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The Scottish Government believes that every child should be given the opportunity to learn to swim, it is a life skill that can save lives.

While the Active Lives Survey relates to England only, we recognise that children living in areas of deprivation may be less likely to be able to swim. We have been working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportscotland and Scottish Water to develop interventions and approaches to provide opportunities for children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers. Inclusion has been central to the approach and there is a specific focus on targeting areas within quintile 1 of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Four Delivery Pilots have taken place to support schools to understand and consider different approaches on how best to support young people to access school swimming. An evaluation, available here , has been published and we will work with Scottish Swimming and sportscotland to utilise the learning from these pilots to consider the best approach for a continued roll out of a national framework for school swimming.

Our Water Safety action plan which focuses on key initiatives to improve education, data, local area water safety planning and incident reviews, was updated in June 2023.

Islamophobia has no place in our society. The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of Islamophobia, wherever it may take place.

All policy and delivery is subject to an impact assessment process which would include consideration of intersectional factors such as the intersection of faith and gender.

The Race Equality Action Plan concluded in 2021 with a final report outlining the progress made in implementing actions.

Education Scotland play a significant part in the Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism in Education Programme, particularly in the development and delivery of their award-winning Building Racial Literacy Programme.

Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, asylum applicants are entitled to receive asylum support for a prescribed period after they have been notified of the decision on their asylum application, for positive decisions this remains 28 days. As far as the Scottish Government is aware, the UK Government has not changed the prescribed period and it remains at 28 days.

However, we are aware that there have been issues with communication of decisions from the Home Office to the accommodation provider and local authorities which is impacting provision of information and support for people at the end of their period in asylum accommodation.

The Scottish Government has also raised concerns about the impact of the UK Government’s Streamlined Asylum Process. I wrote to the UK Government on 28 October 2023 to request urgent funding for local authorities and to work constructively with them to ensure that people receiving a positive asylum decision are supported to move-on from asylum accommodation. I am awaiting a response.

People in Scotland who have recently been granted refugee status are entitled to access homelessness support from their local authority. Most funding for homelessness is provided through the local government settlement. In addition to this, the Scottish Government have provided local authorities with £52.5m since 2018 to support the implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans and provide £30.5m annually for their work to prevent homelessness.

The Scottish Government awarded the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network funding of £653,000 over two years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways. The Pathway Improvement Project is now live across all health boards.

This pilot is the first of its kind across the UK. It aims to provide a nationally more efficient, standardised patient centred pathway for cancer patients, with earlier diagnosis, referral and management decisions following a Realistic Medicine approach.

The funding comes to an end in March 2024 and an evaluation of the pilot’s achievements against these aims will be completed to inform decisions about future funding.

Through the Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continue to design and support the implementation of optimal cancer diagnostic pathways. As reflected in the Cancer Strategy, lung, head and neck and colorectal cancer have been identified as the first tranche, following an extensive evidence review with clinical experts. Once developed, this exercise will be repeated to determine the next optimal cancer pathways to be developed for NHS Scotland.

In the meantime, work continues to establish Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) across NHS Scotland – interim evaluation shows that HPB is one of the most common cancers being diagnosed through the new fast-track diagnostic pathways. There are currently five RCDSs in Scotland.

Cancer is a priority for the Scottish Government and our focus remains on increasing survival rates across all cancers. The one-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer in Scotland is around 25% whilst the five-year survival rate is just over 5%, similar to rates in the other UK nations. Only 17% of people with pancreatic cancer in Scotland are diagnosed at stage 1 and 2, which partly explains current low survival rates.

Early diagnosis is key to pancreatic cancer survival and we continue to invest in our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme. The programme takes a whole-systems approach to early detection and encompasses primary care, diagnostics, public education, data, innovation, and screening.

A new Earlier Cancer Diagnosis Vision was developed as part of the ambitious ten-year cancer strategy published in June 2023. The vision is to reduce later stage disease and has a focus on reducing the health inequalities gap, alongside the strategic aim to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care.

The Scottish Government has no formal role in the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme which is a joint venture between the UK Government and the UK's four main mobile network operators.

However we fully recognise the need to ensure that SRN deployment in Scotland is maximised whilst being cognisant of the importance of Scotland's natural environment. In order to improve communications between SRN programme leads (both UK Government and industry) and key Scottish stakeholders including the National Parks and NatureScot, we have organised and participated in direct discussions with these parties. We encourage the SRN programme to explore these issues with all relevant stakeholders through improved engagement and to determine mutually acceptable outcomes.

We have also shared with the SRN programme our experience and learning gained from our Scottish 4G Infill programme, which has deployed 55 masts to serve rural and island communities. This learning includes the importance of thorough local stakeholder engagement at the mast site selection and acquisition stage.

Any decision to extend local concessions to the trams rests with the City of Edinburgh Council. The Scottish Government has no role in the ownership and operation of the tram system which is run by Transport for Edinburgh. The Scottish Government currently has no plans to extend the National Concessionary Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled Persons to Edinburgh Trams.

In addition, Edinburgh Trams do not run to West Lothian. Lothian Country is due to take over some of the bus services due to be withdrawn and West Lothian Council are in the process of tendering other routes.

More widely, the Fair Fares Review is progressing to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares. The review is considering both the cost and availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry to ensure our public transport system is more accessible, available, and affordable, with the costs of transport more fairly shared across government, business and society.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22241 on 13 November 2023 which provides an overview of the scope of the review. 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 process of recruiting a Chair for the independent review is underway and an advert is currently live. The advertisement will be live for 5 weeks and will close on 27 November 2023, with interviews expected to take place in December.