Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government recognises that a diverse and successful ports and shipping sector contributes significantly to the national, regional and local economies in which they operate. Ports and harbours are crucial gateways to Scotland and Scottish Ministers continue to support a market-driven approach to ports policy, and recognise the contributions of port and shipping operators to the economy of Scotland.

The Green Freeports model in Scotland has been carefully designed by Scottish and UK Government Ministers to build on the existing strengths of local areas, minimise displacement of local economic activity, and create new opportunities for disadvantaged areas within Scotland.

To track the impact of the Scottish Green Freeports against these aims, we are developing a monitoring and evaluation framework in partnership with the UK Government and a consortium of external evaluation experts. This framework will also monitor and evaluate the impacts of the wider English and Welsh Freeports within the context of the UK. Once the framework has been established fully, Scottish Government and UK Government will publish findings from data collected.

In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with the Scottish ports sector and trade associations going forward, to understand any issues affecting the sector, including – where relevant – any concerns around the impact of Green Freeports or Freeports.

Updates from the external support team and other matters relating to the escalation of NHS Forth Valley are discussed at meetings of the NHS Forth Valley Assurance Board.

The Assurance Board was established by the Scottish Government to support NHS Forth Valley in determining what steps are necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality governance, leadership and culture, and in doing so support improvements in performance in out of hours, unscheduled care, mental health, and integration.

The minutes of the Assurance Board meetings and other information relevant to the escalation of NHS Forth Valley are published here: NHS Forth Valley Assurance Board - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

As at October 2023, our records show that across the whole of the Scottish Government there are currently 155 individuals procured to provide specialist services under a Service Level Agreement.

The Agreements that are put in place stipulate the length of the service period, and so will often set that Agreement in place for a period of two years, or more. Some Agreements have been established with short service periods, such as 6 months, but the norm is for two to three years. Agreements are reviewed annually to consider the service being provided and whether there is a business need for that service continuation.

We understand the distress and pain that migraines cause and want to ensure that everyone living with this debilitating condition can access the best possible care and support.

The Neurology Specialty Delivery Group (SDG), commissioned via the National Centre for Sustainable Delivery, has developed a national pathway for headache, including migraine, which will be published and implemented this autumn.

The pathway will aid the diagnosis and management of headache disorders and offer guidance on management. It is aimed towards those working across primary care including community pharmacy and general practice and those working across secondary care including emergency care, acute/general medicine and neurology.

The SDG have also developed factsheets on migraine for use by primary care clinicians.

The R100 programme comprises of three strands of activity – the R100 contracts, R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial build.

The R100 contracts are gap funded meaning that the Scottish Government subsidises Openreach to deliver connections to premises which would not otherwise be commercially viable. Subsidy is only paid to Openreach once premises have been delivered and delivery milestones have been achieved.

Suppliers to the R100 SBVS can only claim their evidenced costs, up to a maximum of the voucher value, once the installation work is completed and the voucher beneficiary is able to receive, as a minimum, a superfast broadband service.

The Scottish Government does not have a remit to intervene should a broadband provider choose not to proceed with their commercial build plans.

The percentage of individuals procured by the Scottish Government to provide specialist services under Service Level Agreements compared to the total headcount (as at 30 June 2023) is 1.44%.

The consultation on extending the scope of the 2021 animal licensing regulations closed on 26 September. We are considering all the responses received and will publish a consultation summary report in due course. This report will provide a breakdown of responses and set out our proposed next steps.

Forecasts provided by the recipients of the Green Jobs Fund awards estimated projects will support up to 4,462 full time jobs over the life of the individual project.

Information on the proportion of P1, P4, P7 and S3 children achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels in literacy and numeracy is available from 2016-17 from Table 1 of the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) publication which can be found on the Scottish Government website: www.gov.scot/publications/achievement-curriculum-excellence-cfe-levels-2021-22/

Between 2011 and 2016 the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) was used to monitor national performance of school children at P4, P7 and S2 in literacy and numeracy in alternate years. The SSLN provided information on reading, writing and listening & talking individually but not for literacy as a whole. Reading, Writing and Listening & Talking data for 2014 and 2016 can be found in table 1 and Numeracy data for 2013 and 2015 is in table 2.

The data collected via the SSLN differed from that collected via ACEL. The SSLN reported on the proportion of pupils "performing well or very well" at the relevant CfE level. Data was collected through a sample survey rather than for all pupils and was based on the results of assessments completed by participating students as opposed to being based on teacher professional judgements, as is the case for ACEL. As a result SSLN results are not directly comparable with ACEL results.

Table 1: Proportion of pupils performing well or very well in Reading, Writing and Listening & Talking, 2014 and 2016

Although the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collates data on students who declare a Mental Health condition, neither it or the Scottish Government gather information on the number of students accessing mental health services in colleges and universities.