Parliamentary questions
Tavish Scott
2,683 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
21 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other type of resources have been provided to the schools that (i) are and (ii) are not participating in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge.
Answer · John Swinney: The First Minister’s Reading Challenge is designed to complement and support the investment already going into schools. This means that schools participating in the Challenge do not receive dedicated Reading Challenge funding. Those schools who sign up to the…
21 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that 30% of schools are not participating in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge, and what number this represents.
Answer · John Swinney: At 29 November 2016 the sign up rate stood at 71% of primary schools [1,487 primary schools]. This means that 631 schools (29% of schools) had yet to sign up to the Challenge. This is an encouraging sign up rate for a voluntary initiative, launched into scho…
21 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which schools are not yet participating in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge, broken down by local authority.
Answer · John Swinney: Schools in all 32 local authorities have now signed up for the Reading challenge. Table 1 shows the percentage of schools signed up to the Reading Challenge, broken down by Local Authority. Table 1 Local Authority % Registered Local Authority % Register…
21 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other resources it is planning to make available to the reported 30% of schools that are not participating in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge.
Answer · John Swinney: A Scottish Book Trust Outreach Coordinator provides dedicated support to all schools to engage with the Challenge and to share good practice between schools across the country. Case studies are currently being gathered and will be shared with those schools wh…
18 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Director-General Economy to the Public Audit Committee on 29 September 2016 (Official Report, c. 31) that the Scottish Government aimed to fulfil all outstanding and partly outstanding payments under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme "by the middle of October…
Answer · Fergus Ewing: 99.9% of payments are now complete and the Scottish Government have essentially met the extended EU compliance deadline. The “tail” of remaining payments is now at a level similar to any year.
16 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04406 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016, on what date the meeting will take place.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The meeting between the Minister for International Development and Europe and the UK Immigration Minister is scheduled to take place on 7 December 2016.
15 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Police Scotland's approach to dealing with shop theft, in light of a recent survey by the Scottish Grocers Federation, which reported that 52% of convenience retailers experience daily or weekly shop theft.
Answer · Michael Matheson: Police Scotland is developing a preventative approach to acquisitive crime including shop theft. This approach, which will involve working in partnership with the Federation and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, will also seek to involve as many stakeh…
15 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to statistics published in the Scottish Grocers Federation's report, The Scottish Crime Report 2016, which indicate that 40% of convenience store staff experience at least one incident of violence per year and that 82% experience at least one incident of abuse.
Answer · Michael Matheson: No incident of abuse experienced by convenience store staff, physical or verbal, should be tolerated. Alongside the Scottish Crime Report 2016, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation in partnership with the Scottish Business Resilience Centre has published helpful …
15 Nov 2016 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government when ministers last met the EIS and what matters were discussed.
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03029 by John Swinney on 29 September 2016, whether it will provide an update on what progress is being made by the working group, and by what date its recommendations will be published.
Answer · John Swinney: The Working Group on Headteacher Recruitment met for the first time on 25 October 2016 and is scheduled to meet again on 30 November 2016 at which point the group intend to discuss possible actions further to the recommendations of the ADES Report. The Workin…
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01979 by Mark McDonald on 8 September 2016, what action it has taken to (a) match the supply to the demand for and (b) address the underfunding of private nurseries.
Answer · Mark McDonald: It is for individual local authorities to set their own early learning and childcare policy, including admissions policy and set partner provider rates. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 requires local authorities to consult at least every 2 …
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances the Student Awards Agency for Scotland can reject applications for support from people who have declared that they have dyslexia.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) administer the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) which is a needs led funding award based on demand. DSA helps support equality of access to higher education for individual students. To be eligible for DSA, student…
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00408 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 June 2016, in light of the chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council not providing a substantive response, whether the minister will now provide the information that was requested regarding what the budget…
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Funding Council has already responded to the question, providing the information requested.
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01973 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 September 2016, (a) what support it has provided to part-time college students and (b) how many part-time students completed their course in each year since 2013-14.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Part-time further education (FE) students at college can benefit from access to record levels of support, with this year’s (2016-17) budget of £106.2 million in college bursaries, childcare and discretionary funds representing a real-terms increase of 30% sin…
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00692 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 June 2016, what progress it is making with its consideration of the findings of the report; by what date it will publish its full response, and what action it is taking to implement each of the recommendations.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: We have considered all of the recommendations made in Professor MacGregor's final report in detail. The Programme for Government 2016 made clear that an updated package of support would be available to eligible taught postgraduate students in academic year 2…
11 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04386 by John Swinney on 10 November 2016, for what reason it has no plans to publish the local information that was requested.
