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The Scottish Government recognises the importance of critical minerals for the future prosperity of Scotland.

Critical mineral mining relates to powers reserved to the UK Government, and the Scottish Government is supportive of the UK Critical Minerals Strategy. This sets out the UK’s vision and actions to improve the resilience of its critical mineral supply chain through signposting financial support opportunities for UK critical minerals businesses.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the UK government to explore the potential reserves of critical minerals in Scotland and to ensure their secure and sustainable supply.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is a thriving music industry in Scotland, including grassroots music venues, which are key to supporting emerging Scottish talent. It is vital that both grassroots venues and large-scale venues continue to be valued and supported.

That is why, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we worked with partners to deliver the Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund. Music venues were also able to apply to the Cancellation Fund for Cultural Organisations, which supported creative businesses which had been financially impacted by cancellations or postponement of activities due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

We currently have no plans to introduce a ticket levy on large music venues to support grassroots venues. However, we continue to engage with stakeholders throughout the sector, such as the Music Venue Trust, to discuss challenges facing the industry, and explore what can be done within our powers and resources to help overcome these.

Music tourism makes an important contribution to the Scottish economy, attracting overseas visitors as well as locals to enjoy live music at festivals and venues across Scotland, many of which have an international reputation for excellence.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is a thriving music industry in Scotland and so provided £750,000 across 2021-22 and 2022-23 to enable Scotland on Tour to take place. The programme facilitated new concerts in venues across Scotland to support the sector recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. While there are no plans to reopen the fund, we continue to work with the music sector, including through further and higher education, to ensure that live music continues to be resilient and world-class.

EventScotland’s existing funding programmes offer opportunities for all event organisers, including live music events, to apply for funding on the basis that it meets the programme criteria.

Within Scotland’s UNESCO Trail microsite, Glasgow’s status as a UNESCO City of Music is highlighted. Earlier this year, EventScotland welcomed five journalists representing eight titles from the UK, France and Germany to explore and promote the Trail. They experienced Celtic Connections and a city music walking tour.

We will continue to work with a range of stakeholder groups, such as the Music Education Partnership Group and the Scottish Music Industry Association, to promote excellence in music and provide opportunities for the musicians of the future.

Since 2015, CodeClan have received a total of £3.03m from Scottish Government.

Codebase, the operator of Scotland's Techscaler network, has acquired CodeClan’s training materials and other assets.

The Scottish Government has agreed to provide financial support to Codebase for the explicit purpose of allowing students who have paid for courses to complete their studies. Guidance has been issued to students and operational arrangements are being finalised.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18589 on 15 June 2023 where the benefits of the Erasmus+ sector to Scotland, and as such subsequent loss due to the UK Government decision not to associate to Erasmus+ were outlined.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website .

The General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) Standard for Full Registration, which is the benchmark for competence required of all registered teachers, outlines that all teachers are required to demonstrate a depth of knowledge and understanding of pedagogical and learning theories, and draw on these appropriately to inform practice in areas such as dyslexia. Furthermore, the GTCS Guidelines for Accreditation of Initial Teacher Education Programmes, are clear that programmes should expose all students to national priorities and pedagogies to develop their understanding and practice in areas such as dyslexia.

Over 700 teachers have GTCS registration in additional support needs which is available to those with appropriate qualifications.

The requested information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not gather this information. It is for local authorities to determine how they deliver the service to suit the needs and circumstances of children and young people in their area. We produced guidance to support local authorities, available at: Access to counselling in secondary schools: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)