Chamber and committees

Following publication of the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) review on police call handling in November 2015, assurances were received from both Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority that all 30 of the recommendations included in the report would be implemented in full. It is for HMICS to independently monitor progress and to report on the extent to which the recommendations have been progressed in line with their expectations; and for the Scottish Police Authority to consider whether sufficient assurance is in place before approving remaining phases of the programme.

Following publication of the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) review on police call handling in November 2015, assurances were received from both Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority that all 30 of the recommendations included in the report would be implemented in full. It is for HMICS to independently monitor progress and to report on the extent to which the recommendations have been progressed in line with their expectations; and for the Scottish Police Authority to consider whether sufficient assurance is in place before approving remaining phases of the programme.

The apprenticeship levy is an employment tax which was announced in the UK autumn budget after The Smith Commission process to take forward the devolution commitments on further powers for the Scottish Parliament. The collection of the levy is a reserved matter and Scottish Ministers are working to ensure that Scotland gets it fair share of the levy.

We are still awaiting clarity on how Scotland’s share of the levy will be calculated. Decisions on future apprenticeship spending beyond 2016-17 will be considered as part of the future spending review.

The apprenticeship levy is an employment tax which was announced in the UK autumn budget after The Smith Commission process to take forward the devolution commitments on further powers for the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government does not have a role in implementing the levy. The collection of the levy is a reserved matter, however Scottish Ministers are working to ensure that Scotland gets it fair share of the levy.

The Scottish Government is currently engaging with a range of employers to consider the impact of the levy and to explore opportunities for continuing to expand and enhance our successful modern apprenticeship programme in Scotland.

Decisions on future apprenticeship spending beyond 2016-17 will be considered as part of the future spending review.

The oil and gas sector faces a range of challenges as a result of the lower oil price. Within this context, if was agreed that the Energy Jobs Taskforce would implement a co-ordinated response to ensure Scotland retains, and where possible grows, the level of employment, skills and talent which supports Scotland’s internationally competitive energy industry.

Whilst it is difficult to exactly quantify the exact number of jobs safeguarded and secured there has been a huge amount of work undertaken to support the thousands of individuals impacted by the slowdown, as well as various initiatives to enhance leadership and efficiencies. The taskforce has, at the request of its industry members, taken a longer-term look at the structural challenges of the industry. This has led to a number of initiatives that will lay the foundations for improvements across a wide range of action areas to support supply chain best practice, increase standardisation, enhance leadership, encourage more collaborative behaviours among different parts of the industry and drive cost efficiencies.

Examples of the work of the taskforce includes:

A ground breaking cross-sector workshop, attended by more than 70 industry leaders in Aberdeen in May 2015, led by BP's Trevor Garlick and Andy Samuel, Chief Executive of the Oil and Gas Authority; this led to a set of commitments that seeks to tackle some of the underlying behavioural issues impacting on progress by the industry. A follow up to this event ‘one year on’ is planned for May 2016.

The Elevator Fresh Starts Business Start Up support programme has seen 24 new businesses in the north east, this includes intensive support from experienced mentors; and 32 companies attended a sales leadership event in August 2015 in Aberdeen.

Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Island’s Enterprise have run five resilience events which have provided practical help and assistance to the supply chain to help them react to the current circumstances and to thrive in the long term. A sixth event is scheduled to take place in Aberdeen on 1 April 2016.

156 delegates have attended executive leadership events in Aberdeen over the last six months providing attendees with the opportunity to hear from international business leaders and experts and helping to equip them with practical tools and the confidence to adapt to the changes ahead. This includes the most recent workshop on prioritising productivity to drive growth, competitiveness and profitability delivered in September 2015 in Aberdeen.

Organisation of a conference focusing on cultural change and learning from various industry sectors took place in October 2015, this was attended by 109 delegates.

The creation of ‘Alternatives to Redundancy’ workshops, two workshops were delivered on 4 September 2015 with input from the Chartered Institute of Professional Development.

In determining the 85 per cent funding floor we excluded those outlier local authorities whose funding per head was much greater than 100 per cent in order to make the 85 per cent calculation more comparable.

The unadjusted average revenue funding per capita figure of 77.3 per cent was calculated by comparing Aberdeen City Council's revenue funding allocation with the all-Scotland average for 2016-17 without making any adjustments and before the addition of the extra £14 million that was added as a result of the 85 per cent funding floor.

In order to provide a fair comparison for calculating the average revenue funding per head figures for 2016-17, we added back the police and fire funding to each local authority in exactly the same way as it had been removed from the 2014-15 local government finance settlement.

<>Aberdeen City Council received 77.4 per cent of the unadjusted Scottish average final revenue funding per head in 2013-14 and 78.4 per cent in 2014-15.

I attended the teaching summit in Aberdeen at the end of September last year to discuss working with the authority to address barriers to recruitment.

We increased the University of Aberdeen's student teacher intake targets for 2016-17 and supported the development and extension of the part time distance learning model of initial teacher education that the university offers. And most recently I announced on 16 February 2016 that part of the £12 million Transition Training Fund would be available to help oil and gas sector staff bring their skills and expertise into teaching – particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths. My officials are actively working with stakeholders to develop this new pathway into teaching.

Aberdeen City Council received £1.331 million as their share of the £41 million that this government made available to local authorities in the current financial year to maintain their teacher numbers and pupil teacher ratios at 2014 levels in 2015-16.

While Aberdeen City Council failed to meet the teacher numbers commitment, no penalty was imposed. The council did not, however, receive a share of the additional £10 million that was made available to those local authorities that met their teacher numbers and pupil teacher ratio commitments.