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The cessation of funding, referred to in the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government’s letter, was extensively discussed with the sector. Since 2019/20, the Scottish Government has invested over £19 million to support student mental health and wellbeing in colleges and universities. This includes the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Fund 2023-24 for Academic Year 2023-24, to help institutions to transition to a more sustainable means of providing mental health support for students.

Our new Student Mental Health Action Plan, published on 13 September, seeks to move to a mainstreamed approach to student mental health which will help students better access services. The Government will work with NHS Boards, CoSLA, Public Health Scotland and community based providers to join up support that is already available, embedding students’ mental health needs into the wider communities in which they live and study.

The Action Plan recognises the importance of each college and university having a Student Mental Health Agreement in place. To enable this we continue to support NUS Think Positive with £130,000 in 2024-25.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24570 on 29 January 2024. 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.

The remaining Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) allocation for the community element of the Victoria Road School project has been reprofiled into 2024-2025. Confirmation on whether the project will be progressed in 2024-2025 is awaited from Aberdeen City Council.

The Scottish Government has provided record funding of over £14 billion to local councils this year – a real-terms increase of 2.5% compared with the previous year. This includes £145.5 million to maintain teacher numbers and £242 million to support previous teacher pay deals.

We have also made available £29 million to support the 2024-25 teachers’ pay deal.

We value the teaching profession which is why Scotland has the most teachers per pupil and the highest paid classroom teachers in the UK.

Our new Student Mental Health Action Plan, published on 13 September, seeks to move to a mainstreamed approach to student mental health which will help students better access services.

It is informed by a significant number of research sources, in particular, the Thriving Learners studies published by the Mental Health Foundation in 2021 and 2022 in relation to universities and colleges. In addition, college and university sector input was sought throughout the development of the Action Plan as were the views from NUS Scotland and Think Positive. The Action Plan was also shaped by student voices from the wider Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation last year.

The Scottish Government will publish the required Impact Assessments for the Action Plan in due course.

The number of pupils registered for free school meals is published annually as part of our pupil census supplementary statistics, available in table 2.22 at the following link: Pupil census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The total number of pupils in each local authority area is also available through the pupil census supplementary statistics, and is shown in table 5.2.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29483 on 18 September 2024. 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.

Bus services in Scotland were deregulated by the then Conservative UK Government under the Transport Act of 1985 and are mostly provided by private operators.

Our commitment to bus travel includes investment of over £370 million to support concessionary bus travel and funding of almost £50 million to help ensure our bus operators can continue to provide access to affordable transport in the de-regulated market across all of Scotland. The Network Support Grant is aimed at keeping bus networks more extensive and fares lower than would otherwise be the case. This fund is paid on a per kilometre basis which favours longer distance routes more common in rural areas.

The Older & Disabled and Young Persons concessionary travel schemes provide free bus travel for over two million people in Scotland, including all children and young people under 22, eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over.

The Scottish Government is committed, in partnership with operators and local authorities, to looking at ways of ensuring that everyone has accessible public transport regardless of where they live. The importance of local bus services to communities and ensuring the long-term sustainability of these vital local routes is a collaborative endeavour.

Funding is also provided to local authorities in their annual settlement to support services they consider socially necessary and for community transport services, which can play an important role in rural transport networks.

The Scottish Government is committed to an infrastructure solution to address landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and shares the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route.

As part of the comprehensive route options assessment process for the permanent solution, five options were assessed, two of which included tunnels. The options were assessed across a range of criteria including Engineering, Environment and Economics along with performance against the Scheme Objectives.

In June 2023, the ‘Brown Option’, consisting of a 1.4km debris flow shelter on the line of the existing A83, was selected as the Preferred Route Option as it improves resilience and operational safety of the trunk road network by reducing the impact of disruption for travel to, from and between Argyll and Bute and the Central Belt of Scotland. The Brown Option performed most favourably across a broad range of environmental criteria including cultural heritage, visual, population and human health, climate, and materials and waste. It also had the greatest potential to be delivered quickly and provides the greatest opportunity to encourage sustainable travel.

While the tunnelling options would equally provide improved resilience and operational safety of the trunk road network, the associated costs for both construction and ongoing operation and maintenance of these options were significantly greater than the preferred route option.

The full assessment can be found in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 2 Route Options Assessment Report which is available on the Transport Scotland website.

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) stage two route options assessment report - A83 Access to Argyll and Bute | Transport Scotland