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Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has delivered Skills for Growth to the following number of employers:

Since August 2005, when Interface was established, it has played a role in facilitating 3,410 collaborative projects with 2,144 unique businesses. Between August 2018 and April 2023, Interface brokered 1,528 collaborations with universities, research institutes and colleges in Scotland. The regional breakdown of collaborative projects is 331 for Highlands and Islands, 353 for Glasgow City Region, 107 for South of Scotland, 359 for Edinburgh and the Lothians, 90 for Central and 288 for the North East. In 2021, an independent evaluation of Interface activity showed that the contribution to the Scottish economy from research and development projects between businesses and academics enabled by Interface was £88.9m GVA (gross value added) supporting 1,595 jobs, with expectations to reach £222.3m GVA and 3,193 jobs.

Provisional data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure estimate for Scotland in 2021 was £3.12bn. Note that the ONS has recently changed their measurement of BERD. The BERD statistics methodology has been improved to better capture data from smaller businesses, which has led to significant uplift revisions to BERD expenditure estimates. More work is required to further quality assure the new methodology and we will continue to work with the ONS on that. The Scottish Government and its agencies invested an additional £45m to support the increase of BERD between 2018 and 2021.

I refer the member to the question S6W-17628 on 25 May 2023. 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/written-questions-and-answers .

Official statistics covering processing times for Child Disability Payment are published as a part of the regularly scheduled quarterly publication. The latest Child Disability Payment statistical publication was published on Tuesday 16 May 2023. Information on the average processing time by month is included in table 9. This publication is available from https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#benefitsforcarersanddisabilityassistance .

Processing time is the number of working days from part 2 of the application being received to a decision being made or the application being withdrawn. It does not include time to make payments. We would normally advise to allow up to 5 days to reach a bank account once a payment is authorised.

The Scottish Government has been engaging with tertiary education providers, and other relevant stakeholders, on how to implement a structure to best support entrepreneurialism in colleges and universities and intends to publish its blueprint on entrepreneurial campuses prior to Summer recess.

There are a range of training providers across Scotland delivering training for apprenticeships including Independent Training Providers, Colleges, Universities and Third Sector Organisations.

The number of Modern Apprenticeship contracts by year are as follows:

• 2018-19 – 268
• 2019-20 – 256
• 2020-21 – 255
• 2021-22 – 243
• 2022-23 – 228

The number of Foundation Apprenticeship providers were as follows:

• 2018 – 17
• 2019 – 39
• 2020 – 39
•  2021 – 40
• 2022 – 39

The number of Graduate Apprenticeship providers were as follows:

• 2018-19 – 13
• 2019-20 – 15
• 2020-21 – 14
• 2021-22 – 12
• 2022-23 – 12

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £2m since December 2020 to a number of third sector organisations to pilot Autism Post Diagnostic Support Schemes. The pilots and associated funding were extended to March 2023. We are currently working to develop a permanent Autism Post Diagnostic Support scheme, which will be informed by the pilot, and will confirm arrangements soon.

We are keeping stakeholders up to date with progress.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

As at the date of your request, the following Special Advisers were in post:

Colin McAllister

Callum McCaig

Jeanette Campbell

Gavin Corbett

Ewan Crawford

Jennie Gollan

David Hutchison

Harry Huyton

Ross Ingebrigtsen

Emily Mackintosh

Jack Middleton

The Pay Bands and Pay Ranges for those Special Advisers are as follows:

The latest Higher Education – Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey Report by the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) was published on 04 April 2023. This survey includes information on the number of active spin-offs founded at Scottish Higher Education Institutions, the turnover generated at these spin-offs as well as employment numbers.