Chamber and committees

We continue to explore, with our partners on the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), how best to deliver the balance required for preparation and contact time.

Any changes to teachers’ terms and conditions require tripartite agreement through the SNCT.

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

The prison population rose by around 400 between March and May and by around 13% since the beginning of 2023, resulting in the need to take a variety of actions to deal with the unprecedented high prisoner numbers. These actions will ensure the safety and well-being of SPS staff and those in our care, allowing prisons such as Barlinnie to continue to function effectively and accommodate those who pose the greatest risk of harm.

Despite being above its design capacity, HMP Barlinnie is currently operating below its extended operating capacity.

The provision of education is the responsibility of Local Authorities and so the detailed approach to lesson planning is a matter for individual schools – however it has always been the case that Scotland’s teachers are entrusted to plan their lessons as they see fit. There are a variety of different approaches which may be deployed in the development of lesson plans and it would not be the role of central Government to dictate how that might look in individual classrooms.

In relation to avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, the Statement from HM Inspector of Education from 2016 remains in place. That Statement sets out what teachers and practitioners are expected to do to effectively plan learning, teaching and assessment for all pupils, and also suggests what should be avoided. The guidance is available at the following hyperlink: https://education.gov.scot/media/m1nlboum/cfe-statement.pdf

To further support effective lesson planning, Education Scotland continues to provide advice and support to educators on lesson planning with the provision of resources on the Education Scotland website and using their subject-specific networks, professional learning events and professional support visits.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises concerns around teacher workload. That is why we remain which is why we remain committed to reducing class contact time by 90 minutes giving teachers more time out of the classroom.

We continue to explore with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) how we can best progress the commitment to reduce class contact time.

To help inform this discussion the WPI report which was published on 7 May contains a number of high-level future scenarios and assesses their broad compatibility with any changes to teachers’ contracted class-contact time. These scenarios will help to facilitate our discussions with SNCT partners on how we can best deliver this commitment and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning.

Any changes to terms and conditions for teachers in Scotland are a matter for the SNCT.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload.

We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.

Yes. Teachers’ terms and conditions are matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers.

Clinical data collection, including around fracture liaison services, is carried out locally by territorial NHS Boards. Public Health Scotland will additionally carry out national data collection or collation in some areas, including its forthcoming audit of Fracture Liaison Services.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this is dependant on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is committed to boosting planning capacity across Scotland. Through our Investing In Planning Consultation earlier this year, we proposed a series of practical options, including the potential for a planning hub to support authorities to access skilled staff at short notice to help them to respond to pressures, alternative fee mechanisms to boost income and opportunities to get more people to consider planning as a career. We will announce the way ahead for our Investing in Planning proposals soon.

In the meantime, to strengthen the future pipeline of planners we are supporting 10 post graduate students, through grant funding, to study at Scottish planning schools this year . This bursary offer will be enhanced by helping to link students with internships and industry placements.

It remains the case that planning permission is required for any material change of use from any lawful planning use to a short-term let use, in addition to any licence required for the operation as a short term let. The licensing regime does not add any new planning requirement.

The primary source for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance is through Scottish Development International’s (SDI) annual inward investment results on behalf of the Enterprise Agencies.

SDI tracks the number of planned and safeguarded jobs associated with supported inward investment projects (Foreign Direct Investment and inward investment from the Rest of the UK).

The average number of planned and / or safeguarded jobs recorded per inward investment project (Foreign Direct Investment and inward investment from the Rest of the UK) in each of the last five years was as follows:

2018-19: 93

2019-20: 53

2020-21: 58

2021-22: 68

2022-23: 99

SDI results form part of a suite of indicators used to measure Scotland’s inward investment performance. The latest EY Annual Attractiveness Survey (2024), which excludes intra-UK investment, shows Scotland’s strong track record of attracting inward investment continuing, featuring as the top performing part of the UK outside of London for the ninth year.