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The Scottish Government owned the Dalzell and Clydebridge steelworks momentarily in 2016 before the same were immediately sold to Liberty House.

The Scottish Government has not carried out an overarching assessment of the typical environmental remediation costs for sites of former steelworks in Scotland. Due to Scotland’s long history of iron and steel making such activity has taken place in a range of locations and circumstances over differing time periods and has involved many different processes and scales of production. Hence land remediation costs at any particular former steelworks site will depend on a multitude of site-specific factors and the owners’ planned future uses of the land.

A soil and groundwater contamination liability assessment covering the Lanarkshire steelworks was prepared for the Scottish Government in 2016.

A copy of the report with redactions in line with FOISA exemptions is available from the Scottish Government website here:

( https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/foi-eir-release/2021/07/foi-202100216003/documents/foi202100216003---information-released-2/foi202100216003---information-released-2/govscot%3Adocument/FOI202100216003%2B-%2BInformation%2Breleased%2B2.pdf ).

The ‘’wider group’’ referred to by the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise is Liberty Steel Dalzell Limited's parent company.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people are able to access the right support for their mental health as early as possible, without stigma. We encourage children and young people to speak to their GP or school/college/university in the first instance to discuss any concerns about their mental health and wellbeing and enable their referral to any additional services or support required.

We are committed to improving access to community mental health and wellbeing support, and to an approach based on prevention and early intervention. This year, we have provided local authorities with an additional £15 million to fund over 230 new and enhanced supports and services for children and young people. These include digital and text services, play and art-based therapies, single points of access, family support and counselling services for those experiencing emotional distress. Establishing these services is a significant step forward in supporting the mental health of our children and young people, making sure they receive the help they need, when they need it.

In 2022-23, we will issue a further £15 million to local authorities to fund the continuation of these services. In addition, the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commits to doubling the budget for community-based mental wellbeing services for children and young people to £30 million per annum by the end of this parliament.

We continue to invest in a range of pre-emptive measures to support children and young people in looking after their own mental health and wellbeing. This includes providing enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing available via the ‘Aye Feel’ website and social marketing campaigns, managed by Young Scot and support for parents via the Parent Club website.

Furthermore, we have delivered on our commitment for all secondary schools in Scotland to have access to a mental health counsellor, investing £16 million per annum to ensure children and young people have the support they need at the earliest possible stage.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

Education authorities and schools have a wide range of approaches in place to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing.

Our refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by record investment of £1bn in this Parliament, empowers schools and local authorities to drive education recovery and accelerate progress in tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group, established in 2019, has overseen the development of a professional learning resource for school staff, published in June, and guidance to support whole school approaches to mental health, published in August. These resources help school staff respond to the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience.

The Scottish Government also published the Mind yer time and Aye Feel resources which provide sources of support and information for children and young people.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 were made today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No.3) Regulations 2022 amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the principal regulations”) and will take effect on 28 January 2022 at 05.00 am.

The Amendment Regulations amend exemptions from face covering requirements in the principal regulations which exempt a person from face covering requirements in certain indoor places where a specific distance is maintained between the exempted person and other people or where they are separated from other people by a partition. This changes the distance to be maintained between persons who are not wearing face coverings from at least two metres to at least one metre – this includes

• employees and volunteers in certain places
• a person leading an act of worship in a place of worship
• a person leading a funeral, marriage ceremony or civil partnership registration
• parties to be married or entering into a civil partnership
• a person performing, presenting, addressing a public gathering, making a speech or acting as a panel member and;
• a person performing or rehearsing for a performance where certain circumstances apply.

The Regulations also amend the requirement that a face covering must be worn in any indoor communal area in a workplace, where there is no partition, or where people are not otherwise separated by a specified minimum distance, to change the specified minimum distance between persons who are not required to wear a face covering from at least two metres to at least one metre.

The Regulations also exempt a person travelling on a ferry, who is not outdoors, from wearing a face covering where a distance of at least one metre is maintained from other persons, as opposed to at least two metres.

The Regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2022/29 .

I can confirm that we have published our report this morning, and the review report is available at www.gov.scot/publications/storm-arwen-review .

The review is the result of a wide range of local debriefs which took place in the aftermath of Storm Arwen. The Scottish Government has used this information, from those involved at the frontline of the response, to develop a range of recommendations which we hope will support the evolution of our resilience planning. I would like to express my thanks to those who participated in this process, during what has been a time of considerable pressure across the sector.

A programme of work led by the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership (SCQFP) is underway to look at substantiating military-gained skills and qualifications (which are based on the English qualifications system) to be more easily recognised by civilian employers and institutions in Scotland. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funding for SCQFP included support for extended work on the mapping of military qualifications against the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework and a number of leaflets were produced for different cap badges which are available on the SCQF website. Additionally, following a £35,000 grant from the Scottish Government in 2021, SCQFP are developing a more sustainable online skills-mapping tool for Service leavers and veterans.

The tool, hosted on the Skills Development Scotland My World of Work website, is intended to offer veterans and Service leavers a simple method of inputting details of their military experience, training and qualifications so they can better understand the level of the formal and informal learning they have achieved and take this forward either into additional education or civilian employment in Scotland.

This tool is currently in the beta testing phase and a number of veterans have been engaged to ensure that the system meets their needs. The tool should be live by March 2022 and a final report will be produced with recommendations on the future development and promotion of the tool.

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is about providing young people with a well-rounded education that prepares them to thrive in today’s world.

Where available, psychology is most likely to appear as a standalone subject in the senior phase and national qualifications are available. Many schools also offer ‘elective’ courses in psychology for senior phase learners, not always leading to a specific qualification. Outside the senior phase, aspects of psychology may well be explored within different curricular areas.

Schools and Local Authorities are encouraged to consider innovative ways to ensure that there is a wide choice of subjects available to their learners; CfE empowers schools and teachers to design their curriculum in ways which best suit all their learners. It would be for schools and Local Authorities to plan what subjects are available in their areas and how these may be accessed.