Holyrood, made browsable

Hansard

Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

129
Current MSPs
415
MSPs ever elected
13
Parties on record
2,355,091
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
Coverage span
Official Report

Search Hansard contributions

Showing 60 of 2,355,091 contributions. Latest 30 days: 148. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 14 May 2026.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
It is a follow-up question from Ross Greer’s line of questioning. The cabinet secretary said in his introductory remarks that he believes that the alternative certification model will not impose a significant additional burden on schools, but I think that we have all heard, i...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
Yes, indeed.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
I could chair it—I will be free on that day.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
What about the return after Easter?
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
Why would they make that up? I do not understand why they would do that. Why would the Auditor General make that up?
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
The cabinet secretary says that he stands to be corrected. He has already been corrected by the Auditor General, the EIS and SLS. They say not that those decisions were not agreed by the education recovery group but that they were not discussed by the group. What confidence ca...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Committee
24 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
I want to ask about the Covid-19 education recovery group—CERG—which the cabinet secretary has referred to once or twice. In the Audit Scotland report that was published earlier this week, the Auditor General says: “The CERG was not part of the process for all decisions. For ...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
24 Mar 2021
Portfolio Question Time · Education (Attainment Gap)
My apologies to the cabinet secretary for extending his sentence for slightly longer, but I promise that it will not be for too long. For the whole of this parliamentary session, the Government has had the good will and support of the whole chamber for its top priority of clo...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
23 Mar 2021
Topical Question Time · College Staff (Industrial Action)
I appreciate the minister’s desire for strike action to be avoided, but an agreement on all points was reached in the negotiating committee. The trade union side ratified that agreement, but the employer side has reneged on it and refused to ratify it. Does the minister think ...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
23 Mar 2021
Topical Question Time · College Staff (Industrial Action)
Given that students are trying to maintain their studies in spite of the pandemic, strike action in colleges is undesirable and in this case unnecessary. Equally, this is no time to attack the terms and conditions of college staff. More than a week ago, the national joint neg...
1. Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
23 Mar 2021
Topical Question Time · College Staff (Industrial Action)
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding planned industrial action by college staff this week. (S5T-02721)
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I speak in support of the bill, which finally promises some redress for people whom we collectively let down so badly for so long. As children, they looked to us for care and we delivered them up to hurt, terror and torture, sometimes for years. T...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I have lodged amendments 9 and 10 to the bill to ensure that the sustainability of services that are provided by organisations that are hoping to participate in the redress scheme will be a factor that is taken into consideration when ministers are assessing what amounts to a ...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill
The cabinet secretary has just commented on some survivors who are now elderly. The Government has already introduced the advance payment scheme, and at stage 2, we had some discussion about that and whether it could be improved in the short time before the introduction of the...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
The argument that organisations’ insurance companies would not cover the contribution to the scheme and that, therefore, the waiver is required, does not really make sense, because if their insurance companies would cover liability in civil actions, that is an argument for not...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
That is true of the written evidence that was given to the committee. However, when a number of those organisations gave oral evidence to the committee they said that if the waiver was there they were happy to have it, but that it was not the thing that they needed to ensure t...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I start by agreeing with the cabinet secretary; it is certainly true that survivors want contributions to be made to the scheme by the organisations that are responsible for the abuse that they suffered. That was very clear in the evidence that the committee took. The problem...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
11 Mar 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
The cabinet secretary has just argued that the circumstance of new information coming forward would affect very few survivors or cases. However, he is simultaneously arguing that the proposal would completely undermine the operation of the waiver. How can that be true?
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Mar 2021
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
Do you feel that the process is any better the second time round?
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Mar 2021
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
Abigail McGill might want to say something, as she talked about those issues in her opening remarks.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Mar 2021
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
