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The Scottish Government provides local authorities with funding to allow them to deliver their statutory duty to ensure all eligible children can access 1140 hours of high-quality funded early learning and childcare. Scottish Government officials have spoken to Glasgow City Council regarding the closure of Rising Stars, and the Council's early years team is supporting families with children who attend these settings to discuss suitable alternatives - including through one-to-one support where required.

We will give full consideration to the recommendations of this report, which sets out both the challenges, and successes, of the continued recovery of our NHS from a global pandemic.

We are making good progress against our GP commitment and since 2017 GP headcount has increased by 291 and a record 5209 GPs are now working in Scotland.

Progress is measured by the annual GP Headcount Public Health Scotland publication. The latest publication can be found at:

The assessment by Audit Scotland does not take into account GP Registrars in their final year of training, when assessing progress against this commitment. These registrars spend 12 months full time equivalent in a GP practice.

Network Rail advised that some of the required repairs to the indoor shelter on platform one at Irvine railway station have already been completed. Network Rail expects to complete the final repairs in the next four weeks, depending on the agreement of a suitable time to interrupt the operations of trains through the station to undertake the works safely.

Instances of trespassing recorded on the (a) Forth Rail Bridge, (b) Forth Road Bridge and (c) Queensferry Crossing each year since 2018, the estimated cost of this to the emergency services, and in how many instances the bridges were closed as a result is as follows:

The Scottish Government welcome the report’s focus on contributing to delivery of Scotland’s statutory Climate Change Targets.

Some of the recommendations align with Scottish Government existing actions to support the bus sector, including £113 million funding for 548 modern, zero emission buses, the £500 million Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme to help organisations to understand the steps required to replace their bus fleet with zero emission alternatives and £25.8 million Bus Partnership Fund for bus priority in 11 partnerships covering 28 local authorities across Scotland. Other recommendations fall out with the remit of the Scottish Government, with recommendations on fuel duty and other taxation reserved fully to Westminster.

More widely on transport’s contribution to emission reduction, our route map to achieve a 20% reduction in car kms by 2030 also sets out the range of actions that will support mode shift and measures that support bus use. The route map similarly notes the need to address the cost of motoring and outlines that we are taking forward research to explore equitable options for demand management measures to discourage car use.

I thank CPT for the report which I will consider in full and respond in due course.

The British Retail Consortium publication, Crime Survey 2023 Report, does not have a Scotland specific section, but does include references to the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 contained within it.

The report highlights the use of the new Act in dealing with incidents against retail workers in Scotland. The report also highlights the importance of retailer reporting of incidents and an effective response by the criminal justice system.

The Scottish Government considers those working in Scotland's retail sector do a valuable job and never more so during the recent challenging times of the pandemic. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse. The Scottish Government supported the Protection of Workers legislation, which was a Members’ bill, when it went through Parliament. We fully support independent law enforcement agencies having the powers they need to deal with attacks and threats made against retail workers.

Please see the answers to your questions in the following table. There were no Forced Marriage Protection orders issued or breached prior to the 2017-18 financial year.

The Scottish Government has not made any estimates of number of people resident in Scotland who have undergone forced marriages abroad in each year. Whilst we do have data on forced marriages, this data does not identify where the marriage itself took place. This is as the locus of the offence is where the violence, threats, coercion or deception took place and not the locus of the marriage itself, which could potentially be outside of Scotland.

The Scottish Government is aware of the UN Committee’s General Comment and is taking seriously concerns that 16- and 17-year-olds may need more protection.

Clearly, all marriages and civil partnerships should be entered into with full consent of both parties. There is existing legislative provision against forced marriage.

We are currently gathering views from stakeholders on the minimum age for marriage.

Increasing the minimum age could be argued to increase safeguards for young people but such a change could also be seen as removing their right to marry or to enter a civil partnership.

We understand from National Records of Scotland that fewer than 30 people aged 16 or 17 entered a registered marriage in 2019. The Scottish Government appreciates there could be concerns about unregistered marriages, which are not governed by the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977. We would need to consider what impact raising the minimum legal age would have on unregistered marriages.

When Scottish Forestry receive a report of suspected unauthorised felling, investigations, including site visits and evidence gathering is then carried out.

When investigations conclude that it is likely that unauthorised felling has occurred, Scottish Ministers have a range of powers available to achieve a positive outcome. The priority is normally to secure the replanting of the site and protection of the woodland. The most appropriate action is often to issue a restocking notice to secure the replanting of the site.

Prosecution is considered in each case where unauthorised felling has taken place. A range of factors, such as the seriousness of the impact and whether there were aggravating circumstances are taken into account when considering whether to pursue a prosecution. The final decision on whether to pursue a case to prosecution lies with the Procurator Fiscal and not with Scottish Ministers. Where replanting has been secured and the woodland has been protected it is often concluded not to be in the public interest to pursue a prosecution.

Prior to April 2019, when the Forest and Land Management Scotland Act 2018 was enacted, prosecutions were required in order to secure a restocking notice. Since April 2019 Scottish Forestry have greater powers and so are able to secure the restocking of a site by issuing Restocking Directions.

Scottish Forestry have issued 36 Restocking Directions for unauthorised felling from April 2019 to the year end 2020-21.