Mr Marra highlights an issue that I note has received press coverage in today’s The Courier . I have asked my officials to engage substantively with Dundee City Council.

I remind Mr Marra of local authorities’ statutory responsibilities with regard to the delivery of education. As I intimated in my original response, Dundee City Council will receive an extra £5.1 million as a result of the Government’s investment through the budget, which will help the council to increase teacher numbers to alleviate the challenges that he rightly raises today.

It is thanks to that Scottish Government investment that we have the highest-paid classroom teachers, the lowest pupil to teacher ratio and the highest school spending per pupil across these islands. It remains deeply politically incoherent that Mr Marra and his party voted to abstain on further investment in Scotland’s classrooms, where we know and agree that it is needed most.