Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government and its partners in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the residential care sector will continue to work on the recommendations made by the Task Force on the Future of Residential Care for Older People in Scotland. We have accepted in principle all the recommendations and are currently in discussion with partners to put together a plan to take forward work on all the issues raised in the report.

At this point in time we do not see the need for a separate strategy and will be taking forward each of the recommendations, recognising that some may require legislative changes.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has advised that the number of entries to geology Higher courses is too low to effectively support a standalone qualification. However, I can confirm that there will be opportunities for young people to study geology. All of the units of the current geology Higher, Intermediate and Access courses will be retained and available on a stand-alone basis and as such can be recognised on a candidate’s certificate.

Engagement between the SQA, Education Scotland, the wider Earth Sciences community in Scotland and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society is continuing with a view to understand the requirements and demand for an Earth Sciences qualification. In addition, SQA and Education Scotland are keen to explore every opportunity to encourage Earth Sciences as a context for interdisciplinary learning within the Curriculum for Excellence broad general education.

The Scottish Government is fully aware of the importance of this equipment to the local community and have sought, and received, an assurance from NHS Orkney that it remains committed to bringing a CT scanner to Orkney, as soon as is practicable.

The board is making positive progress: a Lead CT Radiographer is now in post and in discussion with other boards in preparation for the start-up of the service. NHS Orkney is currently in negotiations for the installation of the equipment and believes the works required will take approximately five months. This is due, in part, to the fact that the board will require to upgrade its IT to support the new scanner. This will ensure that it links with existing X-ray equipment and that the imaging will be of the best possible quality.

Skills Development Scotland have only been publishing modern apprenticeship starts statistics by level and gender since 2012-13. Therefore this data is currently unavailable for 2011-12.

Source: Skills Development Scotland

http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/statistics/modern-apprenticeships/

Full year, 2013-14 data broken down by level and gender is due to be published by Skill Development Scotland on 17 June 2014.

Skills Development Scotland is due to publish 2013-14 modern apprenticeship starts broken down by framework on 17 June 2014.

The IT system for collection of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is currently in development. The system will take account of the final provisions of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill once parliamentary scrutiny has concluded. System development is on track for tax collection to start from April 2015.

The amounts spent on providing ICT systems in Registers of Scotland for the financial years since 2007-08 are shown in the following table.

Over the last five years, four members of staff left Registers of Scotland on early retirement under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme rules in force at the time, where the total cost to Registers of Scotland was in excess of £200,000. The annual numbers were as follows:

The Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL) is on track to be fully operational by August 2014 and has now been incorporated as a company limited by guarantee. Funding of up to £1.3 million from the Scottish Government’s teacher education programme line will be made available to SCEL during the financial year 2014-15. Discussions are ongoing between the Scottish Government and SCEL to determine outcomes and the detail of finance required. In addition, the chair of the board of directors will shortly be announced and the Chief Executive will be appointed later this summer along with a board of directors.

The Scottish Government has accepted in principle the main recommendations of the Task Force on the Future of Residential Care for Older People in Scotland.

We will continue to work with our partners in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other key partners to take forward the recommendation to develop a strategy for the long-term transformation of residential care, supported housing, co-housing and intermediate care.