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NatureScot have recently published the terms of reference and outline timescales of the licensing review on their website at https://www.nature.scot/doc/species-licensing-review-terms-reference and https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/protected-areas-and-species/licensing/licensing-news .

The terms of reference have also been circulated to all interested key stakeholders.

As stated in the Scottish Government’s Initial Response to the Concluding Observations issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, published on 25 March this year, the Scottish Government is considering its next steps on religious observance in schools to ensure compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Under current legislation in Scotland, religious observance is not compulsory, and parents are legally entitled to withdraw their children from religious observance in local authority and grant-aided schools. This is supported by detailed guidance which states that ‘schools should include children and young people in any discussions about aspects of their school experience, ensuring their views are taken into account.’

This guidance is available at: Curriculum for Excellence: religious observance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

As outlined in the answer to question S6W-15943 on 21 March 2023, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) includes a module on sexual victimisation, which produces estimates of adults’ experiences of different types of sexual assault. At present this does not include any questions focused on specific acts of violence such as choking, during what began as consensual sexual activity. We are currently considering whether a question (or questions) on this topic could be added to the above module. Given the sensitivity of this subject, it requires careful consideration and testing prior to any rollout to ensure that such a question is understandable, accessible, and does not place undue stress on survey respondents. Analysts have recently conducted multiple evidence-gathering workshops with external organisations and charities dedicated to researching and preventing sexual violence. We will continue to engage with stakeholders as we consider options for changes to the 2025-26 survey sweep. 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 is committed to maintaining alignment with the EU where such alignment would be possible and meaningful in protecting and advancing the standards we share.

On waste management sources of energy, where waste is unavoidable and unrecyclable, the Scottish Government’s aim is to recover the highest value, while minimising as far as possible the environmental impacts of managing this waste, including through energy recovery. The second report of the Review of the Role Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy made recommendations on the decarbonisation of residual waste, and the Scottish Government accepted these recommendations in full or in principle, including on the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, ending the unnecessary incineration of plastic, incentivising heat networks and supporting the development of Carbon Capture Utilisation Storage (CCUS).

On heat networks, the Heat Network Support Unit, sponsored by the Scottish Government, supports heat network projects through the pre-capital stages of development through advice and funding. This support includes offering advice and grant funding for developing feasibility studies, Outline Business Cases (OBCs) and project commercialisation. The HNSU has supported several projects that seek to utilise excess heat from Energy from Waste facilities. This includes a recent feasibility study with Glasgow City Council, exploring the opportunity to utilise heat from the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre (GRREC). Through Scotland’s Heat Network Fund and its predecessor the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme, the Scottish Government has provided approximately £32.8 million combined funding for heat networks which utilise recovered heat, including two projects using recovered heat from waste facilities in both Aberdeen and Midlothian and a project recovering Heat from a Waste water treatment facility in Stirling. In addition, the Scottish Government, in collaboration with Scottish
‎ Enterprise, will shortly publish a guidance document which provides information about how we can improve the capture and utilisation of heat from industrial and commercial processes.

In taking these things forward we will of course be mindful of existing and new EU legislation, like the EU Waste Framework Directive, Industrial Emissions Directive and Renewable Energy Directive.

The second report of the Review of the Role Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy can be found here: 1 Introduction - Decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Government Response to the second report of the Review of the Role Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy: Supporting documents - Decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Lord Advocate is constitutionally responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected and suspicious deaths in Scotland. These functions are exercised independently of government. Parliament considered and modernised the law on FAIs in 2016 and there are no current plans to revisit the legislation.

The Scottish Government, in conjunction with the Crown Office, continually assesses the effectiveness of the system for FAIs. As a result of this continual assessment, the Crown Office has significantly reformed the arrangements for the investigation of deaths. These reforms have already resulted in reductions in the duration of death investigations and it is expected that they will continue to do so. The Crown Office has also recently established a Specialist Casework Death Investigations Improvement Programme. Its purpose is to oversee all ongoing pieces of work and new proposals to achieve greater public confidence, to improve the service delivered to bereaved relatives and to deliver increased efficiencies in the investigation of deaths.

