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The ratio of pupils to support staff in local authorities since 2007 is shown in the following table.

Table: Pupil¹/support staff2,3 ratio by local authority, 2007-2016

1. Staff numbers are expressed as full-time equivalents.

2. Support staff are employed as one of the following: additional support needs auxiliary or care assistant, admin & clerical, behaviour support, bursar, business manager, classroom assistant, foreign language assistant, home-school link worker, laboratory assistant, library staff, music instructor, nursery nurse, office manager, other APT&C, other childcare worker (qualified), other childcare worker (unqualified), other instructor, school nurse or other medical, sports coach/coordinator, swimming pool manager/operator and technician.

3. Staff numbers include staff in local authority primary, secondary and special schools as well as centrally employed staff.

4. Figures updated in February 2017 to include 8 FTE Educational Psychologists and 5 FTE Quality Improvement Officers in Inverclyde which were missed at the time of the census

The ratio of pupils to support staff in local authorities since 2007 is shown in the following table.

Table: Pupil¹/support staff2,3 ratio by local authority, 2007-2016

1. Pupil numbers include pupils in local authority primary, secondary and special schools.

2. Support staff are employed as one of the following: additional support needs auxiliary or care assistant, admin & clerical, behaviour support, bursar, business manager, classroom assistant, foreign language assistant, home-school link worker, laboratory assistant, library staff, music instructor, nursery nurse, office manager, other APT&C, other childcare worker (qualified), other childcare worker (unqualified), other instructor, school nurse or other medical, sports coach/coordinator, swimming pool manager/operator and technician.

3. Staff numbers include staff in local authority primary, secondary and special schools as well as centrally employed staff

Local Government Financial Statistics for 2015-16 showed that local authorities spent just over £4.9bn on education in Scotland. This is 2.7 per cent higher than 2014-15 in cash terms and a 1.9 per cent increase in real terms. Of that, £584 million (12% of total education spend) was on additional support for learning, an increase of £5 million on 2014-15.

Additionally, the 2016 teacher census shows the number of support staff in Scottish schools has increased by 381 in the past year. There is a total of 6,567 support staff who are helping Scotland’s children and young people receive the support that they need to reach their full potential.

Scottish Ministers pro-actively publish details of their overseas visits and associated costs online.

Overseas trips from May 2016 onwards can be found here - https://beta.gov.scot/publications/?term=Ministerial&publicationTypes=transparency_data

Overseas trips up to April 2016 can be found here - http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/travel/visitsoverseas/visitsoverseas

Costs of officials’ overseas trips are not centrally held and the information requested, in this regard, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The statement to parliament on 30 March 2017 on the Enterprise and Skills Review sets out the Scottish Government’s ambition to establish a Strategic Board which will deliver greater collaboration, innovation and common purpose across the agencies.

The Strategic Board will have 5 aims:-

• Improve the overall performance of the economy by ensuring that the whole Enterprise and Skills System delivers Scotland’s Economic Strategy and supporting strategies, in all parts of Scotland.

• Through collective responsibility ensure hard alignment between Agencies to drive improvement in Scottish productivity and better support business and users of the skills system.

• Hold Agencies to account for performance against agreed measures, both collectively and individually.

• To actively engage with other agencies and bodies who support the economy with a view to increasing alignment and challenging others where collaboration is not happening.

• To deliver wider collective leadership, based on common culture and values, and which inspires and empowers delivery.

The Strategic Board will be established by Autumn 2017.

Plans to establish the Berlin Hub are currently in development and details will be made available in due course. The Scottish Government has had a presence in Brussels since 1999 and the work on developing the Innovation and Investment Hub, building on the current operation, is continuing. The Scottish Government has no current plans to establish a permanent presence in Munich.

The Scottish Government is aiming to complete all 2016 Basic Payment Scheme payments, converting loans into full BPS payments, by the end of June. Approximately 47% of businesses have now received an interim payment of 90% of their total estimated final payment.

No businesses have received the balance payment for the Basic Payment Scheme, but 8384 businesses out of 17, 765 businesses estimated to be eligible have so far have received an interim payment of 90% of their estimated final payment. Until all claims have been validated the figures for the number of eligible businesses remain provisional.

The Scottish Government remains committed to making appropriate reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 in Scotland to ensure it strikes the correct balance between the rights of people not to disclose their previous offending behaviour and to move on with their lives while also ensuring the rights of the public to be protected are effectively maintained. 

It is anticipated that reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will be taken forward in this session of Parliament and specific proposals will be announced in due course.