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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-03924

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many classroom ventilation inspections were carried out before schools started the October 2021 holidays.

Question reference: S6W-03925

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used for the assessment of classroom ventilation, and how many classrooms have failed a ventilation inspection, broken down by local authority area.

The precise practical steps that each local authority took to conduct ventilation assessments of learning teaching and play spaces depended on the type/model/brand of CO2 monitors that the local authority used. Local authorities were asked to undertake assessments by reference to the Reducing Risks in Schools Guidance, which sets out the levels of CO2 that should be used to identify and prioritise spaces for improvement.

Details on individual assessments are held by local authorities. However, local authorities were asked to provide the Scottish Government with information on any ventilation mitigations or remedial action arising from the CO2 monitoring exercise. Local authorities have to date reported only limited instances of remedial action being required in their learning estates as a result of initial CO2 monitoring. Where actions have been required, they have most often been simple measures.

Question reference: S6W-03926

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish all data relating to classroom ventilation inspections in 2021.

Question reference: S6W-03928

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide (a) an update on how much of the £10 million fund made available to local authorities for active ventilation in classrooms has been spent and (b) details of how the funding has been spent, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government confirmed a total of £10m funding allocations to local authorities in its grant letter on 14 October 2021. The funding allocations for all local authorities have been agreed and grant payments will be made in line with standard processes and timelines. Local authorities have confirmed that they have been progressing their purchases of CO2 monitors on the basis of confirmed funding allocations. We have requested formal confirmation by the end of November that all funding provided has been, or will be, used for the specified purposes.

Question reference: S6O-00333

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are for active ventilation in classrooms now that its inspection programme has been completed.

Question reference: S6O-00298

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans have been made for the delivery of same-day prescribing under national Medication Assisted Treatment standards in Brechin, Angus.

Question reference: S6W-03410

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce the third phase of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

Question reference: S6W-03340

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much was awarded by each local authority from the most recent round of funding from its Green Jobs Fund, also broken down by how many (a) awards were made and (b) jobs are expected to be directly created in each area as a result of the funding allocated.

As of 12 October 2021, 36 projects have been awarded funding through the Green Jobs Fund (GJF). This amounts to £8,944,969 of funding across 18 different local authority areas. The total number of jobs to be created from this first allocation of funding is expected to be 517.8 FTE. A second GJF funding allocation round will take place later this year.

The following table shows the breakdown of current awards by local authority, detailing the amounts awarded, the number of awards made and the number of jobs expected to be created in each local authority as a result of the funding allocated.

Local Authority	Amount of funding awarded	Number of awards made	Number of jobs expected to be created over a 5 year period (FTE)
Aberdeen City Council	£708,000	3	68
Aberdeenshire Council	£665,000	3	94
Angus Council	£291,200	1	9
City of Edinburgh Council	£1,794,489	6	34
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	£87,000	1	14
Dumfries and Galloway	£400,000	2	27
Dundee City Council	£400,000	1	21
East Dunbartonshire Council	£450,000	1	22
Falkirk Council	£200,000	1	15
Fife Council	£250,000	1	12
Glasgow City Council	£1,094,601	4	84
Moray Council	£200,000	1	22
North Lanarkshire Council	£1,234,572	4	56
Shetland Islands Council	£240,000	2	9.8
South Lanarkshire Council	£200,000	1	5
Stirling Council	£199,330	1	3
The Highland Council	£309,554	2	16
West Lothian Council	£221,223	1	6
Total	£8,944,969	36	517.8

Question reference: S6W-01165

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-29691 and S5W-22664 by Angela Constance on 2 March 2016 and by John Swinney on 1 May 2019, whether it will provide the figures for each year since 2018-19.

Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per pre-school registration, and primary and secondary pupil along with information on teaching allocations per college and university place (Average Teaching Grant Funding per FTE - including controlled SG funded places – expenditure on tuition fees and student support not included).

Table 1: Average expenditure per place for each education level in cash terms
Education level	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13 1	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16 2	2016-17 3	2017-18 4	2018-19 4,5	2019-20 4,6	2020-21
Pre-school	£3,456	£3,193	£3,194	£3,102	£3,411	£3,957	£4,344	£4,561	£5,190	£6,958	-
Primary School	£5,001	£4,935	£4,899	£4,880	£4,819	£4,877	£4,980	£5,169	£5,444	£5,779	-
Secondary School	£6,598	£6,495	£6,629	£6,714	£6,795	£6,920	£7,046	£7,127	£7,454	£7,787	-
College	£3,803	£3,601	£3,496	£3,317	£3,317	£3,421	£3,527	£3,615	£3,972	£4,064	£4,284
University	£5,219	£5,115	£5,379	£5,514	£5,620	£5,655	£5,435	£5,437	£5,560	£5,563	£5,703

Table 2 provides the same information in 2020-21 prices.

