Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not use cleaning products in its premises that have been tested on animals.

The college sector has agreed to maintain in 2011-12 the same overall level of core activity as in the previous year. Decisions about the provision of specific courses are made by colleges as independent institutions.

Colleges are independent employers of staff, and this information is not held centrally. The majority of colleges have given a standard assurance that they would seek to avoid compulsory redundancies if at all possible, with seven going further and giving an absolute guarantee.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government does not produce forecasts of the predicted number of young people entering further or higher education. The latest data on the number of young people entering further and higher education is for the academic year 2009-10. Figures on the number of students in academic year 2010-11 will become available in January 2012.

The college sector has agreed to maintain in 2011-12 the same overall level of core activity as in the previous year.

It is estimated from the latest Annual Population Survey (October 2009 to September 2010) that there are 73,000 individuals aged 16 to 24 unemployed in Scotland.

The Annual Population Survey is the official source for information on unemployment by age. Unemployment measured from this source follows the internationally agreed definition of unemployment as recommended by the International Labour Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Although it is unlikely that we will make any progress with the UK on this issue, we will continue to take any opportunity to raise it with the UK Government.

The reduction in the teaching and capital budgets of colleges is a direct result of the decision of the UK Government to reduce Scotland’s block grant by no less than £1.3 billion.

The experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence contain a section on Physical Wellbeing which includes, “I know and can demonstrate how to keep myself and others safe and how to respond in a range of emergency situations.” It is for schools and local authorities to decide how to take forward this learning.

The relevant UK Government department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, have made clear that they have no plans to review or make changes to the 1999 order and no meetings on this subject are planned.