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The responsibility for staff training in schools is a matter for local authorities.

The Scottish Government has published guidance on supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools. Annex B of this guidance focuses upon UK-wide Regulations which allow schools to buy and hold spare adrenaline auto-injector (AAI) devices to treat pupils suffering from allergic reactions in emergency situations where their own prescribed device is unavailable. This guidance is available through the following web link: Supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Our guidance states that schools must arrange specialist anaphylaxis training for staff where a pupil in their school has been diagnosed at risk of anaphylaxis. The specialist training should include practical instruction in how to use the different AAI devices available.

Development of a national pilot scheme to provide travel support for people seeking asylum and not currently eligible for the existing National Concessionary Travel Schemes continues with the Working Group. Further information will be published on the Scottish Government website and provided to third sector organisations as preparations for the pilot to open are made.

The scheme will build on learning from the small local and regional pilots that have been delivered by third sector organisations over recent years. Expected learning from the scheme includes impact of providing free bus travel, demand for this concession, the cost of providing this concession, and the practicalities of delivery of such a scheme at the national level.

We recognise the concerns around teacher workload, which is why we remain committed to reducing class contact time by 90 minutes giving teachers more time out of the classroom.

To help inform this discussion the WPI report which was commissioned by the Scottish Government and published on 7 May contains a number of high-level future scenarios and assesses their broad compatibility with any changes to teachers’ contracted class-contact time.

These scenarios will help to facilitate our discussions with SNCT partners on how we can best deliver this commitment and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning we have commissioned an external modelling and research exercise.

We continue to explore with the SNCT how we can best make progress. Any changes to teachers’ terms and conditions require tripartite agreement through the SNCT.

I will be responding directly to the EIS on the important issues raised around teacher workload in their most recent report.

I have also strengthened teacher union engagement in recent months through the creation of the Professional Association Forum, which allows for more routine engagement to discuss issues such as workload.

Any changes to teachers’ terms and conditions require tripartite agreement through the SNCT.

External wall assessors are expected to weigh all the appropriate evidence and apply their professional judgement in determining the extent to which external cladding requires to be removed from a particular building, with a view to achieving the overriding objective of bringing the building to a tolerable level of risk.

The single building assessment technical specification was published on the 21st of June 2024 and provides detailed guidance to competent persons on how they should conduct a single building assessment (SBA) in Scotland. The SBA makes clear that the relevant benchmark guidance includes the PAS 9980, PAS 79-2 and the Benchmark criteria from the Scottish Domestic Technical Handbook. The competent person should have due regard to all of this guidance in undertaking the SBA report. The SBA sets out the need to conduct a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) and Fire Risk Appraisal of external walls (FRAEW). It also sets out templates and an approach that is relevant in Scotland. We engaged extensively with stakeholders across Scotland through the Task and Finish Group to develop the SBA technical specification and adopted the PAS 9980 standard as there is evidence that it is known and understood widely across the industry in Scotland. The objective of the assessment it to bring the building to a tolerable level of risk.

The Scottish Government will review and respond to the evidence and recommendations presented within the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report once it is published.

We anticipate that the Four Day Working Week Public Sector pilot and the accompanying Shorter Working Week evaluation report will be concluded and published in Spring 2025.

The single building assessment technical specification sets out the specific and limited criteria in which BS 8414 test data can be used by a competent person as a benchmark for determining whether a wall cladding system is tolerable. This is set out in 3.1.4 of the SBA specification. It should be recalled however, that the single building assessment is a holistic assessment of the building that does not simply consider cladding combustibility, but also other relevant fire safety risks and provides an overall assessment of the measures required to bring a building to a tolerable level of risk.

A single building assessment is a holistic whole building assessment that assesses and identifies life critical fire safety risks alongside any mitigation or remediation that is required in respect of any potentially combustible façade material. The assessment is undertaken by a competent person and considers each building in its own context. As such, it is for the person who is undertaking the building assessment to provide recommendation as to the extent to which cladding materials needs to be removed and replaced, taking into account the other recommendations that they might make in relation to improving the general fire safety of the building. The objective of the assessment it to bring the building to a tolerable level of risk.