Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-03555

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the value of the science centre network to delivering the (a) educational, (b) lifelong learning, (c) economic and (d) tourism aspects of the Executive's agenda.

The Executive recognisesthat science centres are valuable assets in helping to create a moreenterprising, pro-science country. The direct benefits of science centres are,however, very difficult to measure objectively. A study conducted in November2002 by HM Inspectors of Education concluded that, overall, the serviceprovided by the centres was greatly valued by schools, especially primaryschools; but it also concluded that there was variation in the quality of theservice and that there was for scope for improvement in many areas. Otherpossible impacts of science centres have not been assessed systematically.

Question reference: S2W-03554

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what support is planned for Scotland's science and discovery centre network following the closure of the Big Idea.

Ministers have agreed tocommission a study to consider options for the possible future support ofscience centres in Scotland. Ministers will consider the findings of the studyin the New Year. In the meantime, Dynamic Earth has accepted an offer of grantfrom the Scottish Executive of £500,000 in order to permit its continuedoperation. The Executive is also working with the Millennium Commission toensure that the assets at the Big Idea are retained for possible future use.

Question reference: S2W-03553

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when Her Majesty's Government's review of its policies on science and discovery centres will be concluded and how this review might impact on Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-03646

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the breakage costs associated with any redemption of residual debt resulting from the transfer of local authority housing stock were in (a) Scottish Borders Council, (b) Dumfries and Galloway Council and (c) Glasgow City Council and what the estimated servicing costs of any such residual debt in each local authority will be in each of the next three years, in each case specifying which costs were or will be met by (i) HM Treasury and (ii) the Executive.

Question reference: S2W-03645

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what housing debt remained after the transfer of local authority housing stock in (a) Scottish Borders Council, (b) Dumfries and Galloway Council and (c) Glasgow City Council and what proportion of such housing debt has subsequently been redeemed in each local authority, in each case specifying which costs were met by (i) HM Treasury and (ii) the Executive.

Details of the debt andbreakage costs associated with the three housing transfers is set out in thefollowing table. HM Treasury provided the resources to redeem all residualPublic Works Loan Board housing debt and breakage costs on the date oftransfer, where these could not be met from the transfer receipt. No debt associatedwith the transferred stock remains to be serviced by councils.

Council	Debt (PWLB/Private) (£ million)	Breakage Costs (£ million)	Receipt (£ million)	Exchequer Grant to Meet Residual PWLB Debt/Breakage (£ million)
Scottish Borders	66.07	16.37	23.34	59.10
Dumfries and Galloway	90.57	18.28	32.79	76.06
Glasgow	909.1	221.0	25.0	1105.1

Question reference: S2W-03762

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 13 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects local authorities to work in partnership with the voluntary sector in the provision of child care.

The ChildcareStrategy aims to provide accessible, affordable, quality child care to supportfamilies. The strategy is part of theintegrated agenda for the delivery of children's services to which child careand child care provision makes an important contribution. Under guidance issued in October 1998,local authorities were advised that ministers wished them to establish arepresentative body, or child care partnership, covering the range of child careinterests including the voluntary sector in their areas. Local authorities work in conjunction with providersthrough such local contacts and their views are taken into account in theprovision of services to meet the aims of the child care strategy.

The Standards in Scotland’sSchools etc Act 2000, which came into force in April 2002, placed a duty onauthorities to secure a pre-school education place for all eligible children.The duty allows local authorities to secure pre-school education from voluntaryor private partner providers within the sector and every local authority in Scotlandcommission’s pre-school education places from partners. In July of this year Ilaunched fresh guidance to local authorities on commissioning pre-school educationpartners. This was in recognition of the importance of partnership arrangementsin delivering pre-school education.

Question reference: S2W-03761

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 13 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has made available for the provision of child care in the current financial year and what proportion of this funding is ring-fenced, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Executive’s Childcare Strategy aims to provide accessible, affordable, goodquality child care for children in all neighbourhoods. To meet the aims of thestrategy at a local level, the Executive allocates funding to local authoritiesthrough a number of grants. The following tables show allocations for eachlocal authority area in the current year.

Childcare Strategy fundingof £19.25 million in the current financial year has been allocated to localauthorities who, with their child care partnerships, determine how best to meetlocal child care needs. The following table shows the breakdown by localauthority area. The funding is allocated as a portion of local authority grantaided expenditure (GAE) and is not ring fenced.

