Chamber and committees

The latest SQA data shows that the total number of entries into STEM National Qualifications at Higher have increased every year since 2019, with entries in 2024 being 3.4% higher than 2023.

Work has been ongoing since 2017 to implement the STEM Training and Education Strategy, which is designed to ensure ongoing take up of STEM subjects. This includes providing funding to organisations and programmes such as SSERC and the Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) Programme, to equip practitioners with the skills, knowledge and confidence to create inspiring STEM learning experiences.

In addition, the Scottish Government funds the Young STEM Leader Programme which inspires young people to take up STEM subjects, as well as initiatives such as Maths Week Scotland which promotes numeracy as an essential life skill.

I routinely discuss the development of education policy, including in respect of qualifications and assessment, with young people through frequent visits to schools and a range of other events and meetings. The Scottish Government does not intend to publish details of this range of engagements.

I also met with representatives of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) on the 19th of September, prior to the statement, to provide an overview of the Scottish Government response to the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment ahead of its publication.

The views of young people have, and continue to be, vital to informing our approach to evolving the qualifications and assessment system and I remain committed to meaningfully engaging with young people (including the SYP) as we take this work forward.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for nature restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment.

The Scottish Government has not set a target ratio of public to private investment or established a maximum limit that the public purse should pay of any investment with regards to incentivising nature recovery.

Scottish Government’s approach will focus on maximising the value of public spending to achieve the greatest amount of nature restoration and positive environmental outcomes while ensuring communities benefit from this investment.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for natural restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment.

The Scottish Government‘s forthcoming Natural Capital Markets Framework will set out the actions we will take to deliver our market vision for private investment in natural capital, including in relation to transparency and integrity.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the Orkney Ferry Replacement Task Force, which is supporting the Council address its fleet replacement challenges.

Scotland is the only part of the UK that already offers 30 hours per week, in term time, of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds regardless of whether their parents are working or not. We also make 1140 hours available to around a quarter of 2 year olds and to all children whose entry to primary school is deferred.

It is far from clear that a universal system of government funded childcare would deliver either value for money for the Scottish taxpayer or the best outcomes for our children and young people.

Before turning to the detail, I think it is important to recognise the financial context that the Scottish Government is currently having to work within. As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance outlined in the fiscal statement on 3 September, we cannot shy away from the fact that Scotland continues to face one of the most difficult public spending environments that this devolved Parliament has ever seen.

That is why we have committed in this year’s Programme for Government to work with local authorities to maximise uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds, with a particular focus on families most at risk of poverty and areas with some of the lowest uptake rates.

Over the next two years we are also investing £16 million within six early adopter communities to continue our work to understand what it takes to design and deliver local childcare systems that support those families most at risk of living in poverty.

The engagement and targeted delivery that takes place for younger children in our six EACs will be a key element of our developing evidence base to inform future delivery.

We are continuing to support the ‘Extra Time’ Programme, investing £4 million in a partnership with the Scottish Football Association to deliver before, after school and breakfast clubs, providing 3,000 targeted free places each week for children and their families. We have also invested close to £1 million to deliver free or subsidised school age childcare services through our Access to Childcare projects. These projects consider specific challenges for families, including remote and rural childcare provision, and specialist provision for children with disabilities or complex additional support needs.

We remain committed to expanding funded ELC to reach more young children and to building a system of School Age Childcare, and we are going as far and as fast as budgets allow to deliver that.

Scottish Government welcomes the mid-year 2023 population estimates, which show inward migration driving the biggest single-year increase in Scotland’s population since the 1940s. Scotland continues to be an attractive and welcoming country which people from across the UK and internationally are choosing to call home.

With deaths continuing to outnumber births, these statistics underline the importance of delivering our Population Strategy’s ambition to make Scotland as family friendly as possible, and for collaboration between the Scottish and UK Governments to deliver tailored migration approaches which meet Scotland’s needs, including our Rural Visa Pilot proposal.

Allowing sufficient time to support the meaningful engagement and participation of those the Strategy will affect, including robust analysis of their views, and ensuring that it can be published alongside a range of accessible formats to meet the needs of those it aims to support has remained of central importance to the Scottish Government throughout the Strategy’s development.

This was reiterated during a recent meeting of the External Strategic Working Group who reviewed the aim of publishing the Strategy by the end of 2024 and concluded that publication in Spring 2025 presents a more favourable timeline to achieving this.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of accountability and seeks to ensure that it is built into everything that we do. Regarding monitoring arrangements, the responsibility for oversight of compliance with the Equality Act 2010, including compliance with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 including Regulation 11, rests with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has issued guidance on how the Regulations should be applied in practice.