Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-04646

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions the constitution secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding its constitutional strategy, including in relation to its reported call for full fiscal autonomy.

Question reference: S6W-36715

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has produced on the contribution of the University of Dundee to the economy (a) of the Dundee area and (b) nationally, and what economic impact assessment it has made of the proposed job losses and reduction in services as a result of the institution's financial situation.

The University of Dundee is an invaluable component of the economic, social and cultural success of the city and region. The Scottish Government continues to work with external partners and internal analysts to better understand the economic impact the University has, locally and nationally. Universities are autonomous institutions, and whilst Ministers cannot compel a commitment to no compulsory redundancies, the university is expected to work with staff to make every effort to protect jobs. We will continue, alongside the Scottish Funding Council, to work closely with the sector on its sustainability into the future. A Strategic Advisory Taskforce has been established, bringing together expertise to support the development of a sustainable future for the University, the region, and the wider economy. The first meeting of that Taskforce was held on 24 April. Membership includes a range of stakeholders including skills and enterprise agencies as well as representatives of the business community.

Question reference: S6W-36178

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15187 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 March 2023, whether it will provide the complete figures for (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25.

Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per child attending pre-school, and primary and secondary pupil alongside allocations (accounting for teaching and tuition fees funding) per college and university place.

2024-25 figures for Pre-School, Primary and Secondary School will be available after the publication of the 2024-25 Scottish local government finance statistics in February – March 2026.

Indicative University and College funding allocations for 2025-26 were published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) earlier this month. These include a cash terms increase in teaching funding for colleges, and a cash terms increase to the Main Teaching Grant (and teaching price) for Universities, compared with last year. These indicative figures have not been included in this table as the underlying calculation requires further details, including the number of controlled and non-controlled funded places, which are not yet available to SFC.

Further detail of College and University Indicative Funding Allocations for 2025-26 can be found at:

College Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council

University Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council

Table 1: Average Expenditure Per Place for each Education Level (Cash Terms)

Education Level	2023-24	2024-25
Pre-School	£12,000	-
Primary School	£7,487	-
Secondary School	£9,276	-
College	£5,506	£5,506
University	£7,613	£7,635

Sources:

1.Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 01) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government: Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

1.Pupil Census – published annually - for further details go to: Pupil census: supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

2.Scottish Funding Council

Methodology

The methodologies used to determine the average expenditure per place for each education level are provided in more detail below.

Pre-school: average gross revenue expenditure per child in pre-primary education is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure on pre-primary education, adjusted for inter-authority transfers, as reported by local authorities to the local financial return. These figures are then divided by the number of pupils in funded early learning and childcare as per the statistics reported in the early learning and childcare (ELC) census. The figures for per child expenditure on pre-primary education are likely to be overestimates due to the fact that September (when the figures for the ELC census are collected) is a point in the academic year when ELC registrations are at their lowest. This is because children starting funded ELC (usually when they turn three) start at the beginning of the term which starts after their birthday – so, in the Autumn term only some of the children who will become eligible for funded ELC during that academic year have already taken up their funded place. However, this issue applies every year, meaning that the above time-series comparison is reasonable.

Primary and Secondary schools: average gross revenue expenditure per pupil in primary and secondary education respectively is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers, reported by local authorities on primary and secondary education to the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in primary and secondary education as per the statistics reported in the pupil census.

Colleges: The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have supplied detail of the average cost of a College place (expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE)). This is calculated by taking funding provided to Colleges for core teaching and assumed tuition fee income (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the number of student places.

Universities: The cost of an average University place, also provided by the SFC, is estimated by taking the total teaching grant awarded to Universities (excluding teaching grant associated with rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects, who are not eligible for funding) and assumed tuition fee income associated with those places (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the total number of SFC funded places for Scottish and EU domiciled FTEs. Expenditure figures exclude funding for student support, and SFC’s research and strategic funds. Total FTE figures are SFC/SG funded places and do not include fees only and international places.

Supplementary notes:

1.“-“ indicates that there is no available data for this year.

2.Assumed tuition fees include income from SAAS, SDS, employers and students paying their own tuition fees for SFC funded programmes.

3.For college and university figures, the funded places/weighted SUMS/credits figures used are taken from the final published main grant letters or outcome agreements, and do not take account of any subsequent adjustments.

Question reference: S6O-04535

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure adequate provision of teaching staff in secondary schools in Dundee.

Question reference: S6W-35334

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it provided for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25.

The Scottish Government provided £400,000 to establish an adult ADHD and autism assessment service in Aberdeenshire between 2019-21.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place. Accordingly, funding for adult ADHD and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area between 2021 and 2025 will have been derived from the overall budget allocated to NHS Grampian.

In 2021-22, NHS Grampian received £1,027.9 million from the Scottish Government. In 2022-23, NHS Grampian received £1,072.2 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4 per cent on the previous year. In 2023-24, NHS Grampian received £1,129.9 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 5 per cent on the previous year. Finally, in 2024-25, NHS Grampian received £1,176.4 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4% on the previous year.

Question reference: S6W-35333

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area in 2025-26.

The recently approved 2025-26 Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for Health & Social Care next year, including £16.2 billion for NHS Boards.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place.

I expect any body responsible for planning and delivering health services to the public in Scotland to operate within the relevant strategic and statutory frameworks. Scottish Government officials are engaging with Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian about their plans.

We are working with NHS Boards and partners to improve access to diagnosis and we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to support local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services. As part of this, NAIT is also working with NHS Boards to build a neurodevelopmentally informed workforce in Scotland.

Through our £1 million Adult Autism Support Fund (AASF), the Scottish Government funds SensationALL, which provides support to autistic adults in both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Whilst this support does not include assessments, a diagnosis is not required to access the service, and the majority of service users have reported improved wellbeing as a consequence of this support.

Question reference: S6O-04388

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Institute for Fiscal Studies' assessment in its Scottish Budget 2025-26 report that "it is particularly important that the front-loaded increases in investment and public service spending planned are undertaken effectively".

Question reference: S6W-34595

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08765 by Tom Arthur on 10 June 2022, whether ATMs at retailers' premises are now exempted from non-domestic rates and, if so, on what date this exemption came into place; how many ATMs have been affected by this, and whether it has or will issue backdated refunds, similar to England and Wales.

The valuation of all non-domestic property, including sites of ATMs, is a matter for Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.

Following the consideration of the valuation of ATMs as referred to in answer to question S6W-08765, Assessors removed most ATM sites from the Valuation Roll. In some circumstances however, ATM sites are still considered rateable and entered on the valuation roll.

On 1 April 2022, there were a total of 2,140 ATM site entries on the valuation roll of which 1,740 entries, just over 80%, had been removed by 30 March 2023. The numbers of entries are rounded to the nearest ten. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the reasons for the removal of any particular entry from the Valuation Roll, and it is likely that these figures will include some ATMs which were removed as a result of their physical removal and decommissioning.

Non-domestic rates bills are administered by local authorities and where a property is removed from the Valuation Roll, the ratepayer will be entitled to a refund of any overpaid rates back to the effective date of deletion.

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

Question reference: S6O-04372

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Scottish Funding Council regarding the University of Dundee.

Question reference: S6O-04332

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to Dundee Heritage Trust to ensure the long-term future of the organisation.

Chamber and committees