Table 2: Average expenditure per place for each education level in real terms (2020-21=100)
Education level	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13 1	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16 2	2016-17 3	2017-18 4	2018-19 4,5	2019-20 4,6	2020-21
Pre-school	£4,321	£3,933	£3,854	£3,678	£3,989	£4,589	£4,917	£5,073	£5,641	£7,397	-
Primary School	£6,252	£6,078	£5,912	£5,785	£5,635	£5,657	£5,636	£5,749	£5,917	£6,143	-
Secondary School	£8,249	£7,999	£8,000	£7,959	£7,946	£8,026	£7,975	£7,927	£8,102	£8,278	-
College	£4,754	£4,435	£4,219	£3,932	£3,879	£3,968	£3,992	£4,021	£4,318	£4,321	£4,284
University	£6,525	£6,299	£6,492	£6,537	£6,572	£6,559	£6,152	£6,047	£6,044	£5,913	£5,703

For pre-school education, estimates are derived by dividing total expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers on pre-school education, reported by local authorities in the Local Finance Return, by the total number of early learning and childcare registrations, reported in the Scottish Government’s Early Learning and Childcare statistics.

Average gross revenue expenditure per pupil in primary and secondary education respectively is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers, reported by local authorities on primary and secondary education to the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in primary and secondary education as per the most recent statistics reported in the pupil census.

To ensure comparability with the 2019-20 figures, the earlier figures provided here for pre-primary, primary and secondary education expenditure have been re-calculated on a consistent basis and have been updated to take into account any methodological changes and revisions to the calculation of expenditure figures from the Local Government Financial returns. Some of the figures presented here, therefore, may differ from those provided previously in answers to parliamentary questions.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have supplied detail of the cost of a College place (expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE)). This is calculated by taking funding provided to Colleges for core teaching and fee waiver grant divided by the weighted SUMs (relative cost to a college of delivering different subjects). Expenditure excludes tuition fees not paid by SFC (mainly the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)) and student support funding or funding from the European Social Fund.

The cost of a University place, also provided by the SFC, is estimated by taking the total teaching grant awarded to Universities divided by the total number of SFC funded places for Scottish and EU domiciled FTEs. Expenditure figures exclude funding for student support, SFC’s research and strategic funds, and tuition fees that SAAS pay. Total FTE figures are SFC/SG funded places and do not include fees only and international places.

Real terms figures are in 2020-21 prices and are calculated using HM Treasury’s GDP Deflator Series, June 2021.

Additional notes

1. The rest of UK places were removed from 2012-13 on a phased basis (new students in 2012-13 and each new cohort thereafter over a 5 year period).

2. In AY 2015-16 SFC moved college funding to a credits based system, rather than WSUMS. It is assumed that 15 credits = 1 FTE.

3. In AY 2016-17 there was a 2.9% reduction in HEI gross teaching prices.

4. In 2017-18 and 2018-19, funding for colleges includes additional funding for national bargaining.

5. In 2018-19, The additional places at St Andrew’s for rUK Calman students clinical training were funded separately by SFC however are not included for continuance.

6. The university allocation includes funded places and funding for childcare that were announced after the publication of the final funding announcement, to ensure consistency with other years

7. The funded places/weighted SUMS/credits figures used are taken from the final published main grant letters or outcome agreements, and do not take account of any subsequent adjustments.

8. SFC (not matched) ESF funding included together with all ESF student number targets.

9. A “-“ symbol indicates no available data.

Question reference: S6W-00611

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its revised deadlines for the installation of smoke and heat detectors in all homes are on schedule.

Fire safety remains our priority and changes to the requirement for fire and carbon monoxide detectors in all homes mean that everyone will benefit from the same level of protection, whether they own their home or rent. The regulations will come into force on 1 February 2022 as scheduled. We will be undertaking a comprehensive awareness raising campaign which will look to help support people to fit the necessary alarms to the new standard.