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: S5W-23635

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many female apprentices completed an apprenticeship in each local authority area in 2018-19.

Female apprenticeship achievements for 2018-19 in each local authority area are as follows:

Local Authority	Female
Aberdeen City	207
Aberdeenshire	285
Angus	206
Argyll & Bute	98
Clackmannanshire	110
Dumfries & Galloway	169
Dundee City	270
East Ayrshire	157
East Dunbartonshire	122
East Lothian	171
East Renfrewshire	72
Edinburgh, City of	577
Falkirk	303
Fife	556
Glasgow City	904
Highland	525
Inverclyde	118
Midlothian	173
Moray	124
Na h-Eileanan Siar	29
North Ayrshire	234
North Lanarkshire	679
Orkney Islands	32
Perth & Kinross	253
Renfrewshire	293
Scottish Borders	155
Shetland Islands	41
South Ayrshire	156
South Lanarkshire	517
Stirling	154
West Dunbartonshire	179
West Lothian	322
Outwith Area	16
Total	8,207

Skills Development Scotland calculate achievement as follows:

Achievements are counted when a claim for payment has been made and approved in the financial year. Therefore, the achievement rate is the number of certificated leavers registered in the financial year as a percentage of all MAs registered as leavers on the system.

Leavers are counted when a leaving date is entered on the system and the MA has not re-joined the programme within 8 weeks. The exception to this rule is where an MA achieves and progresses to a higher-level MA – this leaver is counted regardless of the re-start timescale but the individual is not counted as a new start.

There can be flux in achievements year on year due to the varying length of Modern Apprenticeships, which are delivered at the pace of the learner and the needs of the business. Comparing achievements by year can suggest improvement/ regression on progress, but is only a reflection of an increase/ reduction of leavers in said financial year. When considered as a percentage for 2018/19 female achievement rate nationally was 76%, compared to 77% for males. Achievements are important, but should be considered in tandem with new starts and in-training figures to give a holistic picture.

Question reference: S5W-23633

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 13 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date NHS Health Scotland and NHS Education Scotland will publish the knowledge and skills framework and workforce development plan for mental health and suicide prevention.

Question reference: S5W-23634

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 12 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its online suicide prevention online resource fulfils the commitment at Action 2 of its Suicide Prevention Action Plan that it would "fund the creation and implementation of refreshed mental health and suicide prevention training by May 2019".

NHS Health Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland have been jointly commissioned by the Scottish Government to take forward a programme of work to support implementation of Action 2 of 'Every Life Matters', Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan. The online mental health and suicide prevention animations are the first phase of training and education resources, aimed primarily at NHS staff but available for all. This series of animations has been developed to support the knowledge and skills of staff working at the informed level. The animations raise awareness of mental health and suicide prevention and are applicable to many different workforce sectors.

Steps are being taken to share these animations more widely and as a first step COSLA have agreed to share these animations with all of their 250,000 strong workforce across 32 Local Authority areas. The Scottish Football Association and Scottish Professional Football League will also share the animations with their football clubs, associated organisations and employees reaching around 190,000 people.

NHS Health Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland will continue to build on this work. This will include a review of existing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training products available in Scotland. Where appropriate, these will be refreshed to make them more accessible, relevant and to support sustainable delivery. Additional resources will be developed to respond to identified learning gaps.

Question reference: S5W-23322

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it counts school leavers entering the workplace on a zero-hours contract as a positive destination.

The positive destination category included in Scottish Government school leaver destination statistics includes all school leavers identified as being in higher education, further education, training, employment, voluntary work and activity agreements. Employment includes all those working who consider themselves to be employed and in receipt of payment from their employers. The dataset on which these statistics are based does not record the contractual status of employed school leavers meaning that it is not possible to identify those on zero hours contracts.

The Scottish Government is strongly opposed to the inappropriate use of zero hour contracts. We do recognise that for some people and in some sectors, zero hour contracts are an important first step on the career ladder and place them on the path to meet their aspiration and to fulfil their potential. The Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills has set out the work we plan to do on this over the coming year to the Education and Skills Committee.

Question reference: S5W-23321

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it has taken in response to the recommendations of the Education and Skills Committee in its report, Young People's Pathways: a progress report on Developing the Young Workforce.

