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It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, school design is ultimately a matter for them.

However, our Learning Estate Strategy - which was produced in collaboration with COSLA - underpins the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), and its guiding principles make clear that learning environments should support the wellbeing of all learners and meet varying needs to support inclusion.

All LEIP projects were announced prior to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s recommendations being published. To date, 10 projects are complete, 17 are in construction and the remainder are in development.

Guidance is currently being developed with a wide range of stakeholders, and is planned to be applicable to both existing and future projects either within the LEIP or across the learning estate as a whole. This guidance is expected to be published before the end of this year and, in the interim, local authorities can reference a publicly accessible standard which is titled: Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment.

Communications were discussed in detail at the ASL Project Board’s meeting on 30 January 2025 when the Project Board agreed to engage Enquire to draft a communications strategy.

It is anticipated that the strategy being produced by Enquire will focus on bespoke clear, key messages for a range of different audiences including children and young people, parents and carers. The work will also recommend bespoke communications channels for each audience.

Regular updates on the progress of the strategy will be provided to the ASL project Board. Further information, is available on the ASL Project Board’s dedicated Scottish Government webpage at: https://www.gov.scot/groups/additional-support-for-learning-project-board/.

The Scottish Government has claimed £669m to date from the European Structural and Investment Funds, equating to 83% of the original allocation from the European Commission in 2014.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals, including racehorses, very seriously and the fatalities that occurred are clearly distressing.

Horse racing in Scotland is already tightly governed and regulated by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). The BHA aims to ensure racehorse welfare, including compliance with all aspects of the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, through its Rules of Racing, the licensing and inspection of participants, education, training and monitoring. The BHA also works closely with a range of animal welfare organisations such as World Horse Welfare to maintain and promote horse welfare and constantly reviews its rules and procedures to ensure that they are as effective as they can be in safeguarding equine welfare.

The BHA also seeks to minimise the risk of injury and fatalities to thoroughbred horses on racecourses, and records and analyses injuries sustained with a view to future prevention.

Heat networks have an important role to play in meeting the objectives set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy.

Our Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme continues to support homeowners with an interest-free loan of up to £7,500 towards connecting to a district heating scheme.

For those in or at risk of fuel poverty, support to connect to a district heating scheme is also available through our national fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland.

Households wanting to take action should contact HES who can help those interested to navigate the support available. HES can be contacted on 0808 808 2282 or via their online portal https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/

The consultation on the Heat in Buildings Bill included a range of proposals regarding the use of waste heat by heat networks. The final decision on the provisions of the Bill, to be introduced later this year, will be made collectively by Cabinet ahead of its introduction.

The Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership, which is working to ensure that all school aged children in Scotland will be given the opportunity to be equipped with CPR skills.

This has included delivery of Restart a Heart Day Live last year. This was a live stream CPR training event targeted at school-age children. The Scottish Government has committed to working with Save a Life for Scotland to deliver Restart a Heart Day Live again in 2025.

The Save a Life for Scotland partnership have a range of resources available on their website for both adults and children to safely learn how to perform CPR.

There is no mechanism that exists currently for the Scottish Government to collect data centrally on the provision of CPR training in schools.

As a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland partnership, we continue to work closely with local authorities and schools to ensure that all school aged children in Scotland will be given the opportunity to be equipped with CPR skills.

The purpose of the meeting on 26 February 2025 was to update myself and the Minister for Climate Action on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the reform options being considered by UK Government, and the potential impact of those options for Scotland.

The briefing paper for this meeting, and list of attendees, including ministers, have already been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). It is standard procedure for names of officials to be redacted in all FOIs under Section 38(1)(b), due to protections around the sharing of Third Party Data, whereby personal data is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR and in section 34(1) of the DPA 2018.

Upon review of the FOI, section 29(1)(a) was not cited as a redaction used. Information has been redacted under 30(b)(i), however, was redacted due to it relating to the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching a settled public position.

In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded.

Decisions on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) are reserved to the UK Government. The UK Government has published impact assessments and is updating its analysis ahead of a final decision this summer. We are awaiting sight of this updated modelling.

In addition, a range of impact assessments have been carried out by consultancies and industry bodies.

We met with researchers, industry and consumer organisations – as well as international electricity market experts – in December 2024 to consider the evidence and have engaged extensively with stakeholders over the past two years to understand all impacts.

This is a complex area and the Scottish Government is clear that UK Government reforms must reduce costs for Scottish consumers, ensure Scotland’s communities feel the benefit of the energy transition and protect investment in our renewables industry and supporting decarbonisation.