Seòmar agus comataidhean

This information does not fall within the scope of data gathered through the National Improvement Framework. The 11 key NIF measures assess progress towards closing the attainment gap using indicators from pre-school to school leavers. These are supplemented by 15 sub-measures that reflect the key stages of the learner journey and the breadth of issues that can impact on attainment. Together these provide a wide range of measures covering school leaver attainment and literacy and numeracy but also other, broader, measures such as health and wellbeing, school attendance rates and school leaver destinations.

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Scotland Loves Local Fund has been (a) allocated and (b) spent to date, on the Scotland Loves Local gift card scheme.In 2021-22, more than £2m of funding was allocated to the Scotland Loves Local programme including £1.5m to the Scotland Loves Local fund. The fund was available for a range of initiatives including local support for the Scotland Loves Local gift card scheme. A full list of grants awarded from the Scotland Loves Local Fund, including details of what that funding has been used for, is available on the Scotland Loves Local website, Media - SLL Fund 2021 (lovelocal.scot) .

As of 16 August 2022, 16,478 cards have been purchased. In addition, in week commencing 15 August, Glasgow City Council issued 85,000 pre-paid Scotland Loves Local cards to eligible households within the local authority in receipt of Council Tax Reduction as at 1 June 2022. Five other local authorities, which have indicated they will also issue pre-paid cards, have yet to confirm their proposals for distribution.

All businesses with a bricks and mortar presence in their community are eligible to sign up, except for gambling and betting businesses. As of 16 August 2022, 3,839 businesses have signed up to the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card scheme. The table below details the number of businesses that have signed up to the scheme by local authority area.

The information requested is not held centrally. Pupil Equity Funding of over £520 million over the next four years is providing additional support to 97% of schools across Scotland, empowering our head teachers and teachers who know their children best. As outlined in the answer to parliamentary question S6T-00784, the majority of the £634 million in PEF distributed to schools is invested in approaches to improving literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing through the recruitment of additional teaching and support staff, family link workers and partnerships with third sector organisations.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find those to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families, working alongside social work and third sector organisations. They are not policing in schools.

To be clear, the £2 million described is a very small proportion—just 0.3 per cent—of the pupil equity funding that has been distributed to schools across the 32 councils since 2017-18.

As stated in the answer given to PQ S6W-09389, the Scottish Government has had no specific discussions about this issue with these local authorities. It is for headteachers to decide on how to spend Pupil Equity Funding, based on their local contexts and working in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

As outlined in the Pupil Equity Fund national operational guidance, any school plans for using Pupil Equity Funding must be grounded in evidence of what is known to be effective at closing the poverty related attainment gap. Local authorities can also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally . Local authorities also have a role in supporting school improvement through providing assistance to schools and partners by supporting and challenging schools in their use of PEF to make progress in improving the health and wellbeing and educational outcomes of children and young people impacted by poverty.

The Scottish Government’s intervention in March 2016 was designed to ensure that steel communities in Scotland had a future. The benefits of the intervention are manifest in the high-quality steel products that continue to be produced in Lanarkshire, the skilled employment retained and the economic multiplier effects that accrue via ongoing payments to suppliers and the circulation of income through the local economy. Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this.

The three parties to the sale and purchase of the Lanarkshire steelworks on 2016 – Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government – were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this. Following negotiation the particular commercial requirements of each party are captured in the transaction documentation.

The police investigation is ongoing and direction of that investigation is provided by lawyers in the Specialist Casework Division in Crown Office.

The Crown does not routinely collate the total costs associated with investigating individual cases and thus does not hold the information requested.

The Lord Advocate is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all criminal matters which occur in Scotland. Where a matter requires investigation, this is undertaken by COPFS on behalf of the Lord Advocate. The Crown provides advice, support and direction to investigators from Police Service of Scotland, throughout the course of the investigation.

The criminal investigation by the Police Service of Scotland is ongoing. This is a complex and challenging investigation. Evidence has had to be sought and obtained from a number of different countries outwith the United Kingdom with a view to considering whether there is evidence of any potential offences over which the Scottish courts have jurisdiction.