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The draft remit for the work of the advisor on education reform was published on 17 June. The remit supports the recommendation made by the OECD for the need to simplify and better align the institutional structures that support our education system. We will shortly write to stakeholders seeking views on the remit in advance of Professor Muir taking up post in August. While I am happy to take views on the work of Professor Muir and his advisory panel I do want to see this work move on with pace and do not anticipate the final version diverging greatly from the key elements of the draft as it stands.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I will ask its Interim Chief Executive to write to you in this regard.

The Scottish Government carries out daily analysis of the occupancy levels in hotels and based on a projected increase in demand from our international students, work is underway to bring on additional capacity to meet this demand.

The Scottish Government has also been exploring with universities how student accommodation could be used in place of hotels for the purpose of managed isolation. In April 2021, Ministers agreed a statement of policy intent to permit student accommodation to be used for managed isolation for international students and students returning to Scotland following an educational exchange from a red-list country if universities can provide the necessary assurances the accommodation meets equivalent public health protection assurances as hotels used for managed isolation.

As a result the Scottish Government began discussions with universities on a proposed ‘pilot’ scheme to assess how the use of student accommodation for managed isolation would work in practice. Two universities have expressed an interest in the taking part in the pilot and guidance is currently being drafted. Officials have been engaging with Trade Unions and the National Union of Students on the proposed pilot.

Scottish Government plans are at an advanced stage in respect to forward planning for international students. It is the intention to vaccine international students, who require the COVID -19 Vaccination. We are in discussion with other interested parties and public agencies, to ensure we have the optimum delivery pathways in place.

In the academic year 2019-20, the latest for which we have complete data, there were around 60,000 students from outside the Common travel area enrolling at a Scottish University, with around half this number (30,000) beginning a new course and the other half returning for a further year. The Scottish Government does not hold information about how many of these students were resident in Scotland prior to enrolment. We estimate a similar number could be studying in Scotland in the academic year 2021-22.

As the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland has said, it is normal to look at historical school data as part of the quality assurance process in awarding national qualifications. This is designed to help support the best outcomes for our young people.

I am clear that if a learner has demonstrated they deserve a particular grade, and this grade is robust against the national standard, that is the grade they will receive.

To provide additional assurances on this, Education Scotland has liaised with all 32 local authorities who have all confirmed that historical data has not been used to unilaterally change any assessment judgements by teachers or schools.

Once the provisional grades have been submitted to the Scottish Qualifications Authority they will not be changed because of any school’s past performance.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has provided detailed information on this year’s appeals process on its website that includes Frequently Asked Questions, an interactive chatbot and a flowchart of how the process will work this year. Further details are available at: sqa.org.uk/appeals .

In addition, a leaflet is being sent out to every learner in Scotland with details of the process, along with learner support information. If young people have any questions on appeals that are not answered through these resources they can contact SQA’s customer support team at: sqa.org.uk/enquiry . Support for young people will continue to be available through the summer.

SQA has previously used podcasts and Question and Answer sessions to engage with young people and are actively looking at these for the appeals service.

Luss Bay has a designated Bathing Water and is given special protection to ensure it is safe for people to swim in during the bathing season, which normally runs from 1 June to 15 September. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has determined the current bathing water quality classification at Luss Bay as 'sufficient" and reports that there has not been any significant deterioration in annual trends at this location. The storm rainfall event last summer on 5 August 2020, did result in a poor water quality, but this was predicted by SEPA, and an appropriate poor water quality warning to the public was in place via SEPA’s real time electronic signage.

The public sewerage network in Luss, including Luss Bay, is a relatively small catchment and there are no combined sewer overflows from Scottish Water’s network in this vicinity to Loch Lomond. The Luss public sewerage network drains to Scottish Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW). During the bathing season, to protect bathing water quality, Luss WwTW uses ultraviolet treatment to disinfect the sewage effluent. Scottish Water works with SEPA very closely and through regular monitoring has not found issues with respect to its discharge in the area. The final effluent discharge from the WwTW is sampled on a regular basis and Scottish Water is not aware of breaches of its license parameters.

Overall, SEPA classifies the environmental water quality of Loch Lomond as good for the north area and moderate for the south due to impacts from agriculture. Through River Basin Management Planning, carried out by SEPA on behalf of the Scottish Government, measures are planned to address the impacts from agriculture to ensure Loch Lomond can recover to good water quality status. SEPA and Scottish Water have also worked together to inspect the sewer network along the beach area at Luss Bay and no issues have been discovered.

Of course, the Scottish Government will continue to work together with stakeholders to ensure bathing waters reach the best possible status.

To progress the implementation of this policy ahead of August 2023, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which five local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22. Those authorities are: Angus; Argyll and Bute; Falkirk; Scottish Borders; and the Shetland Islands. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support this early implementation.

We have committed to seek to add further pilots in August 2022 to further inform full implementation of the obligation. Local authorities would be selected based on their suitability for evaluation purposes, and on their readiness to deliver the obligation early. We anticipate that the pilot authorities for 2022-23 will be announced in Autumn 2021 following engagement with local authorities and CoSLA.

Colleges are responsible for making workforce-related decisions in line with legislative requirements, the Code of Good Governance for Scotland’s Colleges and the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memoranda. Such decisions may take into account the need to implement changes to the delivery of teaching and learning to reflect the changing needs of the local economy and industry skills demands, as well as on the financial health of the institution.

The Scottish Government remains firmly of the view that it is for the college unions and the employers to negotiate pay and terms and conditions voluntarily in the spirit of collaboration and co-operation. The Scottish Government continue to work with the SFC, who work closely with the sector, to ensure any actions taken are compliant with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and are in line with Fair Work principles.

We are committed to reviewing our Fair Work First criteria to specifically reference Fire and Rehire Practice.