Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-23940

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 15 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on education agents employed by Scottish universities to recruit overseas students; if it collects such information, how many such agents are currently in place, and how much has been spent on recruiting them in the last five years, broken down by university.

Question reference: S6W-23939

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have opted to take early retirement in each of the last five years, also broken down by (a) whether they were primary or secondary school teachers and (b) local authority area.

The figures in the following tables represent the number of members of the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme (STSS) and Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme 2015 (STPS 2015) who have opted to retire before the respective scheme's Normal Pension Age (NPA), in each of the last five years. The information includes only members employed by local authorities and is broken down by local authority area. Information is not held centrally on whether these members were primary or secondary teachers.

From 1 April 2022 all active members joined the STPS 2015. Table A shows members who have retired from the STSS before their NPA, which is age 60 for those who joined the scheme before 1 April 2007 and age 65 for those who joined thereafter. Table B shows members who retired from the STPS 2015 before their NPA, which is the later of age 65 or State Pension Age. Some members may be represented in both tables as they may have taken pension benefits from both schemes before the NPA in each scheme.

Table A: Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme

Local Authority	Number of members who opted to retire before Normal Pension Age
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023*
Aberdeen City Council	13	16	9	12	13
Aberdeenshire Council	30	16	19	22	30
Angus Council	12	13	10	19	11
Argyll and Bute Council	18	13	19	17	10
City of Edinburgh Council	34	24	24	24	20
Clackmannanshire Council	4	5	2	3	4
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	9	7	8	6	2
Dumfries and Galloway Council	28	24	19	16	21
Dundee City Council	14	9	24	16	13
East Ayrshire Council	10	12	14	11	9
East Dunbartonshire Council	14	15	10	9	6
East Lothian Council	9	10	9	13	7
East Renfrewshire Council	11	7	9	14	6
Falkirk Council	15	24	15	14	11
Fife Council	42	37	50	34	27
Glasgow City Council	47	60	39	38	30
Inverclyde Council	9	6	6	7	9
Midlothian Council	9	7	8	8	5
North Ayrshire Council	15	5	14	19	6
North Lanarkshire Council	38	49	34	26	23
Orkney Islands Council	2	6	4	3	2
Perth and Kinross Council	14	19	24	15	10
Renfrewshire Council	16	20	21	15	8
Scottish Borders Council	10	15	17	18	17
Shetland Islands Council	1	0	1	4	10
South Ayrshire Council	13	10	13	8	9
South Lanarkshire Council	33	24	26	20	29
Stirling Council	15	10	7	11	7
The Highland Council	35	27	29	38	22
The Moray Council	14	10	12	8	7
West Dunbartonshire Council	5	4	7	7	11
West Lothian Council	13	18	11	22	8
Total	548	522	514	497	403

*Data for 2023 is up to 19 December 2023

Table B: Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme 2015

Local Authority	Number of members who opted to retire before Normal Pension Age
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023*
Aberdeen City Council	2	8	7	25	31
Aberdeenshire Council	14	8	13	55	58
Angus Council	1	4	9	34	19
Argyll and Bute Council	3	7	13	30	14
City of Edinburgh Council	6	8	17	54	43
Clackmannanshire Council	0	2	1	1	6
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	2	5	3	8	11
Dumfries and Galloway Council	10	16	18	32	36
Dundee City Council	2	2	17	29	22
East Ayrshire Council	1	4	13	17	23
East Dunbartonshire Council	3	10	3	24	18
East Lothian Council	4	3	5	22	15
East Renfrewshire Council	0	4	5	23	10
Falkirk Council	5	10	14	26	23
Fife Council	11	11	34	68	65
Glasgow City Council	5	21	27	92	88
Inverclyde Council	7	4	5	15	16
Midlothian Council	5	4	5	10	15
North Ayrshire Council	4	4	9	35	23
North Lanarkshire Council	8	22	23	47	60
Orkney Islands Council	0	1	3	5	5
Perth and Kinross Council	5	10	19	26	30
Renfrewshire Council	2	14	16	32	30
Scottish Borders Council	2	6	16	39	34
Shetland Islands Council	1	0	2	8	17
South Ayrshire Council	5	4	9	18	16
South Lanarkshire Council	5	5	13	65	61
Stirling Council	2	3	6	13	17
The Highland Council	5	10	21	63	50
The Moray Council	3	2	11	11	22
West Dunbartonshire Council	1	3	6	20	26
West Lothian Council	5	7	6	37	31
Total	129	222	369	984	935

*Data for 2023 is up to 19 December 2023

Source: Figures provided by SPPA

Question reference: S6W-23938

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are currently considered to be "missing from education" at schools in Scotland, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) reason recorded for being missing.

Question reference: S6W-23979

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards establishing the Centre of Teaching Excellence (CTE), and whether it will provide an update on (a) in what fundamental respects the CTE will be different from Education Scotland, (b) what the core purpose of the CTE will be, and how its success will be measured, (c) against what outputs its performance will be measured, (d) what weekly interactions it anticipates the CTE will have with individual teachers and schools, (e) what it anticipates the cost will be of (i) consulting on, (ii) establishing, (iii) launching and (iv) the ongoing running of the CTE, (f) what role it anticipates the CTE will have regarding the development of the school curriculum and (g) whether the CTE will report to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.

