Parliamentary questions
Liam Kerr
2,165 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
1 Sep 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its statement on 31 August 2023 that it had already “received returns for the majority of the school estate” and that it expected “to have full returns from all local authorities this week”, whether it will publish all of the returns that it has received from local authoritie…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: As the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice updated in her statement to Parliament, local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. In line with this responsibility, they continue to c…
1 Sep 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to carry out an assessment of the cost of fixing any elements of the school estate that have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete present; whether any such costs will be met by local authorities or the Scottish Government; if they a…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. Those local authorities affected have now published a list of any schools where RAAC has been identified, and it would be for those indi…
28 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what practical steps it is taking to address and reverse the reported findings of the national improvement framework interactive evidence report, published on 13 December 2022, that (a) literacy, (b) reading, (c) writing, (d) listening, (e) talking and (f) numeracy rates are falling in P…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Whilst performance in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19 was broadly lower indicating the continuing impact of the pandemic on learning, there was some encouraging evidence amongst for example, P7 pupils that performance was returning to pre-pandemic levels. ACEL d…
28 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what practical steps it is taking to address and reverse the findings of the national improvement framework interactive evidence report, published on 13 December 2022, that fewer pupils in S3 are achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence levels in literacy and numeracy than in 201…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) “Achievement of a Level” (ACEL) data shows that attainment at CfE Third Level or better by S3 pupils has been over 85 per cent for both literacy and numeracy since 2016-17. In 2021-22, 86 per cent of S3 pupils achieved this lev…
24 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of summer school programme funding that it made available in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023, also broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Natalie Don: The Scottish Government provided funding for summer programmes by calendar year below: 1. Total funding for the summer of 2021 - £15 million allocated to 32 local authorities via General Revenue Grant, and an additional £5 million provided to national public…
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to engage with local authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in primary and secondary schools during the school year 2023-24.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government COVID-19 guidance for schools remains in place and we know that schools continue to find the health protection principles in that guidance to be helpful in protecting the health of staff and pupils. We have however been working with P…
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how often it has engaged with COSLA in the last 24 months, and how often it plans to engage with COSLA during the current school year.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: I meet quarterly with the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, Chair and attend further meetings and events where COSLA is represented, and meet directly with Councillors across Scotland to discuss mutual areas of interest. In the period since my…
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it (a) currently provides and (b) plans to provide to local authorities to enhance student engagement in the classroom.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government is committed to listening to the voices of children and young people across the education landscape. Learner engagement and participation are vital elements within Scotland’s curriculum, and these are further enhanced with the incorpor…
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it (a) currently works and (b) plans to work with local authorities to encourage students to take STEM subjects.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, the provision of education is the responsibility of local authorities, meaning that each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities are responsible for ensuring young people in their area receive adequate provisio…
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authorities have frozen recruitment of teachers and/or school staff, and, if so, for how long each local authority has advised that it intends the freeze to last, and for what reason each freeze has been implemented.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and employment of teachers including recruitment practices are matters for individual councils.
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the milestones for the Aberdeen to Central Belt 2026 Enhancement project, as set out on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, whether the target date for "Approval in principle" of August 2023 has been "Achieved", or whether …
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Good progress continues to be made with this project. The Enhancements Delivery Plan is a Network Rail document and Network Rail will publish its update in due course in the normal manner.
22 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20065 by Jenny Gilruth on 15 August 2023, whether it will directly address the second part of the question and confirm whether or not there is a system in Scotland similar to the Early Help Scheme in England.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Getting it Right for Every Child is Scotland’s national approach to improving outcomes for children and young people. We are committed to investing £500m in Whole Family Wellbeing to improve holistic family support so that families get the right support, in t…
21 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority area of the 371 bursaries awarded to teachers in the last three years, and how many have been awarded in 2023 to date.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The breakdown for STEM bursaries awarded by local authority is available in the STEM Teacher bursary evaluation reports on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website: Search Results | Skills Development Scotland . The previous STEM bursary scheme has be…
18 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government where the details underlying the four objectives set out in the publication, Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026, which explain how each objective will be pursued and what practically each objective means, are published.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026 sets out how each objective will be pursued, specifically:delivering robust and timely evidence to support the policy making process – through publishing a suite of research reports and official statist…
18 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it cost to produce the publication, Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026, and how many civil servants were allocated to its production.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The publication cost £479.75 to produce. Two Civil Servants were allocated to its production.
