Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the difficult situation that the culture sector is facing currently.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01744 11 January 2023. The answer to the Oral Question can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-11-01-2023?meeting=14081 .

The Scottish Government remains keen to conclude some work on multiyear funding, and will discuss this with Creative Scotland, even if economic uncertainty means that the figures for later years can be at most only indicative. The outlook, following the recent Autumn Statement by the UK Government, is even more challenging for the later years of the Resource Spending Review period.

In the academic year 2020-21, there were 33,761 applications to the Higher Education Discretionary Funds across colleges and universities. The Discretionary Funds include the additional Covid Fund, introduced to support students during the pandemic.

27,500 applications were successful.

These figures come from the financial returns provided by colleges and universities, and reflect the applications made to them. The overall total applications number is not disaggregated into individual students’ applications - it could include several applications being made by the same individual student.

Data for 2021-22 is not yet available, and is due to be published in the annual SAAS Statistical Publication in August.

The Improvement Service report on Local Authority Instrumental Music Services sets out that 41,594 pupils received instrumental music tuition in academic year 2020-21, this is 6% of the total number of school pupils. The full report is available here : Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2022 (improvementservice.org.uk) .

The Scottish Government will give full consideration to the case for establishing a register of quarries as part of the work underway to develop plans for a devolved replacement for the UK Aggregates Levy.

In Autumn 2022 Transport Scotland launched a national marketing campaign across TV, radio, digital and social media and outdoor advertising channels. This has significantly increased awareness and understanding of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme, and has encouraged even more young people to apply.

Additionally, since January 2022, Transport Scotland has undertaken extensive stakeholder communications to encourage uptake. This includes providing informational and promotional materials and advice to over 300 private, public and third sector organisations who work with children, young people, families, those in poverty, disability and carers groups, and others who may benefit from the scheme.

In October and November 2022, communications materials were also issued directly from Transport Scotland to all 2,500 Primary and Secondary schools across Scotland, providing access to bespoke resources and advice to communicate about the scheme with their pupils and families.

Information and resources for stakeholders are available on the freebus.scot website , which have already been widely used.

Transport Scotland continues to reach out to existing and new stakeholders to promote the scheme and encourage more young people to benefit.

Homelessness data, which includes information about temporary accommodation placements, is available for all local authorities from 2017-18. The following table shows the lower (a) and upper (b) quartile of total time in days spent in temporary accommodation for households with homelessness applications that closed in each year from 2017-18 by household type. The figures are based on homelessness applications with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement.

Lower (LQ) and upper (UQ) quartile of total time (days) spent in temporary accommodation, by household type: 2017-18 to 2021-22

Transport Scotland, through its Operating Companies, consider local communities and affected businesses during the works planning and consultation process. For planned closures, consultation with the community and business groups is undertaken as part of the planning process, to consider the specific concerns and needs of those parties. Where possible, works are scheduled to avoid busier periods and times. This helps to minimise impacts on road users, businesses and local communities, with operating company contracts including specific times on certain routes where planned works are to be avoided.

The Scottish Government has not allocated funding nor spent any money on this.

The Scottish Government has robust security policies and procedures in place, with training and guidance available for all staff to help them understand their security responsibilities. Steps include adhering to best practice in password management and using features such as two-factor authentication which is available on most social media platforms. The Scottish Government is not responsible for the cyber defence of the platforms themselves, but we refer to the UK Government’s SAFE Framework which outlines a set of standards for digital brand safety and includes the requirement for platforms to commit to cybersecurity.

The Scottish Government runs a number of accounts on social media platforms. Responsibility for uploading content to these accounts lies with the teams who manage those accounts. There are currently four social media managers with specific responsibility for uploading content to the Scottish Government’s primary social media platforms. An additional 112 Communications staff have access to carry out this task as part of their wider role and responsibilities. Outside of the Communications Division this task could form a part of many other roles and is not formally captured or recorded .