Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish AI Alliance is a partnership between The Data Lab and the Scottish Government and is led by a Minister-appointed Chair and overseen by Senior Responsible Officers from The Data Lab (CEO) and the Scottish Government (CDO).

The team consists of 4 Scottish Government Civil Servants and five individuals who are based at the Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI, which is administratively hosted by the University of Edinburgh.

An annual grant is paid to the University to cover the cost of staffing and activities carried out by the Data Lab team, including the delivery of the annual Scottish AI Summit, – the cost of this is as follows –

2021-22 - £265,000.00 – Grant awarded via Scottish Funding Council

2022-23 - £505,593.15 – Grant awarded directly by Scottish Government Digital Directorate

This is therefore all public funding and there is no private funding of the Alliance.

While entries have been increasing, rising from 88 in 2017-18 to 172 in 2022-23, no specific targets have been set for the uptake of this qualification.

The National Progression Award (NPA) in Rural Skills is one of a wide range of qualifications related to the land-based sector. Skills for Work and other National Certificate courses in related areas are also available.

With the support of Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the Scottish Government funds a pre-apprenticeship programme through Ringlink Scotland - providing work experience linked to jobs in the local economy particularly relevant in rural areas.

The Commission for the Land-based Learning Review published its report in January 2023 including 22 recommendations on how to improve learning pathways to equip more people with the skills and knowledge needed to work in Scotland’s land-based and aquaculture sectors. Scottish Government is currently considering its response.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has confirmed that they are not aware of any reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete within the SPS estate.

Following a recent review of its estate, Police Scotland identified reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in three of its buildings.

Police Scotland took immediate action to ensure that there was no risk to officers, staff or the public, and continues to work with structural engineers to identify longer term solutions for these buildings.

We are investing £1.45bn in policing in 2023-24. No additional funding has specifically been provided to Police Scotland for this issue.

The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed a joint funding model in 2018 to support the training of new Educational Psychologists. This model was agreed and developed by the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists (NSSGEP). The NSSGEP is chaired by the Scottish Government and includes representation from professional bodies, ADES, COSLA and EIS.

The training programme is evaluated by Dundee University in several ways. A six-yearly cycle of periodic programme review is undertaken and was last completed in September 2021. This review concluded with a very positive evaluation of the training programme. The British Psychological Society re-accredits the programme every three years, and provided a positive evaluation in September 2021. The University also conducts an annual programme evaluation to ensure the training programme is meeting the needs of students and to make small improvements as required.

The Scottish Government and COSLA engage and work closely with our training and delivery partners to ensure that the training programme remains robust and sustainable.

Marine Scotland has referred a total of 148 cases of breaches of marine and fisheries offences between 2010 and June 2023. We do not have data for 2019 due to a system change.

The following table details the number of referrals by year.

As per our delivery partners’ published accounts ( Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park - Annual Report & Accounts , Cairngorms National Park Authority Annual Reports and Accounts , Forestry and Land Scotland Annual reports and accounts , NatureScot Annual Reports and Accounts , Scottish Water Annual Reports ), the level of underspend for the years 2020-21, 2021-22 was around £12 million and £7.4 million respectively. Final capital and resource spend figures for 2022-23 have still to be confirmed and will be available in due course.

Figures for restoration in 2020-21 and 2021-22 can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200314966/ . For 2022-23 our current estimate is 7,468 ha, however we are awaiting final validation of these figures

Based on provisional financial outturn figures, in 2022-23 the average cost of restoration was around £2,326 per ha. However, as an average, this number tells us very little. There is significant variation in the actual cost to restore peatland depending on site specific factors like the size and location of the site, level of degradation and required work to remedy, and accessibility.

The factors preventing targets from being achieved are physical limitations imposed by weather, access and ecological constraints and gaps in contractor availability and skill shortages. We have identified these in light of our experience of delivering restoration schemes and are putting in place mitigating actions to help resolve these constraints.

The Scottish Government stands with the international community in deep concern over the spiralling violence in Sudan.

The Scottish Government maintains a £1 million per year Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF). Decisions on which crises to respond to are made by the Scottish Ministers based on recommendations from the HEF Panel. This expert Panel is made up of eight representatives from leading humanitarian aid organisations in Scotland.

We are in contact with the Panel regarding the situation in Sudan and expect to provide further information on this in due course.

My previous answer to S6W-18372 on 8 June 2023 provides the details on how the Scottish Government is engaging with various stakeholders, businesses, unions and employers on the matter of Zero Hours Contracts using our Fair Work policy to promote fairer work practices across the labour market in Scotland.

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 number of full-time equivalent primary and secondary school teachers employed in publicly funded schools in Scotland in each of the last 10 years is available from Table 1.1d in the published Teacher census supplementary statistics, Teacher census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).