Chamber and committees

The annual Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) return collects data relating to all pupils in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3. This return measures performance in aspects of literacy and numeracy, and reports on the proportion of pupils who have achieved the expected CfE level based on teacher professional judgements. The latest data is available in the National Improvement Framework Interactive Evidence Report .

The percentage of primary pupils achieving the expected CfE level relevant for their stage

Non-domestic rates are levied on all ‘Land and Heritages’ and the valuation of those lands and heritages is a matter for Scottish assessors who are wholly independent of central and local government. Bus shelters are rateable and are therefore liable for non-domestic rates.

Non-domestic rates are administered and collected by local authorities who retain all of the non-domestic rates revenue they raise. Councils are democratically elected independent bodies, that are accountable to their local electorate and it is for councils to determine how they prioritise their resources, including the income generated through non-domestic rates in their area. Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, each local Council has wide-ranging powers to create bespoke rates reliefs to address their own local circumstances.

Provision of bus stops and shelters is the responsibility of local authorities. The Scottish Government has ongoing engagement with local authorities and other stakeholders about how to improve bus provision in partnership. The Transport (Scotland) Bill provides local authorities with a framework of new tools to address bus provision in their area.

Non-domestic rates are levied on all ‘Land and Heritages’ and the valuation of those lands and heritages is a matter for Scottish assessors who are wholly independent of central and local government. Scottish Assessors follow applicable statute and case law in making their decisions on non-domestic property valuations. The Scottish Government has no locus to intervene in that process. Bus shelters are rateable and are therefore liable for non-domestic rates. Where multiple bus shelters have the same rateable occupier, such as a council, they may be entered as a composite entry.

The following table shows the number of entries of bus shelters on the valuation roll and the amount of non-domestic rates income raised in 2018-19 broken down by local authority. Where multiple bus shelters have the same rateable occupier, such as a council, they may be entered as a composite entry.

The procurement process for R100 is now well underway and I can confirm that we have three highly credible bidders currently engaged in dialogue and we remain on track to award contracts before the end of this year. The procurement process is, however, complex and tightly bound by law and procurement rules. I will of course advise the Scottish Parliament first when we are in a position to award the contract

A sum of £28.2 million has been allocated in the 2019-20 budget to extend high quality, digital connectivity across Scotland. Due to the nature of the contractual terms likely to be deployed, much of the £600 million expenditure associated with delivery of our R100 commitment will not be seen until 2020 and beyond, with payments made on achievement of agreed milestones and payment in arrears of the achievement of milestones. This has also been the case under Scotland’s £400 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

The Scottish Government’s CAP IT system is functioning effectively and dealing with many thousands of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 applications and payments each year, demonstrating stability in our processes. The Single Application Form (SAF) application window for 2019 opened on 15 March as planned and the system is performing to a high level of availability for customers. Last year, we saw a 10% increase in the number of customers using the system to submit online applications.

We are on track to deliver 2018 scheme year payments across CAP schemes in line with the payment schedule published in December, including meeting the regulatory target to make Pillar 1 payments by the end of June 2019, as we did last year.

We have used loan schemes over the last few years to guarantee certainty to farmers and crofters over when they will receive their payments. For scheme year 2019 we will keep the situation under review, especially in consideration of the uncertainty caused by EU Exit process.

Since its inception, the Transition Training Fund (TTF) has supported more than 4,000 people affected by the global downturn in oil and gas, against an initial target to support a total of at least 3,000 over a period of three years for which funding was made available. It has achieved this through the provision of tailored support to individuals in terms of training courses and grants, and through procured courses to help people improve their skills and find new jobs.

This innovative fund was demand-led, and has surpassed TTF’s initial targets, with high levels of satisfaction recorded among those benefitting from the Fund.

The Fund is currently expected to spend a total of £11,347,000, however SDS are still dealing with a number of live applications in the Fund and this projected total may yet change in line with any variance from projected activity levels.

The Scottish Government shares such concerns and recognises that access to post offices and local banking services remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many of Scotland’s communities and businesses.

Like post offices and postal services, the regulation of financial services remains reserved to the UK Government, meaning that the Scottish Government is unable to compel banks towards any particular remedy or course of action. The Scottish Government meets regularly with the banking sector through the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) and the Banking & Economy Forum. It has also publicly called on banks to consider the needs of Scotland’s communities, and will continue to press the need for ongoing provision of local banking services.

In the event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government provide support through its Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative, which aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

Through commissioning arrangements with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, the Scottish Government provides Combat Stress with £1.4 million per annum to deliver specialist mental health treatment for Veterans in Scotland.

In 2019-20, NHS Grampian will receive the highest uplift of any Board for the second year running with £28.1 million increased investment and a share of £392 million to go towards improving patient outcomes. This takes the Board’s overall funding to £957.9 million in 2019-20. Within its overall uplift of 3.1%, NHS Grampian will receive a £4.2 million share of additional parity funding, which ensures it is no further than 0.8% from target share of funding.

With this record funding available to NHS Grampian, we expect them to make future funding decisions that reflects the needs of their own local population and that of veterans.