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The Scottish Government’s guidance ‘Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1: a positive approach to the promotion and management of attendance in Scottish schools’ makes clear the need for schools to follow up absence immediately, and to continue to follow up absence for those for whom there are welfare concerns.

Local authorities are expected to have robust processes and guidance for children who do not attend school from the first day they are absent until they are re-engaged with education. Where children are missing for extended periods of time, or are not on a school roll or being educated otherwise, the Children Missing from Education Guidance and Service can support local authorities in this.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on children persistently absent from school centrally. Information on rates of children persistently absent from school would be for local authorities to collect.

Building safety is a matter for the owner - who in this case would be individual local authorities - acting in accordance with the relevant health and safety legislation. Moreover, health and safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government.

Building safety is a matter for the owner - who in this case would be individual local authorities - acting in accordance with the relevant health and safety legislation. Moreover, health and safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect data on out-of-catchment applications and does not hold information about the number of applications that have been submitted for pupils in primary and secondary schools or what proportion of those were successful.

Local authorities are responsible for procedures for dealing with out-of-catchment applications for school places and will hold such data locally.

The issue of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete was discussed at the Building and Fire Safety Ministerial Working Group in both January and June of this year. The minutes can be accessed at: .

Scottish Government does not hold information on the numbers of children who are home educated in Scotland.

The following table provides a breakdown of measures installed and the number and value of grants and loans paid in full through the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme (formerly HES Loan and Cashback Scheme) for domestic properties in the Financial Year 2022-23.

The Scottish Government has not stopped offering interest free loans for residential solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems. The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan currently provides grant funding of £1250 for the installation of each of these measures, with a further £4750 available as an interest free loan for each. This funding is available where these measures are installed alongside a renewable heating system.

Previously, the HES scheme also provided interest free loans for installation of solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems where not installed alongside a renewable heating system. For the reasons behind this decision, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19607 on 28 July 2023, lodged by Richard Leonard. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

This update to the scheme was communicated directly to potentially affected applicants to the scheme, and notified on the Home Energy Scotland Grant & Loan web page, rather than through a press release.

There was no specific consultation on this decision, however the update to the scheme is in line with the priorities and principles which were set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy. We consulted on a draft of this Strategy in February 2021.

The terms of the scheme are clear that funding is available on a first-come first-served basis while budget lasts. Any advance announcement would have risked a surge in applications that could have overwhelmed the advice and application services, as well as resulting in a total value of applications which would have exceeded the available budget.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan scheme aims to decarbonise the way we heat our homes by helping with the costs of installing zero direct emissions heating systems (ZDEH) such as a heat pump and installing energy efficiency measures in homes.

Where a ZDEH has been installed, a solar PV system and battery storage can be used to generate and store some of the electricity required to run the system – reducing electricity demand and the running costs for the homeowner. A solar PV system and battery storage system would not support a household reducing demand for gas if it is installed in a home heated by a gas boiler. Solar PV and energy storage can reduce overall energy bills for consumers with other forms of heating such as oil and gas but they do not specifically contribute to reducing the energy required to heat homes.

Energy efficiency measures will reduce the energy required to heat a home, and reduces the running costs of any heating system. A home with gas heating can still apply to the HES scheme for grants and loans towards the costs of installing energy efficiency measures in their home because this would reduce the energy required to heat their homes.

The number of visiting specialist teachers is recorded in September of each year as part of the teacher census. Data for 2023 is not yet available. Visiting specialists are centrally employed by local authorities and data on the school sector in which they work is not collected in the teacher census.

Statistics on centrally employed visiting specialists at Scotland level are available in Table 5.2 of the teacher census supplementary statistics: