Chamber and committees

Scottish Futures Trust publishes its annual benefits statement in autumn. These are a financial estimate of the benefits and savings delivered by its work during the financial year which runs 1 April until 31 March.

SFT’s latest Benefits Statement 2016-17 was published on 20 November 2017 and can be found on their website through the following https://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/ .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises in Scotland that exported goods and services from 2015 onwards.

However, the Small Business Survey Scotland (SBSS) 2016, available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/small-business-survey-scotland-2016/ , provides an estimate of the proportion of small businesses (businesses with 10-49 employees) and medium-sized businesses (businesses with 50-249 employees) in Scotland that exported goods and services internationally (outside of the UK) in 2016. According to the SBSS 2016, 21 per cent of small businesses and 33 per cent of medium-sized businesses reported that they had sold goods or services outside of the UK in the past 12 months. Whilst the SBSS 2016 provides an estimate of the overall proportion of SMEs with employees that exported goods or services to the rest of the UK in the past 12 months, it does not provide a breakdown by business size.

The SBS 2015, available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/small-business-survey-scotland-2015/ provides an estimate of the overall proportion of SMEs with employees that exported goods and services internationally (outside of the UK) in 2015. However it does not provide a breakdown by business size.

The Scottish Government held a round table discussion with stakeholders in February 2017 to discuss the ethnicity evidence base and identify evidence gaps to inform the development of Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy. The organisations represented included: Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER); CEMVO Scotland; BEMIS; Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC); academics from Heriot Watt University and University of Strathclyde; and Scotland’s Race Equality Framework Adviser.

The second event focussing on improving ethnicity evidence will be held during 2018 and is in the process of being set up although the no date has yet been confirmed. The Scottish Government intends to invite the above groups to the next event and would be happy to consider others felt to be relevant.

Researchers can apply to the Chief Scientist Office for funding. The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

http://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funding-2/

Research proposals in Parkinson’s Disease (including research into the underlying mechanisms and causes, diagnosis, prevention, disease-modifying treatments, care pathways etc.) are welcomed. In common with all other applications, any such proposals would be subject to the Chief Scientist Office’s standard independent expert review process.

Since 1999 the following projects in Parkinson's Disease have been funded by CSO

Identification of prognostic factors and development of prognostic models in Parkinson's disease using long-term data from a large incidence-based cohort

Funding commitment £194,985

Improving predictions of prognosis in Parkinson's: moving from intensive small-scale studies to large and reliable routinely-collected datasets

Funding commitment £20,000

The Chief Scientist Office has an active programme of co-funding research with 3rd sector organisations. Officials from CSO are currently in discussion with Parkinson's UK around potential areas of collaboration.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding of over £490,000 for the Scottish Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease Research Network. The network supports a wide range of research studies in Neuroprogressive disease, including Parkinson’s.

The Scottish Government is supporting the implementation of the 1+2 language policy which is due to be delivered by 2021 and will entitle pupils to learn two languages in addition to their mother tongue. It is for local authorities to decide which languages will be offered. The first additional foreign language will continue to be one of those available at National Qualification level which are German, French, Spanish, Urdu, Chinese languages and Italian. There is also the opportunity for schools to offer the Scottish Qualification Authority Modern Language for Life and Work Award which is also available in Russian and Polish.

It is not possible to say what percentage of the curriculum is comprised of language learning. Curriculum for Excellence does not specify a particular time allocation for individual curriculum areas; it is up to local authorities and schools to allocate sufficient time so that the entitlement for each is met. However, the entitlement to language learning begins in P1 and it is expected that language learning continues for all until the end of the third year of secondary. Although this question relates to foreign languages, the 1+2 language policy entitlement also includes Gaelic, Scots and British Sign Language.

This information is not held centrally.

Language learning was not routinely offered across the primary sector before the Scottish Government’s manifesto commitment to the 1+2 policy in 2011. The implementation of this language policy is progressing well and there is an expectation that all young people will be receiving their full entitlement by 2021.

A partial picture of the number of pupils learning foreign languages in secondary schools can be ascertained from National Qualifications data. However, studying for National Qualifications is just one of the many ways in which young people learn modern languages. Flexible and innovative ways of learning languages are increasing, including offering languages through short courses, clubs and master classes.

The Scottish Government does not routinely produce estimates of the size of the gap in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) debt and equity finance markets in Scotland.

However, an estimate of the size of the gap in the SME debt market in Scotland was published in the 2015 Scottish Government report ‘The Market for SME Finance in Scotland’ available at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0048/00484379.pdf . The report estimated that the debt gap in Scotland was in the range of £330 million to £750 million per year, acknowledging that the size and nature of the gap can vary over time.

Since 2009, the Scottish Government has regularly published information on access to finance conditions for SMEs in Scotland in its SME Access to Finance report (available for 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014) available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/sme-access-to-finance-2014/ and as part of the Small Business Survey Scotland report (available for 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016) available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/small-business-survey-scotland-2016/ .

In addition, Scottish Enterprise regularly publishes information on the equity market in Scotland in its annual ‘The Risk Capital Market in Scotland’ report available at http://www.evaluationsonline.org.uk/evaluations/Search.do?ui=basic&action=show&id=623 .

The Scottish Government produces a National Statistics publication, Export Statistics Scotland, which estimates the nominal value of Scottish exports (excluding oil and gas). The most up to date figures cover the period 2002 to 2016.

Nominal value of exports for these years, broken down by destination, are available in the published tables:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/Exports/ESSPublication/ESSExcel

Values of exports for 2017 will be available in the Export Statistics Scotland 2017 publication, due to be published in January 2019.

As part of our commitments in the Disability Action Plan we will consult with Disabled People’s Organisations and public sector bodies around setting targets or other measures to increase the disability employment rates in the public sector.

Seeking to reduce the disability employment gap by at least half, as also committed in the Disability Action Plan, will be an All Government, All Scotland approach, using all levers at our disposal. We will set out next steps for taking this forward at our national congress on disability, employment and the workplace on 30 April 2018.