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The Scottish Government’s Fair Work Action Plan sets out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. We are committed to using all levers at our disposal to extend Fair Work conditionality with clear standards and minimum requirements to cover all forms of Scottish Government support within the limits of devolved competence.

The Scottish Government expects the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to continue promoting the Fair Work principles and to monitor adherence across the college sector, as outlined in the Ministerial letter of guidance issued to the SFC on 1 June 2023.

The Scottish Government is aware the School Meals Coalition Global Summit took place in Paris on 18 and 19 October 2023, but as non-members did not attend.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring we have a comprehensive and high quality free school meal programme and we regularly work with other nations to ensure good practice is shared.

We have no plans at this stage to join the School Meals Coalition. For over a decade, Scotland has been actively involved with International School Meals Day which provides us with the opportunity to promote school meal uptake in Scotland and to showcase Scotland's model of school food provision and food education on the international stage.

To date 63 countries are engaged with International School Meals Day, each sharing their knowledge and experience of supporting children and young people to access balanced and nutritious school lunches to support their healthy growth and development.

The budgets allocated are as follows:

From April 2021 to the end of September 2023, the Heat in Buildings Programme has spent £340m, with an additional estimated spend of £163m over the remainder of this financial year.

• The programme forecasts are showing an increased demand that supports a continuing increase in capital support across the range of schemes offered by the HiBs programme. Final outturn will be based on actual demand for schemes and final budget allocations for 24-25 and beyond.
• We are continuing to make long term commitments to funding – for example, we have recently re-procured the Warmer Homes Scotland successor scheme at a contract value of £700 million over the next 5 years.

The figures requested are set out in the following table:

I last met with the COSLA Culture Conveners group on 21 September 2023.

During this meeting we discussed ways in which we can collaborate to progress our shared priorities for culture in Scotland.

The next meeting of the Culture Conveners, which I will attend, is scheduled to take place in early 2024.

The total funding for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championship is in the process of being finalised and will be confirmed in due course. It includes contributions from the Scottish Government, UK Sport, British Cycling, Glasgow City Council and a number of other local authorities, as well as from commercial revenue streams. Any additional funding that may be required will be managed centrally by the Scottish Government and will not be derived from the Culture portfolio’s budget.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing accessible CAMHS services for children and young people who are deaf.

The CAMHS National Service Specification states that all children and families should receive support and services that are accessible and meet their needs. It is essential that the Scottish Government and CAMHS services engage with the deaf community and representative organisations to ensure we understand how services could better meet their needs.

As part of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, the Scottish Government engaged with stakeholders including the National Deaf Children’s Society and representatives with lived experience to understand their needs which are being considered in future planning.

We are continuing to provide local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health supports for children and young people, including targeted provision for those in at-risk groups and a systematic focus on those with protected characteristics.

The recognises that it is important all women know about the menopause and have access to consistent information and care when they seek help with menopause symptoms.

The Scottish Government continues to promote the comprehensive on the NHS Inform . This resource was launched in October 2021 to ensure women have access to information on menopause, including the signs and symptoms of perimenopause. The resource includes 11 including common myths around the menopause, and personal stories. The resource is accessible in five language translations, British Sign Language translation and an Easy Read version of the content.

To raise awareness of the symptoms of menopause – and how to mitigate them – work has recently begun on the development of a menopause public health campaign.

The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE), in partnership with the Scottish Government, have hosted a series of webinars to raise awareness about the menopause, focussing on menopause myth busting, menopause and the workplace and menopause, sex and relationships. Recordings of the webinars can be accessed online here:

Additionally, to mark World Menopause Day on 18 October 2023, the Scottish Government and the ALLIANCE, hosted a virtual ‘Talk Menopause’ panel discussion with experts in menopause to provide more information on menopause to those who need it.