Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the recruitment and employment of teachers including recruitment practices are matters for individual councils.

I can confirm that excellent progress is being made with the Scottish Government’s rolling programme of electrification. The Glasgow to Barrhead line will see electric services operating on the route from December 2023. Indeed Network Rail and its contractors have recently successfully completed a six week programme of key installation work to facilitate the electrification works and changes at various stations along the line of route. I would like to thank passengers for their patience during these works.

I can also confirm that I have now approved full funding for the delivery of the East Kilbride Enhancement Project. This will deliver electrification of the route, a relocated station at Hairmyres, a new accessible station at East Kilbride, accessibility works at other stations and a 1.4km extension of the Hairmyres double track section to enhance operational resilience and flexibility of service on the route. This project represents a further £139.8m commitment from this Government which will contribute to our wider net zero objectives and will enable the introduction of electric services on the route from December 2025.

Both of these projects were priorities of our Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan which was published in July 2020. In line with commitments for review within the Action Plan a refresh will be published later this year reflecting current progress and the expected budgetary position.

The announcement of five year resource planning assumptions for all local authorities for this parliament provides a clear demonstration of this Government’s commitment to support the delivery of affordable housing.

Affordable Housing Supply Programme investment in the City of Edinburgh will be at a record level of £234m over the parliamentary period and an additional £10m of funding has already been made available in the first two financial years of this parliament to deliver more social and affordable homes in the city.

Scottish Government has also approved a grant of £1.72m through the Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund to support City of Edinburgh Council to bring 100 void homes back into use. These will be used to house Ukrainian Displaced Persons for up to 3 years, after which they will revert back into the wider social housing supply in Edinburgh. My officials continue to work closely with the City of Edinburgh Council on a number of other opportunities to further boost the supply of social rented homes for those fleeing the invasion of Ukraine. I would continue to encourage the Council to speak to my officials about any projects they can identify that meet the criteria for the Fund.

I have met with the City of Edinburgh Council Housing Convener to discuss housing issues in the city, and my officials regularly meet with colleagues from the Council to discuss progress with the delivery of the Strategic Housing Investment Plan through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. These discussions focus on maximising the delivery of as many social and affordable homes as possible.

Our aims and principles make clear that there should be availability of counselling services during school holidays, to ensure continued support to vulnerable young people. However, it is a matter for local authorities to decide how to deliver the service to best suit the needs and circumstances of children and young people in their area.

It is important to highlight that school counselling is just one of a range of services in place to support children and young people’s mental health. Our work on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is set within a context of much wider support for children and young people’s mental health within communities and in relation to specific concerns.

Through the children and young people’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework, the Scottish Government is providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health supports for children and young people aged 5-24 (26 if care-experienced), their family members and their carers. The services are focussed on prevention and early intervention, and include supports for positive mental health and wellbeing as well as for emotional distress.

We have met with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to discuss their concerns.

The recent teacher pay deal is the largest in twenty years and was made against a challenging financial backdrop. It is in that context that we have had to review funding commitments across the programme.

We continue to value the importance of professional development for teachers as demonstrated by the range of professional learning and leadership programmes provided by Education Scotland and detailed on their website Education Scotland | Professional Learning and Leadership . In addition, we are investing £800,000 this year in the Into Headship programme to support future school leaders.

We are open to considering reinstating funding for masters-level learning for teachers should future budget provisions allow.

The programme is now in its third year following the initial pilot. In total 279 applications have been received from the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) registered teachers across Scotland. 166 have been successful in gaining a place on the programme since it began.

Pilot programme 2017 85 applications

Cohort 1 (2021-22) 56 applications

Cohort 2 (2022-23) 53 applications

Cohort 3 (2023-24) 85 applications

As indicated in the answer to question S6W-20389 on 15 August 2023 – we remain committed to exploring the options for a fund which aims to provide immediate financial support to women leaving an abusive relationship. The detail of any fund which may result from these considerations, including potential timescales, are subject to robust consideration and planning as part of the development of options, which is currently ongoing.

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

A proportion of land value uplift is already “captured” through national and local taxation. Additionally, existing planning mechanisms such as section 75 planning obligations can be used to secure contributions to, or provision of, infrastructure and affordable housing. Independent research published in July 2021 estimated that in 2019-20 alone, almost £0.5bn was agreed through planning obligations in Scotland – more than half of which was for affordable housing. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 contains powers for an infrastructure levy which would provide local authorities with a new mechanism, alongside planning obligations, for seeking financial contributions from developers. The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing the levy during this Parliament.

This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, because it is statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate.

This government has a strong record on the school estate, working in collaboration with local authority partners. The 2023 school estate statistics show that 90.7% of schools were in a good or satisfactory condition in 2023, up from 90.4% in 2022 and 61.1% in 2007. Since 2007-08, 1,098 school builds or substantial refurbishment projects have been completed.

The Scottish Government’s £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme is being delivered in partnership with local authorities and will build on this progress.