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Education Scotland supports all 32 local authorities to develop and deliver digital literacy, computing science and creativity learning - all of which are in-demand from the games industry.

The Scottish Government is engaging with an industry led action plan and which will look to address future support requirements of the sector.

The Scottish Government provided £49,425 in 2022 and £40,000 in 2023 to support Scottish Games Week as the platform to bring industry together to showcase talent, share learnings, build networks, and highlight the potential of the sector.

Further to this, the Scottish Government has been engaged with the video game sector as it develops an industry led games action plan. It is our expectation that this plan, developed by the Scottish Games Network following a series of workshops hosted around Scotland, will set out what support is required to successfully grow the sector in Scotland.

As this action plan is being developed by industry we cannot definitively say what these actions will include but we expect to see the action plan in the coming months.

Non-departmental public bodies devolved to Scotland are operationally independent from Scottish Ministers but are ultimately accountable to Scottish Ministers for their performance. The national public bodies directory contains a full list of non-departmental public bodies and shows the amount of Scottish Government funding they receive. The national directory can be viewed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/pages/executive-non-departmental-public-bodies/

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS have proactively published a range of data relating to Emergency Release (ER) on SPS Website, this includes a recently published a summary report of ER returns to custody data.

We continue to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst continuing to meet our statutory obligation to ensure that those in our care have their personal information protected; as such we have taken the decision not to publish a breakdown of establishments of those released under the ER scheme as some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which may lead to their inadvertent identification.

The Scottish Government publishes local authority analysis using a three-year pooled data set to ensure sufficient sample sizes. As set out in the Scottish House Condition Survey 2023 Key Findings Report (available at Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings - gov.scot) the lack of SHCS data for 2020 and the enforced changes for 2021 cause issues with the production of this analysis for two reasons.

Firstly, due to the Covid-19 pandemic the SHCS survey was suspended and there is no data for 2020. Secondly, the data from the 2021 external+ SHCS is not directly comparable with that for earlier years, due to methodological differences, and therefore it would not be appropriate to combine it with the data for 2019 (or earlier) to produce a multi-year analysis.

As we require three years of data to produce local authority analysis, we won’t be able to return to the usual approach for producing local authority estimates from the SHCS until the 2024 wave of the SHCS has been published in early 2026. We will then be able to produce local authority estimates from the SHCS based on a three-year average for 2022 to 2024.

NatureScot have met with the Scottish Raptor Study Group on multiple occasions to discuss concerns around proposed changes to Schedule 1 bird monitoring licences.

They are due to meet again with the Scottish Raptor Study Group and other relevant stakeholders on 14 March 2025.

I can confirm that where it is not reasonably practicable for licence holders to notify the landowner(s) or land manager(s) in advance of planned activity, the licence holder must notify NatureScot and include the reason for not being able to notify the landowner or land manager directly.

The Aerospace, Defence, Marine & Security Industry Leadership Group (ADMS ILG) was a partnership of key public and private sector players and last met in 2018.

Two bodies have since succeeded that entity; the Aerospace and Defence Industry Leadership Group (ADILG) has its origins in the ministerial-chaired Aerospace Response Group (ARG) that was established during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following agreement by members at an ARG meeting on 15 March 2021, the ARG transitioned from a government-convened body into the new, industry-led body which absorbed the remaining work of the ARG. Secretariat is provided by ADS Scotland and it continues to meet regularly with public sector partners attending at the invitation of the group.

The Scottish Space Leadership Council, meanwhile, had its origins as an ADMS ILG working group, but opted to move away from the ADMS ILG and has evolved to become an independent organisation - Space Scotland - that serves the Scottish Space eco-system and meets on a quarterly basis.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key area, where technical opportunities need to be balanced with public interests. To this end the Scottish AI Alliance, a partnership between the Scottish Government and the Data Lab, have launched a series of People’s Panel events. These events are intended to capture public thoughts on how and where they would like to see AI used, and what they expect from their public servants as they use it.

Within the Scottish public sector we are already making significant use of AI through our Centre for Excellence in Automation, resulting in greater efficiency and productivity across government. More widely, the Scottish AI Register reflects AI use cases as diverse as protecting children at risk of harm, or transcribing public consultation interviews.

We continue to work closely with UK Government AI Policy teams to develop a culture of curiosity and openness to the opportunities which AI can provide us. The Scottish AI Taskforce has been set up to encourage and develop a shared knowledge and appreciation for AI, this helps avoid duplication of effort and ensure good governance awareness.

In relation to digitisation, In March 2021 the Scottish Government in partnership with COSLA, launched an updated Digital Strategy, with a renewed focus on delivering high quality digital public services, and a commitment to the use of digital technology as a tool to better serve the Scottish people.

Our digital service design tool supports staff in ensuring that the services we develop have people at their heart, with extensive consideration of service users and the level of service they expect from government.

This process has helped us, for example, to deliver ScotAccount, an online service allowing users to access public services and verify identity in one place, it has also allowed us to offer increased usability and accessibility across the nation.

The use of digital technologies offer us significant opportunity to improve and enhance the lives of our citizens, and please rest assured these opportunities remain at the heart of the Scottish Government’s priorities.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why the 2025-26 budget continues to allocate over £3bn a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living, including providing free bus travel for all children and young people under 22.

There is range of support available to anyone experiencing financial difficulties. We continue to support free welfare, debt and income maximisation advice services across all areas of the county with funding of over £12m allocated in 2024-2025 and have a dedicated Cost of Living website, signposting to helpful information across a range of subjects including energy and bills, debt and money and health and wellbeing.

Recognising the specific impact of the cost of living crisis on island communities, since December 2022 the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund has distributed over £3.4 million to support islanders facing cost of living pressures.