Chamber and committees

Contractor spend prior to July 2021 was £0. b) The contractor spend for July 2022 is £16,422 and August 2022 projected spend is £18,829.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory obligation under section 13 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure that provision is made for assessing and enhancing the quality of higher education provided by fundable bodies in Scotland.

On our behalf, to meet this obligation the SFC, supported by the Quality Assurance Agency, works with institutions so that they meet an agreed set of expectations for academic standards and quality, as measured against agreed sector reference points such as the UK Quality Code, to ensure that best practice is followed regarding moderation and marking of assessments, including the use of external expertise and examiners.

The Scottish Government remains committed to answering all correspondence as quickly as possible and within agreed timescales.

In relation to (a) freedom of information requests, the figures for the last five financial years are as follows:

The Scottish Government’s intervention in March 2016 was designed to ensure that steel communities in Scotland had a future. The benefits of the intervention are manifest in the high-quality steel products that continue to be produced in Lanarkshire, the skilled employment retained and the economic multiplier effects that accrue via ongoing payments to suppliers and the circulation of income through the local economy. Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this.

The three parties to the sale and purchase of the Lanarkshire steelworks on 2016 – Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government – were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this. Following negotiation the particular commercial requirements of each party are captured in the transaction documentation.

At the heart of our Active Travel Policy is the drive to close the mobility gap and take action against transport poverty. A truly accessible Active Travel landscape is one in which there is equal opportunity to access provision that allows people the opportunity to choose walking, cycling or wheeling as their method of transport for everyday journeys.

The Scottish budget for 2022-23 increased investment in active travel to a record £150 million as we progress towards our commitment to invest at least £320 million or 10% of the transport budget by 2024-25.

We are clear that in all of the funding which we give out in grants to active travel delivery partners, they must ensure that funded schemes promote and support equality for all. A few examples of specific schemes are:

To encourage our youngest citizens to participate in Active Travel, we are running 9 pilot projects to test mechanisms to provide free bikes for all Children of school age who cannot afford them.

In 2022-23, £3 million was allocated to the e-bike Loan Fund in order to provide interest-free loans to support individuals and businesses to purchase e-bikes, adaptive and e-cargo bikes.

In 2019 we launched the £1.3 million Social Housing Fund for improved Walking and Cycling Facilities to encourage active travel within communities, particularly those in areas of multiple deprivation. This project will receive funding of £900,000 in 2022-23.

Scotland’s Cycle Repair Scheme provides free repairs to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it, and the Access Bikes scheme is exploring ways of providing affordable bikes through a variety of different mechanisms, to those who are experiencing financial exclusion.

There are multiple routes through which local authorities and housing associations can get support and funding for the installation of residential cycle storage.

The Places for Everyone programme (PfE) includes provision for cycle storage as part of larger cycle infrastructure projects. For example, in Edinburgh, 108 secure cycle parking units providing 648 individual spaces have been installed in this way since 2019.

We also invest over £900,000 a year in the Cycling Scotland Social Housing Partnership Fund which provides funding directly to housing associations to retrofit cycle storage on their properties. And the Cycling Scotland Cycle Friendly programme provides small grants to local communities, businesses and employers to improve local conditions for cycling, including through the provision of parking and storage.

We continue to look at ways to improve access to cycle storage, taking into account this report and other feedback.

There are already well-established links between learning in the STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - subjects at school and the cross-curricular theme of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). The Scottish Government has, in collaboration with Education Scotland and other partners, supported implementation of the LfS action plan. LfS is a curriculum entitlement for all learners in Scotland.

Study of STEM in both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase includes environmental science, the living environment and Earth's resources which are crucial to delivering on learners' entitlement to LfS. Specific connections exist between STEM and LfS in areas such as engineering and technologies, in particular when considering energy production and distribution.

In relation to the North East, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is working with Aberdeen City Council as they develop the “ABZ Campus”. The courses offered within this programme are available to Senior Phase pupils and are designed to promote skills development aligned with the fastest growing industries of the North East, including renewable energy.

SDS Careers Advisers are in every state secondary school offering careers information, advice and guidance to pupils through a mixture of one-to-one and group engagements, to enable them to make informed choices about learning and career options in the renewable energy workforce for the future.

As part of the Cladding Remediation Programme we will create a Building Safety Register. This register will include blocks of flats, of any height, assessed as 'low risk' or remediated as an outcome of the Single Building Assessment process.

A series of meetings to explore the issues and options available were held between officials on 30 June, 13 July and 1 August.

Following these meetings, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and myself met with a delegation of COSLA’s political leadership on 3 August and held a further meeting with their Resources Spokesperson on 8 August.

Those discussions resulted in the Scottish Government committing an extra £140m on a recurring basis to support councils and COSLA with the local government pay negotiations.

We again met with representatives of COSLA’s political leadership on 17 August.