Chamber and committees

The National Concessionary Travel Scheme for Young People provides two free return ferry journeys to the Scottish mainland each year for eligible island residents aged sixteen to eighteen. We have no current plans to extend these arrangements.

The Scottish Government has provided a comprehensive package of support for students who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

• additional funding of £2.2 million for Higher Education (HE) students at college and university via the Discretionary Funds. This supplements £569,000 already issued.
• £2 million made available by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to support Further Education (FE) students at college.
• £100,000 to support around 1,000 full-time SAAS funded students studying with private providers of HE in Scotland and within other areas of the UK.
• an extension of the Care-Experienced Accommodation Grant allowing eligible HE students to access a non-repayable grant of up to £105 per week, benefiting around 200 students and worth an estimated £200,000.

On 11 June 2020 the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government has also brought forward early access to £11.4 million of HE discretionary funds to help support students over the summer months.

The Scottish Government also announced a £5 million digital inclusion support fund for Further Education, Higher Education and Community Education learners. This funding will help learners facing hardship offset the equipment costs associated with accessing community, college and university learning delivered online.

Islands’ students who finds themselves experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are advised to contact the college or university at which they are studying, to enquire as to what forms of support may be available to them. This could, for example, include support for additional travel costs incurred as a result of the pandemic.

In all scenarios for Scotland’s future, the Scottish Government will continue to take a risk-based approach to marine compliance; focused on delivery of our statutory responsibilities and ensuring sustainable fisheries and robust protection of the marine environment.

As part of our Brexit planning, and our commitment to protect the interests of our businesses and coastal communities in Scotland, we have taken robust yet proportionate measures to maintain and enhance our marine compliance capabilities.

Our marine compliance needs and capabilities in the context of Brexit are being kept under regular review, and will updated as circumstances change. This Government will, however, continue to take whatever steps may necessary to protect Scottish interests from the immense damage of a “no deal” Brexit.

Marine Scotland Compliance was made aware on 11 June of a conflict at sea involving two fishing vessels.

This conflict was not a fishery offence but had the potential to endanger the lives and safety of fishermen and their vessels and is wholly unacceptable.

Although our officers have no powers to act in such situations, a Marine Scotland patrol vessel was dispatched to diffuse the incident and details were passed to relevant bodies.

The Scottish Government was in regular contact with the UK Government regarding the introduction of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 on 8 June, although I know from my own engagement in four nations meetings that much of the detail was not available to Scottish Government until after the UK Government had announced its policy.

The purpose of these measures is to protect the health of the people of Scotland and UK, suppress the transmission of the virus and reduce the risk of introducing new infections into our communities. As these are devolved public health measures, it is the responsibility of Scottish Ministers to make provision for Scotland in this regard. The Scottish Government laid Regulations on 7 June for entry into force on 8 June. Regulations were introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to similarly come into force on 8 June.

There are exemptions to the regulations for workers arriving from outside the common travel area who are essential to maintaining critical national infrastructure and other key aspects of the economy. That includes workers coming into Scotland who are going to work offshore to maintain safe and secure operation of offshore assets, which we have recognised from the outset as being critical national infrastructure. Individuals in this sector are exempt when they have travelled in the course of their work.

There is no exemption for those who live in the UK and work outside the common travel area, because we want to reduce the incidence of non-critical workers frequently crossing borders, with the increased risk that brings of virus transmission.

I can advise you that on 22 June the regulations in Scotland were amended to align with the seamen and masters exemptions contained in the corresponding travel health regulations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This was required when we were advised that there was an issue for seamen arriving back in port in Scotland and having to self-isolate.

Furthermore, on 10 July, we introduced further amendments to the regulations to permit an exemption from the need to self-isolate for travellers from a list of countries and territories which are considered low risk compared to the current risk in Scotland. These include Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany, amongst others.

These regulations are required to be reviewed every 21 days.

Funding offers have been made to every Scottish local authority and each authority has flexibility to decide upon the split of devices and connectivity they require to meet local need. The breakdown of the initial 25,000 devices has not yet been fully determined as local authorities are working through the process of developing their proposals. We expect that the 25,000 devices will be issued at the start of the new term in August.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing £25m to combat digital exclusion amongst children and young people. The 25,000 laptops are the first phase of that investment. We have worked closely with SOLACE, ADES and COSLA to establish the scale of need across the country. However, there is no single dataset which tells us exactly who is suffering from digital exclusion.

Schools and councils know their families best and funding offers have now been made to every Scottish local authority. This funding will allow local authorities to procure devices and connectivity solutions to tackle the issue of digital exclusion in their respective areas.

We expect that all 25,000 devices will be issued at the start of the new term in August. This is the first phase of our £25m commitment to tackling digital exclusion amongst children and young people. Funding offers have now been made to every Scottish local authority to enable them to purchase further devices and connectivity solutions, in line with local need.

As set out in the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) Standards for Professional Registration, teachers are expected at all stages of their careers to demonstrate professional values and personal commitment to social justice and cultural diversity by engaging learners in real world issues.

Teacher Education institutions will differ in the ways in which they deliver content to students on racism and discrimination, but all do. In terms of support provided to probation and post probation teachers, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30065 on 7 July 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The National Framework for Inclusion has also been designed to ensure that all teachers are appropriately guided and supported throughout their careers towards gaining the required knowledge and understanding of inclusive education.

As set out in the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) Standards for Professional Registration, all teachers in Scotland must have respect for social and cultural diversity at the heart of what they do, engage learners in real world issues and help them to embrace equality and social justice. The National Improvement Hub, managed by Education Scotland, already offers a range of materials to support professional learning and school improvement.

To support this, Education Scotland are developing new professional learning activities with a particular focus on diversity, anti-racist education and culturally responsive pedagogy.

In addition, Education Scotland are also currently developing a race equality resource in collaboration with partners BEMIS and CRER. This is an outcome of the work of the race equality resource group which met as part of delivering the Race Equality Action Plan. This resource will comprise of a set of guiding principles for promoting race equality in education settings and a series of case exemplars.

Curriculum mapping to support a whole school approach to race equality education is at the early stages of development.