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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-21980

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19661 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023, when it will conclude and publish the findings of the Student Finance and Wellbeing Study, which will provide data on paid work undertaken by students.

Question reference: S6W-21889

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the resource funding increase of £46 million for the college and university sectors, announced in the Budget statement on 15 December 2022, was specifically intended to be used for; whether it expects colleges and universities to still proceed with that work, in light of the funding being withdrawn, and, if not, what its position (a) was on the importance of this work in December 2022, in light of its decision to allocate an additional £46 million of funding for it at that time, and (b) is on whether this work is still necessary.

The £46 million funding was intended to support strategic change in the college and university sectors and was not part of the core teaching funding allocations. Despite a very challenging financial climate, the Scottish Government committed nearly £2 billion to Scotland’s universities and colleges in 2023-24. Part of the reason for withdrawing the £46 million funding was to allow the Scottish Government to fund public sector pay deals. Strategic change remains necessary and we will be taking this forward with the Scottish Funding Council, colleges and universities in the context of reform, building on the purpose and principles for post-school education published in June 2023. This can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-school-education-research-skills-purpose-principles/

Question reference: S6W-21997

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21421 by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023, in relation to the 280,000 devices that have been distributed, whether it can provide a breakdown by type of device, including for example, laptop and tablet, and, at the point of distribution, how many devices were in a (a) new and (b) used condition.

Question reference: S6W-21922

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made in developing and delivering a fully costed infrastructure delivery plan for the college sector.

Question reference: S6W-21921

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when an updated Estates Condition Survey for the college sector will be conducted and completed, in light of the last survey, which was completed in 2017 and estimated that £360 million of work was required in the subsequent five years to bring the college estate to a generally sound (wind and watertight) condition.

The Scottish Funding Council’s “College Infrastructure Strategy: The Approach to Delivering Scotland’s College Infrastructure”, was published in November 2022. Following on from publication of the strategy, the Infrastructure Investment Plan for colleges, due to be published by autumn 2024, will identify future infrastructure investment needed for a sustainable college estate. The work on delivering the plan has begun and will include baselining the condition of the college estate.

Question reference: S6W-21884

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it budgeted for the new funding model for post-school education provision announced in the 2023-24 Programme for Government; what progress has been made on developing this model; what the timescales are that it is working to, and when it plans to announce the results of the development.

At her recent appearance at the Education Committee, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills outlined the rationale for developing a new funding model and that the Scottish Government was at an early stage in its deliberations. The Skills Delivery Landscape Review outlined that there was significant funding within the system that could be better utilised that this commitment is looking to address.

The Scottish Government will update on wider reform including progress on the funding model in the coming months.

Question reference: S6W-21959

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21420 by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what consequences there are for local authorities that do not meet its commitment to provide every school pupil with their own laptop or other digital device, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

Question reference: S6W-21885

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consequences local authorities will face if they do not increase teacher numbers to the levels that it requires.

The Scottish Government has provided £145.5 million in this year’s budget on the condition that 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 census levels, as published on 21 March 2023 based on the data collected from local authorities in September 2022.

£100 million of this funding is distributed to local authorities as part of the 2023-24 General Revenue Grant. The remaining £45.5 million will also be distributed to local authorities following confirmation that these conditions have been met.

In assessing whether these conditions have been met, we will consider any mitigating circumstances individual councils may wish to put forward.

Question reference: S6W-21888

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the teacher audit referred to by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills at the meeting of the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 27 September 2023, who or what body will carry out the audit; over what period it will be undertaken; when it will report; in what form it will report; whether any report will be published; what the remit and scope will be; what specifically it will look at; what prompted the decision to undertake a teacher audit; what will be done with the conclusions, and over what timeframe.

The “Provision of Education Workforce Modelling and Analysis” is an external exercise I am commissioning to help inform decisions on education workforce planning for future years. This work will bring together a range of factors including current teacher numbers, pupil teacher ratios and the projected decline in the number of school-aged children.

We need to consider all of these issues holistically and ensure we will have an education workforce in place that enables us to progress our commitments to reducing teachers’ class contact time, raising attainment overall, closing the poverty related attainment gap and improving additional support for learning, while delivering maximum value for money.

The Invitation to Tender was published on 15 September and I anticipate the successful bidder being appointed later this month, with a view to reporting by the end of December 2023.

An update will be provided once this work has concluded and been fully considered.

Question reference: S6W-21918

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which had previously been due to be published in Spring 2022, will now not be available until summer 2024.

In January 2023 we published the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan for consultation, after a delay to ensure wide stakeholder engagement and to allow for the finalisation of the technical evidence base.

The consultation closed on 9 May 2023 and received a very high level of responses. We published an independent consultation analysis report in September 2023. It is critical that we respond to the views expressed in the consultation and continue to engage with stakeholders as we work towards the final publication by Summer 2024, including the Just Transition Commission.