Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 1015 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-18100

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a full appraisal of the Scottish Funding Council's Upskilling Fund, from its inception in 2019, including details on (a) uptake, (b) type of learner, (c) level of qualification, (d) the (i) hours and (ii) credits of learning provided and (e) any employer engagement.

All data is provided by the Scottish Funding Council. Details are as follows:

(a) Uptake

A summary of enrolments for all courses in each of the academic years (AY) since 2019-20 is as follows:-

19-20 – 4,041 enrolments

20-21 – 7,056 enrolments

21-22 – 7,144 enrolments

(b) Type of learner

Data on type of learner is not complete due to reductions in reporting requirements during Covid for 2019-20 and due to limitations in Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) reporting which covers students studying for a qualification or credit at HE level only.

The data included below has been recorded in the HESA returns for 2020-21 and 2021-22, with the caveat that this is not a complete dataset.

The following table has been taken from HESA returns

Sex	2020-21		2021-22
Sex	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
Male	2,270	37.4%	3,080	39.5%
Female	3,770	62.1%	4,685	60.0%
Other	30	0.5%	40	0.5%
Total	6,065	100%	7,805	100%

Age	2020-21		2021-22
Age	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
20 and under	145	2.4%	270	3.4%
21 to 29 yrs	1,640	27.0%	1,665	21.3%
30 and above	4,280	70.6%	5,870	75.2%
Total	6,065	100%	7,805	100%

Ethnicity	2020-21		2021-22
Ethnicity	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
White	5,020	82.7%	6,405	82.1%
BME	675	11.1%	860	11.0%
Ethnicity Not Known	375	6.2%	540	6.9%
Total	6,065	100%	7,805	100%

Disability status	2020-21		2021-22
Disability status	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
Has a Disability	645	10.6%	890	11.4%
No Known Disability	5,425	89.4%	6,915	88.6%
Total	6,065	100%	7,805	100%

Deprivation status	2020-21		2021-22
Deprivation status	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
MD20	580	10.0%	720	9.7%
Other	5,170	89.2%	6,620	89.3%
Not Known	50	0.9%	70	1.0%
Total	5,800	100%	7,410	100%

Level of qualification or credit obtained on Upskilling course	2020-21		2021-22
	Enrolments	%	Enrolments	%
SCQF L11	295	29.9%	2,635	77.3%
SCQF L10	500	50.6%	325	9.6%
SCQF L9	155	15.6%	245	7.2%
SCQF L8	5	0.7%	95	2.8%
SCQF L7	30	3.1%	110	3.2%
Total	985	100%	3,410	100%

For the purposes of data protection the figures for enrolments and qualifications have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.The percentages are based on unrounded figures.

The Upskilling Fund supports SCQF levels 7-11

(d) The (i) hours The University Upskilling Fund Guidance stipulates that provision should be shorter in duration – usually significantly shorter – than a full AY.

And (ii) credits of learning provided.

Guidance states that courses/provision should normally be credit-bearing and have some form of appropriate assessment built-in. However, this is not a necessary eligibility criterion and is at the university’s discretion, based on the nature of the particular course/ provision and the needs of students.

(e) Any employer engagement

Universities are strengthening their relationships with employers as they use their employer groups and networks and trade body partnerships in the design of programmes and in the recruitment of learners.

Question reference: S6O-02346

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many modern apprentices working in construction, from the 2017 and 2018 cohorts, are still in training.

Question reference: S6W-18080

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have participated in Skills Development Scotland's Skills for Growth programme in each year of its operation, and what analysis has been conducted of the impact of the programme on participating businesses.

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

Financial Year	Number of Employers
2012-13	25
2013-14	79
2014-15	121
2015-16	238
2016-17	222
2017-18	126
2018-19	149
2019-20	170
2020-21	120
2021-22	154
2022-23	75

SDS evaluates the Skills for Growth service every 2 years, with the next one planned for June 2023. For further information about the evaluation, please contact SDS on corporate.affairs@sds.co.uk

Question reference: S6W-17628

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is, between the point of application and receipt of the first payment, for Social Security Scotland to process a Child Disability Payment claim.

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.

Question reference: S6W-17629

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the longest delay has been, between the point of application and receipt of the first payment, for the processing of a Child Disability Payment claim to date.

Question reference: S6W-17862

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on increasing Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure to £1.75 billion by 2025, as outlined in its strategy for innovation, and what additional funding it has put in place to support this aim.

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.

Question reference: S6W-17873

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a regional breakdown of collaborations enabled by the Interface programme, also broken down by the estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) for each project.

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.

Question reference: S6W-17931

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its "blueprint" for Entrepreneurial Campuses, as set out in Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

Question reference: S6W-17778

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeship learning providers there have been in each year since 2018-19.

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

Question reference: S6W-17729

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether funding for post-diagnostic support for autistic people and their families, which is currently delivered by third sector organisations, will be renewed, and, if so, when allocations will be announced.

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.