Chamber and committees

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership's military skills discovery tool formally launched in March 2023 after the completion of work to expand the number of military job roles within the tool as the result of feedback and testing with service leavers. As such there are limited statistics on the number of users to date, but SCQF Partnership are working with Skills Development Scotland, who host the tool on their My World of Work website, to develop usage statistics and to use them to drive future development of the tool.

We recognise the importance of financial wellbeing and understand the impact that debt and money worries can have on mental health and wellbeing and are working with stakeholders to tackle this issue. In our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan we have committed to further develop a response to those whose mental health has been affected by issues relating to debt. We are working closely with a range of advice organisations, including Citizens Advice Scotland, to better understand and tackle these issues. We will consider the Debt and Mental Health Evidence Form as part of this work and promote to Health and Social Care Partnerships accordingly.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 gives powers to local authorities to take enforcement action where a building is defective or dangerous. Responsibility for repair in tenement properties lies with the building owners and the Tolerable Standard requires that all homes are structurally stable. Local authorities are required to have a strategy for ensuring that below standard houses are brought up to standard and have broad discretionary powers to assist homeowners with work needed to meet the standard.

Veterans are assets to our society and my ambition remains to make Scotland the destination of choice for Service leavers and their families, offering high living standards, great educational opportunities and a society that respects and values their contribution.

The work of Armed Forces and Veterans Champions throughout Scotland is crucial to ensuring veterans can access the right support, guidance and services. The Scottish Government supports fully the work of the Champions in public sector organisations including Police Scotland, Local Authorities, the NHS, Department for Work and Pensions and Higher and Further Education institutions.

The ADVANCE Network was established by the Veterans Group to provide a single point of contact in each of Scotland's colleges and universities for veterans, ex-armed forces and their families. While the Network is not specifically designed to provide educational opportunities to the armed forces community, it does have a role in promoting Higher Education and Further Education to those from within the armed forces community, and many institutions have educational options available for the armed forces community. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of veterans who use the Network to access educational opportunities.

The Scottish Government has clear commitments to improve education, and those include more teachers in our schools.

During the pandemic we provided £240 million of additional investment to local authorities to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery. We recently set out measures to Parliament making it clear that we will provide £145.5 million in next year’s budget to protect increased teacher numbers and support staff. Where this is not being delivered by a local authority, we will withhold or recoup funding that has been given for this purpose.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on the number of businesses that have used the Capitalising on Military Talent toolkit.

The Scottish Government continues to support language learning in schools. We are maintaining grant funding to key delivery partners, such as Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, to support schools and local authorities to deliver high-quality language learning.

Local authority funding in support of implementing the 1+2 approach was originally planned to cease after 2020-21. However, it was extended for a further two years in recognition of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was provided to help local authorities consolidate their progress and prepare strategies to ensure language learning continues to be a normal part of the curriculum.

The implementation of the 1+2 approach has led to language learning from P1 to S3 becoming a normalised part of the Broad General Education. Our surveys of local authorities show that 98% of primary schools and 100% of secondary schools now report offering language learning within the terms of the policy.

We understand the importance of sport and physical activity for children and young people in Scotland and the positive impact that it has on their physical, mental and social health.

Through sport scotland, our national agency for sport, we are working in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges and universities to provide opportunities for all to participate in sport, to break down the barriers, financial or otherwise, that keep too many people from leading active lives.

sport scotland has provided the SFA with an investment of £1,347,400 in the current financial year to help support a wide range of grassroots activity, supporting the SFA’s Football for All strategy. This includes developing children and young people’s football, all of which aims to provide a pathway for anyone to enjoy participating in football.

As set out in the Programme for Government we are working with sport scotland to ensure that Active Schools programmes are free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament, providing them with more opportunities to take part in sport, such as football, before, during and after school.

In the 2021-22 academic year (last full year of data - 2021-22 data reflects the return to activity following the COVID-19 pandemic), 218,000 participants made 3.5 million visits to Active Schools activities with Football being the most popular and visited activity.

While the Scottish Government has not undertaken any assessment of the financial viability of community boxing clubs, we recognise their importance to the overall physical, mental and social health of communities across Scotland.

sport scotland investment into Boxing Scotland supports a wide range of boxing activity that encourages and supports people to participate in boxing, including both club and coach development.

We understand the challenging financial circumstances facing many sports facilities and are fully aware that rising energy costs are a significant issue. Given that most of the levers to respond to these challenges are reserved, we strongly urge the UK Government to use all the powers at its disposal to tackle this cost of living crisis.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with sport scotland to explore how facility operators and the wider sporting sector can best be supported.

Businesses of all sizes will be included in Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which will now launch on 1 March 2024. Adjusting the launch date by over 6 months provides everyone with additional time to prepare for the launch of the scheme, with around 10 months in total to now prepare, including small businesses.

On 20 April 2023 it was announced to Parliament that any product which sells less than 5,000 articles a year in Scotland will no longer have to place a deposit on the product. This change was asked for by business and will apply to producers of all sizes. However, it will particularly help small producers, removing an estimate 44% of producers from having to place a deposit on any of their products.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with businesses of all sizes to ensure our DRS is ready for launch on 1st March next year.