Chamber and committees

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days .

The most recent data on sports participation is from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey, which shows that the average percentage of children aged between 11 and 15 that had taken part in a sport activity in the past week was 65%.

The Scottish Government does not track the participation of children aged between 10 and 15 in cultural activities.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the total number of kinship carers in each local authority area. We do, however, hold figures for the number of children who are looked after in kinship care and these are included in the Children’s Social Work Statistics for Scotland .

Applications are categorised as ‘Rejected’, ‘Unsuccessful’ or ‘Successful’. ‘Rejected’ applications are those that were ineligible due to failing the initial eligibility checks. As such, these applications do not progress on to be fully assessed. ‘Unsuccessful’ applications will have passed the initial eligibility checks and will have been fully assessed but failed to achieve the scoring threshold for approval.

Since 2015, 7,429 applications have been received to the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) to date, of which 897 were rejected and 792 have been unsuccessful. A breakdown of these figures for each year since the scheme has been in operation is set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government has committed to rejoining the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) with the next cycles, PIRLS 2026 and TIMSS 2027, reporting in 2027 and 2028 respectively.

Data on reading, mathematics and science performance will continue to be available in the interim period from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 results which are being published in December 2023 and PISA 2025 results, which will be published in 2026. In addition, literacy and numeracy attainment results from the Achievement of CfE Levels data collection are published each year in December for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils.

From 2007 to 2016, full-time equivalent was defined as between 35 and 37 hours per week depending on the local authority in which the staff were employed. From 2017 full-time equivalent has been calculated using a standard 35 hours per week across all local authorities.

As a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), SQA operates at arm’s length to ministers and is responsible for its own operational decisions, including decisions relating to course assessments.

SQA’s decision to return to full course assessments for the National Qualifications in 2023-24 was made following engagement with the National Qualifications Group and wider education community, informed by extensive feedback gathered as part of their evaluation of the 2022 arrangements.

I discussed these matters directly with the Chief Examiner, including feedback from the SSTA and other teachers, and received assurance that the impact of the removal of modifications will be carefully considered in the grading process in 2024.

The Scottish Government will publish a statistical report on the results of the PISA 2022 assessments on 5 December 2023, which will include internationally comparable results on maths, science and reading. The publication is timed to coincide with the release of the international results by the OECD, which will include the results of all 81 participating countries and economies.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has recently begun collecting students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

Following a successful pilot, COPFS commenced the Custody Deaths Unit (CDU) on 1 August 2022.

The Unit investigates all deaths in legal custody, including deaths in police custody.

The establishment of a dedicated unit will ensure further improvements in the quality and effectiveness of such investigations, prosecutions and FAIs and consistency of process throughout the country.