Chamber and committees

Education Scotland are leading on a national engagement programme for Pupil Support Staff, which sought the views of Pupil Support Staff, senior leaders, children and young people and parents and carers.

The 4 month consultation element of the programme was extended and closed in March 2023. Over 2,500 surveys were completed representing all 32 local authorities. Analysis and evaluation of all the programme responses is in progress as is the programme report and should be completed by July 2023.

The programme has provided the first national opportunity for Pupil Support Staff to share their views on a range of areas including whether they feel it would be beneficial to have their own workforce vison and set of values. They were also asked to collaborate on the development of any potential workforce vision and values using draft versions provided. A wide range of suggestions and comments were received and this feedback is currently being collated within the programme evaluation report.

Once a Community Payback Order (CPO) has been imposed, its management – including with regard to compliance and attendance – is a matter for the courts and local authority justice social work services. The Scottish Government therefore does not collect or collate this information.

Managing compliance effectively is critical to achievement of the purposes of a CPO. If an individual does not attend any part of their CPO, this will be investigated by justice social work services. If the reason for absence is not acceptable, this will result in the commencement of a formal warning process, which can result in the case being returned to court under breach procedures, where the court will consider the breach.

Seventy-nine per cent of orders which ended during 2021-22 did not involve any breach applications for the duration of the order. It is up to the independent courts to decide the most appropriate outcome where a CPO has been breached, based on all of the circumstances of the case, and ultimately this may include the imposition of a custodial sentence.

Trade and Investment Envoys are a voluntarily network of senior business people who offer their time to share their business insights, connections, and expertise to help guide our collective trade and investment effort. They provide a valuable contribution that complements the knowledge and reach of our, and UKG international networks. The principal function of our Envoy network is to provide Scotland with a network of influential and business-experienced advocates in locations of particular interest to our priority sectors and opportunity areas. Each Envoy agrees an annual work programme that is aligned with our trade & investment plans which sets objectives to guide their efforts. We review progress with our Envoys on a quarterly basis. As our Envoys primarily operate at a more strategic, rather than operational level we do not attribute specific KPIs to them.

The linked press release contains a breakdown of VCAF funding from 2022-2025.

Victims will benefit from key support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Following detailed partnership working between the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership, Police Scotland and the Crown Office (COPFS), facilitated by the Scottish Government, details of a new service specification have been developed and shared with COPFS.

The specification, which seeks to meet the parameters set out in the Lord Advocate’s statement from November 2021, will now be considered by COPFS.

If appropriate, it will then be referred to the Lord Advocate for consideration of any related statement of prosecution policy

We have worked carefully with partners to help them develop a sustainable approach which will allow for any such facility to operate to maximum effect.

Parliament will be notified when further updates become available.

We are committed to ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare. Where lethal control of beavers is required to be undertaken, this must be carried out under licence by an authorised person who must have attended training in beaver ecology, the law, and best practice in beaver control as well as holding the appropriate firearms certificate. Furthermore, NatureScot now require carcasses from licensed control to be submitted for independent post mortem in order that aspects of beaver health and welfare can be monitored, other than in the exceptional circumstances where a carcass cannot safely be retrieved.

The latest available figures for the number of beavers killed are for the calendar year 2021. A summary of licence returns for 2021 is publicly available on the NatureScot website at https://www.nature.scot/doc/summary-beaver-populations-and-licence-returns-covering-period-1st-january-31st-december-2021 .

To summarise, during that period eighty seven beavers were killed under licence and thirty three animals were trapped and translocated from conflict areas to licensed projects. NatureScot intends to release the figures for 2022 as part of a Beaver Management Report planned for the end of May this year. We expect to see a further shift in the proportion of beavers being trapped and translocated as opposed to being lethally controlled.

The Scottish Government does not yet have complete YPFF data for the whole period of 2022-23 so we are unable to state the percentage of successful claims across the 12 month period. We expect Health Boards to have provided this data by the end of May 2023.

Further to the answer provided to question S6W-11404 issued on 4 November 2022, I can confirm that all Health Boards now have access to Clinical portals within acute services.

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

The Scottish Government is working with local government partners on the Additional Support for Learning Project Board to deliver the recommendations of the 2020 additional support for learning review by March 2026. As outlined in our updated action plan , published in November 2022, we have committed to engaging with Audit Scotland on a national performance audit on outcomes for children and young people with additional support needs. This work will be undertaken by Audit Scotland, and is therefore for them to determine their timescales. I have asked officials to make Audit Scotland aware of your question.

Progress by the Additional Support for Learning Project Board can be followed through the published minutes . A further progress update is due to be published in May 2024.

The following table details the support given from the enterprise agencies between 2017 and 2022 to the 5 mountain centres and Snow Factor (currently closed). Please note the drawn down figure can be lower than the overall allocation available from the enterprise agency. This does not include the £7 million in Covid-19 support provided by the Scottish Government.