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A post-mortem examination may require to be instructed by the Procurator Fiscal to determine the cause of death, to ensure the circumstances surrounding the death are fully investigated and to exclude criminality.

When a death is reported to the Procurator Fiscal, it may not be possible to determine from the facts and circumstances known at that time whether the death is suspicious. That may only be possible when the results of further enquiries – such as the findings of a post mortem examination – are known.

A post mortem examination conducted by two pathologists will be instructed where there are grounds for believing that a criminal prosecution is likely and there is a reasonable belief that a charge requiring a corroborated cause of death will follow. Of the 4,460 post mortem examinations instructed by COPFS from 1 January 2023 to 31st August 2023, 130 of those were conducted by two pathologists.

The Just Transition Fund did not open for bids in 2023-24. Alongside announcing a £25 million allocation to the Scottish National Investment Bank, our focus has been on continuing to deliver the £50 million multi-year programme of projects announced in 2022-23, including our £11 million package of skills interventions and £30 million investment on innovation projects.

Businesses, social sector organisations and communities have still been able to bid in for grant funding this year through the Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund, Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund, and Participatory Budgeting Fund respectively.

Over the last five years, Scottish Government has provided over £33m to Creative Scotland to compensate for the continuous shortfall in National Lottery funding.

As a result of rising costs and pressure on budgets across government, we are unable to make up the ongoing shortfall this year.

On 27 September the Board of Creative Scotland agreed to provide £6.6m for this financial year from its funding reserves, which totals £17m, to cover the shortfall in National Lottery funding. Therefore this means that none of Creative Scotland’s Regularly Funded Organisations will receive reduced funding this financial year.

Subject to the usual Parliamentary processes we will provide the National Lottery shortfall funding of £6.6m to Creative Scotland in 2024-2025.

I moved a motion for Scottish Parliament to reconsider the United Nations Convention on the Rights Of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland) Bill on 14 September 2023, which was passed unanimously by Parliament. The amendments to the Bill were formally lodged with Parliament on 18 September and the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee is currently taking evidence on the amendments. It is for Parliament to set the date for the Reconsideration debate which it is hoped will be before the end of the year.

I have asked the Chief Executive of Education Scotland to write to the member directly on this matter.

The Children’s Parliament delivers objectives from two Scottish Government funding streams: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Implementation Programme; and the Children Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities fund (CYPFEIF & ALEC).

UNCRC Implementation Programme funding objectives for 2022-23:

• Empower children to be heard and to influence policy making
• Support duty bearers to build knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver children’s human rights
• Raise awareness of children’s human rights among children and wider society
  

CYPFEI & ALEC funding objectives set for 2022-23:

• Children have improved knowledge and understanding of their human rights and increased opportunities to participate in democratic processes
• Public bodies increase knowledge and understanding about the needs and concerns of children and use this to make public services more responsive to children's needs
• Children's Parliament extends the reach and influence of children voices across Scotland and internationally

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.

a) Presently, Scottish Government's overall fleet is comprised of 69% ultra-low and zero emission vehicles. Zero emission vehicles make up 26% of the total Scottish Government fleet.

b) Data held by Transport Scotland on the % of zero emission vehicles in Scottish Government agency fleets at the end of 2022 is summarised in the following table.

It is important that we take the time to work closely with industry, with investors and with our partners across the public and private sectors to ensure that we get our approach to this right. This process is already well-underway and we will update parliament once it has been completed.

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.