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It is clear that the changes in working practices and budgets will offer opportunities to right-size the portfolio and improve efficient delivery of services to the public. There are no details of any savings available yet as the multi-year programme has not started. The first phase of the programme will begin this year and will look to gather and validate existing estate information and to plan for a place-based approach across the public sector. Subsequent phases will identify opportunities to work towards an optimal, greener and interoperable public sector estate.

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the draft physical intervention in schools guidance on 21 June. The draft human rights-based guidance makes clear that restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort and when in the best interests of the child or young person.

The draft guidance is a result of our 2019 agreement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2019 that non-statutory guidance be developed as a first step to improve practice in this area.

The draft guidance has been developed carefully, over time, with extensive input from over thirty working group members and partners, including the Children’s Commissioner, young people, parents, staff, local government and third sector organisations.

The consultation period has been extended to 25 October to allow all those with an interest in this sensitive area, including children and young people, to feedback their views. We will work closely with partners, following final publication, to ensure the guidance is followed.

Details of the membership and notes of the meetings of the physical intervention working group are available on the Scottish Government’s website: Physical Intervention Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Scottish Ministers are committed to empowering our communities and engagement in regional marine planning partnerships. It is for each regional marine planning partnership to determine its own governance arrangements. Section 12 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 requires Scottish Ministers to ensure that the group of persons (to whom regional marine planning functions are delegated) comprises, so far as it reasonably practicable, representatives of persons who have an interest in the protection and enhancement of that marine region and the use of that region for recreational and commercial purposes. Decisions on applications for membership are a matter to be determined by each regional marine planning partnership. Should membership be declined, marine planning partnerships are required to provide reasons for the decision and the applicant is free to reapply if they wish to do so.

In the case of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership (“CMPP”), they put on hold the consideration of all membership applications, which included the Clyde Coastal Community Councils’ application considered at the 17 th June 2021 CMPP member’s meeting, because the CMPP was undergoing a full-scale review of its governance structure and was, therefore, unable to consider new applications at that time. Clyde Coastal Community Councils were informed of this decision along with the reasoning behind it and that membership applications would be welcomed and fully considered once the governance review was complete. The review’s recommendations were informed by workshops which the Clyde Coastal Community Councils participated in during January 2022.

The governance review concluded that there is a need for increased community representation on the CMPP and proposes that community council/group representatives, such as from the Clyde Coastal Community Councils, be included in the Steering Group of the new proposed governance structure. Scottish Ministers welcome these proposals to address concerns regarding community representation. The proposed governance structure from this review was discussed and agreed in principle by the CMPP on 7 June 2022 and will be implemented in due course.

The Scottish Government has received £14.564 billion in Covid-19 related funding from the UK Government. Amounts received for 2020-21 were £9.752 billion and for 2021-22 are £4.812 billion. No Covid-19 funding has been received to date for 2022-23 and based on dialogue with the UK Government none is expected.

Details of the timing and split of funding received are included in the following table:

As I confirmed in the chamber last week, the second strategic transport projects review recommendations include continued investment in ferry replacements and port upgrades to improve their resilience and reliability.

This is backed by our commitment in the Infrastructure Investment Plan to invest £580m over 5 years, including in the two new vessels for Islay and in the MV Loch Frisa.

Family and friends will always be involved in discussions about organ or tissue donation. If a person is in hospital and dies in circumstances where donation may be possible, a Specialist Nurse would check if the person has registered a decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR). The Specialist Nurse would then discuss any registered decision, or lack of one, with family and friends in order to ascertain the potential donor’s most recent views, which may have changed since the recording of any decision.

These discussions help to ensure that people don’t become donors if that would be against their wishes. This is why, as well as recording any decision on the ODR, individuals are encouraged to let family and friends know about their decision and latest views.

Mobile home owners that are eligible for inclusion in their energy supplier’s Priority Services Register can request their site owner to register with their energy supplier as having vulnerable people on the site, if the residents do not have their own account. The situation and process is likely to vary depending on the supplier. If the residents experience a difficulty with this or the site owner refuses, Advice Direct Scotland can offer advice on how to take further action.

There is no evidence to support the claim that primary school pupils in Scotland are falling behind pupils in England and due to the differing education systems and curriculums, direct comparisons cannot be made. The reports referred to by Monica Lennon relate to views expressed in relation to the closed Scottish Parliament petition PE01668. This petition related to phonics teaching in Primary schools in Scotland.

The UK government has sought to embed the teaching of phonics in all English primary schools and on 28 April 2022 published updated essential core criteria for systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programmes to be used in schools. In Scotland, as with all of Curriculum for Excellence, schools, supported by their local authority, plan the reading curriculum to meet the needs of the learners within their own local context. In Wales and Northern Ireland schools are also provided with the flexibility to make informed decisions about the needs of their learners.

On 14 December 2021, I announced that a group would be set up as a National Response to Improving Literacy, which mirrored the already-existing National Response to Improving Mathematics. The group’s remit is currently being drafted but will look to examine the existing landscape in Scotland and to seek opportunities to enhance the professional learning for teachers and the classroom experiences for young people. It is anticipated that the first meeting of the group will be early in the next academic year.

The group is a partnership board led by Scottish Government, ADES and Education Scotland. Early gathering of stakeholder views indicates that teacher confidence in their knowledge and expertise and in selecting the best pedagogies to teach literacy could be a key theme explored by the group when formulating their recommendations.

The Scottish Government response to the Public Interest Journalism Working Group report, Scotland’s News: Towards A Sustainable Future for Public Interest Journalism , is scheduled to be published on the Scottish Government publications page on Friday 24 June.

The response will set out the Scottish Government’s answer to each of the recommendations, and the next steps for taking them forward.

The Scottish Government is very grateful to the Working Group’s members for their hard work in developing the recommendations within the report.

Scotland has the most comprehensive public charging network in the UK outside of London, with close to 3,000 public charge points. The Scottish Government has invested over £50 million to develop the ChargePlace Scotland network, with over a third of charge points installed in rural areas. Dumfries and Galloway Council has received £1.65 million to develop public electric vehicle charging.

In January we launched our vision for the future of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network, and announced a new fund to enable £60 million of public and private investment in this network. We have also provided £2 million to local authorities to develop their charging strategies and expansion plans, with Dumfries and Galloway Council receiving £60,000.