Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping The Promise, which sets out that young people with care experience must have access to independent advocacy and legal representation. The Promise recognises that advocacy requires different approaches and offerings that may be independent of each other. To this end, The Promise Scotland, supported by Scottish Government, are undertaking work to scope a national lifelong advocacy service for care experienced people and advocacy for families coming into contact with the care system. This work is due to report to Ministers by the end of 2023

At present, in Scotland, children and young people with care experience, as with all children and young people, can access publicly funded legal assistance on the broad range of issues adults can. Subject to having legal capacity and satisfying the statutory tests, children and young people can obtain advice from a solicitor about legal problems relating to the application of Scots law covered under the Advice and Assistance Scheme Matters covered by civil advice and assistance - Scottish Legal Aid Board (slab.org.uk) ]. This includes legal aid for children’s hearings, criminal proceedings, or to resolve civil disputes.

Furthermore, through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities Third Sector Fund, the Scottish Government provide over £1.4M annually in core funding to 10 organisations that offer support on legal rights and access to independent legal representation for care experienced young people.

In addition to obtaining legal representation, all children and young people can access independent child advocacy services to support them in and around their Children’s Hearings. Whilst children’s advocacy workers are not legal representatives, part of their role is to help children understand and realise their rights. The Scottish Government provides funding to Clan Childlaw to operate a Legal Support Service for independent children’s advocacy workers in the children’s hearing system. The funding also supports training advocacy workers to increase their knowledge of how to use children’s rights to advocate for and support children and young people at children’s hearings. Where a rights breach is identified through the Legal Support Service, the advocacy worker is able to discuss the availability of legal advice and assistance for the child to help them access a solicitor.

Children’s rights realisation requires raising awareness with children as rights holders and what this means in practice, but also requires training and capacity building for those who are implementing decisions. The Scottish Government’s aim is to ensure duty bearers and public authorities achieve a knowledge and understanding of children’s rights and to enable children and their representatives to act upon them. This is central to the implementation of the UNCRC and to embed children’s human rights into the fabric of Scottish society.

Since the STEM bursary scheme (now known as the Teaching Bursary Scheme) was introduced in 2018, the number of bursaries awarded in each year is as follows:

As Michael Matheson advised in line with the Scottish Government’s evidence-led approach to policy development, we were undertaking a programme of work and analysis to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how this aligns with our climate change targets. In our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, we set out a clear pathway to deliver on global commitments and capitalise on the enormous opportunities offered by becoming a net zero economy. Whilst oil and gas licensing is reserved to UK Government we have been clear that our focus must be meeting our energy security needs, reducing emissions and ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas workforce as North Sea resources decline.

Universal free school meals are available to all children in Primaries 1 to 5, and to all pupils in special schools, saving families £400 per eligible child per year.

We are committed to the expansion of free school meals, with the next phase of this being to children in Primary 6 & 7 whose families are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.

The following table shows the number of pupils at each school in the G74 and G75 postcode areas who were registered for universal free school meals at the time of our September 2022 Pupil Census.

Since the STEM bursary scheme (now known as the Teaching Bursary Scheme) was introduced in 2018, the costs the Scottish Government has provided is as follows:

The decarbonisation of transport is expected to- continue to increase demand for electric vehicles (EVs), and therefore EV batteries. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries however, it is expected that the majority of vehicle batteries will be imported, with battery manufacturing currently concentrated in China, Korea and Japan.

Research published in 2020 (commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise) assessed the current and future use of batteries in Scotland across the entire length of the battery supply chain, from chemicals to end of life. This research is published and is available here: Battery use in Scotland now and in the future | Zero Waste Scotland. This research suggests that in the next decade other chemistries and technologies are expected to supersede lithium battery technologies.

More recently the Scottish Government commissioned further research with Zero Waste Scotland to identify what practical actions Scotland could take to encourage and benefit from a circular economy - encouraging the reuse, remanufacturing and recycling of electric vehicle batteries. This research will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government received £19.4 million of capital Barnett consequentials at the UK Government’s Spring Statement in March as a result of the pothole fund announcement.

This funding announcement came after Stage 3 of the Budget Bill had passed and it was therefore too late for these amounts to be included in the 2023-24 Scottish Budget. At this stage the funding remains unallocated and, as with any funding received after the Budget is set, will be considered in the rounds as part of the upcoming Autumn Budget Revision.

The Skills Delivery Landscape Review was carried out as an independent review, and as such the Scottish Government was not involved in consultations that led to the recommendations.

As set out in Fit for the Future: developing a post-school learning system to fuel economic transformation the Independent Advisor, James Withers, ran an open call for evidence and engaged directly with a range of individuals and organisations as a core part of his review process.

Small and micro businesses tend to make up a high percentage of Modern Apprentice (MA) employers. Data from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) shows that in 2019, 49.7% of MA employers were microbusinesses (0-9 employees) and 30.8% were small businesses (10-49 employees).

SDS, our national skills body, undertakes a variety of activity to promote apprenticeships to small businesses. This includes Scottish Apprenticeship Week (SAW) which is a long-standing and award winning campaign designed to raise the profile of apprenticeships, supported by hundreds of employers each year.

During SAW, the annual Scottish Apprenticeship Awards recognises apprenticeship delivery and seeks to reward and recognise employer apprenticeships, including a category for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

SDS also commission learning providers to promote and recruit apprentice employers including SMEs. Apprenticeships.scot is a platform which enables employers to advertise apprenticeship opportunities for free which SMEs are encouraged to use. SDS undertakes a comprehensive digital marketing programme in support of Scottish Apprenticeships, including ongoing engagement through social media channels and promotion of Apprenticeships.scot .

Apprenticeship statistics are published on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website at Statistics | Skills Development Scotland . The statistics also include a breakdown of the number of Modern Apprenticeships by occupational grouping and a breakdown by framework for Foundation and Graduate Apprenticeships.

To note, SDS do not hold data on employer size.