Question reference: S5W-23362

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer of question S5W-22712 by John Swinney on 1 May 2019, what analysis and research was undertaken to identify the figure of 350 mental health counsellors to be created in schools.

We want every child and young person to have appropriate access to emotional and mental well-being support in school.

Our ambitious Mental Health Strategy and the commitments in this year’s Programme for Government are driving forward improvements and reform of our response to mental ill health and support for good mental health.

As we are taking forward this programme of improvement in partnership with local government, the number of secondary schools in Scotland was used as the primary indicator of requirements for the counsellors in schools service. The aim is to ensure that all young people can access support, at the right time, in the right location.

Question reference: S5W-23312

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its publication, Regional Employment Patterns in Scotland: Statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2018, what the unemployment rate has been in each of the last 10 years for 16- to 64-year-olds with (a) further and (b) higher education (SCQF level 7+) qualifications, excluding those classed as economically inactive.

The following table provides the unemployment rates for those aged 16-64 with further or higher education qualifications (SCQF 7+) for 2008 to 2018, sourced from the Annual Population Survey:

Unemployment rate for those aged 16-64 with SCQF 7+ level qualifications, 2008-2018, Scotland

	Unemployment Rate (%)
2008	2.9
2009	3.8
2010	4.2
2011	4.8
2012	4.5
2013	4.4
2014	3.1
2015	3.3
2016	3.0
2017	2.8
2018	2.9

Source: Annual Population Survey, January-December datasets, ONS

Notes:

1. The unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed people expressed as a percentage of the relevant economically active (employed and unemployed) population.

2. The standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployment covers people aged 16 and over.

3. Unemployment rates are calculated on unrounded figures.

Question reference: S5W-23288

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the Skills Development Scotland (a) budget and (b) spend has been in each of the last 10 financial years.

Skills Development Scotland is allocated Grant in Aid each year which is used to deliver the commitments as set out in the corresponding letter of ministerial guidance.

In addition to their Grant In Aid allocation, SDS also receive income from other sources.

The following table outlines SDS Grant in Aid budget and related spend by SDS for the financial years 2008-09 – 2017-18.

All numbers lifted from published Annual accounts. For each year other than 2017-2018 we have used the restated values from the subsequent years annual accounts.
Financial Year	Grant-In-Aid (£m)	Spend (a) (b) (£m)
2008-2009 (c)	£178.50	£186.20
2009-2010	£203.00	£202.00
2010-2011	£198.60	£197.50
2011-2012	£197.00	£212.50
2012-2013	£178.10	£197.20
2013-2014	£190.10	£211.30
2014-2015	£196.10	£214.30
2015-2016	£207.80	£226.40
2016-2017	£199.60	£213.50
2017-2018	£198.10	£230.90
(a) As detailed in the Annual Accounts Operating Expenditure + Administrative Expenditure + Cost of Sales + Finance Costs + Income Tax – Finance Income (£m)
(b) Includes annual pension adjustment to recognise Current Service Cost rather than contributions paid in year. In 2010-2011 this included a one-off adjustment (£16.9 m credit) to recognise change in legislation for valuing future pension increases
(c) Grant-In-Aid figure does not include a one off Grant-In-Aid transition cost of £15.7m to help the establishment of SDS

Question reference: S5O-03357

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-23290

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it records what sectors young people enter when going into employment or training.

Information is available from the Annual Population on industry of employment by age. Table 1 provides estimates of the number of 16-24 olds employed in Scotland by industry sector.

Table 1: Total employment (ages 16-24) by broad industry sector, Scotland, 2018

Broad industry sector	Total employment
A: Agriculture & fishing	4,000
B,D,E: Energy & water	9,000
C: Manufacturing	21,000
F: Construction	25,000
G,I: Distribution, hotels & restaurants	136,000
H,J: Transport & communication	13,000
K-N: Banking, finance & insurance etc	43,000
O-Q: Public admin, educ & health	51,000
R-U: Other services	25,000
All 1	330,000

Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec 2018

Notes:

1. Industry of employment is self-reported. Total employment includes those who did not provide a response to this question.