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The Scottish Government has not engaged in any discussions with Norwegian Government ministers or officials regarding the Rosebank oilfield.

We are committed to a just energy transition for the North Sea. Collaboration with our Nordic partners on this transition – including in relation to offshore wind, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, port infrastructure and hydrogen – is a key area of activity for the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is currently the national measure of progress on widening access to higher education, as was recommended by the Commission on Widening Access in its final report, A Blueprint for Fairness, in 2016.

Higher education institutions currently use a range of criteria to identify widening access students, but we recognise that there may be other suitable measures to work alongside SIMD.

Scottish Government has established an Access Data Short-life Working Group to consider proposals and to investigate other widening access measures and data sources. The group’s membership comprises a range of stakeholders, including Colleges Scotland, Universities Scotland, Scottish Funding Council, and further and higher education institutions. The group is due to report to Ministers this autumn.

It is a matter for local authorities to decide how much funding they allocate to specific services. The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

Information on the number of hours of support staff provision per week, including home-school link workers, provided by each local authority is available at School support staff statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Figures are available from 2017.

The Scottish Women's Convention was awarded funding of £196,666 per annum for the period from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2024 from the Scottish Government Equality and Human Rights Fund. This is a competitive fund, administered by Inspiring Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government which aims to embed and mainstream equality and human rights within policy and practice in Scotland. While we do not specifically set objectives for the funding to the Scottish Women's Convention, we do set the following outcomes for the Equality and Human Rights Fund:

• People have greater access to their human rights and how to access them.
• People with protected characteristics have increased access to remedy where their rights have not been upheld.
• People with protected characteristics have increased participation in public life.
• People with protected characteristics have increased influence in decisions that affect them.
• The Scottish Government has better access to data and depth of information about the experience of people with protected characteristics.
• Actors in civil society increasingly use Scotland's domestic and international E&HR framework to influence and effect change.
• The experience of people with protected characteristics is increasingly used to inform the policy and practice of public bodies.
• Public services increasingly embed equality and human rights in their strategic planning and their day-to-day functions.

As part of the assessment process, organisations applying for funding were invited to demonstrate how their proposed activities would deliver the fund outcomes. Those organisations awarded funding, including the Scottish Women's Convention, report on their activities and how these contribute to the fund outcomes every 6 months.

The Scottish Government’s Nordic Office was officially opened in August 2022. Based in the British Embassy in Copenhagen, it has a regional remit covering the Nordic countries, including Norway.

Scottish Government officials based in the Nordic Office have not engaged in any discussions with Norwegian Government ministers or officials regarding the Rosebank oilfield.

Collaboration with our Nordic partners on North Sea renewable energy policy – including offshore wind, CCUS, and hydrogen – is a key area of activity for the Nordic Office, with recent Ministerial visits to the region having focussed on offshore wind and port infrastructure in particular.

The Scottish Government has not been made aware of any discussions between the UK and Norwegian Governments regarding the Rosebank oilfield.

Oil and gas licensing processes are currently reserved to the UK Government. Scottish Ministers have repeatedly called for reform of these processes, to ensure compatibility with climate commitments and we will continue to look for further opportunities to make the case for reform.

There is no place for racism in the NHS and in Scottish society as a whole.

We have been clear to Health Boards that incidents of racial harassment must be taken seriously and fully investigated. In 2020 we launched the national NHSScotland Bullying and Harassment Policy to support staff affected by these issues. This includes information on sources of confidential advice and support.

We have also been clear that all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour, including hate crime, should be recorded and if it is a serious incident, then it should be escalated it to the Police, as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government has a programme of work underway to integrate anti-racist/anti-discriminatory approaches and develop networks of allies across the NHS. We established the NHS ethnic minority forum in 2021 to amplify the voices of ethnic minority staff across the health service and tackle issues of systemic racism. We are working with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights to develop anti-racist training resources for staff, by 2024. We are also working with NHS Chairs and Chief Executives to ensure they have anti-racist and wider equality objectives, including meaningful action on diversity and inclusion.

I refer the member to the answer to the answer to question S6W-22099 on 31 October 2023. 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 .

We continue to work with HSCPs to implement the guidance. Chief Officers have been reminded of their duties and we are currently establishing a short life working group. This group will support implementation and ensure adequate provision of equipment, including short-term wheelchair loans, is available.

The Scottish Government will publish a dedicated self-harm strategy and action plan by the end of 2023, with the aim of ensuring people who self-harm, or who are at risk of self-harming, receive effective and compassionate support. This builds on our investment of £1.5m (since 2021) in the Self-harm Network Scotland , which is showing positive outcomes in supporting people who self-harm and those who care for them.

Research evidence, including insights from people with lived experience, confirms that often people who self-harm do not seek support from statutory services. We also know that for many people who attend hospital for self-harm treatment will not need to be admitted. Furthermore, there are differences in recording practices between clinicians and Health Boards. These factors mean the data on self-harm admission in hospitals is currently incomplete and unreliable, and for these reasons the data on self-harm received by Public Health Scotland from inpatient and emergency care settings is not routinely published.

Addressing these data issues will be a key priority in our self-harm strategy and a priority of the action plan will be to review, and improve data, including in hospital settings, to drive improvements in support and service responses for people who self-harm.