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The NDSP pilot is in the initial business case stage, with Police Scotland currently looking at the internal processing, handling and storage of digital images and how that best fits with current and projected processes.

I have requested a meeting with Police Scotland to discuss progress on the pilot and would be happy to write to the member subsequently.

As of the end of the day on 21 November 2022, there had been a total of 34,018,746 journeys made under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme.

In 2012 a Speed Limit Review, in accordance with the Scottish Government issued guidance titled 'Setting Local Speed Limits: Guidance for Local Authorities ETLLD Circular 1/2006’, concluded that given the character, mean speed and accident rates, a 50 mph speed limit on the A76 is appropriate in Mennock. We are not aware of any change in the accident rate, mean speed, the number of junctions/accesses in the area, or other material change since the review was undertaken that would lead us to revisit the findings of the Speed Limit Review.

As part of the Road Safety Framework to 2030, we are undertaking a National Speed Management Review to support a range of policies supporting national outcomes. The multi-year review shall include public consultation and may possibly require legislative changes. Until this work is completed, the existing guidance will continue to be followed. Any speed limit changes will only be supported where these are evidenced as meeting the current guidance or through their likely contribution to the Scottish Government’s 2030 road safety targets.

CalMac and NorthLink are required to regularly engage with stakeholders and communities as per their commitments in the ferry service contracts. There are established forums set up to ensure this engagement is inclusive of relevant stakeholders. Full details of this engagement can be found on the Transport Scotland website by following this link: Ferry Services Managed by Transport Scotland .

Transport Scotland officials monitor this engagement on behalf of Ministers at regular contract meetings.

No clear timetable has been provided by the UK Government on this matter.

Transport Scotland officials have met with UK Department for Transport (DfT) counterparts on three occasions this year, most recently on 31 October 2022. At this meeting it was confirmed that a business case would need to be submitted to the UK Government for their approval to advance work on the A75 upgrade.

Over the course of the last Parliament, there was demonstrable progress on a number of long-term measures to close the poverty related attainment gap, with attainment gaps in literacy and numeracy narrowing pre-pandemic in primary schools. We know that the pandemic and cost of living crisis has made our ambition of achieving equity in education harder but we are committed to substantially eliminating the poverty related attainment gap and are investing
‎ £1 billion over the course of this parliamentary term in the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) – a substantial increase on last term’s £750 million funding.

The Scottish Government gathers a range of data via the National Improvement Framework, which includes 11 key measures of particular relevance to the attainment gap in both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase. A detailed breakdown of attainment and the poverty related attainment gap can be found on the Scottish Government website - Supporting documents - Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Supporting documents - Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 4: 2022 Edition - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

From 2015-16 to 2021-22, £97.6 million was allocated to local authorities in Mid Scotland and Fife region, through a range of funding streams that contribute to the SAC: Pupil Equity Funding (PEF), Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP), Challenge Authority and Schools Programme.

From 2022-23 onwards, investment in the refreshed SAC programme is continuing with all Local Authorities now receiving direct funding for the first time through Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) along with the continuing of PEF and CECYP. In 2022-23, £16.8 million has been allocated to Clackmannanshire, Fife, Perth & Kinross and Stirling. Through the introduction of SEF, Fife, Perth & Kinross and Stirling Councils are receiving funding for the first time to develop strategic local authority plans to close the poverty related attainment gap. This funding empowers schools and Councils to drive education recovery and accelerate progress in tackling the poverty related attainment gap.

Through the SAC Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress , all local authorities are now required to set ambitious stretch aims for progress closing the gap. These should be published on local platforms as part of local authority education service improvement plans. A national aggregation of these aims will be published later this month and will be available to access here .

Information on assaults against high school teachers on school property is not held centrally.

The biennial Attendance, Absence and Exclusions data collection gathers data on the number and reasons recorded for temporary or permanent exclusions from school. These data show that there were 779 cases of exclusion (temporary or permanent) from publicly funded schools in Scotland during 2020-21 where the reason recorded was either ‘physical assault using improvised weapon against staff’, ‘physical assault using weapon against staff’ or ‘physical assault with no weapon against staff’. This compares to 1,737 in 2018-19 and 1,960 in 2016-17.

In June 2021, the Scottish Government and COSLA announced an open call for proposals from local authorities for pathfinder projects to be supported through the Green Growth Accelerator (GGA) programme.

The assessment of proposals was overseen jointly by Scottish Government and COSLA and proposals were scored against a set of criteria that were shared in advance with all local authorities. The assessment criteria included: carbon emissions reduction impacts, socio-economic impacts, maturity and deliverability of the project; additionality; and strategic fit with national and local net zero ambitions. Following the robust assessment process, the first tranche of GGA pathfinder projects was announced by Scottish Government in October 2021.

Our commitment is for all pupils to have access to a digital device by the end of this Parliament. The following table shows how many devices have been distributed by each local authority using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020/21. This funding supported the provision of 14,000 internet connections and over 72,000 tablets or laptops in total for learners across all local authorities.