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Supported businesses have produced approximately 33% of uniforms supplied to NHS Scotland over the last three years.

There is no minimum percentage of uniforms that must be produced by supported businesses for the NHS Scotland uniform contract. The current contract is based on the volumes ordered by health boards and so allows for fluctuations in demand.

The decision was made to choose four longer trains per hour rather than six shorter trains per hour between Edinburgh and Glasgow because this was the better value for money option to deliver the necessary peak capacity for passengers.

ScotRail adjusts its services to reflect changing travel patterns over time. The emission free electric train peak capacity delivered by the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvements Project is being used today to the benefit of passengers.

The Scottish Government has made no assessment. The charter of the vessel is a commercial agreement between CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) and Pentland Ferries. Any reduction in capacity on the route would be for the operator of that route to consider when leasing the vessel.

As pre-announced in the forthcoming publications document, Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistics for domestic abuse incidents recorded by Police Scotland for the reporting year of 2023-24 will be published on Tuesday 19 November.

This Scottish Government has made no assessment. As per the terms of the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services contract CalMac are required to consider and address capacity issues. As part of this they record and publish carrying statistics.

COPFS has 16 contracts and service level agreements in place for pathology mortuary and toxicology services across Scotland.

All pathology agreements require pathologists to discuss post mortem findings with bereaved relatives if requested. Their assistance is invaluable to relatives seeking to understand the circumstances of their loved one’s death and is greatly appreciated by COPFS.

All doctors receive undergraduate medical school education in patient communication. This continues into forensic pathology training and consultancy when meeting with families to discuss post mortem findings. All doctors are expected to work within the standards set out by the General Medical Council for good medical practice.

The Royal College of Pathologists and NHS Education for Scotland oversee training standards in pathology and their uniformity across Scotland.

The purpose of the Death Investigation Improvement Board is to take forward three key areas for improvement in the death investigation system – (i) raising public awareness of the death investigation service, sharing lessons learned to reduce the incidence of avoidable deaths, (ii) providing bereaved relatives with the timeous provision of information they need to ensure they can effectively participate in the process and (iii) reducing the journey time for concluding death investigations, including FAIs.

The Board is chaired by the Deputy Crown Agent, Specialist Casework and its membership has representatives from each of the specialist death investigation units, Communications and Business Management.

The Board has a number of ongoing workstreams, including the creation of a Lived Experience Advisory Panel to enable participants with experience of the death investigation process to help inform improvements to the process by providing independent advice to the Board on issues such as the provision of information to relatives.

COPFS regularly meets and engages with pathology providers on a range of issues, including communication with bereaved relatives. These also allow discussion on any feedback received. Consideration is being given to the terms of the review and any further appropriate measures to be put in place.

The Scottish Government routinely analyses labour market data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with the latest Scotland's Labour Market Insights: October 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication released on 28 October 2024. The latest ONS Labour Force Survey statistics for June to August 2024 show that Scotland had an estimated economic inactivity rate of 23.2% compared to 21.8% for the UK.

Analysis suggests that the recent upturn in economic inactivity in Scotland appears to be driven by increases in those who are long-term sick or disabled. ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) statistics for July 2023 to June 2024 estimate that 32.0% of inactive people in Scotland were inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled. The second most common reason for being economically inactive was being a student (24.6%), followed by looking after family/home (16.1%) then retired (14.5%).

The Scottish Government’s latest Scottish Economic Insights report, Overview - Scottish economic insights: October 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) published on 18 October 2024, provided an illustrative example of how an increase in economic activity of individuals aged 16+ could impact the economy. It found that even a relatively small increase of 0.25 percentage points in the economic activity rate could boost GDP in the long-term by around 0.1%, or around £180 million a year (in 2024-25 prices).

Economic inactivity due to ill health is a key concern of the Scottish Government and as outlined in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, published in September 2024, we are taking action to help people access and stay in the labour market.

The Scottish Government has been progressing a number of areas of work in relation to articulating and embedding anti-racism in the curriculum. This has included the introduction of anti-racism curriculum principles Breaking the Mould, published in June 2023 which were co-designed with young people, educators and organisations with anti-racism expertise.

To support the education sector in designing and delivering an anti-racist curriculum we have also funded a range of programmes including: funding for diversifying texts and projects in school libraries; professional learning programmes for history teachers on the role of the British Empire in world history and its legacy today, and the impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; and small grants for young people-led anti-racist clubs to deliver school-based activities highlighting the importance of an anti-racist learning environment.

In particular, we have partnered with the Development Education Centres to support early years practitioners and teachers to effectively deliver age appropriate curriculum content aligned with the Breaking the Mould principles. This work has culminated in the development of a suite of new online resources that cover health and wellbeing and personal and social education, which were published in 2024. The online resources include workshop plans, activities and animations to support classroom learning on issues such as discrimination, bias, stereotyping and identity as well as the causes and impacts of racism. The roll out of these resources is supported by funded online and in-person professional learning.

We are also currently working with the Children’s Parliament to create a new resource for children on racism and rights in education.

Education Scotland provides a range of professional learning opportunities for school leaders, which focus on anti-racism. These include Into Headship, Connected and Collaborative Systems Leadership, Aspiring to Middle Leadership, and Middle Leaders Leading Change, as well as the award winning Building Racial Literacy Programme (BRL) and the Anti-Racism Mentors project. All Professional Learning resources are subject to review and, as part of the evaluation cycle, updated based on participant feedback.

In addition to this, the recent external evaluation of the BRL programme concluded that as a national anti-racist professional learning opportunity, it achieves its goal in supporting participants to become racially literate, with them feeling more confident in challenging discrimination and racist incidents. While the programme has welcomed a wide range of school leaders across Scotland, the evaluation identified the need for enhanced anti-racist professional development for school and system leaders. This in part led to the development of Education Scotland’s new Anti-Racism Mentors project being piloted this year.

Beyond Education Scotland’s offers, a range of local authorities and third sector organisations have different levels of professional learning available as well. These are not subject to formal Scottish Government review processes.