I recognise the longstanding concerns about parcel deliveries to rural and remote areas of Scotland. The Scottish Government worked with partners to develop a Statement of Principles for parcel deliveries which was launched by the former Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing MSP. Continued work in this area is still required and I am supportive of the work organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland and Highland Council are doing. I believe a constructive approach with companies will achieve the best results.

As regulation of parcel deliveries is still reserved to Westminster and many retailers are based outside Scotland, it is vitally important that UK Ministers continue to work to improve the situation. I wrote to Margot James MP, the UK Minister for Consumers, in December 2016 asking what further actions the UK Government planned to take. Ms James responded saying that she did not believe that more legislation was necessary, but that the UK Government would work with consumer agencies to make sure retailers are aware of and fulfil their responsibilities. While the UK Government are at present unwilling to regulate on this issue, we will continue to push them on the concerns around delivery charges.

SNH provided the basic advice for two Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposals for minke whale in 2014. The Scottish Government intends to consider the suitability of these proposals in 2018.

Minke whale are a highly protected species in Scottish Waters and as such conservation action for seabirds, seabed habitats and harbour porpoise has been prioritised in the meantime.

It is for Ofcom as the telecommunications market regulator to monitor matters such as pricing.

However, the Scottish Government is working hard to ensure that Ofcom takes into account the particular challenges facing Scotland and is also encouraging it to develop a more regional approach that will address more localised market failures, such as the pricing of services.

The appointment of a Scottish member to Ofcom’s board will also ensure that Scotland’s interests will be represented in future Ofcom decisions.

The letter was answered on 12 July 2017, full text attached:

Dear Members of the Committee

Thank you for your e mail of 22 June 2017, addressed to John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills and enclosing an open letter from yourselves regarding the workload of your members. Mr Swinney has asked me to reply to you on his behalf.

Improving the education and life chances of our children and young people is the defining mission of this Government and Ministers fully appreciate the important contribution that hardworking teachers, including guidance teachers, in our schools make to the achievement of that aim. Ministers also recognise that teachers, in common with other professionals, often work beyond the terms of their contract, to meet the needs of their pupils.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the positive, professional approach which the Association of Guidance Teachers takes with regard to Getting it right for every child and will continue to work with them as we strengthen the Getting it right for every child approach and develop support materials over the next year.

As noted in your letter, we expect the role of the Named Person to be taken forward as an integral part of the guidance teacher’s daily work, within their professional expertise. We recognise the constraints that local authorities and schools are working within. As we develop materials to support the approach we will work with stakeholders across children’s services to ensure that we take every opportunity to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and streamline processes where possible. The aim of our on-going policy development will be to support consistency and clarity around the delivery of the Getting it right for every child approach as we prepare for the commencement of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill which was introduced to parliament on Monday 19 June.

The aim of this amending legislation is to bring consistency, clarity and coherence to the practice of sharing information about children’s and young people’s wellbeing across Scotland to aid practitioners and ensure that the rights of children, young people and parents are respected when information is shared with or by the Named Person service under Part 4 of the Act, and in connection with discussing the need for, formulating or delivering a Child’s Plan under Part 5 of the Act.

Turning to the points you have made in your letter in relation to teacher employment, Ministers recognise that some Councils have faced challenges in teacher recruitment, as have universities recruiting teaching students and the Government is focussed on addressing the barriers to recruitment and retention.

We have increased student teacher intake targets for the sixth year in a row and are setting targets to train teachers in the subjects where they are needed most. Our recruitment campaign “ Teaching makes People” was also launched in February 2017. The campaign builds on the success of last year’s campaign which helped drive a 19% increase in Initial Teacher Education student intakes to Scottish universities compared to the previous year, showing that teaching remains an attractive career option for many.

Finally in relation to the well-being of your members, whilst I can appreciate the concerns you have expressed, any specific issues your colleagues may have about their workload or other aspects of their duties as guidance teachers are personal employment matters which need to be discussed with their immediate line manager in the first instance. All teachers are employees of local authorities who are responsible for supporting employee health and well-being at work.

I hope that this reply is helpful and the Scottish Government looks forward to continuing to work with your Association to achieve our shared ambition to get it right for every child.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme has a dedicated website (www.scotlandsuperfast.com) that provides advice and up-to-date information on the current roll-out of superfast broadband across Scotland.

The website covers all the options available to communities and households across Scotland including on the current connection of each premise, the next steps available once connected and further information on the Better Broadband Scheme for those premises that are not currently receiving speeds of over 2 Mbps. Community Broadband Scotland also has a dedicated website (www.hie.co.uk/community-support/community-broadband-scotland) that has information on the guidance and assistance it can provide community-led broadband projects.

On 23 February I met with the BBC Director-General Lord Hall and welcomed the commitment to create 80 new journalism jobs, which the BBC has said will be based across Scotland.

Further representations were made on 13 July in the Scottish Government’s response to the consultation on regulating the BBC. We welcomed the proposal made by the regulator, Ofcom, that the BBC’s network spend in Scotland be “referable to … different production centres in Scotland” and we commented that the requirement for a range of centres would “help spread benefits”.

The Tourism Skills Investment Plan, published on 29 September 2016, highlights current skills issues, and shortages in some key roles, facing the tourism sector. A copy may be obtained using this URL

http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/42345/tourism-digital-skills-investment-plan.pdf

The Tourism Skills Group, facilitated by Skills Development Scotland, is working to implement the actions identified within the SIP, with working groups established around the four strategic skills priorities of:

• improving management, leadership and enterprise skills;

• supporting the development of professional and digital skills;

• ensuring staff at all levels understand and are able to respond to visitor needs and expectations; and

• raising the attractiveness of the sector as a career path.

With specific reference to chefs, an ad hoc industry group under Scotland Food and Drink met for the first time in May 2017, supported by Skills Development Scotland, to bring industry experts together to review the current situation and discuss potential next steps.

In addition, Modern Apprenticeships are a key route into the sector with nearly 3,000 hospitality Modern Apprenticeships in 16/17. Modern Apprenticeship frameworks are currently being updated by People 1st to ensure they are meeting industry requirements and their funding now includes a rural uplift element to address the extra costs of delivering training in rural areas.

The Scottish Government also provided £10,000 funding to support the Scottish Culinary team in 2016-17 to help chefs of the future and ensure culinary teams are better prepared for the Culinary Olympics going forward and to help to raise awareness of careers in the industry. In addition the Chefs @ School programme aims to help Scottish Chefs and cooks teach young people about food culture and cooking. This is directed at primary and secondary school pupils to improve their skills, career choices, cooking and healthy eating practices. Between 2012 and 2018 Scottish Government will have provided £180,000 Support to Federation of Chefs Scotland for the project.

The industry itself is also working hard to highlight the sector as an attractive and rewarding career path. An example of such work in attracting young people into the sector is Springboard , the charity, which supports programmes such as Future Chef and events like Hospitality Takeover Days, which allow pupils to experience the rewarding careers the sector offers and enable hands on experience of working with chefs and other tourism and hospitality professionals. Other industry-led initiatives include "The Big Hospitality Association" from the British Hospitality Association and the Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland.

British Sign Language courses are taught across a range of levels at college and university. The funding for the college courses comes from the core teaching allocation provided by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Funding Council.

Colleges wishing to employ tutors from the deaf community to teach British Sign Language can do so by utilising the Access and Inclusion Fund which is worth a total of £50.5m. Colleges are expected to use this fund to ensure that their college is inclusive and students are supported.