Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment is being led by Professor Louise Hayward. Professor Hayward is firmly committed to offering an approach that ensures the achievements of all learners, including those with disabilities, can be recognised. The commitment to proposing a system that works for each and every learner is evident in her recently published interim report.

During the Review’s public consultation Professor Hayward sought views on the specific question of how a system of qualifications and assessment can uphold the right of all learners including those with disabilities to have their achievements recognised.

I understand that Professor Hayward has met Angela Morgan, Chair of the Review of Additional Support for Learning Implementation, on several occasions and that Angela Morgan has also offered advice to the Independent Review Group. Professor Hayward is also visiting several schools which provide specialist education and learning for children and young people with additional support needs and complex health and medical needs, and will hear directly from learners, teachers and staff there.

The final Phase of the Review is now underway, and Professor Hayward is seeking views from a range of stakeholders across the education landscape, and beyond, on a draft model for the future of qualifications and assessment, this Phase is open until the 7 April. I look forward to receiving a final report before the end of May 2023.

The Scottish Government has not allocated funding to local authorities specifically for school meal debt since 1 January 2022.

As referenced in the answer to question S6W-15314 on 6 March 2023, the management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has been following the agreed process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act.

We first raised the issue with the UK Government in 2021, and on 28 February 2023 we published correspondence and a timeline setting out the steps that have been undertaken to secure an exclusion. Internal Market Act: correspondence - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

On 6 March I met with Ministers and Senior Officials from each UK administration at the inter-ministerial group on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask for an urgent decision from the UK Government for securing an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.

I will keep Parliament updated on further developments.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on what rent increase options individual social landlords consulted their tenants on. The Scottish Housing Regulator report on the rent increases social landlords will apply in 2023-24 Rent increases by Scottish social landlords 2023/24 - March 2023 | Scottish Housing Regulator includes details of actual rent increases applied by each landlord.

Safeguarding the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and any decision to amend the seismic noise budget for the array is a decision for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the seismic noise budget for the Eskdalemuir consultation zone has been consumed and that currently the Ministry of Defence will object to all developments within the consultation zone, both Section 36 applications and local planning applications, in order to protect the operation of the array.

As regulations governing electricity networks, including connection, are reserved to the UK Government the Scottish Government has no power determine what investments are made by the distribution network operators (DNOs) on their networks.

The Scottish Government has been working with DNOs in Scotland and other stakeholders to ensure that network business plans reflect the scale and pace of deployment necessary to meet Scotland’s net zero and interim climate change targets.

We have worked intensively with social landlords to develop an agreement on below-inflation rent increases for the next financial year. The Scottish Housing Regulator has published details of the rent increases which Scottish social landlords will apply in 2023-24 for social housing tenants. The report shows average rent increases by social landlords will be 5%. Rent increases by Scottish social landlords 2023/24 - March 2023 | Scottish Housing Regulator

These increases, based on consultations with tenants, will strike an appropriate balance between protecting tenants and ensuring that landlords can maintain a balance between affordability and sustainable investment in social housing for public good.

I am pleased to confirm that we have today published the 2023-24 Public Sector Pay Strategy on the Scottish Government website.

Scottish Government officials have had limited engagement with UK Government officials about the UK Government’s plans to introduce legislation to prevent public institutions from imposing their own international boycotts.

The Scottish Government view remains that any legislation should be developed in a way that respects Scotland’s devolution settlement and the autonomy of Scotland’s institutions. We will continue to engage with the UK Government on the detail of the proposed Bill provisions and will consider carefully how this impacts on devolved competence.

Scottish Government officials have had regular engagement on progress throughout the implementation of the Safe Deposits Scotland (SDS) system upgrade and were made aware of some teething issues with system functions. SDS has since confirmed all priority bugs are now resolved and user journeys should be back to normal.

The role of the Scottish Government, since the three approved schemes began operating in July 2012, is to monitor each scheme for compliance with the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 . This includes being satisfied that SDS and the other tenancy deposit schemes have clear and substantial processes in place that meet the requirements laid out in the regulations. As part of this monitoring, SDS quarterly performance reports were analysed and measured against the key performance indicators to ensure these were adhered to.

Officials will continue to liaise with SDS on the operation of their new system.