- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the independent schools sector regarding the impact of the implementation of VAT on school lunches.
Answer
Scottish Government officials have continued to engage with the Scottish Council of Independent Schools and Local Authorities on the impact of the removal of the VAT exemption for independent school fees on independent schools, their pupils, families and the state sector in Scotland.
I am advised that the independent sector has not to date raised school lunches as an issue with Scottish Government, however my officials remain open to discussions with the sector on any matters of concern. HMRC wrote to all Scottish independent schools in October 2024 to provide the following UK Government guidance on charging and reclaiming VAT on goods, services and payments. This included school meals: Charging and reclaiming VAT on goods and services related to private school fees - GOV.UK
As this is a UK Government policy, it is the responsibility of the UK Government to engage fully and clearly communicate the impacts of changes for Scottish independent schools, to support them through the VAT registration process and ensure they fully understand their new VAT liabilities.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on supply teachers in primary schools in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer
Data on how much each local authority spends on supply teachers is not held or collected by central government.
Data on local authority expenditure on teachers is available from the Local Government Financial statistics data collection. The latest figures are available from LFR01 at Scottish local government finance statistics 2023-24.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding arrangement with local authorities has been developed to support learning for pupils whilst they are receiving treatment in children’s hospitals.
Answer
Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for delivering education and the statutory duty to make special arrangements for any affected pupils to receive education elsewhere than at a school or other educational establishment as a result of prolonged ill health. The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities primarily by means of a block grant and it is for local councils to manage the allocation of their resources and the level of services that are delivered, including for education. In the 2023-24 financial year, the latest figure available, spending by local authorities reached a record high of over £1 billion from the Scottish Government for additional support for learning. This represents an increase from the £540 million spending allocated for this purpose in 2012-13.
Furthermore, the Scottish Government has published guidance on the education of children and young people unable to attend school due to ill health. The purpose of our guidance is to provide advice and information for local authorities in relation to their statutory duty to make special arrangements for any affected pupils/ This includes guidance on making alternative arrangements in instances where a child or young person is either staying in hospital, or they have a health condition which means they are often in and out of hospital. Our guidance is available through the following web link: Introduction - Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have been signed off work as a result of having been attacked in school in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have been signed off work due to mental ill health in each local authority area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of speeding were submitted to the procurator fiscal by Police Scotland in each year since 2018, broken down by trunk road.
Answer
The following table shows the overall speeding numbers grouped by financial year reported. Charges have been identified using the Scottish Government classification of level 2 of speeding. The format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This information is not readily available.
All charges reported to COPFS under:- | | | | |
Scottish government classification level two - 45.Speeding | | |
- count is by charge and grouped by financial year reported | | | |
*year to date 5 February 2025 | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | Financial year reported | | |
Offences | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25* |
Speeding offences | 15,940 | 18,127 | 13,306 | 15,580 | 12,382 | 14,872 | 13,461 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on legal advice and representation for current and former ministers in relation to public inquiries in the last 10 years, broken down by inquiry.
Answer
There are at present five ongoing Scottish statutory public inquiries, and a number of UK statutory inquires which could seek evidence from ministers in Scotland. The Edinburgh Trams Inquiry reported in September 2023 following hearings in 2017-2018 and the Penrose Inquiry reported in 2015, albeit from the records available we do not believe that external legal advice was taken in connection with those inquiries which falls within the scope of this question. The amount spent by the Scottish Government on external legal advice, including representation for current and former ministers, in relation to public inquiries is as follows:
The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry | £1,191,298 inclusive of VAT |
The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry | £20,160 inclusive of VAT |
The Covid-19 Inquiries | There have been no legal costs for current or former ministers for the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry. For the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, we do not hold a breakdown of legal costs per witness. £2,123,692 inclusive of VAT |
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry | £673,942 inclusive of VAT |
The Eljamel Inquiry | No such costs have been incurred to date. |
Infected Blood Inquiry | £432,045 inclusive of VAT between 2018/19 and 2024/25[1] |
To note, we are unable to cost the Government’s internal legal advice provided by the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.
[1] These figures are for overall legal advice or support for the Scottish Government and former staff or Ministers, and include some travel and accommodation costs for travel to hearings in London.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many speeding offences on trunk roads the procurator fiscal decided to take no further action in relation to, in each year since 2018, broken down by the (a) reason for the decision and (b) trunk road.
Answer
As referenced in the answer to S6W-34140 on 20 February 2025, the format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.
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
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost has been of maintaining any flags that it owns in each of the last 15 years.
Answer
No cost for maintenance of flags has been incurred in the past 15 years. If a flag is damaged it is replaced with a new one.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost of maintaining the Parliament's lift system has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
The total cost for maintenance of the lift system for the past four years including financial year 24-25 is as follows. For financial year 20/21 we do not hold information in a format that allows us to identify the costs of maintaining the lifts as it was included within a project capacity and therefore wouldn’t be accurate to what was spent solely on maintenance. All costs provided exclude VAT.
- 2024/25 - £30,411.89
- 2023/24 - £28,384.80
- 2022/23 - £25,012.17
- 2021/22 - £13,375.91
