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Bus service provision in Scotland operates in an open de-regulated market, as established by the Transport Act 1985. Individual bus operators use their own commercial judgement to decide on service routes, fare structure and frequency. Additionally local transport authorities can provide subsidy for services that are not provided on a commercial basis.

Under the Transport Act 1985 local bus services must be registered with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner. The registration of services is devolved and subject to the Public Service Vehicles (Registration of Local Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2001. The regulatory regime is designed to ensure that bus service operators are of good repute and that services are introduced, varied or cancelled in an orderly fashion and operated safely and reliably as registered. As part of the registration process, operators are required to notify local transport authorities in advance of registering, cancelling or varying a service.

If the Traffic Commissioner considers that an operator is failing to run a service in line with their registration she has the power to take action against them. This could include issuing a fine, imposing conditions on their PSV license, or rejecting a future service application from the same operator.

The Scottish Government is a member of the UK Government ME/CFS Delivery Plan Task and Finish Group, which is scheduled to convene in June and to meet monthly thereafter. Officials are maintaining close and regular contact with the UK Department of Health and Social Care regarding this work, with the UK Government planning to publish its draft Delivery Plan later this year.

Data from the 2020 Healthy Living Survey was one of the components used to determine 2022-23 Pupil Equity Fund allocations.

Due to COVID-19 disruption, the full Healthy Living Survey could not take place in 2021. The previous year’s data was therefore used to prepare funding allocations which aligned with pre-existing PEF allocations to ensure there was no major, disruptive fluctuation between years.

We have listened to headteachers and provided certainty to support long term planning to build on the excellent work we know headteachers are doing by setting PEF allocations for the next four years. In response to fluctuating demand brought on by the pandemic, we have increased allocations to £1,225 from £1,200.

Officials continue to review possible alternatives to Free School Meal data, and a decision on which datasets will be used will be made at the end of that four-year cycle.

The Scottish Government recognises that recruitment and retention of nursing staff is key to the provision of safe and high-quality health care services. We published our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in March 2022, which outlines our shared vision: a skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do.

We are investing £11 million over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system. There are record high numbers of nursing and midwifery staff, up by 14.8% since September 2006, and numbers of student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-2023, the 10th successive increase in recommended student numbers.

We are firmly committed to supporting a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable health and social care workforce, with a strong leadership that promotes wellbeing. There is no place for bullying or harassment in the NHS - or anywhere else - and we have made it clear to Health Boards that this behaviour is unacceptable and expect them to ensure any reported incidents are taken seriously and fully investigated.

There is also no place for discrimination; we will publish a refreshed overarching Fair Work action plan later this year focusing on minority ethnic and disabled people’s employment and tackling the gender pay gap. We will also publish a new ethnicity pay gap strategy which will set out our approach for employers in addressing racial inequality in the workplace and will underpin our actions related to this within the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan.

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care detailed the launch of a new National Leadership Development Programme (NLDP) which will work to influence culture change across health and social care. It also included establishing a National Minority Ethnic Forum for the NHS and a new proposed accelerated development programme for minority ethnic staff working in the NHS and Social Care.

The Scottish Government has recently closed an initial consultation to start a national discussion about our National Parks. We will be working with NatureScot over the summer to engage further with the general public and stakeholders to help develop the evaluation framework that will be needed to determine which area or areas should be designated as National Parks. We will soon share further information about the process and timescales which will be followed to progress one or more areas to statutory designation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09005 on 23 June 2022. 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 .

We will shortly share further information about the process and timetable for which will enable one or more areas to be designated as a National Park. This designation will take place before the end of the current Parliament.

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.

As per answer to S6W-09155 on 23 June 2022, gill netting is a legitimate form of fishing activity permitted within Scottish waters providing the relevant rules, regulations and technical standards are complied with.

We know that a number of gillnet vessels operate in Scottish waters and we understand that additional spatial pressure can occur when vessels using different types of gear are operating in close proximity to one another. The Future Catching Policy consultation, which closed for responses on 7 June, sought views on possible solutions to this and we welcome the input from all stakeholders to help shape next steps.

The Future Catching Policy is also intended to consider additional technical and spatial measures for all types of fishing vessels in order to reduce unwanted catches of fish and bycatch of sensitive marine species such as cetaceans. We are currently analysing the results from the consultation and considering policy options.

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 .