Chamber and committees

The Scottish Budget 2023-24 published in December 2022 did not include any budget provision for teachers’ pay. At that time, the Scottish Government was participating in discussions on a 2023 pay offer through the tripartite SNCT and, as always, it was for COSLA – as the employer – to make any pay offer. Publishing a budget at that stage would have risked undermining COSLA’s position and the negotiations themselves. We continued to work with COSLA to assess what specific support was needed. At the point of the Scottish Budget 2023-24 being published, we had confirmed a contribution of over £50 million to the pay offer made to teachers.

The Scottish Government will provide a total of £205m in 2023-24 to help meet the costs of the final March 2023 pay deal, £50 million of which is included in the local government finance settlement.

Pre-pandemic, the poverty related attainment gap in primary schools was closing across Scotland, including in South Lanarkshire. We nonetheless recognise the negative impact of the pandemic. We are now seeing strong evidence of recovery: the latest published data, the 2021-22 Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (ACEL) data, shows the biggest single year decrease in the gap in primary numeracy and literacy levels since records began (in 2016-17).

Before the pandemic, the attainment gap in South Lanarkshire was below the national average. During the pandemic, in 2020-21, we saw a widening in the attainment gap across the country, with the gap in South Lanarkshire widening by more than the average change nationally. Data from 2021-22 shows that South Lanarkshire has started to recover from the impact of the pandemic in both literacy and numeracy.

South Lanarkshire Council received £10.9 million of Scottish Attainment Challenge funding in 22-23, empowering headteachers and Local Government to achieve their ambitions to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty. This includes:

• South Lanarkshire schools receiving almost £8.95 million Pupil Equity Funding for headteachers enabling them to invest in the best approaches to raise attainment of the pupils in their schools.
• South Lanarkshire Council receiving over £1.4 million Strategic Equity Funding to develop strategic plans for closing the poverty related attainment gap; and
• Care Experience Children and Children Young People Funding of £628,425.

Our ‘New Deal for Tenants’ consultation sought views on proposals to strengthen the rights of tenants including greater rights to have a pet. We are currently developing proposals for future reform. The timing and content of a Housing Bill is currently being considered as we continue to deliver our emergency response to support tenants through the ongoing cost of living crisis.

There are records of 212 instances of damaging or unconsented activities on SSSIs that have not been attributed to third parties. No compensatory agreements have been entered into as a result of these cases.

NatureScot is only obliged to offer compensation to a land manager if the SSSI consenting process restricts the established management of their land and where this leads to a loss of income. NatureScot has 89 active compensatory Management Agreements with land managers to prevent damaging activity. The majority date back to before 2013. The majority of active Management Agreements entered in to by NatureScot contain provisions for proactive management to restore or maintain biodiversity.

The following table sets out the charging and convictions data requested:

The pay offer was made at a time of extraordinary financial pressure on the Scottish Government budget. As the previous Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made clear when the teachers’ pay deal was agreed, difficult decisions will be necessary to free up the required resources. As is normal practice, changes to allocations will be reported to Parliament through autumn and spring budget revisions.

All employees of NHS Scotland, including employees of the Scottish Ambulance Service, who have had their C1 licence temporarily revoked due to medical issues would be managed under the Attendance, NHS Scotland Workforce Policy (Once for Scotland).

Each case is considered on an individual basis, according to the nature of the medical issue.

The Scottish Government carried out a consultation on the Future of Gaelic and Scots from August to December 2022 and these responses will help shape any future legislation. The responses have been independently analysed and it is hope that these will be published by the Scottish Government on 7 June.

A decision on the timing of the Bill’s introduction to Parliament will be taken by Cabinet in the context of setting the content of future legislative programmes.

A set of impact assessments including an Equalities Impact Assessment, Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment and Island Communities Impact Assessment were published alongside the original DRS Regulations in 2020. These have been updated to reflect previous amendments and we will shortly publish revisions to these in light of the amendments laid in May.

Scottish Government has regular engagements with local government and other key stakeholders. Local government is represented on our Ministerial Strategic Advisory Group, and our Hospitality Sector Group. They will have a role to play in the governance of the scheme which will look at strategic and operational issues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16495 on 14 April 2023. 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

As stated in the response to S6W-14626, Circularity Scotland set out the requirement to use a GS1 compliant barcode in 2021 and this has not changed – it is an international standard. The ability to use a UK-wide EAN barcode within Scotland’s DRS was confirmed by SEPA in Summer 2022. Guidance on the use of barcode stickers, to support smaller producers who don’t currently use them on their products will be published in due course by Circularity Scotland.