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From 2007 to 2016, full-time equivalent was defined as between 35 and 37 hours per week depending on the local authority in which the staff were employed. From 2017 full-time equivalent has been calculated using a standard 35 hours per week across all local authorities.

The Scottish Government will publish a statistical report on the results of the PISA 2022 assessments on 5 December 2023, which will include internationally comparable results on maths, science and reading. The publication is timed to coincide with the release of the international results by the OECD, which will include the results of all 81 participating countries and economies.

The Scottish Government last received an update from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) on the national Community Asset Register (CAR) at a meeting in early June 2023. SFRS confirmed that a CAR ‘action plan’ has been developed, to monitor progress of the actions required to improve the CAR, and SFRS will keep SG officials updated as progress is made. Before the end of 2023, SFRS plans to carry out further promotion of the CAR internally, and to review the Service Level Agreement between SFRS and the other emergency responders. SFRS also reiterated its intention to continue to further develop the digital platform currently being used for the CAR but has stated, however, that the planned Information & Communication Technology (ICT) improvements could not be delivered in the current financial year due to existing demands within the current SFRS ICT work plan. The necessary improvements are to be tabled for discussion as a priority for inclusion in the 2024-2025 ICT work plan.

Data from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service show, for the period 2018-19 to 2022-23, 17 charges were reported in relation to selling a nicotine vapour product to a person under the age 18.

In total, 9 of these charges were prosecuted, of which 4 were convicted. 3 charges were marked no further action and 2 are ongoing. 3 charges were marked for a Direct Measure (Warning) and 5 marked for No Action.

A breakdown of charges for each year is shown in the following table:

As a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), SQA operates at arm’s length to ministers and is responsible for its own operational decisions, including decisions relating to course assessments.

SQA’s decision to return to full course assessments for the National Qualifications in 2023-24 was made following engagement with the National Qualifications Group and wider education community, informed by extensive feedback gathered as part of their evaluation of the 2022 arrangements.

I discussed these matters directly with the Chief Examiner, including feedback from the SSTA and other teachers, and received assurance that the impact of the removal of modifications will be carefully considered in the grading process in 2024.

The impact of climate change policies on disabled people is a key consideration in just transition planning. We are currently engaging widely on priorities for our Just Transition Plans to ensure the transition to net zero and climate resilience reflects the needs of everyone across Scotland before developing the specific policies and engaging in bilateral meetings at Cabinet Secretary level. We are currently working with several disabled people’s organisations to enable them to engage with their members on our behalf and ensure that the needs of disabled people are reflected both in the Plans, and in wider Scottish Government policy.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the total number of kinship carers in each local authority area. We do, however, hold figures for the number of children who are looked after in kinship care and these are included in the Children’s Social Work Statistics for Scotland .

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has recently begun collecting students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

The Scottish Government’s ability to respond to the current financial context is limited due to overall UK Government cuts and by the financial restrictions of devolution, requiring extremely hard funding decisions to be made across the budget. The Scottish Government values our culture sector and the contribution of the grassroots music industry to the cultural and economic offer in Scotland. We will continue to work with the sector to identify barriers to recovery, and do everything within our powers and resources to help it overcome these.

The Scottish Government does not collect this type of data.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes data on wealth from the Office for National Statistics Wealth and Assets Survey. The most recent report can be found at Wealth in Scotland 2006-2020 (data.gov.scot) . More detailed analyses are available on the Office for National Statistics website at Household total wealth in Great Britain - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . The Wealth and Assets Survey includes gifts transferred within a period, but does not measure lifetime intergenerational wealth, or attribution of current assets to intergenerational help.

Analyses looking at intergenerational sources of wealth across the UK have been carried out by various other organisations and the academic sector, for instance Who gives wealth transfers to whom and when? Patterns in the giving and receiving of lifetime gifts and loans | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk) and Intergenerational Income Mobility in the UK: New evidence using the BHPS and Understanding Society .