17 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its School support staff 2022 statistics, whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of the increase of 2,803 pupil support assistants in schools between 2018 and 2022.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The number of full time equivalent pupil support assistants by Local Authority is available in the school support staff statistics: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/ A summary of the changes from 2018 to 2022 is provided in t…
17 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19780 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023, what proportion of the (a) £830 million spend on additional support for learning in 2021-22 and (b) £15 million per year in additional funding since 2019-20 was allocated to each local authority.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The total spend on additional support for learning in 2021-22 is set out in the following table. Local Authority Additional Support for Learning - £000s Aberdeen City 29,575 Aberdeenshire 39,957 Angus 11,681 Argyll & Bute 11,830 Clackmannanshire 1…
14 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19662 by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2023, and in light of the reported commitment by the former Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training in 2022 to look at changing the recording of those not completing the co…
Answer · Graeme Dey: In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publications including those reporting on college withdrawals, undergo systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations of the data. As an example of the continu…
14 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19662 by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2023, (a) when and (b) for what reason it ceased tracking the reasons for students not completing the courses on which they were enrolled at university.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collect information for all UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and will have taken the decision as the information collected could not adequately reflect the interlinked, complex reasons for students ending t…
13 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates it will permit the creation of Licensed Legal Services Providers under the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 before the end of 2023, and what it is waiting for before permitting such creation to begin.
Answer · Siobhian Brown: The Law Society were approved by Scottish Ministers under section 7 of the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 on 17 January 2017 and authorised by Scottish Ministers to exercise its regulatory functions as an approved regulator of licensed legal services prov…
10 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand the eligibility for the shingles vaccine, including when those aged 65 to 69 will be able to access the shingles vaccine free of charge.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendation of the Joint Vaccination of Immunisations and Vaccinations (JCVI) that the age cohorts for the Shingles vaccination programme be expanded to protect individuals at an earlier age. The vaccine will be of…
9 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether zero-hours contracts are used to employ teachers in Scotland, and, if so, how many teachers are currently employed on zero-hours contracts.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and employment of teachers including recruitment practices are matters for individual councils.
9 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how it plans to distribute the £145.5 million in the 2023-24 Budget to secure increased teacher numbers; when the money will be paid to each local authority, and what precisely it can be used for.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government has provided £145.5 million in this year’s budget to ensure local authorities:Maintain teacher numbers at 2022 census levels, as published in the Summary School Statistics in December 2022.Maintain pupil support staff numbers at 2022 c…
9 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £240 million of additional investment, to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery, each local authority received; what outcomes it anticipated as a result of this funding, and what the actual outcomes were in terms of the recrui…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Details on local authority funding allocations and the number of additional staff recruited are available on the Scottish Government website at the following link: Teachers - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
6 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered implementing any special support to pupils to help recover from any disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to the national tutoring scheme and the Oak National Academy of curricular support elsewhere in the UK, and, if it has considered such initiative…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government recognises the serious educational disruption that Scotland’s children and young people encountered during the pandemic. We have worked with partners to provide the following support:The provision of a National e-Learning Offer, was in…
6 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its understanding is of the SQA's reported “sensitive approach” to grading; what discussions it had with the SQA regarding such an approach, and what impact such an approach will have.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The package of support this year, including the "sensitive approach" to grading was agreed following discussion with stakeholders, including through the National Qualifications Group on which Scottish Government is represented. SQA’s approach to grading the …
1 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which schools are currently required to accommodate pupils in temporary modular buildings, broken down by local authority area; for how long such temporary accommodation will be required, and what remedial action it is taking to reduce the requirement for temporary modular buildings in s…
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate.
1 Aug 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, what data it holds on the number of schools that are over-capacity, such that parents are unable to send siblings to the same school; in which local authorities any such schools are situated, and what action it is taking to either expand capacity or find solutions.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether schools are over-capacity, i.e. have no places for additional pupils in a stage of education. Data on physical capacity in all local authority primary and secondary schools in Scotland is published…
25 Jul 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many newly qualified teachers (NQTs) were not offered permanent employment from August 2023, in each local authority, in order to create space for a probationary teacher.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: All newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are guaranteed a place on the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) probationer. Data on the number of teachers who are then in employment in a publicly funded school in the year following their probationary year will be is publis…
25 Jul 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers were requested by each of the 32 local authorities to commence their probationary year in August 2023, and how many were allocated to each local authority.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The number of probationers local authorities bid for was greater than the number of probationers required to be allocated. As at May 2023, local authorities bid for 3,818 probationers. The number of probationers allocated were 3,161.