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At COP27, the Former First Minister pledged £5m of funding to address non-economic loss and damage (NELD) over the course of the parliament. Non-economic loss and damage includes, for example, cultural loss, damage to nature and health decline due to climate impacts.

Following the announcement, officials engaged with the international stakeholder community and explored options to deliver the funding. Our priority has been to ensure the funding:

• quickly reaches those who need it, in particular women, in the global south,
• responds to community needs and is participatory in design,
• makes a genuine difference to their lives by allowing them to address the impacts of climate change,
• is well-managed by a credible partner, and
• allows other donors to join the Scottish Government and provide funding.

On this basis, we are delighted to be partnering with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) to deliver the £5m of funding.

CJRF will use the funding to create a programme that will provide grants to support vulnerable global communities impacted by climate change and build grant partners’ capacity through technical assistance, learning and advocacy. The aim of the programme is to enable and support communities facing extreme climate-induced NELD to identify and prioritise the actions that will best address it. The programme will also focus on addressing NELD in a gender-responsive way, ensuring women and girls are given a strong voice throughout all stages of programme design.

In addition to meeting our criteria, CJRF were chosen as the preferred delivery partner on the basis of their ability to obtain additional funding and so to ensure that even more vulnerable communities receive support. We are delighted that Open Society Foundations (OSF) are providing $700,000 of additional funding for the programme, especially to foster youth-led community projects. OSF bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the programme given their historical human right and equity approaches to socio-economic challenges, including through their work on Climate Justice

We hope that this is not the only additional funding. The programme is fiscally sponsored by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) who can accept other funds from governments, NGOs and the private sector, to address loss and damage. The aim is that Scottish Government’s contribution will galvanise others to pay into the fund to create a large, multi-donor initiative that can support more communities address non-economic loss and damage.

The programme is designed to respond to community needs. These may include, for example, activities to address climate-forced displacement and forced migration, and the myriad of associated losses: of family life, community, and culture; activities to address increases in gender-based violence, domestic abuse, and child marriage due to incessant climate stress. Other losses that communities may prioritise include loss of sites of cultural and/or spiritual importance, loss of language, and traditions.

Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026 sets out how each objective will be pursued, specifically:

• delivering robust and timely evidence to support the policy making process – through publishing a suite of research reports and official statistics, aligned to the Government’s research needs.
• collaboration with key partners – via the National Advisory Group and Academic Reference Group.
• supporting independent education research – through improved routes for knowledge exchange (such as the Education Research Seminar Series) and expanding membership of the Academic Reference Group to include early career researchers.
• continuing to improve data access – by continuing to make datasets available on Administrative Data Research Scotland platform and promoting available datasets and how to access them to the wider education research community.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘Citizenship in an independent Scotland’, are set out in the following table.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a New Scotland paper, ‘Creating a modern constitution for an independent Scotland’, are set out in the following table.

The Scottish Government uses a robust process to support the development and updating of all national COVID-19 guidance. This includes the use of national clinical expertise and consideration of evidence and research.

In this instance, in April 2023 Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland reviewed the latest scientific evidence and updated on the epidemiology of COVID-19, producing an evidence paper. The evidence paper, which is inclusive of an options appraisal from ARHAI Scotland can be found In the Scottish Parliament Reference centre, bib number is 64523.

Due to the risk of patient identification, a point has been redacted within the paper. ARHAI’s recommendation, based on the scientific evidence, was to withdraw the extended use of face masks and face coverings guidance across health and social care settings.

Scottish Government Professional Clinical Advisors in Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC), the Professional Advisory Group for health and social care, the National Clinical Director, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, the Director for Primary Care and the Interim Director of Social Care Resilience were engaged and agreed that services should revert to the guidance on personal protective equipment, including the use of face masks, contained within the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21034 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21034 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 .

Assessments of risks related to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) are underway across the housing sector. Representatives from local authorities, the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland and Homes for Scotland are participating in the cross-sector working group. The group includes stakeholders covering both social and private housing. Discussions have primarily covered investigation and reporting within the social sector, but will also consider what is necessary to understand the extent of RAAC present in the private sector.

The Scottish Government has provided a total of £36,504,332.56 in 2023-24 to the Corra Foundation across a range of funds. This includes administrative costs to support the management of the funds identified.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21034 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 .