Chamber and committees

We are monitoring progress against this commitment through the Annual Delivery Plan’s being provided by Health Boards and the Public Health Scotland annual Scottish Health Service Costs Publication. We are providing support to individual NHS Boards towards meeting the target via our routine engagement and in-year/end-year reviews. We are also developing additional guidance and advice to NHS Boards on the criteria to report against the target with the aim of providing a consistent benchmark nationally.

The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) was replaced with the more comprehensive Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data collection as part of the development of the National Improvement Framework for Scottish education. This was partly in response to advice from the OECD following its 2015 review of Scottish education which said that said the sample approach of the SSLN did not give national agencies enough evidence - “The light sampling of literacy and numeracy at the national level has not provided sufficient evidence for other stakeholders to use in their own evaluative activities or for national agencies to identify with confidence the areas of strength in the years of the Broad General Education across the four capacities of CfE."

The SSLN did not provide any detailed information for local authorities and schools about the progress of individual children. The ACEL data provides the attainment levels of every child in Scotland at key stages in primary and secondary school, and provides detailed data at all levels of the system, allowing schools and local authorities to better target improvement activity. Moving to ACEL data also empowers teachers, placing primacy on their professional judgement as the key indicator of children’s progress prior to national qualifications.

Further to question S6W-21835, I can confirm that no further working groups have been established since October 2023 within the Education and Skills portfolio.

I can confirm that all of the working groups listed in that answer are still active. However please note, one additional group was missed in the original PQ response. Therefore the current active working groups are as follows:

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) engage regularly with colleges, which, are key anchors for the transition to Net Zero, acting as both community enablers and demonstration hubs in cities and regions.

SFC’s College Infrastructure Strategy , published in November 2022, describes the Scottish Funding Council’s approach to determining future investment in Scotland’s college estate and other college infrastructure. The strategy sets out the collective approach between SFC and colleges to develop an Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) for Scotland’s colleges. The plan, which will cover the period from 2024-34, will identify infrastructure investment need including investment for net zero.

Open general export licences (OGELs) are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not hold data or information on OGELs.

In a wider context, the First Minister has recently asked the Prime Minister for a ban on licencing of arms exports from the UK to Israel, which would also extend to any relevant products currently manufactured in Scotland.

The UK Government publishes statistics on strategic export licences at: Strategic export controls: licensing data annual reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) However, these data sets do not identify where the licenced items are produced.

The natural regeneration of trees, scrub and associated ground vegetation across most parts of Scotland will be potentially vulnerable to deer (and other herbivore) impacts, such as browsing, fraying and trampling (as will young, planted trees and shrubs). When considering the impact of deer on our natural environment we look at a variety of evidence as well as advice from NatureScot. The data available for the impacts of deer numbers on natural regeneration is limited and may be combined with data for planted trees.

On Scotland’s National Forests and Land alone, which makes up almost 10% of Scotland, around 150 million young trees, naturally regenerated and planted, can be vulnerable to deer damage impacts at any one time. This includes native woodland, productive woodland (broadleaved and soft conifer tree species), and the expansion of natural regeneration onto open ground. The number and area of young trees and scrub vulnerable to deer damage impacts across the whole of Scotland will be significantly higher.

In terms of national data and evidence, recent statistics on Woodland Ecological condition produced by Forest Research shows that herbivore damage, which includes wild deer, is widespread with almost 50% of woodland area in unfavourable condition as a result of grazing.

Alongside that report, a 2013 a study on the National Forest Estate found that 15-20% of young trees had been damaged by deer. Then in 2014 the first Native Woodland Survey of Scotland assessed around 311,000 hectares of Scottish woodland, found that deer were present in over 70%, and that over 30% of that area had high or very high browsing impacts which were considered too high for the woodlands to survive by natural regeneration.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to deer densities and our focus is on evidence of impacts when considering the best approach, the Deer Working Group recommended a target of 10 red deer per square kilometre in open hill, red deer range. We accepted that recommendation, and recognise that there are some areas of Scotland where that target is already being met. However, there are also areas of Scotland where deer populations, all four species, may be in excess of 20 deer per square kilometre and will be causing significant damage. We also recognise that in areas where there is to be natural regeneration, a density of 10 deer per square kilometre is still too high. The successful establishment and sustained management of natural regeneration can require low to very low deer densities of 1-5 deer per square kilometre, and for many woodland and open ground habitats may need to be sustained at densities as low as 2-3 deer per square kilometre.

The percentage of the estimated cohort who did not complete the SNSA assessments in each year since 2017 is detailed in the following table.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning developed a set of ambitions in order to help inform its work, including the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Since then, discussion and work has been ongoing to refine the workplan, to ensure that it is able to enact the type of long term, complex, systemic change that is needed. I am committed to continuing and accelerating such work to ensure that girls and young women have a gender equal experience of education and learning.

Offshore oil and gas licensing and the associated fiscal regime are both reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not undertake detailed assessments of the economic impacts of individual oil and gas field developments.

We are aware that Equinor, as 80% owner of the Rosebank field, has stated that they expect it to create £8.5 billion of total direct investment (of which 77% is expected to be in UK-based businesses).

The Scottish Government recognises, and welcomes, the positive contribution that North Sea oil and gas continues to make to the economy. The answer to question S6W-25271 on 27 February 2024 on includes information on the Gross Value Added by the oil and industry as a whole to Scotland's economy. It is also the case that the North Sea basin is declining and unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is inconsistent with the climate emergency and our just transition commitments.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The published 2023-24 Autumn Budget Revision at the link below shares that this funding came from the release of emerging/planned underspends from Lifelong Learning and Skills to support other SG priorities. Autumn Budget Revision 2023 to 2024: supporting document - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
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Further detail on this was confirmed in the Deputy First Minister’s letter to the Finance and Public Administration committee (FPAC) available at this link: Letter from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to the Convener of 21 November 2023 (parliament.scot)

Annex A confirms that the £6.2 million is in respect of a reduction in grant spend on Higher Education International Activity.