In line with The Scottish Government’s commitment to co-design the Centre for Teaching Excellence, The Scottish Government has undertaken useful engagement with a number of important stakeholders including COSLA, the Scottish Council of Deans of Education, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, professional associations and trade unions and the Strategic Board for Teacher Education to discuss the overall approach to co-designing the Centre.

The Centre will focus on quality learning and teaching, helping Scotland to remain at the cutting edge of teaching practice by, for example, distilling research and evidence into practical and digestible support for every teacher and practitioner in Scotland, meeting a widely recognised need in the system.

The role and remit of the Centre, how it operates, its interaction with teachers and practitioners, performance measures, and associated costs and timescales will be considered as part of the design process.

In light of COSLA and local authorities’ responsibilities and key leadership role as the employers of teachers, The Scottish Government believes that the Centre would be strengthened if it were to have joint oversight by COSLA and is keen to work with COSLA in this regard.

Question reference: S6W-23633

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22746 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 November 2023, whether it can provide details of the work that is going on "with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map existing provision"; which agencies or who within the Scottish Government is conducting this mapping; when this mapping will be published, and how long it will take thereafter to develop a plan for breakfast provision.

As noted in the response to question S6W-21440 on 3 October 2023, the Scottish Government is currently working with the local authority facilities management organisation, AssistFM, to develop a clear picture of the scale and uptake of breakfast provision across Scotland. This work is expected to be completed in Spring 2024. There are no plans to publish it separately, as this work is just one of the elements which will inform policy on school breakfasts, including timescales for developing a plan for breakfast provision, designed around the needs of children and families.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-23635

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22987 by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2023, in light of the information that "has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. Number 64646" containing redacted figures, whether it will reconsider its decision to redact these figures to allow for meaningful scrutiny of the data.

This data has been redacted according to data protection legislation. As the redacted figures are below five, there is increased risk of identification of data subjects, and as such these figures must be treated as personal data.

The data protection legislation; UKGDPR and DPA 2018 are derivatives of the Human Rights Act. Their purpose is to uphold the rights of individuals in relation to their data and privacy.

Question reference: S6W-23586

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-03945 by Humza Yousaf on 19 December 2019, what the staff (a) recruitment, (b) retention and (c) absence rate has been at each prison and young offenders institution in the last 12 months.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following tables set out the position in relation to recruitment (Table1), retention (table 2), and absence (table 3) across the SPS estate.

The data provided only covers operational prison officer grades, who have responsibility for delivering essential frontline services within Scotland’s prisons.

Data has been provided for the year 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023 as data covering the period to 30 November 2023 has not yet been finalised and is therefore not available.

Table 1

Establishment	Number of new prison officers recruited between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023
Barlinnie	59
Bella Centre	6
Dumfries	15
Edinburgh	50
Glenochil	30
Grampian	24
Greenock	21
Inverness	13
Lilias Centre	3
Low Moss	18
Open Estate	8
Perth	28
Polmont	39
Shotts	27
Stirling	31
Total	372

Table 2

Establishment	Number of leavers between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023 across prison officer grades	Turnover % in the period vs establishment complement across prison officer grades
Barlinnie	54	10.19%
Bella Centre	2	5.75%
Dumfries	14	10.40%
Edinburgh	47	11.01%
Glenochil	19	7.90%
Grampian	22	5.27%
Greenock	21	9.89%
Inverness	5	5.41%
Lilias Centre	2	5.75%
Low Moss	31	10.54%
Open Estate	8	9.80%
Perth	17	5.65%
Polmont	30	7.25%
Shotts	19	5.80%
Stirling	6	3.07%
Totals	297	7.89%

Table 3

Establishment	Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) figure across prison officer grades (1 Nov 2022 - 31 Oct 2023)
Barlinnie	22.1
Bella Centre	14.2
Dumfries	14.6
Edinburgh	19.8
Glenochil	17.6
Grampian	9.5
Greenock	20.5
Inverness	10.3
Lilias Centre	8.4
Low Moss	18.7
Open Estate	10.2
Perth	18.8
Polmont	17.1
Shotts	19.1
Stirling	25.5
Establishment Average	18.1

Question reference: S6T-01702

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Police Scotland is considering closing more than 40 police buildings.

Question reference: S6W-23239

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to invest £50 million to create a Women's Business Centre, how much has been invested to date; what that investment has been spent on; what the defined (a) objectives were and (b) measurables are; how many women have been assisted "to develop their pioneering business idea"; where any such women and their businesses are located; whether it has achieved the aim of having more women in business, and, if so, how that has been measured.

The idea for a Women’s Business Centre was among a suite of options considered in the review led by Ana Stewart culminating in the publication of Pathways for a New Approach to Women in Entrepreneurship. The Pathways report was published in February 2023 following extensive consultation and contained a wide range of recommendations on provision of advice and support, access to finance and investment as well as entrepreneurial education and use of disaggregated data. As that report did not recommend the establishment of a Women’s Business Centre we will now work to progress the recommendations from Pathways instead. In June 2023 the Scottish Government accepted the Pathways report in full and began work to implement its key recommendations. The first phase of that work established the Pathways Pre-Start Fund to support more women, and other under-represented groups, into business ownership and to realise their entrepreneurial potential. The 20 projects receiving funding have been published at Pathways Pre-Start Fund: funded programmes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-23585

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the monthly average sales income for fishermen has been in each of the last three years.

Chamber and committees