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In 2025-26 we are providing £37 million resource to support the expansion of free school meals to pupils in Primary 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment. Agreement to the budget from parties across this Chamber will ensure this work continues.

The Scottish Government has prioritised this work to maximise the benefit to those in low-income households.

We are continuing work with local authorities to understand what a pilot proposal for provision in secondary schools might look like.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As our national skills body Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish high level statistical information relating to completion of apprenticeships. You can find this information within the following links

• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics - published 23 May 2023
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeship statistics - published 21 May 2024

Land and nature apprenticeships fall into a range of occupational groupings. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, to write to you on this matter.

The Scottish Government recognises the gradual reduction of alcohol-related hospital admissions over the past decade and is working closely with Public Health Scotland, local services and other stakeholders to ensure the reasons behind the gradual reduction are factored in to service provision.

The Scottish Government opposes any form of interference in Scottish politics and elections. We use the powers we have available to protect the integrity of the democratic process. To prevent foreign interference, we work closely with the UK Government, for example by taking part in exercises with the Defending Democracy Programme. This programme seeks to identify and address threats to elections and electoral processes including foreign interference, disinformation, physical and cyber threats to democratic institutions and representatives.

We will have the full support of the national agencies, for example the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), who are on the frontline in detecting and exposing foreign interference in the run up to the Scottish Parliament Election to be held on 7 May 2026.

Scotland’s first Arctic policy framework, Arctic Connections, was published in 2019. In line with commitments in Scotland’s International Strategy, work has begun on an evaluation process. This will consider the impact of the framework, how Scotland’s relationship with the Arctic has developed during the implementation period and make recommendations on future engagement. It is due to be completed by the end of 2025.

In February 2023 the Scottish Government was made aware of an escape of approximately 80,000 fish during transport. The fish originated from Loch Shin and were loaded at Lochinver; the loss occurred en route to Orkney.

No formal assessment of the impact was made by the Scottish Government or its bodies as the incident took place during transport. The regulatory framework requires the circumstances which give rise to a significant risk of escape or actual escape of fish on or in the vicinity of a fish farm to be reported under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended. As drafted, the regulations do not require losses during transportation, which are less common, to be reported, although businesses often do as it is good practice.

The transporter involved in the incident has taken action to prevent similar events in future.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are committed to ensuring the safety of firefighters. In the draft budget for 2025-26, the Scottish Government will provide SFRS with an additional £18.8 million, which includes £4 million extra Capital funding to enable SFRS to continue to improve facilities for firefighters.

The SFRS Contaminants Group continues to make progress in improving processes and procedures and in December 2024 SFRS announced investment of £3.2 million in additional sets of firefighting personal protective equipment so that clothing can be thoroughly cleaned more often. The Service is also making significant capital investment in the refurbishment of stations, which will help to reduce prolonged exposure to fire contaminants.

SFRS has an ongoing innovation project related to fire contaminants in progress, this as part of Scottish Government CivTech programme. CivTech is a Scottish Government innovation accelerator programme that brings public and private sector organisations together to identify and work on innovation projects. The project is working to identify ways to track fire fighter exposure to contaminants and improve health monitoring.

It is not currently a legal requirement under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended for farmed fish transporters to report farmed fish escapes, however we are considering the issue of reporting and transparency further.

As I set out in answer to question S6W-31933 on 16 December 2024, the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group is comprised of the Chief Executives of most of the independent Scottish hospices and their key partners and is not a Scottish Government group. As such, we do not hold minutes of the group or have summaries of the discussions held.

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

We assume the question refers to the recent analytical report, Storm Overflows in Scotland, published by Environmental Standards Scotland.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) considers 87% of our water environment to be high or good quality - up from 82% in 2014.

Measures and regulations to protect and improve water quality are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain appropriate. This includes, for example, considering changes to European legislation and the introduction of new environmental standards. The Scottish Government is committed to alignment where it is in the interests of Scotland to do so and is considering the new rules (Directive 2024/3019) on the treatment of Urban Wastewater which came into force on 1 January 2025. This Directive seeks to further protect the environment by driving improvements to the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater. We also recently issued directions to SEPA that update the Environmental Quality Standards, which underpin our efforts to protect and where necessary improve the water environment.

In addition, Scotland’s River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) is our route map for protecting and improving the water environment. SEPA is responsible for developing the RBMP, which is reviewed and updated every six years. SEPA has published a statement which sets out the steps it will take to engage stakeholders in reviewing and updating the RBMP for Scotland over the next three years. SEPA’s statement is available here: SEPA | River Basin Management Planning in Scotland, Statement of Consultation Steps