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We refute any such suggestion and remain committed to delivering efficient and sustainable ferry service for the Arran community.

The development of the Ardrossan project remains challenging for all partners. The tender design work identified gaps in the original base case submitted by Peel Ports Group and North Ayrshire Council.

The project scope is of vital importance to the business case and cost estimate review work. There is a clear need for a robust business case to support decisions by partners on this scale of project. The impact of recent announcements from Peel Ports Group around the condition and integrity of the existing port infrastructure is under review.

The Scottish Government is not committed to changing the law in this area. However, in line with paragraph 9.15 of the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy Family Justice Modernisation Strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , the Scottish Government is carrying out a review of section 6 of the Child Abduction Act 1984, on the offence in Scots law of a parent taking or sending a child out of the United Kingdom without consent. As part of this review, we are speaking to key stakeholders to obtain their views. We are also taking account of previous work, such as report 102 by the Scottish Law Commission in 1987 on child abduction Child abduction (SLC 102) (scotlawcom.gov.uk) . I am aiming to publish the outcomes of this review by the Scottish Government, along with Impact Assessments on the effect any change in the law would have, later this year.

From 23 March 2022 to end September 2023, 15,765 homes have now been delivered towards the 110,000 affordable homes target, of which 12,188 (77%) are homes for social rent.

We are expecting the next set of quarterly statistics, covering the period to end December 2023, to be published towards the end of March.

We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.

The homes provided through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme comprise homes for social rent, for mid-market rent and for low cost home ownership. These homes take various forms including; new build homes, rehabilitation projects, conversions and off-the-shelf purchases of both new and second hand homes.

The following table provides the answer to :

1. age of each vessel was at the start of 2024

2. total length of service of each vessel has been with the CalMac fleet and any previous operators.

I am advised that data cited from Reform Scotland was gathered via FOI in October for school years, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2022-23. Whilst most local authorities provided some information, I am advised that there was not 100% return across all areas and for all years – and the type of data provided by local authorities on this matter will vary.

Notwithstanding Schools and education authorities should engage with parents and carers whose children are at risk of non-attendance to provide reassurance on any concerns, overcome any barriers to learning, and support attendance.

At the end of 2023 I asked Education Scotland to undertake work to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families which influence school attendance. Education Scotland published this report, “Improving Attendance: Understanding the Issues,” on 28 November 2023.

As part of our response to this report, I have tasked the Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland to work directly with Directors of Education to take forward improvement on attendance as a matter of priority. We are currently reviewing the findings of this report and will consider the recommendations for any future work on addressing attendance in schools.

We are also considering the findings from our Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, which also published in November 2023, and provides evidence-based information on the extent to which pupils are disengaging from learning.

CalMac Ferries Limited are unable to provide the information requested as the data is not held in this format. In each of the last 5 years during CY03 – CY07 the total number of cancellations amounted to 40,130. Of this number 6,302 were due to technical issues and 24,789 were due to weather. As answered in S6W-24402, on 19 January 2024, Information from May 2023 will be available in the future, once CalMac Ferries Ltd have completed their audit and validation of this data. 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 .

CalMac Ferries Limited are unable to provide the information requested as the data is not held in this format. CalMac do not measure vessels outage in days, as many technical issues are resolved in a number of hours.

I have provided reference to a previous Parliamentary Question S6W-15774 on 29 March 2023 with accompanying Bib number 64075, showing all weather related cancellation per vessel for the last 10 years. 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 has been working in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support to improve the support offered to those affected by cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC) since 2016. This partnership - the first of its kind in the UK - has seen £18 million invested to date. Both the Scottish Government and Macmillan Cancer Support have committed to a further £4.5 million investment each over the next 3 years.

This will ensure that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial and practical support.

Cancer is classified as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Although the Act is a reserved matter, we would expect employers to adopt the Scottish Government’s Fair Work approach, including flexible working practices, to support employees affected by cancer.

The latest statistics show that 75.6% of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) patients started treatment within 18 weeks of their referral. At Board level, 13 out of 14 CAMHS services have effectively eliminated their long waiting lists where 3% or fewer of all waits are over a year.

We regularly engage with Boards at official level, continually monitoring CAMHS waiting times performance and backlogs and directing tailored support to those Boards with the longest waits, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran. We provide access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitor their implementation.

We have commissioned all Boards to submit performance trajectories up to March 2024, including a timeline for clearing long waits. These will be updated annually and used to inform further targeted improvement work to ensure all Boards consistently meet the CAMHS waiting times standard.

To improve Scotland’s ferry, the Scottish Government have committed to investing around £700m in ports and vessels. This includes 6 new major vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) fleet before the end of this Parliament session.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and CalMac Ferries Ltd continue to seek additional tonnage. The current charter of the MV Alfred is an example of this, as a resilience vessel on the CHFS network.

We continue to provide resilience funding to CalMac Ferries Ltd to enable additional works and upgrades to vessels where required. This is on top of the funding included in the annual subsidy to CalMac Ferries Ltd for vessel maintenance.