As is indicated in the answer to question S6W-25608 on 4 March 2024, the Scottish Government will review the Supporting Transgender Young People in Schools Guidance in due course. This would include taking account of any significant legislative or policy developments. The CASS Review is considering clinical gender identity healthcare for young people. How this care is provided by the NHS is beyond the responsibilities of schools and education authorities. The guidance makes clear that school staff are not required to be involved in the process of a young person seeking or accessing gender identity healthcare. That is a matter for the young person themselves and their family.

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 non-statutory guidance on supporting Transgender Young People in Schools sets out a range of advice on legislation, policy and practice including illustrative examples. It is for education authorities and schools to use the guidance as they see fit, in line with local priorities and circumstances.

As would be usual with any relevant significant legal or policy developments, the Scottish Government will consider whether the guidance requires to be updated to reflect these.

In the June response we committed to establishing a new Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme to co-ordinate and drive further change and improvement over time in line with the Scottish Mental Health Law Review ambitions. This Spring, we intend to publish an initial delivery plan setting out the key actions being taken forward against priorities identified under the Programme.

The NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 contains a number of actions linked to resource use, including management and reduction of waste, in line with Scottish Targets. Walking aids are included within this, and a number of Boards have trialled and put systems in place to take-back, test and re-use items subject to warranty and liability.

Scottish Government’s guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations states “partnerships and their equipment and adaptation service providers should ensure they maximise the potential benefits from recycling of all equipment”. In line with this guidance, we are currently engaging with Health Boards to gather a national picture of what action is being taken on this matter, and to ensure the timely provision of equipment to support people to live safely within their own home and community.

The Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is playing a central role in working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), which promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes. These groups are now well established and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments to free-up additional capacity in the NHS system, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland. For ENT this includes Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR) and Opt-In Pathways.

We know there is more to do but we are making progress; since the introduction of our long wait targets in July 2022, ENT waits over two years have reduced by 93% for new outpatient appointments and by 54% for inpatient and day-case patients.

Digital technology is an important aspect of any modern education system. To support continued development and use of digital technology to enhance teaching and learning, the Scottish Government is developing a new digital strategy for education.

Since 2013 the Scottish Government has provided local authorities and third sector partners with funding of over £50m in support of the implementation of the 1+2 languages approach in schools.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). As such, operational decisions regarding power of attorney applications are the responsibility of SCTS under the leadership of its independent board headed by the Lord President.

The Scottish Government has provided SCTS with additional funding since 2021 to support OPG recovery and further additional funding last year to support the replacement of the Office of the Public Guardian IT system.

Work on the new OPG IT system, which is expected to reduce processing times for power of attorney applications, is progressing as planned and it is expected that the first phase of the work will be completed this year.

The Scottish Government typically meets OPG once every 3-6 months to discuss ongoing business matters, including registration of powers of attorney.

In recognition of the ongoing pressures on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, including the Office of the Public Guardian, additional funding for SCTS in 2024-25 was prioritised. The 2024-25 budget provides an additional £9.7 million resource and £3.9 million additional capital budget . As a non-Ministerial public body, d ecisions on the allocation of these additional resources are for the judicially-led SCTS Board.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on a wide range of matters, which includes battery storage facilities to ensure the service is able to respond to incidents with the appropriate resources.