I have a specific question on the SQA, the alternative certification model that was put in place and the work that has since been done to put a different model in place. I know that the commissioner’s office has expressed particular concerns about the appeals procedure. Abigai...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Committee
10 Mar 2021
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
The committee has, unsurprisingly, spent quite a lot of the past year looking at the closure, reopening and closure again of schools, the replacement of face-to-face learning with remote learning, and the reasons and evidence that the Government has used in taking those decisi...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
10 Mar 2021
Portfolio Question Time · East Lothian Council (Climate Change Strategy)
East Lothian Council’s strategy is already driving real change. The council has worked with the People’s Energy Company to launch an affordable energy tariff for county residents. Household recycling rates have been increased to 55.3 per cent of total household waste and there...
4. Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
10 Mar 2021
Portfolio Question Time · East Lothian Council (Climate Change Strategy)
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with East Lothian Council regarding its “Climate Change Strategy 2020–2025”. (S5O-05093)
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
09 Mar 2021
Early Education
I add my thanks to Beatrice Wishart for bringing to the chamber a members’ business debate on the Upstart Scotland campaign. The debate is timely, as we start to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Scotland’s young people and, perhaps, have the chance to look ahead t...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
I have no further questions.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
It is fair to say that I appreciate that information. I do not think that the committee has heard evidence that there was a problem with the robustness of the appeals process for those who were able to appeal; the issue concerns those who were excluded from the appeals process...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
How long do you expect that support to continue? Do you see it going on beyond the pandemic to try to mitigate the effects of the year that we have had? It will be more than a year by the time that we are talking about.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
My other question is on measures to mitigate the effects of the loss of learning over the time of the pandemic, particularly for young people who in any case face greater barriers than most to achievement in our schools. In my constituency of East Lothian, a tutoring scheme ha...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
Okay. I will move on to my question for Education Scotland, unless the convener wants to bring in anyone else.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
Can you tell us the timetable for that?
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
That would be helpful. I will send you the details of that particular case and, perhaps, some others that I know of. My concern with that answer is that some young people are not considered. I appreciate the effort that was put into considering appeals that were made by exami...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
One area that the committee has explored with the SQA and with the Deputy First Minister on a number of occasions is last year’s procedure for appealing against results—in particular, the problems of young people and families who felt that a school’s assessment had been unfair...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Committee
03 Mar 2021
Coronavirus and Education
I have two lines of questioning—one for the SQA and the other for Education Scotland. With your forbearance, I will ask Fiona Robertson the first question.
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
03 Mar 2021
Portfolio Question Time · East Lothian Council (Meetings)
Over the past 20 years, East Lothian has experienced the highest percentage increase in population in Scotland, with growth of three times the Scottish average. Over 10,000 new homes are being built in the county as a requirement of the Scottish Government’s national plan. Suc...
6. Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
03 Mar 2021
Portfolio Question Time · East Lothian Council (Meetings)
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met East Lothian Council and what was discussed. (S5O-05070)
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Feb 2021
Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Johann Lamont has answered my question, in a way, but I want to ask it bluntly in the hope of a direct answer. Johann Lamont talked about the broad support for the bill. In response to the committee’s call for evidence, there was a lot of support for the bill from disabled yo...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
24 Feb 2021
Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Can you hear me now?
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Committee
24 Feb 2021
Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
My question has more or less been answered but—Inaudible.
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
24 Feb 2021
Local Government Funding
Fair funding for local government has been something that Scottish Labour has campaigned on throughout the entire term of the Parliament, so we welcome the debate today, short though it is, and the motion in Annie Wells’s name. Even before the economic impact of coronavirus be...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
24 Feb 2021
Portfolio Question Time · Class Sizes (Multilevel Teaching)
If we are to reduce class sizes and the prevalence of multilevel teaching, we need the new cohort of teachers entering the profession in the next school year, but their training will have been disrupted through the disruption to their teaching practices. What support is being ...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
