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The Public Bodies referenced in the minutes of 11 October in respect of the presence of RAAC were NHS Lanarkshire, the Scottish Police Authority, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and SportScotland.

Membership of the Head Teacher Task Force represents a range of perspectives from primary, secondary and special schools, with an interest in school improvement and wellbeing. Head Teachers from the following schools were invited to the Task Force meeting held in June 2023:

Brechin High School

Douglas Academy

Glenrothes High School

Hazelwood ASL School

Heathfield Primary School

John Paul Academy

Mearns Castle High School

Ness Castle Primary School

Oban High School

Preston Lodge High School

Royal High School

Saracen Primary School

Smithycroft Secondary School

St Kentigern’s Academy

Stonelaw High School

Members were identified through a variety of means including Local Authority nominations and engagement in other Scottish Government work.

The Royal Blind School receives annual grant funding from the Scottish Government, which is used to support the direct delivery of specialist education and care provision for children and young people with complex additional support needs, including those with visual impairment. The key recurring grant objectives set out for the school in their annual grant letters since 2019-20 are:

• Provide high quality education and / or care to the children and young people who attend the Royal Blind School and Sight Scotland education outreach services.
• Continue to develop the delivery of peripatetic support to local authorities, children and young people with visual impairment.
• Identify collaboratively, the development objectives with all pupils, staff and stakeholders.
• Evidence and maintain the Royal Blind School’s leading position and its value to the provision and enhancement of good practice in education, learning and care for school age children with Visual Impairment and particularly those with complex additional support needs.
• Ensure the ongoing viability of the school, continue to be committed to attracting and developing alternative sources of income through commercial activity and partnership working.
• Improve and develop partnership opportunities with all stakeholders of the Royal Blind School.
• In addition to the core objectives set out above, two further objectives were set within specific years. These were not recurring objectives and were met within the years set.
• Throughout 2020-21 implement the actions/activities in the School Improvement Plan to ensure children and young people who attend the Royal Blind School receive high quality education and care.
• To continue to develop and operate the Learning Hub in order to provide support to local authorities, children and young people with visual impairment and their families and other agencies with visual impairment across Scotland; and provide by 31 March 2020 an evaluation of progress in the 2019-20 outcomes report.

The Scottish Government welcomes all initiatives that support our work to tackle social isolation and loneliness, a public health issue which has been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be affected by the ongoing cost crisis.

The Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, and associated delivery plan that was published in 2023, outlines the strategic actions and priorities we are taking to tackle this issue. This includes funding support to 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs by providing opportunities for people to connect. Priority groups targeted by the fund are young people (aged 16-24), disabled people, people with a mental health condition, older people (aged 75+) and people living in areas of deprivation or on a low income.

Since 2021, we have invested £51m in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, with 3,300 grants being made to local organisations across Scotland to tackle issues including social isolation.

The Scottish Government encourages the Big Braw Community campaign to engage with the Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group to explore collaborative working on this issue.

The Scottish Government is not committed to changing the law in this area. However, in line with paragraph 9.15 of the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy Family Justice Modernisation Strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , the Scottish Government is carrying out a review of section 6 of the Child Abduction Act 1984, on the offence in Scots law of a parent taking or sending a child out of the United Kingdom without consent. As part of this review, we are speaking to key stakeholders to obtain their views. We are also taking account of previous work, such as report 102 by the Scottish Law Commission in 1987 on child abduction Child abduction (SLC 102) (scotlawcom.gov.uk) . I am aiming to publish the outcomes of this review by the Scottish Government, along with Impact Assessments on the effect any change in the law would have, later this year.

In February 2023, the Scottish Government published its Draft Agricultural Reform List of Measures outlining the intention to develop future agricultural support conditionality options, which could recognise appropriate uptake of methane suppressing feed products by farmers. We are continuing to work with industry to establish options for recognising use of these products and other practices which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Records show there has been no instances of road closures due to lack of adequate drainage on the A90 trunk road from Dundee to Aberdeen from 2019-20 to date.

We monitor the operational carbon caused both directly and indirectly by the polluting heating systems used in the majority of Scotland’s buildings via the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics ( Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , which provides statistics on the level of emissions by source. Estimates of Scotland’s consumption emissions (broadly analogous to upstream scope 3 emissions) are published in Scotland’s Carbon Footprint ( Scotland’s Carbon Footprint 1998 – 2019 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . However, it is not possible to isolate heating systems from other similar products using this dataset.

We are continuing to investigate how we can improve whole life emissions reporting in Scotland’s buildings.

Officials from the Scottish Government met with North Lanarkshire Council on 25 January 2024 to discuss matters relating to the consultation involving Condorrat and Baird Memorial primary schools. Although the consultation has concluded and these matters are being considered by the Council, including input from statutory consultees, the Scottish Government is aware that final decisions have not yet been taken by the Council and a further meeting will be arranged at an appropriate time.

The Scottish Government’s current focus is on our previously stated objectives to complete the vessels for our island communities, to support the workforce of Ferguson Marine and to ensure a sustainable future for the shipyard.

The spend on the vessels is subject to oversight by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and scrutiny by Audit Scotland. This will continue.