Chamber and committees

SCVO estimate that the public sector as a whole invests around £1.8 billion each year to support the work of charities and social enterprises. Of that, around £500m comes from the Scottish Government via a broad range of programmes including those supporting community empowerment, mental wellbeing, children and families and health and social care.

The Scottish Government fund Third Sector organisations for specific projects or for core funding and these organisations often also attract income from other sources. That is a matter for those individual organisations and the Scottish Government do not keep a record of which organisations source additional funding from other sources and which do not.

In ‘A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22’, the Scottish Government committed to begin work on establishing a register of interests for the judiciary to increase public confidence and improve transparency.

To date, preparatory work on developing proposals for a judicial register of interests has been undertaken and my officials are currently developing options and next steps with the intention of engaging with stakeholders towards the end of 2022.

The UK Government has not provided details on how their plans to reduce the number of civil servants by 91,000 will affect their staff working in Scotland. There are around 24,800 1 Civil Servants who are part of the reserved Public Sector in Scotland.

For Civil Servants who serve the Scottish Government, the responsibility for determining our workforce size resides with Scottish Ministers and the Permanent Secretary.

The Scottish Government is committed to contributing to achieving the broad aim set out in the Resource Spending Review to return the total size of the devolved public sector workforce to around pre-COVID-19 levels by 2026-27. This will be achieved through effective vacancy and recruitment management, working in partnership with the Council of Scottish Government Unions.

The RSR also sets out how the wider decrease in the public sector workforce will not be achieved via a uniform approach due to varying trends in demand for different services and the recovery of services from COVID-19. Whilst we consider the longer term workforce requirements, and the impact of the Resource Spending Review on the Scottish Government's workforce size and cost for the future, we are already taking action and have enhanced recruitment controls in place, ensuring as much money as possible is directed onto the delivery of the policy priorities of the Government and improving the lives of the people of Scotland.

[1] Source: Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 1st Quarter 2022

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Where possible, the use of the Virtual Court process should be facilitated in the first instance, either from Police Custody Units (PCU’s) or mainland prisons, unless the individual is directed to appear in person by the Sheriff.

Where an escort is required to facilitate a court appearance in person, and the flight to that island is not available, or the airport is not available, the service provider is required to ensure that they have planned and organised the transportation of the individual(s) with sufficient time to ensure the person and escorting staff arrive in time for the scheduled court appearance.

This may mean organising ferry transport to the Scottish islands, and potentially liaising with SPS to temporarily locate the individual at an establishment closest to the ferry terminal if they have travelled from a significant distance.

Where required, the service provider may also need to liaise with Police Scotland to locate the individual in local legalised police cells overnight prior to, or after, the court appearance if off island transport is not available.

The Rural Communities Ideas into Action (RCIA) fund was part of a Community Led Local Development (CLLD) test of change pilot developed and delivered in 2021-22 by Scottish Government. The fund made available a total of £3.3 million of CLLD funding to rural and island communities across Scotland.

The learning from this pilot and, previous CLLD funding through the former LEADER fund, has informed development of a new Scottish Government CLLD fund which will deliver £11.6 million in two tranches over 2022-23.

I can confirm that the tranche one phase is progressing and will see £7.6 million allocated to Local Action Groups (LAG) representing rural and island communities who will be responsible for project funding decisions.

Details of tranche two for the delivery of the remaining £4 million within the current financial year are being finalised.

A key principle of the refreshed 2022 Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance states that: ‘Teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and other key stakeholders should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating approaches.’

Headteachers are accountable to their local authority for the use of Pupil Equity Funding within their school. We have been clear that schools should consult and engage effectively with teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and the wider community when implementing approaches to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

To ensure transparency, schools are expected to incorporate details of their Pupil Equity Funding plans and explicitly report on the impact on outcomes for learners impacted by poverty. This should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication should be confirmed by the relevant local authority.

The Scottish Government has had no specific discussions about this issue with these local authorities. It is for headteachers, who know their children best, to decide on how to invest their Pupil Equity Funding, based on their local contexts and they should work in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

I reaffirm the answer provided in S6T-00784 on 14 June 2022. Specifically, that local decisions are taken by headteachers in an empowered education system. We trust schools and headteachers to know their pupils best, and to take decisions that are in the best interests of their children and young people.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find these to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families – working alongside Social Work and third sector organisations.

All answers to Topical Questions are available on the Parliament's website at the following link: Meeting of the Parliament: 14/06/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

I reaffirm the answer provided in S6T-00784 on 14 June 2022. Specifically, in the small number of areas where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools indicate that they find these to be of great benefit.

This is a matter for headteachers and local authorities to consider, if appropriate. Decisions on how to use Pupil Equity Funding are taken by headteachers in an empowered education system. We trust schools and headteachers to know their pupils best, and to take decisions that are in the best interests of children and young people, including undertaking appropriate risk and impact assessments.