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Mandatory annual Inclusive Culture training is the only formal training delivered by Scottish Government as an employer. This was introduced for Core Scottish Government following a recommendation made by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It is self-directed e-learning which takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and there are no current associated delivery costs.

For the current appraisal year (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025) a total of 6295 staff in Core Scottish Government have participated in this training course as at February 2025.

Scottish Trans is funded by the Equality and Human Rights Fund through the Equality Network. The Equality Network’s funding covers their general LGBTI project and the Scottish Trans Alliance project. The Equality Network received £503,322 in 2021-22, £503,207 in 2022-23, £503,265 in 2023-24 and £503,265 for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Since 2021, the Scottish Government has provided £1,672,922 of funding to Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) across various funding streams.

IYS receive funding from the Equality and Human Rights Fund (EHRF) to enable and support participation and representation of young Black and People of Colour (BPoC), ensuring they are represented in decision-making that affect their lives in a range of areas.

IYS also receive funding from the Employability and Advancement Project (formerly the Restless Natives Project). This funding is to ensure equitable support for young BPoC school leavers as they prepare for and take their first steps into the world of work.

The Curriculum and Qualifications Division has provided funding to IYS to support schools with embedding anti-racism and to ensure they are better equipped to respond to racist incidents, and that curriculums are decolonised.

During 2021-22, IYS received funding for a programme to expand the quality and quantity of support to marginalised BPoC children and young people, tackling social isolation and loneliness.

During 2023-24, IYS received funding to conduct a series of workshops over a nine-month period with children and young people. This was to scrutinise the Anti-Racism in Education Programme’s (AREP) four workstreams and provide recommendations for each of them.

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

The use of common good funds (CGF) within Scottish prisons aligns with the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) and is governed via the SPS Financial Policy and Guidance Manual.

The SPS Financial Policy Guidance Manual itself details accountability, sources of income and approved areas of expenditure on the use of the CGF.

Compliance with this guidance is mandatory and only Governors in Charge (GICs) are authorised to approve expenditure, which must benefit all, or groups, of prisoners within their establishment.

While Scottish Government core corporately managed systems have had no cyber security breaches, on two occasions since 2021 locally managed services suffered (minor) attacks which were successfully remediated with no data loss or further service disruption.

The Design Advisory Group (DAG) was working with Scottish Government to help develop plans for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland. As the group was working independently, it took responsibility for minuting its own meetings.

We understand that due to some resourcing and capacity issues within the group, there has been a delay in finalising and publishing the minutes. However, the DAG, like the Scottish Government, is committed to transparency and accountability and will aim to publish the minutes by the end of March 2025.

Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government and UK Government have jointly funded the ‘Project Willow’ cross site study. This has been commissioned by Petroineos and supplied by Ernst and Young Parthenon.

Recommendations and key outputs will be made available via a public information document shortly after the study’s conclusion, expected in the coming weeks.

The number of publicly funded rural schools in Scotland since 2013 is set out in the following table. Schools were counted as rural if the postcode of the school was classified as accessible rural and remote rural under the Scottish Government’s 6-fold urban rural classification system. Information on a comparable basis is not available prior to 2013.