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.

The following information on HMRC employment in Scotland is provided in the Offshore Northern Seas 2014 statistics release on civil service employment. This is not broken down by building or otherwise by location in Scotland.

HMRC – 8960 staff.

HMRC valuation office – 60 staff

Total: 9020 civil servants

The Scottish Government has not had formal correspondence from HMRC about its operations in East Kilbride. As part of the civil service local arrangements, Scottish Government resourcing works routinely with colleagues across UK departments to ensure that staff displaced from any location are considered for positions in other departments and administrations.

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.

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.

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.

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: