Chamber and committees

Similar to the answer provided for S5W-12495 on 21 November 2017, the Scottish Government uses historic actual costs and pending costs as a guide to likely future costs, and sets the budget accordingly.

Funding under these schemes is provided retrospectively and all approved work must be completed and claimed within one year of the date in which the application is approved. Therefore, work that is approved in one year can, in some cases, fall to be paid the next year. In any event, once claims have been submitted and processed for any particular year, the total amount claimed by all applicants is compared against the allocated budget for that year and this is used to estimate likely future spend.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Each scheme is demand led. The Scottish Government uses historic activity as a guide to likely future activity, and sets the budget accordingly.

The rejection rates for 2015, 2016 and 2017 (to 31 August) are around 7%, 7%, and 10% respectively. The variation between rejection rates from year to year over this 3 year period is considered to be normal and not significant in statistical terms.

The average cost per capita for Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) is £3,424 per person over the 2016-18 duration which is made up FA Framework delivery costs and participant travel costs associated with the delivery of the Foundation Apprenticeship (FA) programme.

As with Modern Apprenticeships, the total cost of delivery per person will vary by Foundation Apprenticeship framework. For example, £2,296 over 2 years for Accounting or Financial Services to £5,103 over 2 years for Engineering. The individual FA framework delivery costs are published on Public Contracts Scotland and provide the basis for contracting with all lead providers.

For 2016 -18 FA delivery contracts there were a total of 354 starts registered by end of September 2016.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to Skills Development Scotland on an annual basis for delivery of training programmes and other activities, including the Employability Fund. In the Budget Bill 2017-18 Skills Development Scotland was allocated Grant in Aid of £179.1 million which will be used to meet its commitments in 2017-18 including the delivery of 9,000 Employability Fund training places.

It is difficult to aggregate a total overall breakdown of spend on Employability Fund since its introduction as liabilities are carried forward from one year to the next and that spend has been split across both Skills Development Scotland and the college sector

Since the launch of the Employability Fund in 2013 until the end of the last contracted year, March 2017, there have been over 63,000 training places delivered.

The published budget for the Scottish Government covers 2017-18. There are currently no budgets beyond this. The changes to the SRDP budgets up to 2020 are indicative forecasts to ensure that the EU funds are maximised under the Scottish Rural Development Programme. The Scottish Government had no choice but to amend the SRDP budgets, due to the expectation that Scotland’s overall discretionary budget is expected to be 9.2% lower in real terms in 2019-20 compared to 2010-11.

This has been compounded by the failure of the UK Government to transfer
£160 million of CAP convergence funding which rightly belongs to Scottish farmers and crofters, despite repeated requests to do so, and cross party support from the Scottish Parliament.

The annual indicative budget for the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme has not been reduced, and the indicative budget for the Small Farms Grant Scheme remains at a level which will meet the demands of the scheme.

The Scottish Government Rural Payments and Services website offers extensive guidance on both these schemes. https://www.ruralpayments.org/publicsite/futures/topics/all-schemes/

Information on both of these schemes can be found on the “Scottish Rural Network” website. https://www.ruralnetwork.scot/funding/scottish-rural-development-programme

Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service provides advice on both these schemes https://www.fas.scot/

Up to date information on all rural matters can also be found on the Scottish Government RPID Twitter and Facebook accounts. https://twitter.com/RuralMattersSG

https://en-gb.facebook.com/RuralMattersScotland/

Allied to this, both schemes are discussed at the Crofting Stakeholder Forum, Cross Party Group on Crofting, and during external engagements involving crofting officials.

The Scottish Government has taken a strategic approach to maintaining and protecting the SRDP 2014-2020 budget, ensuring that we maximise the EU funds. The Scottish Government had no choice but to makes changes to the budget due to the expectation that Scotland’s overall discretionary budget, as set by the UK Government, is expected to be 9.2% lower in real terms in 2019-20, compared to 2010-11.

The Scottish Government remains committed to building growth all across rural Scotland.

The annual indicative budget for the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme has not been reduced, and remains at £2m per annum. The reduced Programme budget is due to the lower than forecasted uptake from earlier years in the programme.

Similarly, the Small Farms Grant Scheme budget remains at a level which will continue to meet the demands of the scheme.

We will continue to monitor scheme performance and demand, along with the impact of future Spending Reviews, to ensure that the SRDP continues to deliver.

Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme:

2015 – 478 applications – 228 approved – 24 rejected.

2016 – 700 applications – 614 approved – 48 rejected.

2017 (to 31 August) – 559 applications – 461 approved – 56 rejected – 102 being processed.

The reason that the numbers approved, rejected and being processed in 2017 exceed the number received, is due to a number of the approved applications having been originally received in 2016.

Small Farms Grant Scheme:

2015 – 38 applications – 3 approved - 9 rejected.

2016 – 23 applications – 19 approved - 1 rejected.

2017 (to 31 August) – 13 applications – 7 approved – 4 rejected.

In respect of both schemes, applications are also returned, seeking additional information, and withdrawn by the applicant. There is no right of appeal for rejected applications as applicants are free to submit applications at any time.

As stated in the Fund guidance, employers have the right to appeal a decision made by the college on their application for training. Appeals should be made to the Scottish Funding Council.