- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, following the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 2 June 2021 on National Qualifications 2021, for what reason the deadline for making priority appeals has been set as 16 August.
Answer
The deadline for priority appeals was originally set as 16 August to ensure that SQA and their appointees have sufficient time to process these cases to meet with UCAS deadlines of 8 September.
Following discussion with education partners on the National Qualifications 21 Group, this date has now been extended to 24 August to ensure that there is sufficient time after the start of the new session for centres to submit appeals and supporting evidence for those learners with immediate progression needs for further education, higher education or workplace progression. In moving to this date, the proposal is that centres will submit evidence digitally.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, following the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 2 June 2021 on National Qualifications 2021, what impact it expects the appeals process to have on the workloads of teachers.
Answer
The appeals process was developed following consultation and stakeholder engagement. This included consideration of teacher workload.
Teachers are encouraged to have discussions with their learners in advance of submitting their provisional grades and, if learners are unhappy with these results, will have a further dialogue in advance of any appeal to advise on the process.
Schools and colleges are expected to support their learners in accessing the appeals service where needed and, where a learner is appealing against the academic judgement made, will be asked to provide all the necessary evidence and materials that were used to determine the learner's result.
SQA will review the learner's submission and may, if necessary, discuss aspects with the relevant teacher.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated cost for ministerial travel, including car fleet purchasing and maintenance, is for 2021-22, and how this compares with actual spend on this in each of the last five years.
Answer
Estimated costs for the Government Car Service (GCS), including purchasing and maintenance, for 2021-22 and actual spend for each of the last 5 years, are provided in the following table.
Year | Total cost (1) |
16-17 | £ 1,125,173 |
17-18 | £ 1,248,912 |
18-19 | £ 1,556,863 |
19-20 | £ 1,685,164 |
20-21 | £ 1,369,852 |
21-22 (2) | £ 1,375,695 |
1. Costs include fuel, maintenance, private hire, staff, travel and subsistence and vehicle procurement.
2. Estimated costs – budgets not formally agreed.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) charged and (b) convicted of altering images or producing deepfake pornographic material in each year since 2017.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Altering images or producing deepfake pornographic material is not a specific offence, therefore:
(a) the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal service are unable to separately identify such offences from their database and provide number of charges and
(b) The Scottish Government is also unable to separately identify convictions from their database for the same reason.
Altering images or producing deepfake pornographic material is not a specific offence and the production of such material in itself, would probably not amount to a criminal offence. However, the distribution, publication or sale etc. of such material, where it appears to depict a person who has not consented to such a depiction may amount to a criminal offence. Depending on the facts and circumstances, this may be capable of being charged under offences including section 2 of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 (non-consensual sharing of intimate images), section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (threatening or abusive behaviour) or section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 (misuse of a public electronic communications network). However, the Scottish Government’s and COPFS data only details numbers of convictions and charges under these acts, and not detailed information on the specific conduct which resulted in the charge or conviction.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, following the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 2 June 2021 on National Qualifications 2021, how students wishing to use the priority appeal process will be supported during the school summer holidays.
Answer
Students will be able to register an intention to appeal from 25 June. However, the formal appeals process will not commence until the results are issued on 10 August. Universities will not confirm offers until they have received the certificated grades in August.
For those students waiting on a result for a university or college place or for an employment or training programme, appeals will be processed as a priority.
The SDS Helpline will be available through the summer for students to talk to an experienced adviser, with the dedicated Results Helpline opening from 10 August. The National Qualifications 21 Group has issued a letter to learners highlighting a range of support available. This is available online and can be accessed at:
https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/NQ21-letter-supports-for-learners.pdf
SQA is arranging for a hard copy of the letter to be sent out to all learners.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for a nationally co-ordinated solution, either electronic-based or physical, which will enable members of the public to demonstrate that they have received one or more COVID-19 vaccinations, to assist in scenarios where such evidence will be required to allow access to travel, services, entry or participation in a variety of day-to-day activities.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-00019 on 26 May 2021. The answer is available on the Parliament's website at: Official Report - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament .
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide updated funding figures on its website for the national public bodies directory.
Answer
The national public bodies directory has been updated to reflect the most up to date funding information for individual public bodies. I refer the member to the website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/pages/executive-non-departmental-public-bodies/
- Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Tom Arthur on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with consulting retail employees and businesses regarding large retail stores trading on New Year’s Day.
Answer
The Scottish Government has launched a 10 week consultation into New Year’s Day trading for large retail stores today.
The consultation is seeking the views of shop workers and retail businesses and their representatives on whether the current law should change so that large retail businesses must close on New Year’s Day, as they currently do on Christmas Day. I would encourage all relevant parties to access the consultation on the Scottish Government’s consultation hub to ensure their views are taken into account.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many members the Council for Economic Transformation will consist of; by what date the membership will be announced, and how often the group will meet.
Answer
Arrangements are being put in place to establish the new Council for Economic Transformation, which will shape and drive our 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation. We have already publicly committed to do this within our first 100 days and we will update with regard to progress shortly.
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment made in its Economic Recovery Implementation Plan in August 2020, what action it has taken to make it easier for (a) small- and (b) medium-sized businesses to access and compete for public sector contracts, and what impact this has had on the number of such businesses accessing these contracts.
Answer
SMEs and micro businesses are critical to the social, economic and environmental health of Scotland and we are committed to leveraging the full procurement rules to make it as easy possible for SMEs to bid for and win public procurement contracts and/or participate in local supply chains:
- Scotland outperforms the UK Gov target of 33% central government procurement spend going with SMEs by 2022. Even without target setting, in Scotland, 47% of public procurement spend in 2018-2019 went to SMEs; exceeding UKG( 26%), EU average (45%) and US(30%).
- last year, 58% of procurement spend on Scottish businesses went to SMEs, which account for only 40% of business turnover in Scotland, showing that SMEs are able to take advantage of the significant benefits that exist in relation to engaging with public procurement in Scotland.
- In 2019-20, over 26,000 suppliers were awarded public sector contracts worth £6.9bn through our Public Contracts Scotland portal; our data shows that 79% of suppliers awarded contracts in Scotland were SMEs from all locations and 63% were Scottish SMEs.
- We continue to provide funding (up to £150,000 in 2021-22) to the Supplier Development Programme which delivers free training and guidance on how to submit and win public procurement bids. During FY 2020-21, over 2,400 Scottish SMEs attended training events with 93% stating they were more likely to bid for public sector contracts as a direct result.
- The Supplier Development Programme also delivers free local and national Meet the Buyer events to put suppliers in touch with public sector buyers to learn more about up and coming contracts
- In March 2021, we published the results of a comprehensive survey of suppliers which received over 1550 responses. Its findings indicate that there is much to be positive about in respect of Scottish public sector procurement and the recent work done to improve it. At the same time it found that there are clearly areas in which the Scottish public sector could do more to build on the steps already taken to maximise the impact of public procurement in Scotland.
- This year we have also launched a series of SME round table meetings to hear directly from SME suppliers about their experiences of bidding for and winning public contracts.
- Of the [1] £369 million that Scottish Government spent through its contracts, over £120 million went directly to SMEs, with many more SMEs benefiting through our supply chains; they shared over £40 million of spend as subcontractors, with £30 million of that going to Scottish SMEs.
[1] Scottish Government Procurement Annual Report 2020