Chamber and committees

Like those in other parts of the UK, Scottish taxpayers contribute to the UK Government’s international development work, which is delivered through the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and also a number of other UK Government departments including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Scottish Government’s own £9 million per annum International Development Fund budget, focussed on our seven priority countries including Malawi, comes from the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

The UK Government has not discussed nor raised in correspondence with the Scottish Government the use of UK international development funds to fund a post at the DFID in East Kilbride to communicate the benefits of the union to the Scottish public.

The Scottish Government would be concerned if the salary for a post to communicate the benefits of the union to the Scottish public was to come from the DFID administration budget, when that international development budget itself counts towards the UK Government’s target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on overseas development assistance.

On receipt of a request for referral to independent adjudication, the Scottish Government provides local authorities with the application and a non-statutory guidance document on dispute resolution specifically tailored for education authorities. In addition, the supporting children’s learning code of practice provides guidance on dispute resolution under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.

Every education authority must publish and keep under review information on any person specified by the Scottish Ministers to allow the parents of children and young people with additional support needs to obtain advice and support. One of those person’s specified under The Additional Support for Learning Sources of Information Scotland Order is Children in Scotland. Scottish Ministers currently fund Children in Scotland to provide the Enquire service – a national, independent, advice and information service for the families of children who require extra help at school. Enquire has developed a number of resources aimed at helping parents and carers navigate the system, including advice on resolving disagreements.

Further, Scottish Ministers currently fund Govan Law Centre’s Education Law Unit (http://www.edlaw.org.uk) to provide advice and support to parents or young people on any aspect of education law, which includes independent adjudication.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 made amendments to the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. One of those amendments introduced a requirement on parents or young people making an application to dispute resolution to make that application directly to the Scottish Ministers. Therefore, the following information outlines the number of referrals made directly to Scottish Ministers since the legislation was commenced on 14 November 2010.

Since 14 November 2010 Scottish Ministers have received 21 referrals for dispute resolution which resulted in independent adjudication. These are broken down by authority in the following table:

Information relating to PPP/PFI contracts and the associated unitary payments is available from the Scottish Government website under ‘Unitary Payment Charges’ by way of the following link: www.scotland.gov.uk.

Like those in other parts of the UK, Scottish taxpayers contribute to the UK Government’s international development work, which is delivered through the UK DfID, and also a number of other UK Government departments including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Scottish Government’s own £9 million per annum International Development Fund budget, focussed on our seven priority countries including Malawi, comes from the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on staffing numbers at DfID in East Kilbride, other than that which is already available publicly.

The Scottish Government has not had formal correspondence from HMRC in this regard. The Scottish Government resourcing team regularly discuss staffing matters through their engagement with the Civil Service Local Co-ordinator Group for Whitehall Departments based in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not have any information on the cost of Scotland Office publicity activity on the Scotland Bill.

The Scottish Government shares the concerns of the Devolution Further Powers Committee that the Bill in its current form does not fulfil the Smith Agreement. On 8 June 2015 the Scottish Government published amendments which would fully implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission, and these amendments have been discussed with the UK Government. The Scottish Government now expects the UK Government to share with us their proposals for amendments for further discussion between the governments prior to the next stage of the Bill’s passage in the Commons. Progress on these amendments will be required for the Bill to meet the terms of the Smith Agreement.

Full implementation of the Smith Agreement is also reliant on agreement of a fiscal framework between the Scottish and UK governments. Discussion on the fiscal framework is continuing alongside the passage of the Scotland Bill. The Scottish Government has made clear it will only support a legislative consent motion if there is a satisfactory fiscal framework agreed between the Scottish and United Kingdom governments.

Scottish Government does not consider that these provisions in the Scotland Bill fully deliver the Smith Commission agreement. On 8 June 2015 the Scottish Government published amendments to the Bill that would implement Smith Commission recommendations in these specific areas.