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-18358

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when section 8 of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 will come into force.

Section 8 of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 introduces Island Communities Impact Assessments and is part of a number of provisions covering duties in relation to island communities. Work is currently underway on the guidance and secondary legislation related to these provisions and once this has been completed the provisions will be brought into force. This will be discussed with the leadership of each local authority of the forthcoming Islands Strategic Group on 4 October 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18723

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement by the EIS that “to create a narrow focus on SNSA [Scottish National Standardised Assessments] data is to create a ‘high stakes’ environment around what were meant to be diagnostic classroom tools, supporting but not supplanting teacher professional judgement.”

The Scottish Government has not created a narrow focus on Scottish National Standardised Assessments data. We have been consistently clear that the key measure of children and young people’s progress is teacher professional judgement. The SNSA are not “high stakes” tests; they are diagnostic assessments to support learning and bring a consistent, national element to help inform teachers’ professional judgement.

Question reference: S5W-18738

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comments at paragraph 47 of the report, Scottish National Standardised Assessments User Review Year 1 – Session 2017/18, that "A number of teachers commented positively on the ease of access to the platform" and "Other user feedback suggested that the IT infrastructure, the type of devices available and the children’s IT skills had a negative impact on the experience of the assessments", whether it will confirm how many teachers gave the (a) positive and (b) negative feedback.

We do not have specific figures on this feedback which came from the focus groups with teachers. As part of the User Review, there will be more systematic means of gathering teacher feedback from 2018-19 onwards. Teachers will have the opportunity to offer feedback at any time from within the system, thus providing a simple and direct means to report their views and experience. In addition, an annual survey of users will be introduced to collect feedback from a randomly sampled group of staff to provide an overview of the SNSA experience.

Question reference: S5W-18734

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported concerns that the assessment were administered using varying equipment and with different levels of classroom support, whether it plans to use the data gathered by the Scottish National Standardised Assessments to compare schools.

Question reference: S5W-18733

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding whether the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) add to teacher knowledge, in light of feedback that stated “As a practitioner who loves nothing more than analysing data and identifying next steps in learning, the SNSA is the most useless pieces of assessment data I have ever come across”.

The Scottish Government recognises that there are differing views on the reports generated by the SNSA system. One teacher commented that “Data is incredibly detailed and personalised. Feedback will be very useful in looking for next steps.” We will continue to look to enhance SNSA reports to ensure they are well matched to Curriculum for Excellence and provide high quality information for teachers.

Question reference: S5W-18724

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response to the statement by the EIS that the Scottish National Standardised Assessments process has resulted in some pupils experiencing “extreme anxiety”.

The Scottish Government fully recognises these concerns and is taking steps through the system enhancements announced in the User Review published on 28 August to help ensure that the experience for all children and young people is positive. Under no circumstance should a child feel distressed or upset. If administered correctly, a child will take part in the assessment as part of their normal classwork and the assessment will not feel any different to any other task the child is asked to do.

Question reference: S5W-18728

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement by the EIS that “in relation to P1, the EIS has a view that the SNSAs [Scottish National Standardised Assessments] should be scrapped.”

Question reference: S5W-18722

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment at paragraph 10 of the report, Scottish National Standardised Assessments User Review Year 1 – Session 2017/18, that “teachers and schools are empowered to use the SNSA at a time in the year which suits children in their care and when the assessments will be most useful", what its response is to the statement by the EIS that "children were largely presented en masse through SNSA ‘assessment windows’".

Question reference: S5W-18730

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers there were in 2017-18, and how many taught (a) P1s and (b) pupils who sat the Scottish National Standardised Assessments.

Question reference: S5W-18729

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement by EIS that “the Scottish Government was provided with the feedback [regarding the Scottish National Standardised Assessments] from EIS members; it does not seem to have been reflected in its review process.”