Chamber and committees

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

The SPS resource budget envelope, provided by the Scottish Government, includes funding for educational programmes.

Prior to 2017, education services in Scotland’s public sector prisons were provided through commercial arrangements by 2 further education colleges: New College Lanarkshire and Fife College. These contracts were agreed following rigorous procurement processes to ensure best value and the most economically advantageous service.

In 2017, our New Generation learning and skills contract was awarded to a single provider (Fife College) for the delivery of education services across all of Scotland’s public sector prisons. The decision to procure a single provider for education services across public service prisons was based on the need to ensure consistency of culture, staffing flexibility and benefits of economies of scale.

Details of contract costs are provided in the following table.

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

SPS does not hold the information in the format requested for the period 2007-08 to 2013. We do however hold data from 2013 onwards and this is provided in the following table.

The table provides cumulative data on all qualifications achieved by prison based learners for the periods 2013-14 to 2017-18 inclusive and also includes details of qualifications achieved since 2018 broken down by Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) which is not available for previous years.

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

SPS does not use the services of volunteers to deliver educational programme in Scotland's public sector prisons.

Annual Learning Plans (ALPs) provide the detail of educational provision and responsibilities required at each individual establishment. Accordingly, SPS need to ensure that the skill sets of those delivering educational interventions are consistent with the presenting educational needs of distinct populations within our care.

Contractual obligations also include requirements and assurances that all staff delivering educational interventions are appropriately qualified and have successfully undertaken the range of mandatory training programmes to ensure compliance with health and safety and other relevant considerations working with vulnerable groups. These requirements include: Enhanced Disclosure; Personal Protection Training (PPT); Suicide Awareness Training, Health and Safety Training; Professional Boundaries Training and Key Training.

These essential and detailed requirements cumulatively demand a significant resource investment by SPS and are consistently in high demand by the agencies who work across Scottish prisons. Accordingly, it is not feasible to provide this type of intensive training to volunteers on a regular or ad hoc basis.

The Scottish Government and local authorities are fully focused on our national response to the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a vital role for the childcare sector in that response.

We are working to ensure that key workers who have no option but to access childcare to allow them to attend work can continue to do so. This will be based on local need and implemented by the local authority, who may set slightly different criteria to meet the needs of their local communities. The Scottish Government has published the following guidance on this: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus---school-and-elc-closures-guidance-on-critical-childcare-provision-for-key-workers/ . This makes clear that local authorities will decide what learning and childcare arrangements for the children of key workers are most appropriate for local circumstances.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government were in the process of developing an implementation plan for delivery of all the Women in Agriculture Taskforce recommendations and actions including those relating to rural childcare. There are also unique challenges our island communities encounter in accessing childcare, as was highlighted in the recently published National Islands Plan. The Scottish Government will come back to implementing the actions and recommendations from the Women in Agriculture Taskforce and National Islands Plan in due course.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which aims to help land managers in all sectors, including agriculture, reduce their reliance on the use of pesticides, including those containing glyphosate. IPM is a site specific approach that integrates a full range of measures to manage pests, weeds and diseases, while minimising risks to people and the environment.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with land managers to further reduce reliance on pesticides as outlined in our recent Programme for Government.

The Scottish Government is aware of the significant impact non-renewal of chlorothalonil will have in the farming sector, however this must be balanced against the ability for growers to use products safely without endangering themselves or consumers.

The renewal of authorisation was not approved due to several critical areas of concern, including the European Food Safety Authority’s classification of the substance as a carcinogen.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management, a site specific approach that integrates a full range of measures – including cultural, biological, chemical and design strategies – to manage pests, weeds and diseases, while minimising risks to people and the environment.

As outlined in our recent programme for government, we will continue to work with land managers, including those in the agricultural sector, to increase uptake of IPM and with the Plant Health Centre to identify the impact to Scottish growers from the loss of chemical controls.

Curriculum for Excellence empowers individual settings and practitioners to make the decisions needed to provide a coherent, flexible and enriched curriculum that is responsive to the diverse needs of individual learners and which reflects the uniqueness of their communities. This includes the study of agriculture. For each curriculum area, a series of “Experiences and Outcomes” set out what young people are expected to learn and how they are expected to progress in their learning.

For example, the Social Studies “Experiences and Outcomes”, enable young people to explore the variety of foods produced in Scotland, discuss the importance of different types of agricultural production and draw conclusions about environmental impact and sustainability.

Rural Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) is investing around £47 million this financial year and next in Strategic Research Programmes, providing advice and research services on climate change, water, plant health and animal disease outbreaks .

The Scottish Government welcomes the Grassland Improvement Programme that has been set up across the UK by the three levy bodies, Quality Meat Scotland(QMS) Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC), and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) along with a number of other partners. In total across the UK there are 27 pilot beef and sheep farms with nine in each of the three administration.

We recognise that this pilot has the ability to provide a range of benefits in the push to decrease emissions from agriculture with grassland management improving the potential for carbon sequestration. This aligns with the Scottish Government’s PfG commitment of promoting and encouraging the multiple benefits of good grassland (and livestock management) in Scotland including the protection of our historic carbon sinks . We therefore look forward to working with QMS on how learning from this pilot can be shared across the wider industry.

 Less Favoured Area Support Scheme