Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21029 on 15 September 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 .

The Programme for Government 2023 committed to deliver secondary legislation to enable councils to apply up to a 100% premium on Council Tax rates for second homes. Subordinate legislation will be laid later this year to enable local authorities to charge a premium for second homes from 1 April 2024. Once this has been approved by Scottish Parliament guidance will be issued to local authorities.

The 2023-24 Scottish budget provides over £250 million funding to NHS Boards to support Covid-19 and other services. This funding is used to support the Covid-19 vaccination programme, testing, personal protection equipment and public health measures.

Within monthly financial returns issued to Scottish Government from NHS Boards on their Covid-19 expenditure with over £45 million of reported expenditure as at month 4. Please note, this total is based on the most recent figures reported by NHS Boards.

Regular updates are provided by CMAL to The Scottish Government and the new ferries at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey for the Islay and Little Minch routes are on schedule and on budget.

Following the recommendations by the Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee in its report on A Modern and Sustainable Ferry Service for Scotland, Ministers have agreed that quarterly reports will also be shared with the Committee. The format of these reports is currently being finalised.

In the Programme for Government we committed to begin work to phase in an expanded national offer for more families with two-year-olds, focusing on those who will benefit most. We already offer 1140 hours of high quality, funded early learning and childcare to around a quarter of families with two year olds who experience the most disadvantage.

We now have the highest number of two year olds ever accessing the existing funded 1140 offer and following years of work with the UK Government we now have new data sharing agreements in place which mean that, for the first time, local authorities are able to access much better information to allow them to identify and contact eligible families.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities and providers to maximise uptake of the existing offer as we develop plans to phase in the expansion.

Over the next year we will also work with local authorities and our partners in the sector to develop plans to expand access to around 40% of families in Scotland over time.

Further detail, including on the additional investment required to deliver the childcare expansion over this Parliament, will be set out at the Scottish Budget for 2024-25 later this year.

The annual local government settlement will continue to be distributed in full using the needs based formula, which is discussed and agreed each year with COSLA on behalf of all their local authority members. The Scottish Government is always open to any suggestions on how to make the formula fairer, however any such requests must, in the first instance, come from COSLA.

27 of the 33 recommendations of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group have been delivered. The LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation Group is continuing to work on the outstanding recommendations, with further delivery expected by the end of the current academic year.

A public consultation on the revised statutory guidance for relationships, sexual health and parenthood education was published on 3 August 2023 and closes on 23 November 2023. The consultation can be access through the Scottish Government's consultation portal at https://consult.gov.scot/learning-directorate/teaching-guidance-for-relationships-sexual-health . The guidance published in 2014 remains in force until the revised guidance is finalised and formally published.

The following table provides an overview of P1 learners who have undertaken (a) one or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority.

The row "n/a" denotes publicly-funded schools outwith local authority control.

Table 1 - Number of P1 Children undertaking SNSA since 20 September 2018 - by year and local authority

In Scotland, the climate emergency is taught through the cross curricular entitlement of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). LfS has been a feature of Curriculum for Excellence since 2012 and has gained international interest and recognition, with other countries looking at our concept of LfS as a model.

The Scottish Government published a refreshed LfS action plan in June 2023, which sets a new ambitious aim for all learning settings to become Sustainable Learning Settings by 2030, and clearly teaching children and young people about the climate emergency is an important aspect of this.

The plan contains a significant number of new actions to further support the teaching and learning of LfS. These include the development of a new accessible LfS portal where teachers and educators will be able to find online practical advice, tools and support in one place; the creation of new LfS qualifications and pathways; and the development of a single national approach to LfS within Initial Teacher Education.

This builds on a significant amount of work already underway. For example Education Scotland provides a wide range of advice, resources and support to schools in relation to climate and sustainability education, through their National Improvement Hub, including the Learning for Sustainability Self-Evaluation Framework, Countdown to COP26 resources, Weather and Climate Change video series and a Climate Change Wakelet, a tool for sharing resources.

The Scottish Government also funds Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver the Climate Action Schools programme. In 2022-23 a total of 1,694 schools took part in the programme which aims to increase climate change awareness, enable young people to have a voice and take action on issues that matter to them, and embed LfS across Scotland.

A current list of Special Advisers and their responsibilities can be found on the Scottish Government website .

The current financial year ends on 31 March 2024. As such it is not possible to provide the total cost of Special Advisers in the current financial year. Information on the total cost for 2023-24 will be published when it is available, in line with the provisions of the Scottish Ministerial Code.