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The majority of food law which applies in Scotland stems from European Union legislation and after an extensive process to ensure that it remains operational after the UK’s departure from the EU, the detail of the requirements remains in place.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has responsibility for the policies surrounding food labelling in Scotland and are currently working closely with policy officials across GB in the day to day business in this respect.

While there is no timescale at present, in due course, the food labelling legislation will be subject to review, which is likely to be a significant task and will need to be informed by EU developments on food information. During the review process consideration will be given to which areas and policy approaches are appropriate for Scotland and in a GB context this will also include England and Wales. Policy considerations are expected to include mandatory braille labelling and/or how the use of barcoded food information and new technology could help in this area.

Programme for Government includes a commitment to develop a model for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution.

The Scottish Government funds a range of services aimed to address commercial sexual exploitation and to support those who may be exploited through it. This includes over £400,000 through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund to projects tackling commercial sexual exploitation. Sacro’s Another Way works to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of women affected by commercial sexual exploitation. The Women’s Support Project supports the Scottish Government and Equally Safe partners to tackle commercial sexual exploitation.

In addition, through our Victim Centred Approach Fund, we are providing the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance with £622,000 this year to support women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 gives police and prosecutors greater powers to detect and bring to justice those responsible for trafficking as well as strengthening protections for survivors.

Police Scotland actively investigate any reports concerning human trafficking and exploitation, and continue to work closely with partners across the UK and beyond to share intelligence and coordinate work to tackle human trafficking.

Under our super sponsor scheme, displaced people from Ukraine are accommodated safely in temporary accommodation until disclosure and property checks have been completed.

The safeguarding checks which are carried out interrogate both national and local systems, and have been designed to maximise opportunities to identify and remove host applicants who may be considered to have ulterior motives.

The Scottish Government has also published Public Protection guidance to support all operational partners involved in safeguarding, this will help identify and respond to risk and need for all people fleeing Ukraine arriving in Scotland.

The guidance was developed with stakeholders and takes into account the needs of women and girls.

We want disabled people in Scotland to have choice, dignity and freedom to access suitable homes, built or adapted to enable them to participate as full and equal citizens.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy sets out a vision for housing in Scotland to 2040. This includes housing for disabled people.

We are working to increase the supply of accessible and adapted homes. Whenever possible, all new affordable homes are designed to be flexible so that they meet people’s needs as they change over time. We are also delivering a programme to retrofit homes in the social rented sector to make them more accessible.

We know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally, so we are considering how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations.

In our consultation on a draft rented sector strategy ‘A New Deal for Tenants’ we sought views on how we can further protect and strengthen the rights for people living in the rented sector in Scotland and improve accessibility, affordability choices and standards across the whole rented sector in Scotland. We worked with Disability Equality Scotland (DES) to help increase accessibility to the consultation. The results of the consultation are currently being analysed and will inform future policy development.

We are also reviewing the Housing for Varying Needs design guide to help provide homes that are easy for all to access and navigate, and to improve their flexibility to adapt to meet changing health needs. We have engaged with Disability Equality Scotland regarding the upcoming consultation on the Housing for Varying Needs review and plan to work with them to gather feedback on the proposed updates.

The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels publication provides information on the number of publicly funded school children in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 who have achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in the literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) and numeracy.

Schools were closed in Scotland between March 2020 and the end of the academic year as a result of the pandemic meaning that they were closed on the date of 8 June 2020. It was concluded that it would not be possible to collect consistent data that was fit for purpose and that any attempt to do so would add considerably to other pressures on school and education authority staff. The decision was therefore taken to suspend the data collection in 2019-20.

The latest publication collected data for 2020-21 for Primary school (P1, P4 and P7) pupils only. Secondary school and special school data was not collected due to other pressures on these schools including implementation of the SQA National Qualifications Alternative Certification Model which was used to award National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers in 2021.

The current intention is to collect all data– for Primary, Secondary and Special school pupils – in 2021-22, although this will be kept under review.

The latest information on Reading can be found at the following table and the link provided:

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) and the Scottish Government were informed of The Crown Estate’s Round 4 results at the same time. These results indicated a significant change in the offshore wind market. As the ScotWind registration and application process had already opened, CES informed Scottish Ministers that it intended to pause the process in order to conduct a rapid review. The Scottish Government provided advice on process and implications for broader offshore wind policies in Scotland. During the review, Scottish Government were kept regularly informed of the review’s progress through to completion as delivery of the review as swiftly as possible was key to keeping the ScotWind process on track.

The Scottish Government is open to considering all interventions that can be demonstrated to improve access to and engagement with hepatitis C testing and treatment.

People who are at risk as a result of their drug use often experience a range of health and social issues. That’s why eliminating Hepatitis C from Scotland requires a person-centred approach. NHS Tayside became the first region in the world to achieve elimination by using a person centred approach, leading to better engagement and more successful treatment.

A range of work is under way in partnership with the Scottish Health Protection Network Hepatitis C group to embed this learning more widely; In the meantime, we have funded pilots, such as the Cocoon Project, which is specifically focused on those who inject drugs. The pilot will be evaluated in due course and any learning will be shared to enable a system-wide improvement across Scotland.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.

CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.

Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

CSO funded research project start dates are confirmed through submission by the corresponding host institution of a completed start certificate ( Form7-Start-Certificate.docx (live.com) )

The following table shows the confirmed start dates and derived end dates for the 9 projects funded through the Long-term effects of COVID-19 call