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Police Scotland is developing a preventative approach to acquisitive crime including shop theft. This approach, which will involve working in partnership with the Federation and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, will also seek to involve as many stakeholders from the retail sector as possible and is an approach that I welcome.

99.9% of payments are now complete and the Scottish Government have essentially met the extended EU compliance deadline. The “tail” of remaining payments is now at a level similar to any year.

The figure quoted is for spend for 2016-17, and this related to a spend on a mix of customer facing centres and back office facilities.

To perform their functions Skills Development Scotland require a regional network of offices to deliver all-age career and employability services direct to the public, careers support for those unemployed, employability and PACE workshops, access to their online careers web service (My World of Work) and drop in advice.

SDS receive Guidance each year from Scottish Ministers which details ministerial priorities and associated budget. SDS budgets are monitored as set out in the Framework Document between Scottish Government and SDS, and this is also in line with Scottish Ministers guidance that is provided in the Scottish Public Finance Manual. Since their formation in 2008, SDS have show their commitment to delivering value for money by reducing their estates costs by a third.

The staffing budget for 2016-17 is based on a budgeted FTE of 1480 staff, with over 1,110 staff delivering a customer facing service such as careers advice or direct employer services.

The role of the Skills Development Scotland Board is to promote the efficient, economic and effective use of staff and other resources by SDS consistent with the principles of Best Value, including, where appropriate, participation in shared services arrangements and ensuring that effective arrangements are in place so that SDS acts corporately in accordance with the priorities set out in the SG’s statement of corporate expectations.

The Scottish Government approves the SDS pay remit, ensuring it is in line with Public Sector Pay Policy.

Skills Development Scotland receive Guidance each year from Scottish Ministers which details ministerial priorities and associated budget. SDS budgets are monitored as set out in the Framework Document between Scottish Government and SDS, and this is also in line with Scottish Ministers guidance that is provided in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

The Chief Executive Officer and senior representatives from Skills Development Scotland met with the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce earlier this month to discuss their concerns.

Skills Development Scotland and the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce have agreed further positive dialogue to ensure a continued positive working relationship.

Skills Development Scotland operate at a local and national level. SDS have worked with local authorities and other partners to create a number of Regional Skills Assessments. These have been produced to provide a high quality and consistent source of evidence about economic and skills performance and delivery at a regional level. SDS also engage widely at local levels to deliver their core services such as Careers Information Advice and Guidance and PACE.

Skills Development Scotland receive Guidance each year from Scottish Ministers which details ministerial priorities, and associated budget. SDS budgets are monitored as set out in the Framework Document between Scottish Government and SDS, and this is also in line with Scottish Ministers guidance that is provided in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

The SDS Board is responsible for decisions on how SDS will allocate funding to meet these priorities. The SDS budget for industry and employer engagement for the entirety of 2016-17 is £8.2m and is distributed across several key areas of work including:

• The Transition Training Fund (this fund aims to support individuals who lose their job into alternative employment within the wider Energy, Manufacturing and Engineering sectors, through retraining, upskilling and the relevant certification & accreditation necessary to secure employment)

• Sector development activity including Skills Investment Plans, Regional SIPs and Regional Skills Assessments in support of Scotland’s Industry Leadership Groups

• PACE employer services

• Employer services Skills for Growth, workforce and workplace innovation

• Digital skills initiatives to implement the ICT & Digital Technology Skills Investment Plan

We are content that this activity is in line with our guidance and recognises the fact that engaging with industry and employers is a central part of the role that SDS play particularly in delivering the Skills Planning Model. The importance of such engagement has been a crucial aspect of our policy in this area, for example through the Labour Market Strategy and Developing the Young Workforce.

It is for individual local authorities to set their own early learning and childcare policy, including admissions policy and set partner provider rates.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 requires local authorities to consult at least every 2 years on meeting parents needs through a range of choices. Our recently published report ‘Implementing Early Learning and Childcare under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014: Progress Update’, indicates that local authorities have, and are continuing to consult, and reconfigure services accordingly, including increasing partner provider places.

On 7 October 2016 we published a ‘Financial Review of early learning and childcare in Scotland; the current landscape’ which outlines substantive issues for our partners in local government and in the private and third sectors: both about how the current entitlement is delivered and funded, and around how we take forward our ambitious plans for the expansion of the free entitlement.

Building on this, within our current consultation ‘A Blueprint for 2020: The expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland’ we have asked the specific question “How can ELC providers, particularly private and third sector providers, be encouraged to expand capacity.”

The local information requested on teacher vacancies is not formal statistics. The information was collected solely for the internal purpose of informing the annual teacher workforce planning exercise with other local intellegence and therefore we have no plans to publish it.

As stated in the answer to S5W-03886, the Scottish Government is working with a range of delivery partners to assess the workforce requirement for the expansion to 1,140 hours. We will set out more details on these requirements as part of our response to the consultation in spring 2017.

The workforce requirements will be determined by the approaches taken in response to the consultation on the Early Learning and Childcare blueprint but we recognise that a significant expansion will take place and work is ongoing to prepare for this.

College deficits are largely due to technical matters (e.g. use of depreciation funds) or one-off items (e.g. college restructuring costs, property asset valuation reductions).

The number of colleges recording and forecasting operating deficits each year is fairly constant.

The Scottish Funding Council works closely with colleges and regional strategic bodies to ensure that deficits are kept to a minimum and operational activity, including any impact on Students and Staff is not adversely affected.