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-25787

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what data is collected and maintained regarding child protection concerns and interventions.

At the present time, the Scottish Government collects and maintains data annually in respect of Child Protection in Scotland. This data is collected and published as part of the annual Children’s Social Work Statistics Official Statistics publication. Each Scottish Local Authority is asked to submit a return providing information on the children who were involved in the Child Protection process during the year. This includes the following information on Child Protection.

1. Number of Child Protection Investigations and outcomes of the investigation.

2. Number of Child Protection Case Conferences (also known as Child Protection Planning Meetings). This includes the type of Case conference (i.e. Pre-Birth, Initial, Review, Transfer In) and the type of concern(s) identified at the Case Conference (e.g. domestic abuse, parental substance misuse). This also includes the child's primary known/suspected abuser at the time of the Case Conference.

3. Number of children on the Child Protection Register.

4. Number of Child Protection registrations and de-registrations.

5. Sociodemographic details on each child involved in any of the above (age; gender; ethnic group; religion; disability).

In addition to this, the Children and Families Analysis Team also collects and publishes monthly Management Information data in respect of Child Protection in Scotland. This data is collected and published as part of the monthly Vulnerable Children and Adult Monitoring Report data collection and publication. This includes the following information on Child Protection concerns and interventions:

1. Number of child protection concerns and child wellbeing concerns.

2. Number of inter-agency referral discussions.

3. Number of children on the Child Protection Register.

4. Number of Child Protection registrations and de-registrations.

5. Number of registrations where domestic abuse was recorded as a significant factor.

6. Number of referrals to the Reporter on offence and non-offence grounds.

7. Number of arrange Hearing decisions and number of Hearings held.

8. Number of Compulsory Supervision Orders granted.

Question reference: S6W-25673

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it expects to deliver on its reported commitment to establish a new professional teaching qualification related to climate change.

In Scotland, climate change is part of the cross-curricular entitlement of Learning for Sustainability (LfS).

As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government the Scottish Government committed to work with the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) to: “ensure the climate emergency is properly reflected through initial teacher education, growing our strong existing suite of professional development resources to ensure our teaching workforce has all the up to date knowledge and skills they require to be able to offer young people the in depth education they need on the global climate crisis.”

To achieve this, LfS was further strengthened in the refreshed and restructured General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) Professional Standards for teachers, which came into mandatory use for all teachers on 2 August 2021. In June 2023, the Scottish Government published the refreshed LfS Action Plan which contains several further actions in relation to professional learning for educators.

There are already a number of teaching accredited professional qualifications on LfS which can be found on the GTCS website at the following link: , https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/professional-recognition/accredited-professional-recognition-programmes/

The GTCS Hub also provides freely-available resources, self-evaluation tools, professional learning, professional reading, curated resources, and regular opportunities for educators to connect and network with each other.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the GTCS to ensure that LfS is embedded in teaching practice. The Scottish Government also continues to work with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to develop an LfS Framework for Higher Education institutions to better support them in embedding LfS into their initial teacher education programmes.

Additionally, Education Scotland is developing a new dedicated LfS online portal to provide examples for educators on good practice approaches to embedding LfS.

Question reference: S6W-25668

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many schools currently pay the costs of school trips and extra-curricular activities for pupils from lower-income families, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-25669

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the percentage of the total number of schools that have abolished fees for school trips and extra-curricular activities for pupils from lower-income families.

Question reference: S6W-25664

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to measure the success and impact of its International Education Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-25671

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to deliver a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6W-25670

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to devolve power and financial discretion to school teachers.

As set out in the Headteachers’ Charter and the associated empowerment guidance, the Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that schools are empowered and supported in taking the decisions they need to improve pupil outcomes.

The Scottish Government's Devolved School Management (DSM) scheme is intended to support improved consistency, transparency and equity in decisions on school funding, ensuring local authorities and headteachers work together so that decisions are taken at the most appropriate level. This is a matter for local decision making, and it is up to local authorities to allocate budget for their DSM scheme. I am pleased that almost all local authorities have implemented their revised DSM schemes and work is ongoing with a small number of local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-25678

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many Gaelic-medium education teachers have been employed in each year since 2016.

The following figures, drawn from the Scottish Government’s annual school census show both the number of primary and secondary Gaelic medium teachers that have been employed in each year since 2016 and the number that would be able to teach through the medium of Gaelic.

Primary school teachers by ability to teach through Gaelic medium

	Able to teach through Gaelic	Teaching through Gaelic
2016	299	188
2017	313	208
2018	326	217
2019	335	221
2020	359	223
2021	370	244
2022	400	266

Secondary school teachers by ability to teach through Gaelic medium

	Able to teach through Gaelic	Teaching through Gaelic
2016	155	95
2017	154	89
2018	145	88
2019	149	89
2020	166	103
2021	174	112
2022	178	111

Question reference: S6W-25672

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its estimate of the future potential costs of delivering a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6O-03177

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the EIS and other teacher unions to discuss school-based violence.