Chamber and committees

As outlined in response to S6W-09197 on 24 June 2022 the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the draft physical intervention in schools guidance on 21 June. The draft human rights-based guidance makes clear that restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort and when in the best interests of the child or young person.

The draft guidance is a result of our 2019 agreement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2019 that non-statutory guidance be developed as a first step to improve practice in this area.

The draft guidance has been developed carefully, over time, with extensive input from over thirty working group members and partners, including the Children’s Commissioner, young people, parents, staff, local government and third sector organisations.

The consultation period has been extended to 25 October to allow all those with an interest in this sensitive area, including children and young people, to feedback their views. We will work closely with partners, following final publication, to ensure the guidance is followed.

Details of the membership and notes of the meetings of the physical intervention working group are available on the Scottish Government’s website: Physical Intervention Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

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

Theatre in Schools Scotland is an initiative managed by Imaginate and National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) to develop the provision of theatre and dance performances available for nursery and primary schools to host for their pupils.

In the first three years, fourteen productions toured over six hundred performances to schools and nurseries in every local authority across Scotland. Information on the reach of TISS is available in the following table:

Through subsidy from NTS and Imaginate tickets cost approximated £2 per child. Schools in low-income areas can use their Pupil Equity Funding to pay for access to pay for the TISS programme. The Pupil Equity Funding is allocated directly to schools and targeted at closing the poverty related attainment gap.

In addition, NTS has approached different local trust and foundations to enable free or very low cost performances in economically deprived areas.

Apprenticeships are a key way for all employers to invest in their workforce, providing the skills the economy needs both now and in the future. Official Modern Apprenticeship (MA) statistics are published by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) quarterly, including the number of starts, and are cumulative throughout the year.

The following table shows the number of MA starts from 2017 to 2021

One small contractor, actively involved in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, went into liquidation in the last year during the course of delivering a 15 home project.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Theatrical performances and cultural activities are embedded within each local establishment regime. However, the level of engagement is shaped by location, staffing resource, third sector participation and prisoner profile within each locus.

The steps taken to incorporate them are similar across the estate, where the operational needs, logistics and outcomes associated with each activity are considered within an event-planning forum and in partnership with the organisation delivering the activity.

With formal governance in place through Annual Learning Plans (ALP’s) in all establishments, the quantitative and qualitative outcomes associated with each performance or cultural activity can be considered alongside each establishments own delivery plans.

A refresh of the Equally Safe Delivery Plan outlining the joint commitment of the Scottish Government and COSLA to preventing and eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls, which includes stalking and sexual harassment, and tackling underpinning attitudes that perpetuate it, was published in June 2022. The Scottish Government also regularly monitors the effectiveness of legislation and the funding it provides to relevant support services, such as Action Against Stalking and the Scottish Women's Rights Centre.

Following the introduction of Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) in Scotland, we have seen a positive increase in the number of individuals taking up the opportunity to study for degree-level courses while in employment since the first two years of the programme.

The table below shows the number of Graduate Apprenticeship opportunities available from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

The Scottish Government holds regular meetings with COSLA covering a number of issues.

The increasing energy costs are a concern across a number of businesses in Scotland. Scottish Ministers are clear that the powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel and energy bills, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. The Scottish Government has continually urged the UK Government to use all the powers and fiscal headroom at its disposal to address the costs crisis.

The Scottish Government is committed to establishing and maintaining a dignified and accessible disability and carer benefits system. This includes support for those aged over 65 whose awards are transferring to Adult Disability Payment.

“Non-physical activity disability allowance” is not a recognised term applying to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Adult Disability Payment. In line with our established case transfer principles, people transferring to Social Security Scotland, from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), will continue to receive the correct payment at the correct time.

This means that clients will continue to receive the same mobility and care component of support when they transfer to Adult Disability Payment as they would have continued to receive on PIP after reaching state pension age. Relevant age rules will apply to any review after transfer, which means that on-going entitlement to the mobility component of Adult Disability Payment will be in line with the condition and/or disability under their previous PIP award. Where an individual's award was selected for transfer because they reported a change to the DWP, they were due to have their award reviewed, or their award was due to end, we will start the review process soon after their Adult Disability Payment award begins. In all other cases, review dates will be as far as possible aligned with their previous PIP review or end dates.

Although entitlement rules for Adult Disability Payment largely replicate PIP entitlement rules, we are confident that overall client experience will be much improved as a result of the less intrusive and client-centred assessment processes and our new forms of support and advice to help people provide relevant information when applying or having their entitlement reviewed.

The Scottish Government does not have policy control over the eligibility for rebated fuels, such as red diesel. This is a reserved policy. Changes introduced by the UK Government in April 2022 restricted the eligibility for use of rebated fuels.

An emergency budget review has been announced to assess any and all opportunities to redirect additional resources to those most in need, reduce the burdens on business and stimulate the Scottish economy. More than £4.7 billion in support has been provided to businesses since the beginning of the pandemic, including around £1.6 billion in rates relief.

Ultimately, the Scottish Government believes that all tax powers should be devolved to this parliament so that we can provide the support that Scottish businesses need.