Chamber and committees

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-20578

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how it plans to distribute the £145.5 million in the 2023-24 Budget to secure increased teacher numbers; when the money will be paid to each local authority, and what precisely it can be used for.

The Scottish Government has provided £145.5 million in this year’s budget to ensure local authorities:

Maintain teacher numbers at 2022 census levels, as published in the Summary School Statistics in December 2022.
Maintain pupil support staff numbers at 2022 census levels, as published on 21 March 2023 based on the data collected from local authorities in September 2022.

£100 million of this funding is distributed to local authorities as part of the 2023-24 General Revenue Grant. The remaining £45.5 million will also be distributed to local authorities following confirmation that these conditions have been met. The allocation of this funding, by local authority, is as follows.

	£100m Distributed	£45.5m Retained
Aberdeen City	3.446	1.568
Aberdeenshire	5.065	2.305
Angus	2.094	0.953
Argyll & Bute	1.482	0.674
Clackmannanshire	0.938	0.427
Dumfries and Galloway	2.743	1.248
Dundee City	2.754	1.253
East Ayrshire	2.278	1.036
East Dunbartonshire	2.267	1.031
East Lothian	2.027	0.922
East Renfrewshire	2.306	1.049
Edinburgh, City of	7.256	3.302
Eilean Siar	0.494	0.225
Falkirk	3.052	1.389
Fife	7.076	3.219
Glasgow City	11.314	5.148
Highland	4.413	2.008
Inverclyde	1.439	0.655
Midlothian	1.869	0.850
Moray	1.689	0.769
North Ayrshire	2.602	1.184
North Lanarkshire	6.868	3.124
Orkney	0.440	0.200
Perth & Kinross	2.478	1.128
Renfrewshire	3.282	1.493
Scottish Borders	2.018	0.918
Shetland	0.518	0.236
South Ayrshire	2.016	0.917
South Lanarkshire	6.449	2.934
Stirling	1.779	0.810
West Dunbartonshire	1.740	0.792
West Lothian	3.808	1.733
	100.000	45.500

Question reference: S6W-20579

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £240 million of additional investment, to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery, each local authority received; what outcomes it anticipated as a result of this funding, and what the actual outcomes were in terms of the recruitment of additional education staff.

Question reference: S6F-02318

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to data showing that the attainment gap has increased.

Question reference: S6W-20476

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered implementing any special support to pupils to help recover from any disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to the national tutoring scheme and the Oak National Academy of curricular support elsewhere in the UK, and, if it has considered such initiatives and decided not to implement them, for what reason it decided not to do so.

The Scottish Government recognises the serious educational disruption that Scotland’s children and young people encountered during the pandemic. We have worked with partners to provide the following support:

The provision of a National e-Learning Offer, was introduced in 2020, developed throughout the pandemic, and continues to support learners across Scotland, providing live, recorded and interactive online resources across the entire curriculum and age ranges including early years, primary and secondary. We continue to fund this innovative and empowering service, created and led by Scottish educators, with £1.5m support for 2023-24
In 2020-21, we provided £25m for the procurement of over 70,000 digital devices and 14,000 connectivity packages to allow children to access learning when school buildings closed.
Significant investment of £500 million over 2020-21 and 2021-22 to support in education recovery efforts including support for education authorities to recruit additional staff to provide additional support for learning and teaching. In addition a further £145.5m has been added permanently to the local government settlement from April 2022. This will allow local authorities to offer sustained employment of additional teachers and support staff.

In addition, our investment of £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge during this parliamentary term includes more than £520 million of Pupil Equity Funding that is issued directly to schools. Headteachers are empowered to use this funding to put in place evidence-based approaches to meet the needs of the children and young people in their schools who are impacted by poverty, including where appropriate provision of mentoring and tutoring.

We published “Education Recovery: Key Actions and Next Steps” on 5 October 2021, outlining the range of actions we are taking to support Scotland’s education system and young people to recover from the pandemic.

Every part of the education system, including Scottish Government, has sought to support children and young people through the unprecedented challenges they have faced during the pandemic. Teachers have done, and continue to do, a remarkable job and the quality of teaching during the pandemic remained strong. We know there is more still to do and will continue to prioritise and support education recovery.

Question reference: S6W-20477

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its understanding is of the SQA's reported “sensitive approach” to grading; what discussions it had with the SQA regarding such an approach, and what impact such an approach will have.

The package of support this year, including the "sensitive approach" to grading was agreed following discussion with stakeholders, including through the National Qualifications Group on which Scottish Government is represented.

SQA’s approach to grading the exams in 2023 was based on its established awarding processes where grade boundaries are set to determine the marks needed for each grade.

The key difference when taking a "sensitive approach" to grading is that decisions on where the grade boundaries are set at each subject and level, consider all factors that could have impacted on performance, such as the impact of course modifications, to ensure fairness to young people while maintaining national standards. Full information on SQA’s approach to awarding, including grading, is available in their National Qualifications 2023 Awarding Methodology Report .

Adjustments to grade boundaries are smaller this year than in 2022, reflecting the continuing recovery in skills, knowledge and understanding on the part of students.

Question reference: S6W-20385

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which schools are currently required to accommodate pupils in temporary modular buildings, broken down by local authority area; for how long such temporary accommodation will be required, and what remedial action it is taking to reduce the requirement for temporary modular buildings in schools.

Question reference: S6W-20384

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, what data it holds on the number of schools that are over-capacity, such that parents are unable to send siblings to the same school; in which local authorities any such schools are situated, and what action it is taking to either expand capacity or find solutions.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether schools are over-capacity, i.e. have no places for additional pupils in a stage of education.

Data on physical capacity in all local authority primary and secondary schools in Scotland is published annually in the School estates supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . However, this has to be combined with other information, including the number of teaching staff in each school and whether there are any temporary buildings, to understand the available places for pupils.

All local authorities in Scotland have a statutory responsibility to provide a school place for all the children in their area, and will seek to match school capacity to demand in each area. Where schools are over-subscribed, local authorities will offer places according to their admissions policy, which may include priority for siblings.

The Scottish Government’s £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme is being delivered in partnership with local authorities and will benefit tens of thousands of pupils across Scotland. Scottish Government funding through the Learning Estate Investment Programme is intended to augment - not replace - local authorities own investment in their school estate.

Question reference: S6W-20622

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 30 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates it will permit the creation of Licensed Legal Services Providers under the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 before the end of 2023, and what it is waiting for before permitting such creation to begin.

Question reference: S6W-20229

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many newly qualified teachers (NQTs) were not offered permanent employment from August 2023, in each local authority, in order to create space for a probationary teacher.

All newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are guaranteed a place on the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) probationer. Data on the number of teachers who are then in employment in a publicly funded school in the year following their probationary year will be is published in the Teacher census supplementary statistics in March and can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/ .

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Question reference: S6W-20228

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers were requested by each of the 32 local authorities to commence their probationary year in August 2023, and how many were allocated to each local authority.