Chamber and committees

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has provided detailed information on this year’s appeals process on its website that includes Frequently Asked Questions, an interactive chatbot and a flowchart of how the process will work this year. Further details are available at: sqa.org.uk/appeals .

In addition, a leaflet is being sent out to every learner in Scotland with details of the process, along with learner support information. If young people have any questions on appeals that are not answered through these resources they can contact SQA’s customer support team at: sqa.org.uk/enquiry . Support for young people will continue to be available through the summer.

SQA has previously used podcasts and Question and Answer sessions to engage with young people and are actively looking at these for the appeals service.

As the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland has said, it is normal to look at historical school data as part of the quality assurance process in awarding national qualifications. This is designed to help support the best outcomes for our young people.

I am clear that if a learner has demonstrated they deserve a particular grade, and this grade is robust against the national standard, that is the grade they will receive.

To provide additional assurances on this, Education Scotland has liaised with all 32 local authorities who have all confirmed that historical data has not been used to unilaterally change any assessment judgements by teachers or schools.

Once the provisional grades have been submitted to the Scottish Qualifications Authority they will not be changed because of any school’s past performance.

Luss Bay has a designated Bathing Water and is given special protection to ensure it is safe for people to swim in during the bathing season, which normally runs from 1 June to 15 September. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has determined the current bathing water quality classification at Luss Bay as 'sufficient" and reports that there has not been any significant deterioration in annual trends at this location. The storm rainfall event last summer on 5 August 2020, did result in a poor water quality, but this was predicted by SEPA, and an appropriate poor water quality warning to the public was in place via SEPA’s real time electronic signage.

The public sewerage network in Luss, including Luss Bay, is a relatively small catchment and there are no combined sewer overflows from Scottish Water’s network in this vicinity to Loch Lomond. The Luss public sewerage network drains to Scottish Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW). During the bathing season, to protect bathing water quality, Luss WwTW uses ultraviolet treatment to disinfect the sewage effluent. Scottish Water works with SEPA very closely and through regular monitoring has not found issues with respect to its discharge in the area. The final effluent discharge from the WwTW is sampled on a regular basis and Scottish Water is not aware of breaches of its license parameters.

Overall, SEPA classifies the environmental water quality of Loch Lomond as good for the north area and moderate for the south due to impacts from agriculture. Through River Basin Management Planning, carried out by SEPA on behalf of the Scottish Government, measures are planned to address the impacts from agriculture to ensure Loch Lomond can recover to good water quality status. SEPA and Scottish Water have also worked together to inspect the sewer network along the beach area at Luss Bay and no issues have been discovered.

Of course, the Scottish Government will continue to work together with stakeholders to ensure bathing waters reach the best possible status.

To progress the implementation of this policy ahead of August 2023, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which five local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22. Those authorities are: Angus; Argyll and Bute; Falkirk; Scottish Borders; and the Shetland Islands. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support this early implementation.

We have committed to seek to add further pilots in August 2022 to further inform full implementation of the obligation. Local authorities would be selected based on their suitability for evaluation purposes, and on their readiness to deliver the obligation early. We anticipate that the pilot authorities for 2022-23 will be announced in Autumn 2021 following engagement with local authorities and CoSLA.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills wrote to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland earlier this year in response to correspondence from the Commissioner about this year’s Alternative Certification Model and the Scottish Qualifications Authority appeals process.

More recently I have written to the Commissioner in response to points raised by young people in response to the published appeals arrangements for this year.

Scottish Government officials have engaged with representatives from the Commissioner’s office on these matters.

No discussions have taken place between the myself and The Equality and Human Rights Commission in respect of the Alternative Certification Model.

In support of the process to deliver this year’s Alternative Certification Model and appeals service, the Scottish Qualifications Authority has engaged with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Colleges are responsible for making workforce-related decisions in line with legislative requirements, the Code of Good Governance for Scotland’s Colleges and the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memoranda. Such decisions may take into account the need to implement changes to the delivery of teaching and learning to reflect the changing needs of the local economy and industry skills demands, as well as on the financial health of the institution.

The Scottish Government remains firmly of the view that it is for the college unions and the employers to negotiate pay and terms and conditions voluntarily in the spirit of collaboration and co-operation. The Scottish Government continue to work with the SFC, who work closely with the sector, to ensure any actions taken are compliant with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and are in line with Fair Work principles.

We are committed to reviewing our Fair Work First criteria to specifically reference Fire and Rehire Practice.

We have published robust guidance on ventilation in schools which has been developed collaboratively with stakeholders, including the Scottish Heads of Property Services Network, and has incorporated the latest SAGE and Health and Safety Executive expert advice and practical user feedback.

To date, the Scottish Government has committed over £400 million over 2020-21 and 2021-22 to support education recovery. With £90 million committed to support local authorities in implementing protection measures, such as increased ventilation, to ensure schools are safe, open and welcoming, in line with schools guidance.

(a)Additional Support for Learning Teachers

Statistics on the full time equivalent number of additional support for learning teachers by local authority from the 2020 staff census are published in Table 6.5 of the 2020 Teacher Census Supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website here https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

(b) Pupil Support Assistants - Classroom Assistants, Additional Support Needs Auxiliaries or Care Assistants

The use of the term 'classroom assistant' varies between local authorities and is sometimes used interchangeably with 'additional support needs auxiliary or care assistant'. Therefore these two categories of school support staff are combined and reported as 'pupil support assistants' in the published statistics on school support staff.

Data on school support staff was collected in the form of hours per week rather than Full Time Equivalent in 2020. This is because different local authorities have different definitions of ‘full time hours’, therefore Full Time Equivalent comparisons between local authorities were not valid. Statistics on the number of hours per week of pupil support assistants by local authority from the 2020 staff census are published in Table 1.1 of the 2020 School Support Staff statistics, available on the Scottish Government website here https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/ . Calculations of Full Time Equivalent numbers of support staff are published in table 2.1 allowing a comparison to be made with 2018 and 2019 data at a national level.

Shipping safety is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) undertook General Inspections on the Ensco DS-8 vessel on 9 February and on the Valaris DS-4 vessel on 10 February. During these inspections a number of deficiencies were noted and enforcement notices issued.

With regard to formal investigation, the decision whether to formally investigate lies with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) as the UK’s marine accident investigation authority. I understand that they will not be conducting a full investigation into this incident. The Port Authority, Peel Ports, will be undertaking their own investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The MCA are continuing to liaise with the operator of the vessels, the vessels’ Flag State, the vessels’ Class Society and the Port Authority to determine if there has been any breach of Merchant Shipping legislation.

The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety standards and for these to be followed by those accessing our unique and fragile coastal areas.

The £53 million allocated to the Energy, Circular Economy and Environment programme in the Ayrshire Growth Deal features a £41.5 million investment from the UK Government, with the remaining £11.5 million funded by Ayrshire’s local authorities.

The three constituent projects in this programme were included in the Full Deal documentation for the Ayrshire Growth Deal, signed in November 2020. Although it is not making a funding contribution to these particular projects, the Scottish Government will use its influence as a partner to ensure that our commitment to a Just Transition and fostering of a Wellbeing Economy informs implementation of this element in the wider Ayrshire Growth Deal over the next decade.