Chamber and committees

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-16288 answered on 12 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

In January 2005 the ratio ofnursery teachers to children in local authority pre-school education centreswas 1:37. In private pre-school education centres the ratio was 1:69.

These figures are taken fromthe Pre-school and Childcare Census 2005. The definition of nursery teachers usedis “staff delivering pre-school education who are registered with The GeneralTeaching Council for Scotland”.

The ratio represents theratio of teachers to children registered at the centre – it does not representnumbers of teachers working with children at any one time.

Scottish Development International does not keep records of how many jobs are created by individual inward investors in a given year. The published figures reflect the number of jobs which a company plans to create or safeguard at the time its decision to invest in Scotland was made. The published figures refer only to projects in which Scottish Development International and its partners can claim to have had a significant involvement in ensuring that the project takes place in Scotland. The following figures relate to projects where a company has made a decision to invest or expand and where the main activity of the project is manufacturing. Not all jobs created by a manufacturing project are necessarily manufacturing jobs.

Year	Planned New Jobs Associated With Manufacturing Projects
	Scotland	Borders	East Lothian
1996-97	7,673	0	0
1997-98	3,749	65	0
1998-99	4,380	35	0
1999-2000	5,901	90	0
2000-01	4,546	135	0
2001-02	1,235	0	0
2002-03	1,512	0	0
2003-04	536	16	0

 

The broad information requested is available since 1998-9, but only since 2002 by the management categories specified. Prior to 1998 many pre-school education providers were excluded from the school census and therefore data from those years are not comparable to the data presented here.

Year	3 year olds	4 year olds	3 & 4 years olds	% in LA	% voluntary	% private	% other
2005	41,392	50,909	92,301	70	10	18	1
2004	44,459	54,355	98,841	70	11	18	1
2003	45,046	55,608	100,654	71	11	17	1
2002	41,186	54,068	95,254	73	11	15	1
2001	39,107	56,541	95,648	73	27
1999-2000	28,406	57,326	85,732	75	26
1998-99	22,220	54,240	76,460	79	21

There is no official poverty line as poverty is a multi-dimensional concept which relates to more than just income alone.

The Households Below Average Income series reports numbers of households below various relative and absolute low income thresholds, both before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC). The main thresholds reported are 60% of the median of the relevant household income (BHC or AHC) for GB. The relative threshold is 60% of median GB income in the current year; the absolute threshold is 60% of median GB income in 1996/7, up rated to remove the effects of inflation. The thresholds are based on equivalised income (see below), and therefore the monetary value of the thresholds varies according to the composition of the household. The following table presents the monetary values of these main thresholds for a selection of household types.

Table: Monetary values of the 60% median low income thresholds- after housing costs (AHC) and before housing costs (BHC)

£ per annum unequivalised 2003-04 prices

	Relative	Absolute
	60% Median AHC	60% Median BHC	60% Median AHC	60% Median BHC
Couple no children	9,300	10,500	7,500	8,900
Couple 2 children aged 5 and 11	13,600	15,300	11,000	13,000
Single person	5,100	6,400	4,100	5,400
Single with 2 children aged 5 and 11	9,500	11,200	7,600	9,500

Source: Family Resources Survey 2003-04.

Note:1. The relative threshold compares against median income in the same year. The absolute threshold compares against median income in the baseline year, 1996-97, up rated to remove the effects of inflation.

In order to allow comparisons of living standards between different household types, income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and composition of the household in a process known as equivalisation. Further information can be found about equivalisation in the Department for Work and Pensions Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994-95-2003-04 publication http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/hbai/hbai2004/contents.asp.

Values for other household types can be calculated using the equivalence scales variants which are set out in Appendix 2 of DWP’s publication:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/hbai/hbai2004/pdf_files/appendices/appendix_2_hbai05.pdf.

The information requested is not available.

The official source of low income data for Scotland is the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset which is derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS).

The FRS is an annual survey run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).Only annual statistics relating to families living in relative poverty are therefore available.

The following link provides the latest low income headline figures for Scotland (2003/04), together with data for previous years, which was published on 30 March 2005:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/29170611/06123.

The filling of salaried dentist posts is a matter for NHS boards. The most up-to-date information on the number of posts filled is not held centrally but will be available from NHS boards.

The Scottish Executive does not fund the network of Direct Payments local authority lead officers.

The Scottish Executive collects snapshot data on the number of households in temporary accommodation as at the end of each quarter. Data on households with dependent children have been collected since March 2001. Data on households in temporary accommodation, including numbers of households with dependent children as a percentage of all households, are available on-line in the publications section of the housing statistics branch reference site:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.

Temporary accommodation provided under Section 29 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 is that which is used by local authorities when carrying out their duty to provide accommodation to people who apply as homeless while their applications are being assessed, until a final decision has been made on their application. This duty to provide accommodation continues during the process of review if one is requested. Where the authority’s decision is that it has a duty to provide permanent accommodation, the duty to provide temporary accommodation continues until the duty to provide permanent accommodation is discharged.

Temporary accommodation may also be provided under section 31 of the 1987 Act, where a household with children is assessed as being intentionally homeless. In these cases temporary accommodation must be provided for a period which gives the household a reasonable opportunity to secure their own accommodation.

Local authorities use different types of housing in order to provide temporary accommodation; such as furnished and unfurnished houses and flats, hostels and bed and breakfasts.

Scottish Executive Ministers and officials have met with UK Ministers on numerous occasions since 1999, details are not held centrally.