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The organising committee for the 2014 Commonwealth Games will announce on 16 November that a funding boost has been agreed to strengthen our ability to deliver an outstanding games for Glasgow and Scotland. The increase follows a thorough review of the original budget prepared in 2007 as part of the bid for the games. The review carried out for the organising committee concluded that the original budget was insufficient to ensure that the games are delivered successfully and to the required standard. This is largely because of legislative changes, rising broadcasting costs and a more developed understanding of what is needed to deliver a successful games. The review also found that the level of contingency in the original budget was too low to provide cover for all the risks that have now been identified around the games.

The games partners have concluded that, as a consequence of this review, the games'' budget should increase from £373.4 million to £453.6 million. The additional funding will come from a mix of public and private money. The Scottish Government will provide an additional £37 million and a £20 million reserve fund. Glasgow City Council will contribute an extra £9 million and the organising committee will raise an additional £14 million through increased commercial activities. All of these figures are expressed at 2007 prices to allow direct comparison with the bid budget. The additional resources will be made available over the next five financial years.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games can be the catalyst for significant change and will generate enormous sporting, social and economic benefits for the whole of Scotland. The games need to be funded properly and the budget that is being announced will enable the potential benefits to be realised. The fact that 70% of the venues for the games are already in place and the reserve fund that is being held by government will help guarantee that there is no further pressure from the games on the public purse.

Planning for the games is on track and there has been good progress with key developments such as the games village and the National Indoor Sports Arena as well as on infrastructure projects such as the M74 extension. The organising committee has its full senior staff team in place and is working well. Planning for the handover ceremony during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi is well underway and legislation has been made to protect the Glasgow 2014 brand and ensure that income from sponsorship can be maximised. The Commonwealth Games Federation has stated publicly that the Glasgow preparations are going well and that it has confidence in the arrangements in place.

The Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme (PVG Scheme) is a new membership scheme that will replace and improve upon current disclosure arrangements for people who work with children and protected adults. It is expected to go live towards the end of 2010 and will be phased in to minimise any administrative burden on organisations.

The PVG Scheme will help to ensure that those who have regular contact with vulnerable groups through work do not have a known history of harmful behaviour. It will be quick and easy to use as it will reduce the need for PVG Scheme members to complete a detailed application form every time a disclosure check is required. Overall it will strike a balance between proportionate protection and robust regulation and make it easier for employers to determine who they should check to protect their client group.

A package of draft secondary legislation and guidance is today being published for consultation with individuals, groups and organisations that will be affected by the PVG Scheme. This marks a significant step towards implementation.

Included in the package is a draft Scottish Statutory Instrument on the two tier fee levels for PVG Scheme membership and disclosure requests. The two-tier fee level reflects feed back from earlier consultation with the vulnerable groups'' workforce.

The PVG Scheme introduces different disclosures which aim to suit different needs to make the system as quick and efficient as possible. More detailed information about the fees associated with the different disclosure types is contained in the draft SSI.

The proposed higher tier fee level of £59 will be payable when an individual first joins the PVG Scheme.

The proposed lower fee of £18 will be payable for most PVG Scheme Record Updates on existing scheme members.

All PVG Scheme Record Disclosures and Updates will continue to be made available free of charge for volunteers who work with vulnerable groups in the voluntary sector, in Scotland.

The purpose of the PVG Scheme Record Update is to enable employers to check quickly, easily and cheaply that employees or potential employees (paid or unpaid) are PVG Scheme members. This means they are not barred from working with vulnerable groups.

As over 90 per cent of PVG Scheme members are expected to have no relevant vetting information on their record this will make the whole transaction immediate and help to speed up recruitment decisions. It is anticipated that organisations will save money in the longer term as the PVG Scheme ends the need for people to complete and submit a detailed application form every time a check is required.

At the same time as the PVG Scheme is introduced, the Scottish Government plans to increase the fee for Police Act disclosures (basic, standard and residual enhanced) from £23 to £25. This will have no bearing on PVG Scheme members.

I am pleased to be able to announce to Parliament the outcome of the review of Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS).

The review has taken place as part of the simplification of the public sector landscape. A fundamental review of LTS was undertaken and, more importantly, the tasks and functions that the education community requires from national bodies and from government.

The findings of the review clearly indicate that there is a need for a national body that provides guidance, support and advice on matters related to learning and teaching, the curriculum, Glow and ICT in schools, and that Learning and Teaching Scotland should undertake this role, in conjunction with other organisations where appropriate.

