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The Scottish Government receives quarterly reports from Let’s Talk ASN, the national advocacy and legal representation service for young people (over 16 years old) and the parents and carers of children with additional support needs. In the last quarter, between October and December 2022, Let’s Talk ASN received 124 enquiries. Of those, 27 were retained as a Let’s Talk ASN case. The remaining enquiries were provided with advice.

In the last quarter, Let’s Talk ASN lodged 20 references to the Health & Education Tribunal to commence the process to a full hearing.

The Scottish Government does not hold disaggregated information on Let’s Talk ASN cases between ‘parents’ and ‘carers’.

The Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment is being led by Professor Louise Hayward. Professor Hayward is firmly committed to offering an approach that ensures the achievements of all learners, including those with disabilities, can be recognised. The commitment to proposing a system that works for each and every learner is evident in her recently published interim report.

During the Review’s public consultation Professor Hayward sought views on the specific question of how a system of qualifications and assessment can uphold the right of all learners including those with disabilities to have their achievements recognised.

I understand that Professor Hayward has met Angela Morgan, Chair of the Review of Additional Support for Learning Implementation, on several occasions and that Angela Morgan has also offered advice to the Independent Review Group. Professor Hayward is also visiting several schools which provide specialist education and learning for children and young people with additional support needs and complex health and medical needs, and will hear directly from learners, teachers and staff there.

The final Phase of the Review is now underway, and Professor Hayward is seeking views from a range of stakeholders across the education landscape, and beyond, on a draft model for the future of qualifications and assessment, this Phase is open until the 7 April. I look forward to receiving a final report before the end of May 2023.

In an update on the Additional Support for Learning Review Action Plan, published in November 2022 ( https://tinyurl.com/ywu6dtcw ) we committed to revisit this research in spring 2023.

In parallel, the Pupil Support Staff Working Group commissioned Education Scotland to undertake a national engagement programme for pupil support staff – ( https://education.gov.scot/improvement/research/pupil-support-staff-engagement-programme-2022-2023/ ). The engagement programme commenced in October 2022, has generated over 2,500 responses to date and will close shortly.

We consider it prudent to let the engagement programme conclude and for the responses to be analysed, before deciding on the requirement for the proposed research.

The Scottish Government has not allocated funding to local authorities specifically for school meal debt since 1 January 2022.

As referenced in the answer to question S6W-15314 on 6 March 2023, the management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments.

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

Information on the first Health and Wellbeing Census undertaken by local authorities in Scotland between October 2021 and June 2022 is available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-and-wellbeing-census-scotland-2021-22/. Pages 22 and 23 of the Key Findings document, contained in the Supporting documents link, set out the frequency of e-cigarette use by pupils.

Transport Scotland has a highly successful record of reintroducing stations and routes to the network, reconnecting and bringing new opportunities to Scotland’s communities. These include the Airdrie to Bathgate line and the Borders Railway, and most recently, the reopening of Reston Station. A new station at East Linton is expected to open before the end of this control period. Work is well underway on the Levenmouth Railway, which will enter service in 2024, reversing historical closure and returning stations and new journeys and economic opportunities to the communities surrounding Leven and Cameron Bridge.

Part 4, section 122 (4) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, gives Scottish Ministers a power to approve a tenancy deposit scheme and obliges Ministers to review each scheme from time to time and gives them power, once they have done so, to ensure that any scheme is revised.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. The review examined whether the introduction of the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) resolved the issues it was intended to and considered whether the TDS worked well for both tenants and landlords. It also assessed whether the current regulations were fair and fit for purpose. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 and the scheme submitted revised procedures in October 2019 which were reapproved in November 2019.

The Scottish Government regularly monitors the operation of the schemes, but there are no current plans to undertake a full review of approved schemes at present.

Regular monitoring of the schemes highlighted the previously unforeseen issue of unclaimed deposits. As part of A New Deal for Tenants - draft strategy: consultation Ministers sought views on reinvesting unclaimed deposits in the private rented sector after a period of 5 years has elapsed and where all other reasonable efforts to reunite the tenant with their deposit has been exhausted.

We published the independent analysis of the consultation responses on 23 August and we are currently considering those views as we take forward this important work.

In 2021-22, as part of the implementation of the Additional Support for Learning review action plan, we provided Enquire, the national advice and information service on Additional Support for Learning, with an additional £70,000 of funding. This aimed to increase the capacity of the service to support parents and carers of children with additional support needs and ensure it was effectively resourced to meet the needs of the families it supports.

The utilisation of this funding and its impact is established via ongoing grant management processes. This includes statistical information on provision of services and feedback from parents and carers using Enquire’s services. For example, in 2021-22 Enquire responded to more than 1,750 enquiries and over 1,120 in the first three quarters of 2022-23. During the third quarter of 2022-23, 100% of those who provided feedback indicated that they had a better understanding of their and their child’s rights and 91% rated the service they received as “excellent”.

The additional funding has enabled Enquire to create additional capacity to more effectively respond to enquiries from parents and carers and increased engagement with wider stakeholders; a programme of outreach; and development of new initiatives such as increased video content on the Enquire website. This level of funding was maintained in 2022-23 to ensure service delivery sustainability and continuity in support for families of children and young people with additional support needs.

Table 1.21 of Scottish Transport Statistics provides information on the number of Blue Badges on issue by each local authority from 2014 to 2021 and is available via the following web link https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-2021/chapter-01-road-transport-vehicles/ .

The information for 2022 will be published by Transport Scotland on 14 March 2023.

As part of the contract for two vessels for Islay, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) could not have stipulated that only Scottish or UK suppliers could be used as the Regulations require them to treat economic operators equally & without discrimination and restrict them from artificially narrowing competition by unduly favouring or disadvantaging any particular economic operator.

Kongsberg have an agreement in place with Cemre Marin Endustri for Fin Stabilisers, with the production facility based in Dunfermline. Fifty-eight companies (overseas or based in England) are also set to provide products and/or services for the new build vessels. Forty of these companies have signed agreements, with the remaining 18 companies obtaining signed agreements as the shipyard build programme progresses.