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A strong manufacturing sector with more jobs will be central to the successful delivery of our 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

The Making Scotland’s Future Programme, which is focused on strengthening and diversifying Scotland’s manufacturing sector, has a dedicated leadership and skills workstream alongside others supporting sectoral growth. This commitment to the sector’s growth is also demonstrated by our £26 million Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund (LCMCF) and the £75m investment in the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS). NMIS has a Manufacturing Skills Academy. It is also working with large and small manufacturers to unlock big productivity gains; develop new products and processes; transform workforce skillsets; win new orders; and grow their businesses.

The Scottish Government has also accepted the recommendations of the independent Equalities and Wellbeing Working Group and is working with the sector to support and diversify the manufacturing workforce.

Scotland remains the most attractive place in the UK outside London for foreign direct investment. Recent successes with substantial employment opportunities include a number in the manufacturing sector.

We are also developing a Green Industrial Strategy, which will set out how we will help businesses and investors to realise the enormous economic opportunities of the global transition to net zero and create good, well-paid jobs across Scotland.

Foster carers are classed as self-employed and, therefore, receive payments in the form of foster carer allowances and fees. Responsibility for providing financial support to foster carers registered with Glasgow City Council is a matter for Glasgow City Council.

The Scottish Government recently introduced a new Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA) for foster and kinship carers across Scotland, to be backdated to 1 April 2023. This will ensure that a consistent and transparent level of financial support is provided to all eligible foster and kinship carers across Scotland.

We are committed to maintaining the 2023-24 levels of support for the SRA going forward, and to reviewing the funding implications for future years from 2024-25.

Responsibility, however, for setting levels of foster carer fees along with consideration of any adjustment to fees in line with inflation - lies with the relevant local authority.

I wrote directly to Richard Turfitt, the Senior Traffic Commissioner, on 6 September to set out our strong concerns with the proposed guidelines and to request any future proposals are developed with the full involvement of the Scottish Government and the Scottish football governing bodies, and most importantly, supporters clubs and fans. The consultation was subsequently withdrawn but nevertheless I look forward to receiving a response to my letter.

The Scottish Government thanks Audit Scotland for a thorough, clear and wide-ranging report on Adult Mental Health Services in Scotland. Ministers recognise how closely some of the content of the report mirrors our vision, outcomes and priorities that we set out in our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. We will now take the time to carefully consider both the specific recommendations and the wider substance of the report. We will publish the Delivery Plan for our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, together with our Workforce Plan, this Autumn, which will set out the actions we will take to address many of the issues set out by Audit Scotland.

The Scottish Government will shortly publish Core Standards for Mental Health Services, which will be implemented first in adult secondary services, as well as the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions. The aim of the standards and service specification is to ensure that individuals, their families and carers know what they can expect from mental health services, and from psychological therapies in particular. These standards are measurable and will provide a basis for continual improvement through enabling greater accountability and scrutiny.

The implementation of the standards will initially be supported by a self-assessment. The self-assessment will encourage reflection, learning and exchange regarding best practice and the identification of areas for improvement.

The implementation of the Core Standards for Mental Health Services and the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions will be further supported by Public Health Scotland’s 2023-24 review of the Mental Health Quality Indicator Framework. The scope of the review includes new measures that arise from these recent publications, with the aim to improve the general monitoring of the quality, outcomes and experiences of mental health services.

There are currently 10 commercial datacentres in Scotland that offer a wide range of data hosting services to both public and private sector organisations.

In addition there are datacentres built by private sector companies including banks to service their requirements which are operated discreetly by the company, as well as a significant number of smaller datacentres which will service a particular local authority and wider public sector which are often located within the organisation’s estate. We have not mapped the full extent of datacentres which service specific companies and organisations.

Datacentre development is driven by commercial investment and developers do not routinely share information on sites under development with the Scottish Government. We are, however, in active discussions with datacentre operators interested in developing further datacentre capacity in Scotland.

Plans to pilot drug checking facilities are being developed in Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow following a research project funded through the Drug Deaths Taskforce.

The research work, carried out by Stirling University, highlighted the need for a national hub for drug checking to be established alongside the facilities in the three pilot cities.

That national hub will: provide the ability to re-test samples from the city drug checking sites; confirm the identity of compounds; and quality check the results supplied by the sites. This will allow for the establishment of levels of accuracy and error margins, and assess limitations from the city drug checking sites. The information produced can then be used to inform services and individuals as well as feeing into Public Health Scotland’s RADAR system.

Once the national hub has been established it has the potential to be used to provide a similar type of service as the WEDINOS service currently operating in Wales.

I refer to recent answers regarding the Clydebridge site in Cambuslang, in particular my answers to written questions S6W-17169 on 4 May 2023 and S6W-17708 on 16 May 2023.

The Clydebridge site is not currently operational and no staff are currently employed at the site. The future of the site, including any plans for development, is an operational matter for Liberty Steel.

Scottish Government maintain an open dialogue with Liberty Steel and have a number of regular meetings with them. We are not aware of any plans to install an electric arc furnace at the Clydebridge site at this time.

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 Scottish Government thanks Audit Scotland for a thorough, clear and wide-ranging report on Adult Mental Health Services in Scotland. Ministers recognise how closely some of the content of the report mirrors our vision, outcomes and priorities that we set out in our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The Scottish Government recognises that as frontline practitioners, GPs and their wider practice teams are often the first port of call for those seeking mental health and wellbeing support. In recent years we have prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We will now take the time to carefully consider both the specific recommendations, and the wider substance of the report. We will publish the Delivery Plan for our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, together with our Workforce Plan, this Autumn, which will set out the actions we will take to address many of the issues set out by Audit Scotland, including those around mental health support in primary care.

The Scottish Government thanks Audit Scotland for a thorough, clear and wide-ranging report on Adult Mental Health Services in Scotland. Ministers recognise how closely some of the content of the report mirrors our vision, outcomes and priorities that we set out in our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

While we will take the time to carefully consider other specific recommendations, and the wider substance of the report, we can commit to publishing the outcomes and measures framework to guide evaluation of the local implementation of Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care services by the end of the year. Further details on the framework will be provided in the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government thanks Audit Scotland for a thorough, clear and wide-ranging report on Adult Mental Health Services in Scotland. Ministers recognise how closely some of the content of the report mirrors our vision, outcomes and priorities that we set out in our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. We will now take the time to carefully consider both the specific recommendations and the wider substance of the report. We will publish the Delivery Plan for our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, together with our Workforce Plan, this Autumn, which will set out the actions we will take to address many of the issues set out by Audit Scotland.