Having considered the findings I have agreed the following recommendations. These are that:

LTS should be retained as an non-departmental public body,

LTS should have a core remit of areas for which it has lead responsibility (see below for further details),

LTS should make contributions to a number of other areas where it is important that it is involved,

LTS and the Scottish Government to agree additional areas where it may make a contribution,

A process should be established to ensure that the annual work plan of LTS is formally agreed with COSLA as well as the Scottish Government,

LTS should have a single budget allocation from the Scottish Government that is negotiated annually although it is recognised that amount may need to be revised in year if circumstances change.

COSLA has agreed to be involved in an annual discussion with LTS about setting of the priorities for the organisation. In addition, COSLA will nominate a representative as observer to provide advice to the LTS board.

The Scottish Government will now work with Learning and Teaching Scotland to implement the recommendations, involving other key stakeholders.

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) Core Remit:

Curriculum “ to keep the curriculum 3-18 under review and provide advice and support, including quality assured resources, on the curriculum 3-18 to ministers and the education system;

Assessment “ to provide advice and support to ministers and the education system on assessment to support learning, with support from SQA as appropriate, and to work with SQA to ensure the availability of quality assured resources to support assessment;

Glow and ICT in Schools “ to provide advice and support to ministers and the education system on the use of ICT to support education, to establish and maintain technology standards for education, to ensure practitioners have easy online access to advice and support, including digital resources and to manage the provision of the national ICT infrastructure to support education, currently Glow, the LTS online service and the local authority Interconnect;

As a public body, LTS will have a number of generic core responsibilities (in addition to its various legal duties), including:

Ensuring the services it provides are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to need (National Outcome 15 in the National Performance Framework),

Ensuring that everything it does contributes to creating a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through sustainable economic growth (the National Purpose in the Government Economic Strategy),

Ensuring it works with other public bodies to make a planned contribution to the achievement of the National Outcomes that maximises outcomes and minimises net public sector costs.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor1008-01.htm.

The 2009-10 funding per capita information requested is provided in the following table:

Local Authority	Funding Per Capita (£)
Aberdeen City	1,876
Aberdeenshire	1,946
Angus	2,125
Argyll and Bute	2,755
Clackmannanshire	2,145
Dumfries and Galloway	2,321
Dundee City	2,427
East Ayrshire	2,157
East Dunbartonshire	1,961
East Lothian	2,007
East Renfrewshire	2,125
Edinburgh (City of)	1,994
Eilean Siar	4,769
Falkirk	2,055
Fife	2,032
Glasgow City	2,871
Highland	2,477
Inverclyde	2,431
Midlothian	2,186
Moray	2,307
North Ayrshire	2,251
North Lanarkshire	2,180
Orkney Islands	4,032
Perth and Kinross	1,973
Renfrewshire	2,185
Scottish Borders	2,233
Shetland Islands	4,821
South Ayrshire	2,062
South Lanarkshire	2,068
Stirling	2,204
West Dunbartonshire	2,533
West Lothian	2,001
Scotland	2,254

 

Yes. This government is committed to reduce primary one to primary 3 class sizes to a maximum of 18. That commitment is set out in the concordat with local government. It has become evident that progress in meeting this commitment is being impeded because the statutory maximum for P1 classes remains at 30. I therefore intend to introduce regulations that will limit P1 classes to a maximum of 25 pupils as from the beginning of the next school year in 2010. Currently class sizes are governed in a number of ways from regulation, circular, terms and conditions and legislation and I also intend to establish a Class Size Review on how class sizes could be governed in the future. Further details of this review will be announced shortly.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0910-01.htm

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0903-01.htm

The Scottish Government is aware of, and shares, the concerns about unfairly withheld tenancy deposits.

As part of the recently published Review of the Private Rented Sector, the Scottish Government collected evidence on the scale and nature of unfairly withheld tenancy deposits.

The stakeholder working group, comprising tenant, landlord and agent representatives, met on 5 February 2009 to discuss the evidence on tenancy deposits, but remained divided about the extent to which this is a significant issue and the most appropriate action to take to improve tenancy deposit practice.

However, stakeholders were keen to explore the mechanisms for some form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme, which could include a statutory tenancy deposit scheme.

I would therefore like to announce that we will be producing an evidence paper on the options and costs for using ADR to resolve tenancy deposits, by the summer. We intend to present the evidence to a final meeting of the stakeholder working group with the aim of trying to reach a consensus on the most appropriate action to take.

If consensus is not possible, we will publish an options paper by the autumn, for wider public consultation with a view to making a final decision on this issue early in 2010.

Ofgem officials are observers on the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum, and attended the meetings at which the Forum developed its recommendations for the Energy Assistance Package. Ofgem also participates in the Scottish CERT Strategy Steering Group and officials were present at meetings where the Energy Assistance Package was discussed, and attended a workshop on 13 January to discuss how Stage 3 of the Energy Assistance Package would be delivered.