- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of its Summary Statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations, whether it will provide a breakdown of the number of 2020-21 school leavers in employment who are in (a) full-time work, (b) part-time work and (c) on zero-hour contracts, broken down by sector.
Answer
A total of 15,976 (31.5%) 2020-21 school leavers were in employment 9 months after the end of the school year. This included (a) 9,010 recorded as being in full-time employment (17.8% of all school leavers) and (b) 2,564 recorded as being in part-time employment (5.1% of all school leavers). A further 381 were confirmed as being in employment but the nature of that employment (i.e. whether part-time or full-time etc.) was not known. The remainder recorded as being in employment were engaged in a Modern Apprenticeship, or were self-employed.
The dataset used to produce Summary Statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations does not hold information on the number of school leavers on (c) zero-hours contracts, or on the sector in which school leavers are employed.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many secondary school STEM subject teachers are women.
Answer
The following table shows the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) teachers with STEM subjects listed as their main subject as reported during the 2021 census of teachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland.
The figures exclude head teachers and deputy head teachers.
| Female | Male | Total |
Biology | 1,011 | 332 | 1,343 |
Chemistry | 658 | 361 | 1,019 |
Computing Studies | 249 | 346 | 595 |
Home Economics | 760 | 31 | 791 |
Mathematics | 1,429 | 1,035 | 2,464 |
Physics | 275 | 561 | 836 |
Science (general) | 87 | 78 | 165 |
Technical Education | 429 | 811 | 1,239 |
All STEM subjects | 4,897 | 3,555 | 8,452 |
Source: Teacher census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 7 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported concerns of former employees of East Ayrshire Council regarding the culture and employment practices in its children and families services.
Answer
We expect all Councils to take appropriate action in response to any complaint from an employee through their policies and practices.
Councils are independent corporate bodies responsible for the management of their employees and the Scottish Government has no power to investigate reports or allegations of this nature.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to developing an expressive arts or moving image arts National Qualification.
Answer
Existing National Qualifications in Art and Design already allow the option of submitting moving image pieces. The following National Progression Awards contain units based on moving image or options to work in a moving image context:
- Skills for Work: Creative Digital Media (SCQF level 4)
- Creative Industries (SCQF level 4)
- Skills for Work: Creative Industries (SCQF level 5)
- Film and Media (SCQF levels 5 and 6)
- Art and Design: Digital Media (SCQF levels 5 and 6)
- Television Production (SCQF level 5)
- NPA in Digital Media Animation
- HNC/HND 3D Computer Animation
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will match the amount of grant funding that it offers to farmers and crofters through its Agriculture Transformation Fund with that of the UK Government’s Slurry Infrastructure grant.
Answer
The full amount of the Agriculture Transformation Fund of £5 million, which is part of wider transformative actions including the National Test programme, has been allocated to the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS) 2022 which will provide support for low emission slurry spreading equipment and slurry store covers only. Support for slurry infrastructure is offered through the Agri-environment Climate Scheme (AECS) which provides support to farmers and crofters within the SEPA identified priority catchments. Retaining the arrangements for the slurry storage options under AECS reflects the overall capital picture for 2022-23 which is more constrained than in previous years.
Agriculture is devolved and it is for each part of the UK to develop policies for its own circumstances. We will continue to support the rural economy with stability and simplicity until 2025 and we remain committed to supporting active farming and food production with direct payments. EU Exit means we no longer have long-term certainty of funding and unilateral choices imposed by HM Treasury provide insufficient replacement EU budget. The support offered reflects this position and the available budget.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UK Government’s Slurry Infrastructure grant offering funding of between £25,000 and £250,000, for what reason its Agriculture Transformation Fund only offers grants up to £20,000 towards slurry infrastructure investment.
Answer
The full amount of the Agriculture Transformation Fund of £5 million has been allocated to the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS) 2022 which has been designed to focus support on low emission slurry spreading equipment and slurry store covers that are proven to lower ammonia emissions and reduce adverse impacts on water quality resulting from the storage and spreading of livestock slurry and digestate. The amount of grant on offer has been based on standard costs and is set at a level that is proportionate to the costs of the eligible equipment.
Agriculture is devolved and it is for each part of the UK to develop policies for its own circumstances. We will continue to support the rural economy with stability and simplicity until 2025 and we remain committed to supporting active farming and food production with direct payments. EU Exit means we no longer have long-term certainty of funding and unilateral choices imposed by HM Treasury provide insufficient replacement EU budget. The support offered reflects this position and the available budget.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many schools requested copies of the commemorative book for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee for their pupils, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government do not hold this information.
The idea for this book was instigated by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is not involved with the opt-in process being carried out by the UK Government with Education Authorities.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what steps were taken to promote the offer of a free commemorative book on Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee to school children in Scotland.
Answer
The idea for this book was instigated by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is not involved with the opt-in process being carried out by the UK Government with Education Authorities.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 24 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether parents or carers of children can request a copy of the commemorative book for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee directly and, if this is possible, how they do so.
Answer
The idea for this book was instigated by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is not involved with managing future requests for the book.
It is understood from previous correspondence with the UK Government that the book will be available to purchase from 23 June and a digital version of the book will be available, from September, free of charge to UK readers.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it will submit the final draft of the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) to the Parliament.
Answer
I wrote to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 22 June confirming that I now intend to lay a revised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn. This is in order to ensure there is sufficient time to fully consider the detailed responses submitted during the consultation period and to ensure that the finalised version is robust for the important role that NPF4 will have in the planning system.