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As part of our ongoing stakeholder engagement Scottish Government officials have spoken with individuals with lived experience of relocating to Scotland from Hong Kong to inform ongoing policy development on promoting Scotland as an attractive place to live.

While the Scottish Government collects data on the number of children living in unsuitable accommodation, it does not ask for returns from local authorities on any wellbeing assessments undertaken. This information would have to be requested directly from local authorities.

We are aware of a number of support assessments undertaken by local authorities as part of their housing assessment to record people’s needs. It is important, as part of this process and alongside the support provided to households experiencing homelessness, that the specific needs of children in the household are identified and met and their rights upheld.

Sarcoma cancer incidence data is collected by Public Health Scotland. Public Health Scotland is aware of the complexities that can arise when categorising diseases such as sarcoma, where there may occasionally be more than one technically correct option for coding the disease, and will be discussing this further with its counterparts in England.

As National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and most taxation levers are reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government does not have the range of options to provide support that are available to the UK Government. This is why I wrote to the Chancellor prior to the Spring Statement, urging him to consider all options to help those hardest pressed – from cutting existing VAT on energy bills, to a new windfall tax on those who have enjoyed excess profits from the Covid pandemic, cost of living crisis and now the situation in Ukraine. The Chancellor’s decision to ignore our calls and press ahead with the NICs rise was extremely disappointing. The increase in the payment threshold does nothing to help the lowest earners who need support now. That is why the Scottish Government is taking all measures we feasibly can under the current devolution settlement, such as the £290 million cost of living support package, uprating eight Scottish benefits by 6% from 1 April 2022, providing more than £4.5 billion to support businesses and keep people in employment, and doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 – with this increasing further to £25 by the end of 2022.

The Scottish Government takes the rate of inflation into account when making its spending decisions, but does not index or base all its spending decisions on a single specific measure of inflation.

The most frequently used measure of inflation is the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), prepared by the Office of National Statistics. The most recent data shows that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 7.0% in the 12 months to March 2022, up from 6.2% in February 2022.

Scottish Government's official forecaster is the Scottish Fiscal Commission, who in their December 2021 publication stated that CPI inflation for 2022 Q3 will be 3.9%. They will publish an updated forecast in May of this year.

The Scottish Government takes bullying very seriously. Bullying of any kind is completely unacceptable and must be addressed.

In November 2017, the Scottish Government published updated anti-bullying guidance ‘Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People’

In August 2019, we introduced a consistent and uniform approach to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools. All schools and local authorities are expected to be using the new approach.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans for the numbers of bullying incidents to be collated at a national level. Recording and monitoring is essential and best carried out locally where recurring patterns can be understood and acted upon. An evaluation will be undertaken later this year to assess how successfully the new system has been embedded.

respect me, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, continues to provide support to all adults working with children and young people to give them the practical skills and confidence to deal with all types of bullying behaviour.

Details of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) costs as of 1 April 2022 are set out in the following tables.

The original estimated costs of the R100 SBVS interim voucher was £3.3 million and the main voucher was between £12.8 million and £18 million. The SBVS continues to accept applications for main vouchers.

R100 SBVS Interim Voucher

Two suppliers of geostationary satellite services are registered to the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Konnect offer commercial services for the central and eastern belt of Scotland (including Orkney and Shetland) and Bentley Walker (under the brand name 'freedomsat') is also registered as a supplier, offering nationwide coverage.

We are concerned by suggestions of foreign interference in Scottish universities. Our universities are autonomous institutions and the alliances they forge across global academic networks are a matter for them and their governing bodies.

However, we expect all universities to understand and manage the reputational, ethical and security risks associated with international partnerships. This includes conducting appropriate due diligence before entering into new international partnerships and monitoring existing partnerships. Guidance to support universities has been published by Universities UK.

Academic freedom is of paramount importance in Scotland and we have legislated to expand the statutory definition of academic freedom in the Higher Education Governance Act 2016. We also expect our universities to listen to the campus community when taking decisions affecting the university, its staff and students.

Officials advise that Starlink's base level satellite internet service offers speeds of between 50Mbps and 150Mbps, but that Starlink's beta commercial service is currently only available at a latitude below 55 degrees. This means it is unavailable to the vast majority of premises in Scotland at this time.

Starlink has indicated that they have plans to make their service available above 55 degrees latitude in financial year 2022-23 – however, there is no firm date for further availability of the service.