17 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I appreciate the cabinet secretary’s response. On the basis of the commitments that he has given and in the certainty that he will remember, when we get to stage 3, to make those commitments again on the record, I will not press amendment 18. Amendment 18, by agreement, withd...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
17 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
These amendments are designed to reflect evidence that the committee heard not about the redress scheme but about the advance payment scheme. The point was made quite strongly to us that, in the circumstances of the pandemic, there is a case—I think that a case was made—for re...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
17 Feb 2021
Education
Mr Swinney refers to the criticism of the national bodies. The review four years ago glided by Education Scotland and the SQA, which sailed on serenely and were untouched. In the meantime in our schools, the curriculum narrowed and pupils took exams in fewer subjects—especiall...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
17 Feb 2021
Education
Certainly—for a quick intervention.
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
17 Feb 2021
Education
As we come to the end of the parliamentary session, it is worth reflecting—as Willie Rennie did—on what the Parliament said about such issues at the start of the session. Then, the Government was going to reorganise the governance of school education in its flagship education ...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
On the point about the relationship between affordability and the ability to continue to provide services, I hear what the cabinet secretary says and I realise that affordability of contributions is covered in other amendments, but the very specific point about the capacity to...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
In evidence, we heard a great deal about contributions and the concerns of charities that wish to contribute. They recognise their moral obligation to contribute but fear that they would not be able to do so given the size of contribution required of them, because it is not cl...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
10 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I will address some of the issues that have been raised—in particular, some of the cabinet secretary’s points. He spoke about the consultation that happened during preparation of the bill and pointed out that the survivors who responded to that want the organisations that were...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Committee
10 Feb 2021
Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I will speak to amendment 1 and the other amendments in my name. It is appropriate that the group on the waiver is the first to be debated, because it goes to the heart of the bill’s purpose. As we know, the redress scheme is the final stage in a very long process of recognisi...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
10 Feb 2021
Covid-19 (Local Newspapers)
Does the minister understand that, if we look at local newspapers simply as local businesses, the fact that they have been specifically excluded from support that has been extended to other businesses must make them feel as though the Government has something against them?
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
10 Feb 2021
Covid-19 (Local Newspapers)
The debate has been short but interesting. Graham Simpson opened it by saying that he remembers when local newspapers were the lifeblood of the local community, and he painted quite a bleak picture of the current circumstances. In fact, it was so bleak that John Mason was prov...
Iain Gray Lab Chamber
10 Feb 2021
First Minister’s Question Time · Covid-19 (Travel to Vaccination Hubs)
People understand how big a challenge the programme is. They appreciate the efforts of those who are delivering it, and they are willing to go to great lengths to be vaccinated, but the lengths that they are being asked to go to are rather more than the First Minister appears ...
7. Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab Chamber
10 Feb 2021
First Minister’s Question Time · Covid-19 (Travel to Vaccination Hubs)
To ask the First Minister how far people should be expected to travel to attend a vaccination appointment at a Covid-19 vaccination hub. (S5F-04800)
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Additional Support for Learning Review
I just find it very difficult to accept that the cabinet secretary feels that it is okay for less than 1 per cent of children with additional support needs to have access to the rights that were placed in law. He referred to the gap between rhetoric and reality. I am sure that...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Additional Support for Learning Review
It has been almost two years since you said that you would review co-ordinated support plans—that was in May 2019. Today, you have said that the short-term working group has met. In terms of looking at the role of co-ordinated support plans and trying to explain why there are ...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Additional Support for Learning Review
I do not want to be mixed up here. For the sake of absolute clarity, is the cabinet secretary seriously suggesting that more than 99 per cent of children with additional support needs do not have co-ordinated support plans because the support that they need is in place through...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Additional Support for Learning Review
I would like to go back to Ross Greer’s line of questioning about co-ordinated support plans. As he pointed out, that is the only plan that a family of a child with additional support needs can have that has statutory force, and it is the only plan that allows a family to go t...
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Coronavirus and Education
Thank you.
Iain Gray Lab Committee
03 Feb 2021
Coronavirus and Education
I appreciate that you might not have this number to hand, but maybe you could write to tell me how many interactive one-to-one tutoring partnerships have been set up with pupils through the national scheme.
← Back to list
Committee

