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The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. This work is framed in terms of the Sustainable Procurement Duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which requires public bodies to consider how they can improve the environmental, as well as social and economic, wellbeing of the authority’s area, and act in a way to secure improvements identified. Public bodies routinely report on the environmental benefits generated through their procurement activity in their Annual Procurement Reports.

In response to the Climate Emergency the Scottish Government established the Climate and Procurement Forum with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

Examples of actions leading from the Forum include publishing a procurement policy note to clarify expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations; Ministers writing to local leaders stressing their role in enabling sustainable outcomes through procurement, and producing Climate Literacy eLearning to assist public bodies to take account of climate and circular economy through procurement. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector and charities, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks supports the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors. Additionally, we host the latest current guidance on training on the platform.

Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website:

Information about the previous Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) and the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS) from 2008 to 2013 is available from the Energy Saving Trust website.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out the Scottish Government’s proposed approach to introducing energy performance standards for all existing buildings. It confirms our intention to introduce regulations from 2025 for private housing to reach a minimum energy performance standard equivalent to EPC C at respective trigger points, where technically feasible and cost-effective to do so - with backstops of 2028 (for the private rented sector) and by 2033 (for owner occupiers).

For mixed-tenure and mixed-use buildings, including tenements, we intend to introduce regulations from 2025 onwards, with an expectation that all of these buildings should meet the standard of a good level of energy efficiency, equivalent to EPC C rating by 2040-45.

For non-domestic buildings, we intend to consult on the regulatory approach in 2022 and introduce regulations by 2025 to require owners to reduce demand for heat through energy efficiency improvements where feasible.

To support the introduction of these proposed regulations, we have set out proposals to reform the metrics underpinning Energy Performance Certificates. As set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we plan to consult on our proposals for regulations during 2022.

The Scottish Government provides a range of centrally funded procurement best practice tools that are continually updated to reflect changes in legislation (such as VAT), introduction of new policy outcomes (such as Climate Change, Fair Work, Innovation and Prompt Payment) and improvements across procurement processes and procedures (such as Contract and Supplier management). Both the Procurement Journey and the Supplier Journey have been refreshed after wide consultation with public sector buyers and suppliers and are extensively used, not only by public sector buyers and suppliers across Scotland, but across the rest of the UK and internationally. The Procurement and Commercial Improvement Plan (PCIP), which assesses public sector bodies procurement capability and capacity, has been through an extensive review phase, with public sector buyers, to ensure that it includes enhanced support and guidance that promotes best practice procurement standards.

The Scottish Government considers a range of data to support policy development. Current data on how Scotland compares to the rest of the UK is considered in the weekly state of the epidemic paper, available on the Scottish Government website. This report ( ) brings together the different sources of evidence and data about the COVID epidemic to summarise the current situation, and incorporates data from the UK COVID Dashboard on cases, hospital occupancy and deaths across the four nations. The Scottish Government also refers to the latest data for the four nations from the ONS Covid-19 Infection Survey, which includes estimates of positivity, estimates of the number of people testing positive for antibodies to COVID and long COVID, and has done since the first results were published for Scotland in October 2020.

The evidence and data which informs the Scottish Government is drawn from academic institutions based across the UK which inform SAGE (including via its sub-groups), the UK Health Security Agency and scientific literature from across the world. SAGE includes experts from within government and leading specialists from the fields of healthcare and academia. During the response to the COVID-19 pandemic the SAGE sub groups include:

• New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG)
• Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M)
• Independent Scientific Pandemic insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B)
• COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK)
• Health Data Research UK (HDR UK)

We have been proactive in our approach to minimising carbon emissions associated with the City Region and Growth Deals programme, taking expert advice from industry on the latest national and international best practice. We have now rolled out our innovative carbon management guidance across all 12 Deals. This is an ongoing and proactive carbon management process, facilitated by our dedicated Deals Sustainable Development Manager. Support and training is being provided to all regional partners to ensure the guidance is correctly applied, and that carbon emissions are minimised in accordance with best practice.

The focus of the Scottish City Region and Growth Deals carbon management guidance is the minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions, in support of Scotland’s national target to reach net zero by 2045. The guidance is already fully aligned with the Environmental Impact Assessment process, which also addresses adaptation and ensures resilience to the locked in impacts of climate change. This enables the guidance to be used in conjunction with other sources of information (e.g. projections of future changes in climate) to undertake climate change impact assessments in accordance with relevant planning requirements and building standards.

Scotland House London is clearly not an overseas office, but is a hub in a crucial city for Scotland. The facility provides a platform to develop trade and investment links, strengthen government to government relations and facilitate collaboration on economic, academic and innovation projects. Through Scotland House we are enhancing the range and depth of engagement with international partners across areas of shared ambition and common challenge, in order to inform and support the delivery of the Scottish Government policy agenda. Scotland House London is a unique collaboration between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise (including Scottish Development International), VisitScotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

As was announced in the programme for government, this year we will open a Scottish Government office in Copenhagen to increase Scotland’s economic and cultural visibility in the Nordic region. During this parliamentary session, we will also open an office in Warsaw, as part of our continued commitment to enhancing our external reach and voice.

The budget allocation for Copenhagen in 2022-23 is £598,000 this includes salary costings, upkeep, day-today running and hospitality costs. We anticipate that the Warsaw office will be similar in budget to existing Scottish Government overseas offices.

There are very strong links between education and health on the matter of mental health and wellbeing in schools.

Formally, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, established in 2021, oversee reform across relevant areas of education, health, community and children’s services and wider areas that impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Membership on the delivery board includes a wide range of stakeholders from health and education.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group was established in 2019 to support the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting positive mental health in children and young people in school. The Group has a large membership including national organisations who work to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and representatives from the education and health sector.

The Working Group has sought to establish a comprehensive approach to supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools through a Whole School Approach Framework, published in August 2021. The framework is clear on the importance of a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing and encourages partnership working with community and health partners.

Our commitment to invest in school counselling services across secondary schools in Scotland, announced in our 2018-19 Programme for Government, is now delivered across all local authorities. The first reporting exercise for the commitment highlighted the various referrals made by schools to health services, including GPs, school nurses and other health professionals. The approach to counselling in schools has been developed and implemented by education officials using resources provided by the health department and progress has been jointly reported to Ministers with portfolio responsibility for both health and education.

Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence. Its substantial importance is reflected in its position at the centre of the curriculum and at the heart of children’s learning. Mental health and wellbeing has specific experiences and outcomes, within this framework.