Answer · John Swinney: The local information requested on teacher vacancies is not formal statistics. The information was collected solely for the internal purpose of informing the annual teacher workforce planning exercise with other local intellegence and therefore we have no pla…
9 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Skills Development Scotland has spent £64.5 million on staff costs since April 2016 compared with £116.7 million on national training programmes; what discussions it has had with the agency regarding this, and what its position is on whether this cons…
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The staffing budget for 2016-17 is based on a budgeted FTE of 1480 staff, with over 1,110 staff delivering a customer facing service such as careers advice or direct employer services. The role of the Skills Development Scotland Board is to promote the effi…
9 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Skills Development Scotland has spent £8.2 million on industry and employer engagement since April 2016; what discussions it has had with the agency regarding this, and what its position is on whether this expenditure constitutes value-for-money.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Skills Development Scotland receive Guidance each year from Scottish Ministers which details ministerial priorities, and associated budget. SDS budgets are monitored as set out in the Framework Document between Scottish Government and SDS, and this is also in…
9 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the concerns raised by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce in evidence to the Education and Skills Committee that Skills Development Scotland has a "one-size-fits all, centralised approach [that] is not working".
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The Chief Executive Officer and senior representatives from Skills Development Scotland met with the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce earlier this month to discuss their concerns. Skills Development Scotland and the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of …
9 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Skills Development Scotland has spent £7.6 million on its offices since April 2016; what discussions it has had with the agency regarding this, and what its position is on whether this expenditure constitutes value-for-money.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The figure quoted is for spend for 2016-17, and this related to a spend on a mix of customer facing centres and back office facilities. To perform their functions Skills Development Scotland require a regional network of offices to deliver all-age career an…
9 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03831 by Michael Russell on 7 November 2016, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding how it defines (a) hard and (b) soft Brexit.
Answer · Michael Russell: As answered on 7 November 2016, a ‘hard brexit’ would remove the UK not just from the EU but from the single market as well. The Scottish Government is committed to protecting Scotland’s interests and considers that this means remaining in the single market. …
8 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the evidence by the Director General Economy to the Public Audit Committee on 29 September 2016 (Official Report, c. 28) that, “we will not be sending out letters before 15 October”, when letters to applicants detailing payments made under the Basic Payment Scheme will be sen…
Answer · Fergus Ewing: Letters detailing payments under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme will start to be issued from late November and will go out in batches over the following weeks. All customers can register to use the online portal through which they can access information abou…
7 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter by Mark McDonald to the Education and Skills Committee on 27 October 2016, in which the minister estimated "that up to 20,000" additional workers would be required for the expansion of early learning and childcare, the comment by John Swinney to the committee on 2 …
Answer · Mark McDonald: As stated in the answer to S5W-03886, the Scottish Government is working with a range of delivery partners to assess the workforce requirement for the expansion to 1,140 hours. We will set out more details on these requirements as part of our response to the …
3 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04062 by Kevin Stewart on 3 November 2016, when it will carry out the review of the Highland Self Build Loan Fund.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The Scottish Government in conjunction with scheme administrators, the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust, plan to undertake an interim review of the pilot scheme in April 2017 followed by a final report in June 2018.
3 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding resettling child refugees from the Calais refugee camp.
Answer · Angela Constance: I met with the Immigration Minister on 11 October 2016 to discuss issues relating to refugees and asylum. During the meeting, I raised the plight of unaccompanied child refugees and made clear that Scotland was willing to play its part in helping to facilitat…
2 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the figure recorded by the General Teaching Council for Scotland in its publication, Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016, suggesting that, between 2012-13 and 2015-16, the number of official complaints submitted by parents against teachers increased by more than …
Answer · John Swinney: The management of local authority schools and the employment of teachers for those schools are matters for local authorities. Therefore issues relating to teacher conduct and competence are first and foremost matters for them as employers to deal with and be …
2 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04013 by John Swinney on 2 November 2016, whether it will provide a breakdown of the secondary schools that are being supported through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, also broken down by how much each will receive.
Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Attainment Challenge provides both targeted support through the Attainment Scotland Fund and universal support available right across Scotland. Up to 133 secondary schools are being supported by Scottish Attainment Challenge funding following the…
1 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it is engaging with the UK Government to extend the post-study work visa pilot scheme to universities in Scotland.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Tier 4 student visa pilot scheme falls far short of our calls for a post study work visa, and we remain concerned that the scheme was introduced without any consultation with the Scottish Government or Scottish higher education institutions. The Ministe…
1 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government further to the statement by the First Minister on 6 September 2016 (Official Report, c.17) that "over the next few weeks we will confirm the appointment of an independent widening access commissioner"; what progress is being made with this appointment, and by what date it expects the pos…
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: This is an important appointment and it is right that we take the time necessary to identify the right candidate. The Commission on Widening Access recommended that an appointment be made by the end of the year and we are working to progress this as a matter …
1 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00150 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 1 November 2016 (Official Report, c. 3), what the impact on students and staff will be of the reports that more than three quarters of colleges are in deficit.
Answer · John Swinney: College deficits are largely due to technical matters (e.g. use of depreciation funds) or one-off items (e.g. college restructuring costs, property asset valuation reductions). The number of colleges recording and forecasting operating deficits each year is …