Childcare Strategy

2003-04	Project Support	Infrastructure	Total (£000)
Aberdeen City	338	200	538
Aberdeenshire	646	259	905
Angus	226	134	360
Argyll and Bute	204	118	323
Clackmannanshire	58	86	144
Dumfries and Galloway	400	168	568
Dundee City	267	158	425
East Ayrshire	218	150	368
East Dunbartonshire	106	141	247
East Lothian	137	127	264
East Renfrewshire	89	128	217
Edinburgh, City of	1,121	378	1,500
Eilean Siar	93	62	155
Falkirk	226	171	397
Fife	918	356	1,274
Glasgow City	3,710	530	4,241
Highland	647	228	876
Inverclyde	119	114	234
Midlothian	108	118	226
Moray	165	121	286
North Ayrshire	273	165	438
North Lanarkshire	898	342	1,240
Orkney Islands	61	57	118
Perth and Kinross	258	157	443
Renfrewshire	337	194	531
Scottish Borders	238	133	371
Shetland Islands	79	62	141
South Ayrshire	181	133	314
South Lanarkshire	769	315	1,083
Stirling	147	116	263
West Dunbartonshire	158	125	283
West Lothian	278	202	480
Scotland	13,500	5,750	19,250

A total of £3.6 million has been allocated to local authorities in the current financial year, to continue to drive forward the agenda on child care workforce development. This funding is ring fenced. The following table shows the breakdown by local authority area.

Childcare Strategy

Workforce Development 2003-04

Council	2003-04 Allocation (£)
Aberdeen City	136,369
Aberdeenshire	166,162
Angus	80,446
Argyll and Bute	62,289
Clackmannanshire	42,987
Dumfries and Galloway	102,265
Dundee City	100,095
East Ayrshire	89,953
East Dunbartonshire	77,877
East Lothian	68,946
East Renfrewshire	68,814
Edinburgh, City of	265,165
Eilean Siar	27,648
Falkirk	102,578
Fife	236,445
Glasgow City	397,816
Highland	148,591
Inverclyde	66,585
Midlothian	63,083
Moray	68,169
North Ayrshire	102,526
North Lanarkshire	230,409
Orkney Islands	23,026
Perth and Kinross	92,627
Renfrewshire	127,881
Scottish Borders	75,412
Shetland Islands	26,726
South Ayrshire	79,368
South Lanarkshire	212,574
Stirling	62,882
West Dunbartonshire	75,693
West Lothian	118,593
Scotland	3,600,000

The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000, which came into force in April2002, placed a new duty on authorities to secure a pre-school education placefor all eligible children. In recognition of the cost of meeting this new duty,pre-school education resources totalling £137 million were transferred andsubsumed within the GAE settlement from 2002-03.

The following table lists the calculated allocation of pre-school education grant for the 32 authorities, based on the recommendations of the pre-school re-integration working group. It should be noted, however, that the allocations shown, like all GAE allocations, are not spending targets but simply a method for calculating councils’ relative spending needs. It is up to councils themselves to decide how they wish to prioritise their spending on individual services.

Pre-school Education Grant Distribution for 2003-04

Authority	Pre-school Education	Rural Grant	Total (£) (rounded)
Aberdeen City	4,824,416	-	4,824,000
Aberdeenshire	5,879,471	1,381,418	7,261,000
Angus	2,755,502	379,218	3,135,000
Argyll and Bute	2,178,769	441,344	2,620,000
Clackmannanshire	1,350,287	-	1,350,000
Dumfries and Galloway	3,636,621	848,165	4,485,000
Dundee City	3,751,052	-	3,751,000
East Ayrshire	3,075,909	-	3,076,000
East Dunbartonshire	2,892,819	-	2,893,000
East Lothian	2,457,981	-	2,458,000
East Renfrewshire	2,567,835	-	2,568,000
Edinburgh, City of	10,301,090	-	10,301,000
Eilean Siar	574,444	261,383	836,000
Falkirk	3,796,825	-	3,797,000
Fife	9,041,059	-	9,041,000
Glasgow City	14,635,741	-	14,636,000
Highland	5,556,776	1,236,717	6,793,000
Inverclyde	2,119,265	-	2,119,000
Midlothian	2,149,017	-	2,149,000
Moray	2,407,631	317,924	2,726,000
North Ayrshire	3,574,828	-	3,575,000
North Lanarkshire	8,895,876	-	8,896,000
Orkney	498,920	188,433	687,000
Perth and Kinross	3,378,007	501,462	3,879,000
Renfrewshire	4,536,050	-	4,536,000
Scottish Borders	2,627,339	518,947	3,146,000
Shetland	620,217	264,692	885,000
South Ayrshire	2,682,266	-	2,682,000
South Lanarkshire	8,017,045	-	8,017,000
Stirling	2,350,415	247,714	2,598,000
West Dunbartonshire	2,618,184	-	2,618,000
West Lothian	4,661,924	-	4,662,000
Scotland	130,413,581	6,587,419	137,000,000

Question reference: S2O-00724

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 13 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last communicated with Dumfries and Galloway Council regarding its public private partnership proposals for rebuilding and refurbishing its school estate.

Question reference: S2W-03760

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the prescription of stoma appliances is currently under review and, if so, what aspects of the provision of such appliances are being reviewed and what options are under consideration.

Question reference: S2W-03391

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 7 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided to develop the creative industry cluster in each year since 2001; where these funds have been invested, and what outcomes have been achieved.