Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-09390

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 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-09386

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 Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments have been carried out regarding contracts with Police Scotland for police officers in schools, which involve the use of pupil equity funding.

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-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.

Question reference: S6W-09530

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 12 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, how many interim vouchers worth up to £400 had been granted by the date applications closed; what the total value of vouchers awarded in this part of the scheme is; how many vouchers worth up to £5,000 have been granted, and what the total value of vouchers awarded in this part of the scheme is.

As of 1 July 2022, a total of 1,031 installations have been delivered using interim vouchers at a value of £399,468. A further 204 interim vouchers have been issued at a potential value of £73,847. In addition, 1,237 installations have been delivered using main vouchers at a value of £3,104,256, with a further 762 main vouchers issued at a potential value of £2,631,657.

It is worth noting that vouchers issued do not always lead to installations being completed and, therefore, may not lead to actual spend – this can be for a number of reasons, such as the beneficiary deciding they no longer wish to proceed.

Question reference: S6O-01297

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects a decision to be reached on a railway station for Newburgh in Fife following the publication of the Newburgh and Area Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance appraisal.

Question reference: S6W-09097

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the increase in funding in the Advanced Learning and Science budget for 2026-27, as set out in table 5 of the Resource Spending Review, is to fund a new Scottish Education Exchange Programme.

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