Education (Scotland) Act 2025

32 Review of accreditation function

(1) The Scottish Ministers must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the review period—

(a) undertake a review of the operation of the accreditation provisions,

(b) prepare a report on that review,

(c) publish the report and lay a copy of it before the Scottish Parliament.

(2) The report must, in particular, set out—

(a) an assessment of the scope of the accreditation function,

(b) an assessment of whether the accreditation function should remain a function of Qualifications Scotland,

(c) what steps (if any) the Scottish Ministers intend to take as a result of the findings of the review, including whether they intend to bring forward legislation in relation to the accreditation function.

(3) If the Scottish Ministers state in the report that they intend to bring forward legislation in relation to the accreditation function, they must—

(a) within 1 year of publication of the report, bring forward such legislation, or

(b) as soon as reasonably practicable following the expiry of that period, lay a statement before the Scottish Parliament setting out—

(i) whether they still intend to bring forward such legislation,

(ii) where they still intend to bring forward such legislation, their timescales for doing so,

(iii) where they no longer intend to bring forward such legislation, their reasons for that.

(4) The Scottish Ministers may delegate their functions under subsections (1)(a) and (b) to such person as they consider appropriate.

(5) When undertaking the review under subsection (1)(a), the Scottish Ministers (or, if applicable, the person to whom the review is delegated under subsection (4)) must consult—

(a) Qualifications Scotland, and

(b) such other persons as the Scottish Ministers (or, if applicable, the person to whom the review is delegated) consider appropriate.

(6) In this section—

• “accreditation function” means the function conferred by section 4(1),

• “accreditation provisions” means—

  (a)

  section 4,

  (b)

  section 24,

  (c)

  section 25,

  (d)

  paragraph 13 of schedule 1, and

  (e)

  paragraphs 10, 14 and 15 of schedule 1 insofar as they relate to the Accreditation Committee,

• “bringing forward legislation”, in relation to the accreditation provisions, means—

  (a)

  laying before the Scottish Parliament for approval by resolution a draft Scottish statutory instrument under Part 2 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 containing an order making provision in relation to the accreditation provisions, or

  (b)

  introducing a Bill to the Scottish Parliament which includes or consists of provision in relation to the accreditation provisions,

• “review period” means the period of 2 years beginning with the day on which the accreditation provisions come into force (or, if they come into force on different days, the day on which the last of them comes into force).