Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the level of public sector procurement of Scottish produce.

We want Scotland’s public sector to be at the forefront of our efforts to source more local produce and earlier this year convened a meeting with stakeholders across the supply chain involved in public sector food and, together, identified some of the actions needed to stimulate greater levels of local sourcing. In taking this forward we will:-

• Build capacity by investing, jointly with industry, £100k in a new Supplier Development Programme for small and medium-sized food and drink businesses to help them compete for public sector contracts;

• Increase funding from £300k a year to £400k over the next 3 years to expand the Food for Life Programme which currently operates in 11 local authority areas. This extra funding will allow the Programme to work with current award-holders to retain their current award as well as trying to move those accredited to Bronze up to Silver or Gold. In addition an increased focus will be made on seeking commitment from the other 21 local authorities to introduce the Food for Life programme and further stimulate demand for local produce; and

• Share best practice across the public sector, through the development and dissemination of new ‘exemplar menus’ to support the move towards more sustainable food. The menus, which are currently in development, will reflect updated advice from Food Standards Scotland on diet and the review of statutory nutritional standards for school food and will be a beacon for local sourcing, quality and health.

Felling and restocking is managed on a case by case basis, and is a process which takes more than one year to complete. As a result, the information requested on annual changes in the area restocked as a result of sustainable forest management practices (e.g. inclusion of planned open space) is not appropriately held.

Permanent land use change (deforestation) is subject to Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations and will usually be conditional on the planting of an equivalent compensatory area of woodland on another site as laid out in the Scottish Government’s Control of Woodland Removal Policy. (Available at:

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/supporting/strategy-policy-guidance/woodland-expansion/control-of-woodland-removal)

Scotland wide figures for new woodland planting are published annually as National Statistics by the Forestry Commission and are available from the Forestry Commission web site at https:--www.forestry.gov.uk-forestry-infd-8w3lv3

New woodland planting figures broken down by Forest Districts and Conservancy are shown in the following tables.

a)New Woodland Planting by National Forest Estate by Forest District

(Figures by Forest Districts are only available from 2012-13)

 b) New Woodland Planting by Private Sector by Conservancy

Information on roadside timber stock is available for timber harvested within forests on the National Forest Estate. The following table shows the roadside stock that is currently beyond 12 months at roadside by Forest District. This type of information is not available for private sector forests.

The Forestry Act 1967 requires all tree felling to be replanted unless specifically exempted. This requirement is implemented through felling licences which are generally granted with a condition requiring replanting. The detailed conditions associated with these felling licences are not collated for Scotland to provide the level of information requested.

Partial figures for replanting in Scotland are published annually by the Forestry Commission as set out in the following table.

Replanting in Scotland 1999-2017 (Thousands hectares)

Figures are shown for both the National Forest Estate and for grant-aided planting by the private sector. These figures do not separately identify the felling of ‘commercial forest’, and do not include substantial areas of commercial forest which are re-planted without grant-aid.

Felling in Scotland is regulated in accordance with the Forestry Act 1967. Where restocking is not undertaken as required under the Forestry Act, Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) will work with the land owner to ensure compliance, including issuing a statutory notice to comply if necessary.

Forests on the National Forest Estate are audited on a rolling basis by independent assessors to check compliance against the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. This provides verification of sustainable woodland management, including achieving appropriate restocking.

A recent analysis of compliance with restocking conditions carried out by FCS has shown that overall compliance is good, with most sites being re-planted within two years.

The figures requested on the total area felled each year are not routinely collated for the National Forest Estate and are not available for the private sector.

The number of vacancies across Scotland is disappointing but the overall number of permanent vacancies represents only 1.6% of the teaching workforce.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of actions to help recruit teacher for all local authorities, including Highland.

We have:

• committed £88m this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers with the right skills;

• provided support to universities in developing new innovative routes into teaching; including the University of the Highlands and Islands and Aberdeen University who recruit student teachers from the Highland area;

• recently announced STEM bursaries of £20,000 for career changers to train to become teachers of priority STEM subjects starting in August 2018;

• launched the second phase of our “Teaching Makes People” recruitment campaign on 30 August and

• created a new route into teaching specifically designed to attract high quality graduates in priority areas and subjects. The tender exercise for this closed on 16 November and the evaluation process will commence shortly.

Student teacher numbers have risen by 7.5 per cent overall from 3,591 in 2016 to 3,861 in 2017. With these measures now in place we expect to see the number of people training as teachers continuing to rise.

The information requested is not collated centrally. Supply teachers are employed by each individual local authority, depending on their local needs and circumstances throughout the year.

As an NDPB the deployment of VisitScotland staff and resources is an operational issue for VisitScotland and their Board.

The Scottish Government understands that discussions took place with affected staff on 12 October, immediately before the public announcement was made. Individual meetings with all staff followed in the weeks immediately thereafter.

VisitScotland offered three options. These are:

(i) a move to an alternative location

(ii) redeployment (including retraining where required); and

(iii) voluntary redundancy.