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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: S6W-22048

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21487 by Graeme Dey on 3 October 2023, what progress it has made regarding the next round of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund; whether it plans to announce the next round of the fund in 2023, and what discussions and meetings it has had with the Scottish Funding Council regarding the fund.

Question reference: S6W-21957

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to address the reported vulnerabilities set out in Education Scotland's risk register.

Question reference: S6W-21920

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether the £20 million that was allocated in the first round of the Just Transition Fund has been distributed in its entirety.

In Year 1, the Just Transition Fund’s £20 million allocation was made up of £10 million capital grants and £10 million Financial Transactions.

Of the £20 million available to be distributed in 2022-23, the full £10 million capital grant allocation was spent. £0.5 million Financial Transactions were allocated to Social Investment Scotland’s Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund and £9.5 million Financial Transactions were unallocated.

In 2023-24 the Fund’s entire Financial Transaction allocation of £25 million has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank. Businesses, projects, and their representatives can contact the Bank via its website, where the Bank’s new enquiries team will handle the approach. Up to an additional £25 million grant funding will be spent as part of the ongoing delivery of the £50 million grant funding committed to in 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-21919

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it has received for the second round of funding for the Just Transition Fund.

The Just Transition Fund did not open for bids in 2023-24. Alongside announcing a £25 million allocation to the Scottish National Investment Bank, our focus has been on continuing to deliver the £50 million multi-year programme of projects announced in 2022-23, including our £11 million package of skills interventions and £30 million investment on innovation projects.

Businesses, social sector organisations and communities have still been able to bid in for grant funding this year through the Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund, Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund, and Participatory Budgeting Fund respectively.

Question reference: S6W-21980

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19661 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023, when it will conclude and publish the findings of the Student Finance and Wellbeing Study, which will provide data on paid work undertaken by students.

Question reference: S6W-21981

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19661 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023, whether the Student Finance and Wellbeing Study will also include the amount of paid work that postgraduate students are doing within the schools that they are studying, such as convening tutorials or hosting seminars, and, if not, how it collates such data.

The Student Finance and Wellbeing Study (academic year 2023-24) will gather data from college and university students in Scotland on their level of study, the number of hours they have worked in the last week, the sector that their job(s) is/are in, and whether the paid work they are doing is supporting the development of skills related to their course. It will not collect information on where the paid work is carried out (on location/ employer). The extent to which the Study will be able to report on the experiences of work of postgraduate students will depend on sample sizes being large enough to report on.

Question reference: S6W-21997

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21421 by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023, in relation to the 280,000 devices that have been distributed, whether it can provide a breakdown by type of device, including for example, laptop and tablet, and, at the point of distribution, how many devices were in a (a) new and (b) used condition.

Question reference: S6W-21889

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the resource funding increase of £46 million for the college and university sectors, announced in the Budget statement on 15 December 2022, was specifically intended to be used for; whether it expects colleges and universities to still proceed with that work, in light of the funding being withdrawn, and, if not, what its position (a) was on the importance of this work in December 2022, in light of its decision to allocate an additional £46 million of funding for it at that time, and (b) is on whether this work is still necessary.

The £46 million funding was intended to support strategic change in the college and university sectors and was not part of the core teaching funding allocations. Despite a very challenging financial climate, the Scottish Government committed nearly £2 billion to Scotland’s universities and colleges in 2023-24. Part of the reason for withdrawing the £46 million funding was to allow the Scottish Government to fund public sector pay deals. Strategic change remains necessary and we will be taking this forward with the Scottish Funding Council, colleges and universities in the context of reform, building on the purpose and principles for post-school education published in June 2023. This can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-school-education-research-skills-purpose-principles/

Question reference: S6W-21959

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21420 by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what consequences there are for local authorities that do not meet its commitment to provide every school pupil with their own laptop or other digital device, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

Question reference: S6W-21884

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it budgeted for the new funding model for post-school education provision announced in the 2023-24 Programme for Government; what progress has been made on developing this model; what the timescales are that it is working to, and when it plans to announce the results of the development.

At her recent appearance at the Education Committee, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills outlined the rationale for developing a new funding model and that the Scottish Government was at an early stage in its deliberations. The Skills Delivery Landscape Review outlined that there was significant funding within the system that could be better utilised that this commitment is looking to address.

The Scottish Government will update on wider reform including progress on the funding model in the coming months.