- 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: 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: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to North Ayrshire Council to provide free school meals to primary four children from August 2021, and to primary five children from January 2022, in the financial year 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local authorities across Scotland with £28 million to expand the universal provision of free school lunches to include all children in primary 4 starting from August 2021, and to include all children in primary 5 starting from January 2022.
We wrote to local authorities on 14 May to inform them of their allocations and I can confirm that North Ayrshire Council will receive £651,000 in additional funding to support the expansion of universal free school meals to primary 4 and primary 5 children in 2021-22.
- 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: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors local authority adherence to the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 and, if so, what its response is to reports of inconsistencies with menu choice across local authority education boards.
Answer
Compliance with the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 is monitored by Education Scotland Health and Nutrition Inspectors who support local authority caterers to undertake a nutrient analysis of school lunch menus using appropriate software to assess compliance with the nutrient standards. They also support local authority teaching and catering staff to assess compliance with all other food and drink provision across the school day against the relevant specifications.
Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 each local authority is responsible for ensuring that they comply with the statutory duties set out in the Regulations. The Regulations are flexible enough to allow for local variations in menu design which helps to ensure that local needs and preferences can be taken into account. As such we would expect to see different menus between local authorities and between schools within a local authority area.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to North Ayrshire Council to provide targeted free school meal support during school holidays in the financial year 2021-22.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local authorities across Scotland with £21.75 million to provide targeted free school meal support during the school holidays throughout the forthcoming school year. We wrote to local authorities on 14 May to inform them of their allocations and I can confirm that North Ayrshire Council will receive £704,000 in additional funding to support the delivery of free school meal approaches in all school holidays.
This support will be available to all families who are in receipt of any of the qualifying benefits which would enable them to receive free school meals, regardless of whether their children are in primary or secondary school and this support will begin at the start of the forthcoming summer holidays.
Local authorities will be given the flexibility to support eligible families through any method which they feel will best meet local needs and circumstances within their respective areas.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when the one-off pro rata £550 payment for personal assistants that it announced on 30 November 2020 will be made available through local authority health and social care partnerships.
Answer
To clarify, the one off pro rata thank you payment for all eligible health and social care staff is £500. We are working at pace with our key stakeholders to establish an effective way to pay Personal Assistants. We will issue further details as soon as this is agreed. We are confident that we have developed an online portal to reach all eligible Personal Assistants and we are aiming to have it open very soon.
- 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
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many inpatient beds there are for people with eating disorders, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Children and young people who require inpatient support for an eating disorder will be admitted to either one of the 3 regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient units, as outlined below, or be admitted to a paediatric ward.
- 24 beds - Skye House Regional Adolescent Unit, Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow
- 12 beds - Dudhope House, Dundee
- 12 beds - Young People’s Unit, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
Similarly, adults who require inpatient support will be admitted to general adult mental health wards locally, or to one of the 3 adult specialist inpatient units in Scotland:
- The Regional Eating Disorder Unit at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, which is a 12 bed unit.
- The North of Scotland Eating Disorder Unit (Eden Unit), Royal Cornhill Hospital Aberdeen, which is a 10 bedded specialist eating disorder unit.
- There are also 4 specialist eating disorder beds in general adult psychiatry ward in Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 15 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of (a) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and (b) Police Scotland response times arriving to accidents on the A77 in each year since 2017-18.
Answer
Responding to incidents is an operational matter for our Emergency Services and the Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on response times to specific incidents or locations.