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217 contracts were awarded whereby only one bid was received. The overall value of those tenders was £24,181,445. This figure includes contracts that were awarded following a competition (often referred to as ‘tenders’), including call-offs from frameworks already competed, where only one bid was received. It does not include contracts that were awarded directly to one supplier without competition.

I understand that some learners continue to feel dissatisfied with the result of the 2020 national qualifications appeals process.

Teachers exercised their best professional judgement in deciding grades for learners in the very challenging circumstances resulting from the pandemic. Following the Deputy First Minister’s intervention, learners were awarded the grades that their teachers judged reflected their attainment.

Having carefully considered the position, we have concluded that there is no way to reopen the appeals process in a fair and equitable manner to all learners.

However, recognising the strength of feeling of some about the 2020 appeals process, it has been agreed with the SQA that any learner who considers they still have grounds for an appeal in respect of an award made in 2020, within the criteria set for 2020 appeals, can talk to their centre and the centre can come forward and have that appeal considered by the SQA, even at this late stage, to address those concerns.

Development work began on a long term solution to the landslide risks at the A83 Rest and be Thankful last August and, on 18 March 2021, we announced a preferred corridor, along with potential route options within that corridor, for consultation.

As with other projects to improve the trunk road network, we will need to complete the necessary engineering and environmental assessments and statutory process to allow any land to be acquired before construction can commence.

We are also progressing work to look at a medium term resilient route through Glen Croe to include consideration of the Forestry Track, improvements to the Old Military Road and other options on land already owned by Scottish Ministers. Depending on the statutory consents required, that work will seek to develop a finalised proposal within 18 months.

We continue to explore methods to reduce the timescales to bring forward both the medium term and long term routes as soon as possible.

Scottish Government, along with the UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), met with Benchmark in 2019 and 2020 to describe the regulatory requirements for any proposal which may come forward to use or release imidacloprid based treatments in the marine environment. No applications have subsequently been made for imidacloprid use or release.

I welcome the OECD’s report and can confirm that the Scottish Government is accepting the OECD’s 12 recommendations in full.

Recommendation 3.2 of the OECD’s report identifies the need to simplify and better align the institutional structures that support our education system. I therefore intend to replace the SQA with a new, specialist agency and I am minded to make this new body responsible for both curriculum and assessment, to ensure clarity, coherence and alignment as recommended by the OECD. I would like to thank teachers and all SQA staff for all their ongoing efforts to deliver qualifications in challenging circumstances this year.

The report found that having the inspectorate as part of an organisation that is also responsible for supporting school leaders, curriculum design and support, teacher professional learning and a range of other initiatives is an “unusual configuration”.

It is therefore my intention to move the inspection function out of Education Scotland.

During my statement to Parliament tomorrow, I will provide more details on how this will be taken forward, along with our overall response to the report and the other recommendations. I can give an assurance that we will engage widely and will consult on plans for implementation.

Scotland is not part of the UK Government’s Events Research Programme and our events therefore do not fall within its remit or procedures. We have, however, engaged with the UK Government throughout the Programme and we await the final report of Phase 1 and will consider the evidence contained in it, including the success of the procedures tested, to help inform our route ahead.

Meantime, we have adopted our own approach to supporting flagship events, putting in place a ‘Gateway process’ to ensure that selected events of international importance can take place over summer and autumn with limited numbers of attendees, outwith the Levels or any equivalent framework, subject to epidemiological conditions. Euro 2020 is the first of these flagship events, with the process enabling up to 12,000 spectators to attend games at Hampden as well as a Fan Zone accommodating up to 3000 per session.

 Provisional monthly data on landings (liveweight tonnes) by UK and foreign vessels into Scottish ports, January-May 2020 and January to April 2021

The Scottish Government utilises a vaccination management tool at the point of vaccination, the data forms used have built in validation to ensure the data entered are accurate. A new vaccination record is transferred to the National Clinical Data Store (NCDS) after 60 minutes. The layers of recording are updated from NCDS to the reporting dashboards, these are refreshed every two hours to ensure accurate recording.

Zero Waste Scotland is continuing to work with Keep Scotland Beautiful, Association for Public Service Excellence, Local Authorities, the Improvement Service and SOLACE to implement a new Litter Monitoring System.

Zero Waste Scotland have been have been providing support to Keep Scotland Beautiful to trial the litter monitoring system. Training will begin over the next few months and will allow Local Authorities to use the system. The Local Environment Audit and Management System will continue to be used during this transition and it is expected to be fully replaced by the Litter Monitoring System for 2022-23.

Our review of maternity and neonatal services, The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland, recommended that all women receive continuity of maternity and obstetric care. The roll out of continuity of carer has started in all Boards, but further roll out was paused in many areas in light of COVID. The Best Start Programme Board has recently reconvened and is looking at remobilising continuity of carer and how that might be prioritised.