Parliamentary questions
Beatrice Wishart
693 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
16 Aug 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34411 by Jamie Hepburn on 22 January 2021, whether it plans to set targets for 2021-22.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented and continues to present unprecedented challenges for businesses across Scotland. Uncertainty in the labour market has led to many employers delaying and pausing recruitment decisions, which is impacting on apprenticeship s…
16 Aug 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34307 by Jamie Hepburn on 11 January 2021, what proportion of the target of 30,000 apprenticeship starts will be met in the 2021 calendar year.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Skills Development Scotland publish Modern Apprenticeship statistics quarterly under official statistics protocols, by financial year rather than calendar year. Apprenticeships have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as employers have reviewed, delayed a…
28 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils have missed more than (i) 10% and (ii) 50% of class time in their school since schools reopened in March 2021.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Attendance and absence figures for 2020-21 are currently based on daily management information and has only been subjected to limited quality checking. Bearing this in mind, since March 2021, this data shows that: Primary Schools26.1% of primary pupils were…
28 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils have missed more than (i) 10% and (ii) 50% of class time in their school in each year since 2017-18.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Attendance and absence information is only collected every two years so no figures are available for 2017-18 or 2019-20. Figures for 2018-19 and 2020-21 show that: Primary Schools14.6% of primary pupils were absent more than 10% of the time in 2018-19. In 2…
27 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01741 by Jamie Hepburn on 27 July 2021, whether it will make the support payments made to mature students equal to those made to younger students.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Our current Higher Education (HE) student support package provides a maximum income of £7,750, through a combination of bursaries and loans, for both young (those under 25 before the start of the academic year) and independent students (those over 25 at the s…
23 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to limit the incidence of long COVID in young people.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Limiting the incidence of long COVID is dependent on our ability to limit the spread of the virus. Throughout our response to the pandemic, all decisions taken by the Scottish Government have been clearly underpinned by the latest available clinical and scien…
23 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which age groups are most likely to be affected by long COVID.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The most recent long COVID statistics published by the Office for National Statistics on 5 August 2021 state that, over the four-week period ending 4 July 2021, an estimated 945,000 people living in private households in the UK reported experiencing long COVI…
23 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to support islanders with long COVID.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Our approach is for people to have access to the support they may need for assessment, diagnosis, care and rehabilitation in a setting that is as close to their home as possible. This is being supported through local primary care teams, community based rehabi…
23 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is gathering data to determine the impact of long COVID on education.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government gathers data on pupils and staff who are not in school for COVID-19 related reasons. The Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children's Issues considered this data alongside the latest evidence on long-COVID when producing its latest…
21 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the cash grant given to mature students.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: We are committed to expanding the maximum total support package available to students over the next three years to reach the equivalent of the living wage.
13 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to fund and support the Rediscover the Joy of General Practice project, to help ensure that island health boards can successfully recruit and retain doctors to permanent GP positions in rural locations.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government has allocated £165,625 to NHS Shetland for 2021-22 to support the Scottish Rural Medical Collaborative develop the Rediscover the Joy in General Practice Project to ensure that remote and rural, including island, health boards can recr…
1 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will guarantee funding the continued provision of early learning and childcare for P1 deferrals beginning in August (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
Answer · Clare Haughey: The timetable that we have set to fund all deferrals from August 2023 is realistic and ensures that the roll out of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to all eligible children from August 2021 is not put at risk. To progress implementation, th…
1 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00865, what the estimated additional workload in hours was for teachers who supported the delivery of the Alternative Certification Model (ACM).
