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: S4W-29996

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it provides to support student teachers.

Scottish domiciled student teachers, studying in Scotland, on both undergraduate and postgraduate teacher training courses, are eligible for help with their tuition fees and living-costs.

In addition to free tuition, our support package provides a minimum income of £7,625, through a combination of bursaries and loans, for eligible student teachers with a family income of less £17,000 (rising to £19,000 in academic year 2016-17). All Scottish domiciled students, irrespective of circumstances are eligible for a loan of up to £4,750 a year.

Scottish domiciled student teachers who choose to study in the rest of the UK are eligible for a tuition fee loan of up to £9,000 in addition to the above living-cost support.

Question reference: S4W-29995

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school teacher training places there have been in each year since 2007.

The information requested is already in the public domain. It is published annually by the Scottish Funding Council and can be viewed at the following links:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/01/2016&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2016&To=01/02/2016

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/04/2015&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2015&To=28/02/2015

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/03/2014&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2014&To=28/02/2014

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/02/2013&Type=Circulars&Sector=&From=01/01/2013&To=28/02/2013

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/Circulars/2012/SFC0312.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110411221734/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2011/SFC0111.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110411230019/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/CircularsSFC0510/sfc0510.pdf

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411231559/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2009/SFC1809.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411231556/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2009/SFC0809.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411234441/http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/CircularsSFC0808/sfc0808.pdf

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20081012001058/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2007/sfc4407/sfc4407.html

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20101011225710/http://www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2007/SFC1307.aspx

Question reference: S4W-29925

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the names of the special advisers in post; what their responsibilities are; what their pay bands are; how many special advisers there are in each pay band, and what the total salary cost of employing special advisers will be for 2015-16.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-26746 on 17 July 2015 that provided the total costs* of employing special advisers in 2014-15 which is the last complete year for which the information is available.

Special advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a special adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. With the resignation of Alexander Anderson on 31 December 2015, there are currently 13 special advisers. The special advisers and their specific responsibilities are as follows:

Name	Role	Appointed
Liz Lloyd	Chief of Staff to the First Minister including the co-ordination of the Special Adviser team Senior Special Adviser on the Constitution and Europe Responsible for the First Minister’s Strategic Programme in Government.	30 January 2012
Noel Dolan	Senior Special Adviser to the First Minister First Minister’s Questions Policy advice to the First Minister	26 May 2011
Stuart Nicolson	Head of Communications Senior Political Spokesperson for the First Minister	26 May 2011
Colin McAllister	Head of Policy and Special Adviser to the Deputy First Minister Senior Special Adviser for Finance and Local Government First Minister’s Questions Programme for Government	3 October 2012
Malcolm Fleming	Senior Special Adviser for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform and for International Development	25 July 2011
Campbell Gunn	Communications Special Adviser Deputy Spokesperson for the First Minister	8 July 2013

Name	Role	Appointed
Ross Ingebrigtsen	Communications Special Adviser Deputy Spokesperson for the First Minister Strategic communications planning	20 January 2014
John MacInnes	Political and Media Research Support for First Minister’s Questions Support to Communications Special Advisers	3 June 2011
Davie Hutchison	Special Adviser for Health, Wellbeing and Sport and for Broadcasting	8 June 2011
John McFarlane	Special Adviser for Justice and for Infrastructure, Investment and the Cities Lead on Parliamentary Business including liaison with the Parliamentary Group	26 May 2011
Jeanette Campbell	Special Adviser for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights and for Fair Work, Skills and Training	1 April 2015
Kate Higgins	Special Adviser for Education and Lifelong Learning	1 April 2015
Katy Bowman	Support for the First Minister and the First Minister’s Private Office. Outreach and stakeholder engagement. Special Adviser for Culture and External Affairs and policy support to the Chief of Staff.	13 July 2015

The special adviser pay bands and ranges and the number of special advisers within each pay band currently in place are:

Pay Band	Current Pay Range	Number of Special Advisers
1	£39,445 - £52,904	9
2	£51,041 - £67,709	1
3	£65,017 - £83,963	3
3 (premium)	£83,549 - £100,942	0
4	£86,965 - £104,462	0

*Total Costs include salary, ERNIC and employer pension contributions.

Question reference: S4W-29993

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers there have been in each year since 2007.

The following table shows the number of teachers registered by the General Teaching Council for Scotland as being on the teacher induction scheme recorded in post in a publicly funded school at the time of the annual teacher census.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Number of probationers

3,502

3,102

3,044

2,857

1,944

2,044

2,215

2,448

2,524

A small proportion of probationer teachers do not join the teacher induction scheme, preferring to follow the 'flexible route' but the Scottish Government does not gather data relating to them.

Question reference: S4W-30000

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils will sit Higher (a) physics, (c) biology, (c) chemistry and (d) computing in 2016 and how many have sat the exam in each year since 2007, broken down by gender.

Question reference: S4W-30266

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Marco Biagi on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains its position that the council tax is “totally unfair”, “discredited” and “oppressive”.

Question reference: S4W-30265

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Marco Biagi on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that additional revenues raised through the proposed council tax reforms will be “invested directly in schools".

Question reference: S4O-05635

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what future investment it has planned for Dumbarton Castle.

As I indicated in my response to Jackie Baillie's oral question on 8 December 2015, the functions relating to the care, conservation and management of Properties in the Care of Scottish Ministers, of which Dumbarton Castle is one, have been delegated to Historic Environment Scotland under the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014.

Historic Environment Scotland is developing plans to invest in Dumbarton Castle over the next five years.

Question reference: S4W-30057

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who attended the (a) Minor Injuries Unit and (b) Medical Assessment Unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital in each year since 2007 were resident in the hospital's catchment area.

Question reference: S4W-30058

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from the Vale of Leven Hospital catchment area have been treated at the (a) Vale of Leven, (b) Royal Alexandra and (c) Golden Jubilee Hospital in each year since 2007.