Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-00382

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the SQA regarding the 60% pass mark and the structure and content of the units in mathematics qualifications.

The responsibility for developing national qualifications, within current design principles, lies with Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

SQA advised the Scottish Government of its changes to mathematics qualifications, including the 60% pass threshold for unit assessments, in bilateral discussion.

These proposals were also shared with the Assessment and National Qualifications Working Group.

Question reference: S5W-00386

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to provide older survivors of historic abuse with urgent financial and practical support.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-00384 on 15 June 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

To adequately respond to the individual and often unique needs of survivors, the survivor support fund will contain a discretionary element. This will not provide compensation or redress payments to survivors, but will provide real flexibility in the provision of a range of ad hoc needs that cannot be readily met by or commissioned from existing statutory or non-statutory services.

All in care survivors that meet the criteria to access the survivor support fund, including older survivors, will also be eligible to apply for need-based and outcome-focused support from the discretionary element of the support fund, which will become fully operational in the autumn.

The Scottish Government will continue to explore all possible means of further support for survivors of all ages, including older survivors.

Question reference: S5W-00385

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 14 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will introduce plans to lift the time bar on the right of survivors of child abuse who were abused after 1964 to bring civil claims against their abusers.

Scottish Government intends to introduce the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Bill in the first year of the this Parliamentary session. A draft Bill was published on 14 of March 2016.The analysis of responses to the public consultation can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/03/3200

The Scottish Government response to the consultation, the draft Bill and the explanatory notes to the draft Bill can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/03/7578/downloads

Question reference: S5F-00049

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to reverse the reported fall in women studying key subjects in science and computing at Higher level since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-30696

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will allocate the additional £20 million that is being given to the Attainment Scotland Fund and whether it has any new plans for how this should be used.

The Attainment Scotland Fund will continue targeting support to authorities and schools with the highest concentrations of children and young people living in areas of multiple deprivation. It will continue to support the seven challenge authorities and 57 primary schools identified in 2015. The additional funding announced by the Deputy First Minister as part of the budget will see this intensive support deliver more across our most deprived communities in Scotland - further details on how that will be allocated will be announced in due course.

Question reference: S4W-30657

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support post-16 student retention in (a) further and (b) higher education.

Improving retention is a priority for colleges and universities, and is one of the key performance indicators evaluated by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) as part of the outcome agreement process. The SFC also continues to invest strategic funds to support improvement.

This has delivered progress – retention rates in the college sector have improved since 2008-09 and are at record levels in the university sector.

Question reference: S4W-30653

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government by what date local authorities can expect to receive the money to allocate Attainment Scotland Fund support to schools in 2016-17.

Question reference: S4W-30659

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary schools in each local authority area have introduced the Daily Mile initiative; how many schools have responded (a) positively and (b) negatively to its letter asking them to consider the scheme, and what further action it is taking to (i) encourage the introduction and (ii) increase the uptake.

In January 2016 Education Scotland gathered information on the number of primary schools in each local authority area participating in the Daily Mile. The following table summarises the responses received although it should be noted that not all local authorities responded.

Council Area	Number of schools Participating in the Daily Mile
Aberdeen City	0
Aberdeenshire	19
Angus	11
Argyll and Bute	22
Clackmannanshire	6
Dumfries and Galloway	24
Dundee	7
East Ayrshire	11
East Dunbartonshire	6
East Lothian	18
East Renfrewshire	4
Edinburgh	0
Falkirk	11
Fife	38
Glasgow	50
Highland	7
Inverclyde	0
Midlothian	3
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	2
North Lanarkshire	0
Orkney	0
Perth and Kinross	16
Renfrewshire	5
Scottish Borders	20
Shetland	5
South Ayrshire	6
South Lanarkshire	9
Stirling	0
West Dunbartonshire	0
West Lothian	12
Western Isles	21
TOTAL	334

In November 2015, to support the Daily Mile, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, together with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, wrote to all Headteachers in Scotland to make them aware of the initiative and to encourage schools to adopt daily physical activity initiatives appropriate to their circumstances. We do not hold information on how many schools responded positively or negatively to that letter.

In December 2015, following issue of the letter promoting the Daily Mile, Education Scotland published their resource Approaches to Physical Activity in the Primary Year’ featuring case studies about implementing the Daily Mile, and other initiatives in primary schools.

The impact of the Daily Mile is currently being evaluated in a research study at the University of Stirling. Whilst there appears to be an effect on obesity and pupil performance from the Daily Mile implementation, it is important that we fully understand the evidence to help to inform what further work would be appropriate to support, develop and promote the Daily Mile.

Question reference: S4W-30651

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which schools are awaiting Attainment Scotland Fund support for 2015-16, also broken down by the (a) amount due and (b) expected payment date.

Question reference: S4W-30652

Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it considers Attainment Scotland Fund support should be spent, and whether it has published guidance to local authorities regarding this.

The Attainment Scotland Fund supports 57 schools and seven challenge authorities to focus and accelerate targeted improvements in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. Advice was issued to the seven challenge authorities when the fund was launched in February 2015, setting out the priority areas on which to focus their proposals. Advice for the 57 schools in the Schools Programme was provided to the relevant schools in October 2015. Authorities and Schools were also guided through face to face meetings with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Based on this guidance, schools and authorities involved in the Attainment Scotland Fund were asked to develop bespoke plans which identify a range of interventions and strategies to raise attainment of children living in deprived areas.