- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, how many staff the new Scotland-wide statutory board that is expected to deliver international activities and support will have; what the cost will be, and whether the staff will be new employees or assigned from its agencies.
Answer
Detailed operational planning for the new Scotland-wide statutory board has yet to be taken forward. This work will take place as part of phase 2 of the review. We plan to consult with the current boards to take this forward.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, what its position is on whether the alignment of functions of learning and skills agencies could result in the merger of Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.
Answer
There are currently no plans to merge Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland. Plans to better align of the functions of the two agencies will be developed as part of phase 2 of the review.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, by what date the innovation and investment hub in Berlin will be established; how many staff will be based there, and at what cost.
Answer
Plans to establish an innovation and investment hub in Berlin are currently in development and details will be made available in due course.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 10 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what projection it made in 2012-13 of the (a) mean, (b) median and (c) total student debt for each year from 2012-13 to 2017-18; how this compares with the actual figures for each year up to 2015-16, and what projection it has made for each of the next five years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not make student debt projections.
However, the Student Loans Company publishes data on total student debt and average student debt:
http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx
Table 1: Total amount owed by borrowers who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK, or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland
Amount of Loan Balance in £ millions
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As at end of tax year
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2012-13
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2013-14
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2014-15
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All ICR borrowers with a Loan Balance
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2,314.6
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2,519.5
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2,809.7
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Source: Student Loans Company
Table 2: Average Loan Balance for borrowers who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK, or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland
Average Loan Balance in £
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As at end of tax year
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2012-13
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2013-14
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2014-15
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All ICR borrowers with a Loan Balance
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7,230.0
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7,460.0
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7,870.0
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Source: Student Loans Company
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what duties Scottish Qualifications Authority examination invigilators undertake, and how long those duties are expected to take beyond the duration of examination times.
Answer
This is an operational matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). I have asked the Chief Executive of SQA to write to you.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) regarding the status of "appointees" to the SQA, and whether they are (a) paid at least the living wage and (b) considered to be employees of the SQA.
Answer
Scottish Government is in regular contact with SQA on a range of issues.
Payment of the Living Wage is a commitment the Scottish Government takes extremely seriously. The Scottish Government introduced the requirement to pay the Living Wage as an integral part of its public sector pay policy in 2011-12. We also expect all public bodies with Living Wage Accreditation to fully comply with the terms of that accreditation.
Ministers have sought assurances from SQA on these issues. The SQA has confirmed that it is a Living Wage Employer and that it applies the Living Wage to all appointees, including invigilators.
The status of appointees is an operational matter for SQA. I have asked the Chief Executive of SQA to write to you.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government when it will begin providing the Best Start Grant.
Answer
The timescales for delivering the Best Start Grant and the other social security benefits that are being devolved are yet to be finalised. Our consultation on the future of social security closed last week and we will use this and the information gathered from the many events we held, to help inform our decisions.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list each (a) consultation and (b) review that it has announced since May 2016; broken down by the (i) minister in charge and (ii) title, subject and date of each announcement, and whether it will publish details of (A) where any findings can or will be found online and (B) the date the results were or will be published.
Answer
The Scottish Government now runs all consultations online through its consultation hub (http://consult.scotland.gov.uk). Each consultation is listed with its title, start and end dates. Consultations can be filtered by subject (interest) and policy team (department), however there is no facility to filter or view consultations by Minister or Ministerial portfolio.
If known, a consultation will indicate the date when findings will be published. Consultation responses and findings, where published, are attached to each consultation.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, what the remit will be of the review of the learning journey.
Answer
The Learner Journey review will build on the solid foundations of Getting It Right For Every Child, Curriculum for Excellence and Developing the Young Workforce to further improve young people’s experience of moving through school, college, training, university or employment.
The review process, underway through the commissioning of research into the experience of young people at various points in the system, will consider 5 themes: careers information, advice and guidance; access; provision; transitions and progression; and funding. The Scottish Government will undertake a process of evidence gathering and extensive engagement with learners and those who work with them to identify improvements. We will publish more detail about that process by the end of this year.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 4 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in its publication, Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education: A Delivery Plan for Scotland, what progress has been made in focussing school inspection and self-evaluation more directly on closing the attainment gap.
Answer
Good progress has been made. A new model of inspection was introduced in September 2016 following extensive consultation with stakeholders. The school inspection is based around the self-evaluation framework How Good is Our School? 4 (HGIOS?4) which sets out Quality Indicators (QI) together with associated key themes.
The QI ‘Raising attainment and achievement’ is one of four QIs being evaluated on all school inspections this academic year. In all inspections, this QI is graded on a six-point scale (excellent; very good; good; satisfactory; weak and unsatisfactory) and evaluates the extent of schools’ success in raising attainment and closing the attainment gap. The QI includes the illustration of an evaluation of Very Good: ‘we have raised the attainment of all our learners and in particular our most disadvantaged children and young people’ as an example of the ‘Equity for all learners’ theme. Discussions on this theme include a focus on how schools are using their SIMD data and what the school is doing to close the poverty-related attainment gap.
Education Scotland will continue to monitor and evaluate the reporting through HGIOS?4 on closing the attainment gap.
Schools’ own self-evaluation reports form an important part of the inspection evidence. Inspectors use these reports help them make judgements on how well schools are raising attainment and achievement, and how well schools’ self-evaluate their performance across a range of QIs.