Education and Skills Committee 24 March 2021

24 Mar 2021 · S5 · Education and Skills Committee
Item of business
Coronavirus and Education
Gray, Iain Lab East Lothian Watch on SPTV
It is a follow-up question from Ross Greer’s line of questioning. The cabinet secretary said in his introductory remarks that he believes that the alternative certification model will not impose a significant additional burden on schools, but I think that we have all heard, if only anecdotally, teachers saying that the model that is being pursued is imposing or will impose an enormous burden on them between now and June in order to complete courses, complete and mark assessments and make the required assessments for the SQA. The cabinet secretary said that he has spoken to 1,000 teachers in the past couple of weeks. Did none of them feel that a burden was being placed on them by the alternative model that the SQA has developed?

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
Agenda item 4 is an evidence session on coronavirus and education. We have a strict time limit for this item. I remind members that we want to be clear of it...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (John Swinney) SNP
Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to take part in the committee’s proceedings this morning. As the convener indicated, I will be doing so for t...
The Convener SNP
Thank you, Mr Swinney. We move to questions from the committee. I remind members that, if they wish to ask a question, they should type R in the chat function.
Jamie Greene (West Scotland) (Con) Con
Good morning. I apologise in advance for not staying to the end of the committee session. I open with the back-to-school plans. Specifically, does the Gover...
John Swinney SNP
The fundamental point that I think that Jamie Greene is looking for me to confirm is that a return to full-time face-to-face schooling in the secondary secto...
Jamie Greene Con
I understand that. It sounded as though there was a yes in there. Before I ask my other question, I will push you on something that you said towards the tail...
John Swinney SNP
Certainly in relation to the primary sector, I am proceeding on the assumption—although I am not sure that “assumption” is the right word—or on the foundatio...
Jamie Greene Con
I understand. I am sorry to push the issue—this was not my intended line of questioning, but your answer has expanded on it—but you said that you will wait a...
John Swinney SNP
The sub-group from which I take a great deal of advice on those questions will meet again on 6 April, so I do not want Mr Greene to leave the conversation th...
Jamie Greene Con
Thank you for that—that is very helpful. If it is okay, convener, I will ask one substantial question and then leave others to pick up the questioning.
The Convener SNP
I have a number of members who want to come in. If there is time at the end, I will bring you back in, but I will move on, if you do not mind. I call Daniel ...
Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Lab
In a sense, my questions follow on from those from Jamie Greene, who asked about the coming academic term. I am interested in the medium to longer term. For...
John Swinney SNP
In answering Mr Johnson’s question, I go back to the position that prevailed last August. Between last August and December, by and large, we managed to susta...
Daniel Johnson Lab
Thank you. That gives us a sense of the broad outlook, which would need to be underpinned by guidance and, I presume, a broader set of strategies for dealing...
John Swinney SNP
I am glad that Mr Johnson has raised the issue, and I am glad that he used the term “catch-up”, because it allows me to air the issue. We have to open up and...
Daniel Johnson Lab
I have one final question.
The Convener SNP
Is the question in the same area, Mr Johnson?
Daniel Johnson Lab
It is about the consequences for the coming academic year.
The Convener SNP
If it is in the same area, please go ahead, but be brief. If it is not, I will bring you in at the end, once other members have had a chance to come in.
Daniel Johnson Lab
Critically, there needs to be guidance for the coming academic year that takes account of the risk of new variants that could supersede or overcome protectio...
John Swinney SNP
Health colleagues and the Government more widely are monitoring closely all the information about possible new variants, which is very material to the contro...
Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green) Green
I will follow up on the line of questioning about what the near future will look like—the term from August onwards. Outwith a very small number of children a...
John Swinney SNP
That is my expectation, yes. Mr Greer has pursued that issue vigorously. The asymptomatic testing programme has been a welcome development and there has been...
Ross Greer Green
That is excellent to hear. I thank the Government for introducing the programme. This is not my main line of questioning, but are the numbers on participatio...
John Swinney SNP
I am now looking at a folder, but a number is not leaping out at me yet. I will write to the committee about the numbers. As I said in my opening remarks, in...
Ross Greer Green
Excellent. Thanks very much. I—
The Convener SNP
Mr Greer, in fairness to other members, if possible, can you ask a line of questions as one question? If we do not cover everything, I will bring you in agai...
Ross Greer Green
I entirely appreciate that, convener. I will ask one slightly elongated question. The committee recently heard from the Children and Young People’s Commissi...
John Swinney SNP
There are two dimensions to that question. The first is about the SQA’s engagement with young people in the determination of the policy and practical approac...
Beatrice Wishart (Shetland Islands) (LD) LD
I align myself with the cabinet secretary’s comments in his opening remarks in thanking pupils, parents and teaching and support staff for all that they have...