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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-32217

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31794 by John Swinney on 28 September 2020, what legislative changes or other alterations to permissions would have been required to have shared information relating to the moderation outcome with the Education Recovery Group in advance of the publication of the SQA results on 4 August 2020; how long it would have taken to make such a change, and whether it considered doing this.

The Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008 sets out the rules and principles governing pre-release access to Official Statistics in Scotland. SQA 2020 Attainment statistics were not published as Official Statistics, however, SQA followed the principles as good practice. The main purpose of pre-release access is to ensure that the Scottish Ministers or officials advising them are able to comment publicly on the statistics based on an understanding of them gained through the pre-release period. The number of people who receive pre-release access should be kept to the absolute minimum necessary for this purpose. Pre-release access does not extend beyond that to the wider membership of CERG.

Question reference: S5W-32312

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) colleges and (b) universities regarding the preparations that will be required for exams in the current academic year.

Question reference: S5W-32215

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31793 by John Swinney on 28 September 2020, whether it will place the minutes of all discussions and copies of all correspondence in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), as requested, and what Bib number it has been assigned.

Question reference: S5W-32314

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to Appendix 2 of the SQA NQ 2020 Awarding Decision Timeline, whether it will publish the minutes of the meeting of 11 June 2020, which discussed moderation and dialogue.

Question reference: S5W-32218

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-31360 and S5W-31797 by John Swinney on 4 September and 28 September 2020 respectively, whether it will answer the question that was asked regarding what information it received about the tolerable range that was employed by the SQA, also referred to as the "centre constraints", and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) a copy of what the tolerable range was, broken down by exam centre and subject.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is an independent body and the detail of the moderation process was an operational decision for them. I confirm that I was informed of the 2020 awarding approach to moderation on 30 July 2020. The presentation reported that the model would allow for a variance in centre performance in 2020 over or under previous historic performance of the previous 4 years. The SQA’s National Qualifications 2020 Methodology Report, released on 4 August, provides an explanation of the moderation approach, including the tolerances added to allow for variability in centre performance, adopted this year.

Question reference: S5W-32308

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been (a) made and (b) granted each month under the Higher Education Discretionary Fund, broken down by institution.

Question reference: S5W-32216

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-31365 and S5W-31795 by John Swinney on 4 September and 28 September 2020 respectively, what the (a) intended policy or (b) options for intended policies were when it issued the statement that "details will be provided separately before schools return on 11 August, regarding the approach for the assessment of national qualifications for the 2021-session" within the Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on preparing for the start of the new school term in August 2020, which was published on 30 July 2020, and whether this (i) was or (ii) included a similar system of moderation as used for the 2019-20 exams.

Our position to date, as outlined in the Strategic Framework for Re-opening Schools published in May, has been for an exam diet to be held next year. However, in these exceptional times the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Education Recovery Group have been looking at contingency plans. The current circumstances and the continued impact of COVID-19 present the significant risk of disruption to the running of the exam diet in 2021.

I set out in my statement to Parliament on 7 October that Higher and Advanced Higher exams will go ahead in 2021 with a clear contingency plan in place should public health guidance near the time make that not possible. I also outlined that in response to the recommendations of Professor Priestley's review, and discussions with stakeholders, that no exams would take place for National 5 courses and an alternative approach for assessing these qualifications will be used based on teacher judgement, supported by assessment resources and quality assurance.

Question reference: S5W-32214

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31796 by John Swinney on 29 September 2020, whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) all the documentation it shared with Professor Priestley, and whether this included all the correspondence it had with the SQA.

Professor Priestley’s review of the National Qualifications Experience 2020 was published on 7 October: https://www.gov.scot/publications/rapid-review-national-qualifications-experience-2020/ . The Scottish Government response was published on the same day: https://www.gov.scot/publications/rapid-review-of-national-qualifications-experience-2020-our-response/ .

The review considered a range of evidence from stakeholders and analysis of published materials, emails and other communications between officials, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and other partners.

Question reference: S5W-32307

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will place copies of all reports received from institutions regarding the spend associated with the Higher Education Discretionary Fund regarding extra hardship payments in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

The most recent data from the sector showed details of spending across the sector up to 31 July.

Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) are about to undertake an up to date analysis of spend on the Higher Education Discretionary Fund across colleges and universities. Information will be available in the early part of November and SAAS will give consideration to sharing this data with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S5W-32310

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-29504 by Richard Lochhead on 5 June 2020, whether if it will provide an update on the expenditure.

As of 31 July this year, £1,88M of the additional £2.2M Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds issued to colleges and universities in April, had been spent.

As of 31 July this year, £215,000 of the advanced first instalment (£11.4M) of the main 2020-21 HE Discretionary Fund issued to colleges and universities in June, had been spent.

Officials are planning to carry out further analysis on the spending later in October.