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-09387

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it has ensured compliance with the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 in relation to the decisions to have police officers in schools, which involve the use of pupil equity funding.

A key principle of the refreshed 2022 Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance states that: ‘Teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and other key stakeholders should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating approaches.’

Headteachers are accountable to their local authority for the use of Pupil Equity Funding within their school. We have been clear that schools should consult and engage effectively with teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and the wider community when implementing approaches to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

To ensure transparency, schools are expected to incorporate details of their Pupil Equity Funding plans and explicitly report on the impact on outcomes for learners impacted by poverty. This should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication should be confirmed by the relevant local authority.

Question reference: S6W-09391

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what processes are in place to ensure that police officers, who are based in schools through the allocation of pupil equity funding, have discretion over the exercising of their powers when they are in school.

I reaffirm the answer provided in S6T-00784 on 14 June 2022. Specifically, that local decisions are taken by headteachers in an empowered education system. We trust schools and headteachers to know their pupils best, and to take decisions that are in the best interests of their children and young people.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find these to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families – working alongside Social Work and third sector organisations.

All answers to Topical Questions are available on the Parliament's website at the following link: Meeting of the Parliament: 14/06/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

Question reference: S6W-09388

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-12058 by John Swinney on 31 October 2017, which states that “any school plans for using pupil equity funding must be grounded in evidence of what is known to be effective at closing the poverty related attainment gap”, what evidence it holds that police officers on school campuses are effective in closing the poverty related attainment gap.

PEF National Operational Guidance is intended to help schools plan how they will most effectively invest their Pupil Equity Funding allocation to improve the educational outcomes of children affected by poverty. Local authorities also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally.

The PEF National Operational guidance includes key principles which state that ‘Headteachers must develop a clear rationale for use of funding, based on a robust contextual analysis of relevant data which identifies the poverty-related attainment gap in their schools.’ Schools must also have plans in place at the outset to evaluate the impact of the funding. These plans should outline clear outcomes to be achieved and how progress towards these, and the impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap, will be measured.

To be clear, this should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication are confirmed by the relevant local authority.

One specific example of the effectiveness of collaboration with the Police can be found in Education Scotland’s ‘Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards’ publication. It cites evidence from Eastbank Academy in Glasgow where the school reports that a PEF-funded partnership with Police Scotland has contributed to increased participation and engagement of identified young people. A link to that publication can be found here: Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards (education.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-09389

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Glasgow City Council, (b) West Lothian Council, (c) South Lanarkshire Council, (d) North Ayrshire Council and (e) Fife Council regarding the use of pupil equity funding for police officers in schools, and what evidence these local authorities have provided to indicate that having police officers in schools is an effective measure at closing the poverty related attainment gap.

Question reference: S6W-09749

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many P1 children have taken (a) one of or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority.

The following table provides an overview of P1 learners who have undertaken (a) one or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority.

Please note that figures less than five have been suppressed to prevent the potential identification of individuals.

The row "n/a" denotes publicly-funded schools outwith local authority control.

Table 1 - Number of P1 Children undertaking SNSA since 20 September 2018 - by year and local authority

Year	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22
Local Authority	one of	both	one of	both	one of	both	one of	both
Aberdeen City	13	1940	301	457	301	1941	19	2034
Aberdeenshire	28	2821	27	71	27	2563	42	2709
Angus	10	1205	**	**	**	863	16	908
Argyll and Bute	5	752	28	49	28	585	8	597
Clackmannanshire	10	499	46	445	46	555	**	484
Dumfries and Galloway	7	1321	12	113	12	1252	11	1284
Dundee City	5	1389	61	360	61	1216	27	1339
East Ayrshire	38	1223	61	59	61	818	9	937
East Dunbartonshire		1251	154	403	154	704	7	1154
East Lothian	18	1146	23	64	23	977	37	1049
East Renfrewshire	**	1233				1174	6	1149
Edinburgh	45	4340	240	258	240	3790	42	4026
Eileanan Siar	**	128		13		97		127
Falkirk	14	1647				1536	12	1488
Fife	16	1855					**	13
Glasgow City	566	3948	190	235	190	3263	330	3682
Highland	35	2077	42	394	42	1926	44	1919
Inverclyde	**	698	92	185	92	604	8	702
Midlothian	14	1090	91	221	91	1112	12	1170
Moray	**	942				903	15	895
North Ayrshire	31	1279	7	37	7	1071	12	1104
North Lanarkshire	50	3545	82	193	82	3563	60	3376
Orkney Islands	**	220	**	102	**	216	**	190
Perth and Kinross	21	1357	**	21	**	1267	33	1344
Renfrewshire	14	1797		77		1742	12	1775
Scottish Borders	**	1081	17	123	17	917	13	922
Shetland Islands		229	**	29	**	102	**	186
South Ayrshire	5	1002	60	93	60	1031	5	1015
South Lanarkshire	45	3282	35	24	35	2758	123	2947
Stirling	10	851	103	299	103	820	6	863
West Dunbartonshire	12	897	91	67	91	864	14	836
West Lothian	13	2160				2020	85	840
n/a		66				65		64

Question reference: S6W-09393

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Police Scotland regarding police officers being stationed in schools through the use of pupil equity funding.

Question reference: S6W-09390

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Holding Answer by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the evidence indicating that using pupil equity funding for police officers in schools is an effective measure at closing the poverty related attainment gap.

Question reference: S6W-09381

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 25 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people did not respond to the 2011 census and, of those, how many people received a fine for not doing so.

Decisions regarding prosecutions remain a matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The 2011 census had a response rate of approximately 94%. Of the 6% of non-responding households, approximately 1,800 cases were put forward for non-compliance action which resulted in 900 completed questionnaires being returned. Following Crown Office advice, five cases were subsequently reported to the Procurator Fiscal and two cases resulted in prosecution.

Question reference: S6W-09625

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what checks and monitoring processes it has in place to ensure that the money it provided to businesses through the Business Ventilation Fund has been used by those businesses for the reasons stated in their applications.

Evidence of works was required in order to claim funding from the Business Ventilation Fund. This included providing invoices and proof of payment such as a copy of a bank statement. It was the responsibility of local authorities to validate this evidence to satisfy themselves that funding was being provided for approved purposes. This included spot checks of some premises and asking for further details to be provided before funding was released.

Question reference: S6W-09531

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 18 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on advertising and promoting the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme in total; how much it spent on this prior to the interim voucher scheme, worth up to £400 per voucher, being extended, and how much it has spent on this since the interim voucher scheme was extended.

Our website at www.scotlandsuperfast.com is the main means of publicising the R100 programme, of which R100 SBVS is a key component - information is largely updated in-house with more extensive changes commissioned, as and when required.

In addition, we have publicised R100 SBVS via the press, social media, and through continued stakeholder engagement activity across Scotland – including informing all registered suppliers of the extension to the interim voucher portion of R100 SBVS. We have received extensive coverage and reach across local and national media outlets and social media at no cost.

In March 2021, we distributed postcards to around 30,000 SBVS-eligible properties across Scotland. This activity cost around £12,900 plus VAT.