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Alternative Certification Model (ACM) for national qualifications in 2020-21 has been designed to give schools the flexibility to assess learners at times and in ways that are appropriate to their specific needs. This has been enhanced by a programme of s…
1 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00525 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 June 2021, whether the meetings on (a) 24 May, (b) 3 June and (c) 24 June were minuted, and if so, whether those minutes will be published.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Since my appointment to the role of Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills I have had a number of introductory discussions with the Chief Examining Officer to develop my understanding of matters pertaining to the alternative certification model and to dis…
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether the absence rate for pupils has been 50% or greater since full-time education in school buildings returned, broken down by (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: No. Absence rates for pupils were never 50% or greater when schools were fully open for all pupils during the 2020/21 school year. The Scottish Government have published information in relation to school pupil attendance and absence throughout the 2020/21 sc…
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the absence rate for pupils has been between April and June 2021 and how this rate compares to to the absence rates in each of the academic years since 2017/18.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government only collects school pupil attendance and absence information every 2 years, so no data is available for 2017-18. Information for 2018/19 shows that for term 3 (covering the period roughly April-June) the combined authorised and unaut…
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of pupils missed one school day or more in a continuous period of ten school days in the academic years (a) 2017/18, (b) 2018/19, (c) 2019/20, and (d) 2020/21.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government only collects school pupil attendance and absence information every 2 years, so no data is available for 2017-18. In addition, the structure and format of data gathered in 2018-19, as well as some partial data gathered in 2019-20 (due …
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils have been expelled from school in each academic year since 2017-18.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: There were three cases of pupils being 'removed from the register' of their school in 2018-19. When this occurs a pupil does not return to their original school and will be educated at another school or in some other educational provision. More statistics on…
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils have not returned to full-time education since school buildings reopened.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01153 on 28 July 2021. 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…
30 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many days of full-time education have been missed by pupils since school buildings reopened and what the average number of days per pupil is.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government does not have the information you require in a readily available format in order to answer this question. In order to answer your question would therefore incur disproportionate costs. However, information we do have in relation to sc…
17 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the arrangements that have been made to ensure that teachers receive their £400 payment for their work on national qualifications in 2020-21, and when it allocated funding to local authorities to facilitate this arrangement.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The guidance to support the provision of the £400 one-off payment to teachers is available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-employers-on-one-off-gbp400-payment-for-teachers/ This exc…
15 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government by what date secure COVID-19 vaccination status documents will be ready for use by people travelling from Scotland to Norway.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: On 3 September 2021 we introduced QR codes to vaccination status records. People can either download or request a paper copy of their vaccination status from NHS Inform or call the Freephone Helpline 0808 196 8565.
15 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has put in place to ensure that workers who are travelling to Norway, and who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, are not unnecessarily required to quarantine.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The success of our vaccination programme means we that from 19 July 2021 we started to change restrictions that apply to fully vaccinated travellers from Amber list. Initially this was applied to UK residents who have been vaccinated by the NHS, departure tes…
15 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that secure COVID-19 vaccination status documents will be recognised when used by people travelling from Scotland to Norway.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The international travel restrictions in Scotland currently apply to people arriving into or returning to Scotland. Anyone travelling to another country should make sure they comply with the relevant procedures where they are visiting. Foreign, Commonwealth a…
15 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 70,000 devices for learners had been (a) ordered but not received by local authorities (b) received but not distributed, and (c) distributed by the date on which in-person learning resumed, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Grant funding allocations were made to councils based on levels of deprivation and rurality within their areas, allowing them to purchase devices and connectivity for learners to align with local digital strategies. Local authorities have been responsible for…
14 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00139 by Humza Yousaf on 1 June 2021, whether it will provide an update on what its position is on offering COVID-19 vaccinations to under-18s ahead of the start of the 2021-22 university and college term.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: At present we are awaiting Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice on whether all those aged 12 to 15, and all 16 and 17 year olds should be offered COVID-19 vaccination – and once we have this we will be preparing policy guidance as t…
11 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement of funding for 40 new legal aid trainees, whether it will provide further information on the geographical base of the trainees, and whether the fund to support the traineeships will be accessible to people in the Northern Isles.
Answer · Ash Denham: Applications for the Legal Aid Traineeship Fund are sought from all legal firms/organisations across Scotland, including those in the Northern Isles. The Scottish Government and the Law Society agreed that all posts must be externally advertised including on …
8 Jun 2021 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what practical support it has offered for travelling artistes, in light of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
7 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment made in session 5 by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to the Education and Skills Committee on 17 February 2021, whether it is on course to update the Parliament regarding the Advance Payment Scheme before the summer recess.
Answer · John Swinney: I gave an update to Parliament on 16 June 2021, a transcript of my statement can be found here . This included updates on both the Advance Payment Scheme and the development of the statutory redress scheme for survivors of historical child abuse in care.
7 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the (a) recruitment and (b) construction work being carried out as part of the rollout of 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare.
Answer · Clare Haughey: The Improvement Service has been commissioned by the ELC expansion programme to collect data from local authorities on progress towards delivery of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, and to report on this data. The most recent report, on data …