
• Our Warmer Homes Scotland programme requires a ventilation plan for each home, to make sure the right ventilation systems are properly planned and installed where needed.
• Our Area Based Schemes (ABS) programme requires councils to plan projects that ensure adequate ventilation for households as part of a broader compliance to the PAS 2035 design and installation standard.
• The importance of warm homes as a factor in prevention of respiratory conditions is recognised in our clinical Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38853 on 27 June 2025. The National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group has now met to discuss Baroness Casey's audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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 group noted ongoing Scottish Government and Police Scotland activity to consider the audit’s findings and recommendations and the linkages with a number of areas already identified in the group’s workplan, including data development, supporting multi-agency information sharing and improving practitioner training and education on identifying and responding to child sexual abuse and exploitation. The group will discuss the audit again at its next meeting on 8th October.

ARC Scotland’s third Principle of Good Transitions states that Planning should start early and continue up to age 25. ARC Scotland also provide the descriptors to this principle which are:

• Planning should be available from age 14 and be proportionate to need.
• Children’s plans and assessments should be adopted by adult services.
• Transitions planning and support should continue to age 25.

The priorities within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy build on the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland’s Principles of Good Transitions, and as such, it sets out the standards expected in delivery of transitions support for young disabled people across Scotland.

In Priority 1- Choice, Control and Empowerment of the strategy it sets out what is already happening and what else the Scottish Government will do to support and strengthen existing planning mechanisms, including continuing to promote early transitions planning and person-led planning resources and practices.

The operational guidance used to keep firefighters safe is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Firefighters in Scotland do not currently have wearable tracking devices to record their heart and breathing rates. SFRS is exploring whether the specification for replacement Breathing Apparatus can monitor breathing rates as part of the integrated communication capability.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39324 on 31 July 2025. 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.

As confirmed in the recently finalised Islands Connectivity Plan Strategic Approach, we will revisit the Freight Fares Review in the medium to long term.

Further details on revisiting the Freight Fares Review to explore ferry freight issues in more detail, considering all routes including to and from Colonsay, will be confirmed in due course.

Supporting families through access to high quality, affordable and accessible childcare is critical to the First Minister’s mission of eradicating child poverty. That is why, since 2021, the Scottish Government has prioritised investment of £1 billion per year in funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) for all 3- and 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds whose entry to primary school has been deferred, and those 2-year-olds who need it most.

Scotland is the only part of the UK to already offer 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds and eligible 2-year-olds regardless of their parents’ working status – putting children first. If families paid for this offer themselves, it would cost them more than £6,000 per eligible child per year.

Scotland continues to face one of the most difficult public spending environments since devolution. Despite this the Scottish Government remains committed to reaching more younger children with funded ELC that need it most, and the Programme for Government, published on 6 May 2025, set out that this year we will work with local authorities to maximise uptake of our existing offer for eligible 2-year-olds to ensure that as many children as possible benefit from the current offer.

In terms of planning for a future potential expansion, we are investing up to £16 million over 2 years within 23 Early Adopter Communities (EACs), across 6 local authority areas. The EACs are helping the Scottish Government and our local partners to understand what it takes to deliver childcare systems that support families with children from the early years to the end of primary school. This work is expanding access to affordable childcare for low-income families with children and evaluating the difference this can make.

It is important to recognise that the UK Government’s offer is not an expansion of universal childcare for all children under three. The new entitlement is only available to working families in England - those where parents earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage and work for 16 hours a week on average. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has made clear that, despite billions of investment by the UK Government, “the poorest one third of families will see almost no direct benefit from the new entitlements”. The difference in entitlements between the UK Government and Scottish Government reflects the Scottish Government’s policy intention that access to more hours of funded ELC is an investment in all children’s later outcomes - underpinned by national and international evidence.