The Crown Office has acknowledged that in some cases the time taken to conclude a thorough death investigation has been too long. Unfortunately, there will always be a small number of deaths that will need a prolonged period of investigation due to their complexity. Irrespective of the type of FAI, the investigation must be completed thoroughly before a decision can be made to commence any inquiry proceedings. The decision to hold an inquiry cannot be taken until other proceedings, such as any criminal charges have been completed or ruled out.

FAIs are just one part of the system for investigating deaths. In many cases lessons are often learned, changes made and answers given to families without an FAI.

We have increased the Crown Office budget in recent years to support a range of its improvement work, including modernising processes for investigating deaths. The Crown Office has also significantly reformed its processes to reduce the time taken to investigate deaths and to bring FAIs to court more quickly.

We have every confidence in the system that is in place for FAIs but we acknowledge that there is always more that can be done. We keep matters under review in consultation with the Crown Office and are looking for ways in which the system can be improved.

The Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2022-23 show that more women than ever are attending breast screening appointments, and that uptake is increasing for most groups. It is important to note that uptake for women receiving their first breast screening invitation in 2022-23 was higher than any pre-COVID year since 2013-14, and was above the 10 year average of 70.8%. It is also above the standard uptake rate of 70%. Therefore, overall the picture for breast screening uptake is encouraging.

However, the Scottish Government recognises that there is still work to be done to improve uptake, including among those receiving their first invitation, and to meet the 80% achievable standard. We continue to work with the organisations responsible for breast screening to fully understand barriers to uptake, and to encourage all women to attend breast screening when invited. As part of this, we continue to ensure work is carried out to address inequalities in uptake and access to screening, having committed £3 million since 2021 to tackle inequalities in the programmes, which remains a priority. We will also provide £1 million funding for 2024-25.

The Breast Screening Review that was published in 2022 noted recommendations that seek to increase breast screening uptake. The Breast Screening Modernisation Board, chaired by Dr Marzi Davies, is currently taking forward these recommendations.

The Scottish Government recognises that cyber resilience is paramount for the delivery of secure digital public services, and it works closely with the Scottish public sector to strengthen its cyber security posture through the implementation of The Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland.

Staying ahead of cyber criminals is an ongoing battle; as technologies evolve, so do their tactics. Public bodies are responsible for their own cyber resilience and security arrangements and must continually adapt to emerging threats.

The Scottish Government supports public sector bodies to help strengthen their cyber resilience and address areas for improvement. This includes embedding robust security standards, controls and governance, maintaining and regularly testing incident response plans, training staff and learning lessons identified from incidents.

Additionally, the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre plays a key role in coordinating effective multi-agency response to incidents which impact on the public sector.

Every life lost to suicide is an enormous tragedy and while we welcome figures showing water related fatalities are at their lowest since 2018, we are not complacent. We are taking a whole of Government and societal approach towards suicide, focusing on addressing the social determinants, whilst ensuring we incorporate suicide prevention across our policy development and service delivery. To support this approach the Scottish Government published the Suicide Prevention Strategy in September 2022. It prioritises action on people with higher risk of suicide, and high risk settings which include locations which provide access to open water.

The Scottish Government remains supportive of a new station in Winchburgh and I am pleased to confirm that my officials and I met with representatives from West Lothian Council, Winchburgh Development Limited and Network Rail on 17 April to discuss the proposed station.

A number of actions to progress the station were agreed and I fully expect the development of the business case and routes towards locating potential funding streams to be discussed again, having formed part of the previous meeting agenda in April. I am also pleased to confirm my officials and I will attend a follow-up meeting with the organisations I mentioned previously on 25 June to further progress the matter.

The Ministerial Population Taskforce meets quarterly to oversee delivery of Scotland’s Population Strategy and it last met on 20 March 2024. Items discussed included: Scotland’s Migration Service, in advance of its launch on 27 March; the linkages between housing policy and population; an update on planned National Records of Scotland statistical and Census publications; and an overview of progress in developing a Rural Delivery Plan. Minutes from the meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.