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Ministers have not yet had an opportunity to visit any independent schools this parliamentary session, although a visit that I had to postpone due to parliamentary business will be re-scheduled shortly.

The Scottish Government is currently working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify a workplan for the next phase of the Transforming Roles Programme. This involves agreeing priority actions and implementing outstanding recommendations from the ‘Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland’ publication.

At a time of significant system pressure, this priority setting is to be undertaken as part of wider considerations in collaboration with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group in­ Spring 2023.

The Scottish Government expects duty holders, including local authorities and the NHS, to deliver a safe environment for all users including the building types in question. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 requires that duty holders carry out a fire safety risk assessment of relevant premises to identify any risks to the safety of persons caused by fire, including the risk posed by combustible cladding.

The ban of combustible cladding that came into force on 1 June 2022 through the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 applies to new buildings, conversions and to existing buildings where the external wall cladding system is being replaced. The regulations do not apply retrospectively to existing buildings.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14269 on 7 February 2023. 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 following table sets out a breakdown of Architecture and Design Scotland budget allocations for 2022-23.

Excluding staff time, the total cost to Architecture and Design Scotland of producing the Designing for a Changing Climate: Carbon Conscious Places report was £1,300. Costs related to staff time involved in producing the report are not held centrally.

Two Scottish Government civil servants from Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Division are involved in the Scotland + Venice project on a varying part time basis.

The significant cut by the UK Government in support for businesses with their energy costs beyond March is very concerning, particularly for the more vulnerable sectors.

Scottish ministers wrote to the UK Government at the end of last year to express our disappointment at the lack of opportunity we were given to engage in the review of the Energy Bills Relief Scheme, and to stress that any continued support should be aimed at those businesses and sectors who need it the most.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to analyse the impact of this reduced level in support upon businesses and to raise our concerns with the UK Government at every opportunity.

As part of a continual cycle of feedback and sharing lessons learned, Scottish Government and COSLA jointly published ‘Scotland’s Learning Estate Strategy - Connecting People, Places and Learning’ in 2019. This includes information from a findings report which draws out experiences from projects in the £1.8bn Scotland’s Schools for the Future (SSF) Programme.

Information is gathered via a Post-Occupancy Evaluation of each school constructed or refurbished through the SSF Programme, and this is a requirement of funding to ensure that lessons learned help inform future investment. A review of this feedback is currently being undertaken and will distil findings by summer 2023 to help identify any actions needed to review guidance or develop new methods for sharing best practice.

In addition, an ongoing series of shared learning events which will are open to all local authorities has also been established as a forum to work collaboratively. These will occur quarterly and include the annual Learning Places Scotland Conference.

In the last five years NatureScot have taken regulatory action under section 10(2) of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 five times. Prior to this, notice of section 10 emergency measures have been issued on at least three occasions.