Chamber and committees

We know that high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) can make a huge difference to children’s lives, particularly those experiencing the most disadvantage. That is why we target funded ELC to two year olds who are most likely to benefit from early access. This includes children who have experienced care themselves or have a parent who has, and children whose family receive a ‘qualifying benefit’, (including out of work benefits or income-related benefits).

We estimate this eligible group equates to around a quarter of the total two year old population. Within this group there will be children who require additional support for learning and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (‘the 2004 Act’) extends to children in funded ELC. The 2004 Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their children. More information on how the 2004 Act supports children in funded ELC can be found in the refreshed Statutory Guidance here: Early learning and childcare: statutory guidance - July 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

In addition to the increased number of funded hours of ELC (rising from 600 to up to 1140 hours a year from August 2021) local authorities have discretion to offer funded or subsidised ELC that goes beyond the existing legal entitlement. Local authorities can and do use this discretion to accept referrals from health visitors and other agencies for children who they believe will benefit from this provision who may not meet the statutory criteria for a 2 year old place.

The Scottish Government has also committed to expanding funded early years education to all 1 and 2 year olds, starting with children from low-income families in this Parliamentary session. As we develop future policy we will continue to consider the best way to support our youngest children with additional support needs.

The option for all women aged 71 and over to self-refer for a breast screening appointment will resume once capacity in all screening centres returns to pre-Covid or close to pre-Covid levels. This is based on the recommendation of the Scottish Screening Committee, the National Screening Oversight and the Breast Screening Programme Board, all three of whom are keeping the situation under regular review. They are also working closely with Health Boards to increase appointments and meet this criteria as soon as possible.

As breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, it can occur in more than one family member by chance, and most cases of breast cancers are not hereditary. However, particular genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, can increase the risk of developing breast cancer, and these can be passed on from parent to child. Arrangements have therefore been made to ensure that women aged 71 and over can continue to be screened for the duration of the self-referral pause if they have been identified as being at very high risk because they have BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

We also continue to emphasise that everyone should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

According to the latest information available from the Improvement Service report on Instrumental Music Services, 56,198 pupils received instrumental music lessons from their local authority service at some point in 2019-20. This equates to around 8.1% of all Scottish school pupils.

The current national waiting times statistics for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies do not provide a breakdown of who is waiting for specific types of treatment. Therefore, we are unable to report on specific waits for suicide prevention treatments.

A patient level data set (CAMHS and PT National Dataset) is currently under development by PHS which will provide more detail on the diagnosis and treatments received by individuals, and associated waiting times.

It is the responsibility of individual health boards to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred. If a child or young person presents as being at real and immediate risk of harm to themselves, to others, health Boards should see these people as urgent cases and prioritise seeing them regardless of where they are on a waiting list.

No-one should be the victim of abuse or violence while at work. Assaults on emergency service workers and police officers are despicable and the Scottish Government fully supports courts having their current extensive powers to deal robustly with perpetrators.

The maximum sentence for an assault on emergency workers including the police is life imprisonment. This is the most severe form of penalty available under the criminal law and is available under the common law of assault.

In addition, there are specific offences in the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 which also provide protection for emergency service workers and police officers.

The combination of these laws provide full protection under the law with the independent court deciding what an appropriate sentence is in a given case.

We continue to encourage all organisations to support staff who experience violence in the workplace including reporting such incidents for appropriate action to be taken by Police Scotland.

The criminal law is always kept under review to assess whether changes can be made to improve how it operates. In the context of maximum penalties for assaults on emergency workers being life imprisonment, the Scottish Government has no current plans to change the laws in this area given the extensive powers courts have.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during school term-time, by August 2022.

The annual teacher census collects information on the basis of teaching posts, not people. Some teachers hold multiple posts which may mean the information held does not represent the nature of an individual teacher’s employment contract or the overall working pattern of that teacher.

Employment type in the following table relates to each post that a teacher holds, rather than their employment contract. This means that a teacher may have a permanent employment contract with the local authority but be recorded with a temporary employment type for an individual post.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00298 on
‎ 29 July 2021. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00298 on
‎ 29 July 2021. 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

‘Scotland’s Vision for Trade’, published on 26 January 2021, sets out the Scottish Government’s principles and values for the trading relationships it wants Scotland to have. This provides a framework for making decisions about international trade in a way that enables Scotland to fulfil its role as a good global citizen.

The framework set out in ‘Scotland’s Vision for Trade’ reinforces the principles already set out by Scottish Government in its Guidance on Due Diligence: Human Rights, and Scottish Enterprise’s own 2019 Customer Due Diligence Procedure. This procedure includes how the company conducts itself overseas. Such checks are based on a rigorous process and independent evidence.

The Scottish Government engaged with Scottish Enterprise in developing the Vision and communicated ‘Scotland’s Vision for Trade’ and its principles to Scottish Enterprise, including through a series of presentations for all staff who work on Scottish Enterprise’s international priorities. Within their 2021-22 business plan, Scottish Enterprise commits to ensuring the principles set out in ‘Scotland’s Vision for Trade’ are incorporated into their approach and delivery.

The Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise has written to the Scottish Enterprise Chief Executive to set out priorities, highlighting a values-based approach to trade and investment, as set out in ‘Scotland’s Vision for Trade’.

Scottish Enterprise does not provide funding for the manufacture of munitions. The support provided is mainly focused on helping firms to diversify and develop civilian applications for their technology and ensure Scotland continues to benefit from the thousands of jobs in the defence, aerospace and shipbuilding sectors.

The licensing of arms exports is a reserved matter over which the Scottish Government has no control. We have impressed upon the UK Government our expectation to act responsibly as regards export licensing.