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My amendment 309 would place an obligation on ministers to make regulations that specify the intervals at which establishments are to be inspected—the bill as currently drafted states that Scottish ministers “may” specify the intervals. That is incredibly important. As my colleague Stephen Kerr has set out on the record, it is important to continually understand what is happening in our schools and to get a regular picture of what is going on. It is not acceptable that ministers may not set out in regulation the intervals at which establishments should be inspected. That is why my amendment 309 would place an obligation on ministers to do so.

Amendment 312 would require ministers, before drafting such regulations, to consult teachers and

“people who ... represent the interests of ... teachers”.

That is important, because we have seen how inspections can lead to significant stress and concern for teachers and in establishments, which is one of the reasons why, in the debate on the previous group, I said that I was concerned about the Government’s amendment 84. It is crucial that we engage teachers so that they understand when and how often inspections will take place. The regulations must be laid and the sector should be engaged when the regulations are being drafted.

My amendment 321 would place a duty on the chief inspector in the exercise of their functions to take account of

“the priorities of the Scottish Ministers in relation to education”

and of recommendations made by bodies, including committees of the Scottish Parliament, whose remit includes matters relating to education policy.

My amendment 322 would place a duty on the chief inspector in the exercise of their functions to have regard for people who use British Sign Language, have protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 or have additional support needs. Given the circumstances in schools for pupils with additional support needs and the extensive information that we heard in advance of stage 2 about the importance of BSL and people with other protected characteristics, amendment 322 sets out what I think are particularly important aspects that the chief inspector must have regard to when carrying out their functions.

Amendment 323 provides regulation-making powers for ministers to say who is included as a specified body, and amendment 358, which is consequential on that, confirms that any regulations will be made under the affirmative procedure.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that. However, there was a discussion in the chamber about recruiting to the board of qualifications Scotland, during which I said that I thought it unusual that we were being asked to vote to begin the recruitment process for qualifications Scotland. It is that point that I was referring to—

I am happy to.

Regarding helping with the landscape, you mention that

“smaller, incremental changes such as alignment of approaches and processes could facilitate a smoother and more manageable reform process.”

Could you give us a bit more information about that?

My final question is on graduate apprenticeships. Do you think that there is anything in the bill that would help to increase the numbers of enrolments in graduate apprenticeships, or should anything be done in that regard outwith the bill?

Would anything in the bill need to change to make that happen?

I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for taking my earlier intervention.

My amendment 317 would require the chief inspector to collaborate with Education Scotland in the exercise of their functions, which could help build a more coherent and collaborative education and learning system, as was called for by a range of stakeholders in the consultation on the bill. I take the cabinet secretary’s point about specificity and whether there is something on which to hang the duty, so, given the concerns about the specific mention of Education Scotland, I will not move amendment 317.

However, I still think that there needs to be coherence in the system and that the current lack of coherence should be addressed. That is why I think that my amendment 318 is really important, as it would require the chief inspector to work with relevant establishments and local authorities to

“support children, young people and their parents in those establishments”

with regard to inspections. We have already debated the purpose of inspections, and given that my position on that is on the record, I will not restate it, in the interests of time.

Amendment 318 is an important amendment. It would add to what the cabinet secretary is trying to do by suggesting that there should be collaboration, instead of simply indicating that the chief inspector must have regard to it.

I am not sure that I take the point about this statutory responsibility falling within the responsibility of local authorities. I agree that that is a statutory fact, but I am not sure that it precludes the chief inspector from working with local authorities and other bodies collaboratively to seek improvement. I am unconvinced that amendment 318 should not be tested in committee.

On the intention behind amendment 318, the cabinet secretary will say that this is the responsibility of local authorities or schools, and it is not something that the cabinet secretary or the Scottish Government can do something about. Indeed, everyone around the table today has heard that quite a bit. The amendment therefore attempts to provide some sort of oversight so that somebody is at least looking at those establishments and asking them to work together for the improvement of education across Scotland.

I ask Mr Kerr to forgive me for the rather circuitous nature of my questioning. The bill currently says that ministers “may” make regulations on inspection intervals. I am not sure that the point is to do with the vehicle. My amendment 309 seeks to say that the Government should lay such regulations. I wonder whether Mr Kerr is as curious as I am about whether there are any other examples in legislation of its being stated that the Government must lay regulations, because I feel that there might be.