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Education Scotland’s Regional Team role is to support improvement across the education system. Regional teams are working in partnership with local authority and school staff, discussing what is working well and what further support is required. This intelligence is used to share practice at both a regional level and to inform national support via the Education Scotland website and social media. A comprehensive professional learning package, focused on aspects of digital learning, is available on the Education Scotland website. This was, in part, built on the intelligence from Senior Education Officers’ national networks with officers and schools throughout Scotland.

The Scottish Government is publishing a range of Coronavirus (Covid-19) guidance. The education guidance now available has been developed by the Scottish Government's CERG workstreams, in which Education Scotland is an important partner. Members of the leadership team and other colleagues work across all of the workstreams and support on the development of the guidance. The publications cover a range of topics from physical distancing in education and childcare settings, to approaches to blended learning.

With the expectation now that all learners should be able to return to schools in August, these arrangements will ensure that support is in place for blended learning should there be an increase in infection rates or outbreaks that require action to control. The support will also be required for learners who may not be able to attend school for health reasons.

The Death Certification Review Service was restarted on 11 May 2020, when it was clear that doing so would not be overly onerous to certifying doctors, or prevent delays to the death management process.

The Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities makes clear that everyone should be given information about their treatment and care in a format or language that meets their needs. NHS Boards, who are responsible for the provision of primary and secondary eye care services in their area, will be reminded during remobilisation planning of their responsibilities under the Charter to ensure this patient right is met. We will also continue to engage with key stakeholders in the sight loss sector to ensure that changes to eye care services are appropriately communicated at a national level.

The Glasgow Regional Test Centre located at Glasgow Airport currently has a capacity to conduct 1300 tests per day (9 June 2020). This has already been increased from 900 tests a day by opening additional lanes and increasing the operating hours. There are no current plans to expand capacity further.

The Scottish Government has been leading a multi-agency collaborative Team Scotland approach to engage with Rolls-Royce and we will continue to so at both company and site level. We will consider all options available to us, and officials are now in the process of establishing a working group with the company to further explore proactive measures that utilise the wider expertise of the Scottish manufacturing support infrastructure.

We will also establish an Aerospace Response Group, which will aim to undertake an assessment of the aerospace sector as a whole, in order to demonstrate that sector’s importance to Scotland and identify where necessary the case for strategic interventions. As will be the case for Rolls Royce, we will also look to undertake individual site and company economic impact assessments where necessary.

Scottish Government investment in cancer research is primarily through the Chief Scientist Office (CSO). CSO supports cancer research through a number of mechanisms. These are:

• Over £40 million annually in the NHS to meet the additional costs of hosting research. Of this around £10 million per annum supporting the cost of cancer research (including research into brain tumours) carried out in the NHS. This figure is not routinely broken down into tumour type.
• CSO invests £350,000 per annum in the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres Network (in collaboration with a number of other funders) to assist in delivery of early phase cancer studies. This figure is not broken down into tumour type
• CSO also invests £438,000 annually in the Scottish Cancer Research Network to increase and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care. This figure is not broken down into tumour type.
• Further indirect support is provided through an annual contribution (currently around £10 million) from CSO to the major National Institute for Health Research programmes that cover a broad range of health research including cancer research across the UK.
• Direct funding of cancer research studies submitted to the Chief Scientist Office research committees. Applications generated by the research community are assessed based on scientific excellence. The funding level is subject to quality of applications submitted. These committees have been temporarily paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They will reopen to applications with a deadline for submission of 8 January 2021.

HM Treasury has indicated that consequentials will be passed to the Scottish Government, and this will be confirmed later in the year at the UK Supplementary Estimates.

The First Minister responded to the STUC Black Workers' Committee's open letter on 3 June, outlining some of the work that is ongoing to understand and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on minority ethnic communities.

The Scottish Government is deeply concerned by reports indicating that ethnic minority communities are disproportionally affected by COVID-19, and it is an issue we are taking extremely seriously.

We have been working to establish and understand the data and evidence in Scotland, and on 20 May we published additional information from Public Health Scotland (PHS), which included preliminary analysis of COVID-19 cases among minority ethnic communities. Although the data is very limited, the current information in Scotland appears to show that there is not a higher level of COVID-19 cases than would be expected, given the size of our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic population.

We are committed to continuously deepening our understanding of the risk factors and improving our analysis. To support that, analytical partners across the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland (NRS), PHS and the NHS continue to work together to consider how we can better understand the impact of COVID-19 on people from all minority ethnic communities. We have asked PHS to undertake a review of the available evidence, which will inform future action. NRS are working towards producing an analysis similar to that recently published by ONS for England and Wales.

Also, to support the Scottish Government in making the best possible decisions, informed by appropriate expertise, an Expert Reference Group is being convened on 10 June to challenge and shape our approach moving forward. We are also committed to listening to stakeholder organisations, and the people they support, to ensure that concerns are heard and addressed.

The Scottish Government remains committed to playing its part to eradicate racism, inequality, and injustice, and to build a better, fairer Scotland for everyone.

Glow is the national online service funded by Scottish Government and provided by Education Scotland. This learning environment provides learners and educators across Scotland with access to a wide set of innovative digital tools and resources designed to enhance learning and teaching across the whole curriculum. As the provider, Education Scotland undertakes regular monitoring and analysis of the use of the service.

Prior to the COVID-19 lockdown this analysis was carried out monthly. Since March, Education Scotland have asked their supplier, RM Education, to provide daily figures for the use of Glow. These indicate that there has been very significant increase in the use of Glow – from 3.7 million sessions in February 2020 to 12.4 million in May.

Education Scotland also meet regularly with Glow Key Contacts from all local authorities. Since COVID-19 these meetings have been increased to weekly. The meetings report on progress with issues, discuss any new problems and consider suggestions for improvement, changes or additions. The meeting also consider the enquiries received by Education Scotland and its suppliers to determine any trends or wider impacting issues.