Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has established a number of groups to advise Ministers on the development of education policy. These include the International Council of Education Advisers, the Scottish Education Council, the Curriculum and Assessment Board, the Teacher Panel, and the Scottish Board for Teacher Education. In addition, there were two important reviews of aspects of Scotland's education system published recently, the Audit Scotland report Improving outcomes for young people through school education, and the findings of the OECD: Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future | en | OECD. Following on from the OECD review, Professor Ken Muir was appointed in August 2021 to act as an independent adviser to the Scottish Government, and to report recommendations on education reform early in 2022. At the beginning of his appointment, Professor Muir appointed an expert panel and an advisory group to support this work. Details of these groups including the remit and membership can be found here: Education Reform . It has also been announced that Professor Hayward will lead a reference group to advise on the reform of qualifications, and this work will begin next year.

It has also been announced that Professor Hayward will lead a reference group to advise on the reform of qualifications, and this work will begin next year.

The Scottish 4G Infill Programme is investing £28.75M to build up to 55 mobile masts designed to bring 4G connectivity to rural and island communities around Scotland. Updates are published on a regular basis at Scottish 4G infill programme: progress update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In the areas specified, the current breakdown for new activated masts is:

(a) Argyll and Bute (2) – Bunessan, Glenbarr

(b) Western Isles (2) – Lemreway, Ranish

(c) Highland (8) – Applecross, Blairmore, Glenborrodale,, Killilan, Littlemill, Polbain, Strathconon, Tarskavaig

(d) Orkney (2) – Burray, Deerness

(e) Shetland (1) – Reawick

(f) Moray (1) – Chapeltown

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of mobile and broadband connectivity for almost all aspects of everyday life which is why we work closely with Local Resilience Partnerships, telecoms providers and the UK Government - both in preparing for, and responding to severe weather events which may impact telecommunications in Scotland.

It is important to note that resilience of the Communications Sector, which includes telecommunications and internet, is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Major outages are extremely rare, but most telecoms equipment is dependent on a power supply in order to function which can be disrupted by extreme weather.

During the Storm Arwen response effort, welfare centres offered Wi-Fi and mobile phone charging facilities where possible. Additionally, in the in the run-up to Storm Arwen, the Scottish Government’s Ready Scotland campaign was activated using local radio and digital channels and was geographically targeted on the areas affected by the Amber and Red Met Office warnings.

The ‘Ready Scotland’ website, at ready.scot , provides advice to the public on how to prepare for and respond to emergencies; including utilities loss and severe weather.

We will continue to press the UK Government and the regulator (Ofcom) for assurance that increasing resilience of the telecoms network in Scotland is a priority.

Following a pause, due to capacity challenges related to the pandemic from March 2020 to March 2021, officials from the Scottish Government and the UK Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have resumed work to finalise a proposal for introducing split payments of Universal Credit in Scotland. This work has been progressing steadily and Scottish Government officials expect to have a policy proposal ready for the DWP to undertake impact assessments in 2022.

Offering the choice of split payments of Universal Credit has the potential to help address the inequality inherent in household payments that reduce access to independent incomes and can place power in the hands of abusers. Whilst offering split payments of Universal Credit in Scotland will not be sufficient to solve these complex problems, improving the accessibility of an independent income may help people in difficult situations and result in fairer and more empowering outcomes.

From 30 November 2021 the eligibility criteria for the Self Isolation Support Grant was changed to enable close contacts of someone who has tested positive or has been asked to isolate as part of the exercise within the public health response to the Omicron variant if they have to isolate for the required 10-day period to be eligible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05135 on 22 December 2021. 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 .

Scottish Government makes DNS changes to domains on a daily basis. Given the number of change requests that have been processed each day since renewals in 2016 and the way in which domains are managed it is not possible for us to provide an accurate breakdown of the “active” or “inactive” domains for any date or year other than the latest data we have for the current portfolio as it stands today. We can however provide a breakdown of annual costs for the renewal, management and enterprise DNS provision for the Scottish Government domains portfolio each year since 2016.

Date     Total domains   Total Ex Vat

2021-06-30   1039     £13,267.50

2020-06-30   1021   £12,530.00

2019-06-30   837   £10,455.00

2018-06-30   705   £8,493.00

2017-06-30   640   £7,612.00

2016-06-30 630   £7,186.00

We have defined “active” as a domain that has DNS configuration applied to it. Any domain that is currently parked with our Registrar Com Laude or has no DNS configuration has been defined as “inactive”.

We have heard directly from retail businesses advising that the impact of these changes are already being felt, and that the new rules put Scottish and UK-wide businesses at a disadvantage when compared to other European destinations who continue to operate VAT refund schemes.

Following the announcement of the changes to tax-free shopping on 11 September 2020, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, and I wrote a joint letter to the UK Chancellor opposing the proposed changes; especially at such a challenging time for businesses. No action was forthcoming from the UK Government, so on 20 December 2021 I sent a follow-up letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reiterate the Scottish Government’s concerns on the matter, and request any data and analysis on the impact of these changes.

Scottish Government currently owns 1081 registered domains. 629 of them are currently “active” and 452 are currently “inactive”.

This total includes domain name variants which are commonly registered to protect a domain from malicious use, as well as domains for expired websites which are retained in order to redirect users to suitable alternatives.

We have defined “active” as a domain that has DNS configuration applied to it. Any domain that is currently parked with our Registrar Com Laude or has no DNS configuration has been defined as “inactive”.

On the 3rd of November, and in response to an increase in risk to poultry of highly pathogenic avian influenza linked with increasing numbers of wild birds testing positive for the disease, the Scottish Government, along with Defra, DAERA and the Welsh Government, acted swiftly to declare an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) across the whole of the UK. This declaration legally required keepers to apply strict biosecurity measures in order to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease. These measures were further enhanced on 29 November, requiring all bird keepers to house their birds or otherwise keep them separate from wild birds.

When outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been confirmed, such as those in Angus or Dumfries and Galloway, a 3 km Protection Zone and 10 km Surveillance Zone are declared around the infected premise. Within these zones, movement restrictions are applied on poultry, other captive birds, carcasses, eggs, and a range of poultry product and associated equipment, all aimed at halting the spread of the disease. A full epidemiological investigation is carried out in every case to identify the source of the virus and any potential onward transmission routes.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with other UK administrations and its operational partners to put out communications to keepers ensuring they are aware of the risk and to promote compliance with the Avian Influenza prevention zone biosecurity measures. Whether keepers have just a few birds or thousands they must take action now to protect their birds from this highly infectious disease.