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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 670 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S1W-05365

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4751 by Peter Peacock on 10 March 2000, to specify the range of subjects in which local authorities have reported difficulties in maintaining teacher supply cover.

Question reference: S1W-05363

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 29 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will (a) provide details on the progress of implementation of Higher Still and (b) invite the Scottish Qualifications Authority to publish, at the end of the current academic year, an assessment of the first year of Higher Still including an account of any problems identified or reported and the action proposed to deal with such problems.

Around 80% of Highers being taught this year are new Highers. Although teachers were given the option to introduce selected Higher courses from next year, around 5,000 courses at Intermediate and Access levels have been introduced voluntarily by schools. HMI observations indicate that teachers are generally implementing Higher Still effectively.

The inevitable difficulties of change are being dealt with by the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Higher Still Development Unit, who have also taken steps to ensure that pupils will not be disadvantaged.

Henry McLeish and I have decided that the Scottish Executive will, as is the practice with all developments, review the first year of implementation of Higher Still and publish the results in the autumn.

Question reference: S1W-05127

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 22 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money for modern language teaching in primary schools, by local authority area, was (a) allocated for each of the years 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000, (b) spent for each of these years and (c) will be allocated for 2000-01.

Support for teaching costs in local authorities forms part of the unhypothecated local government settlement and is not identified centrally. Additional funding is available to train primary teachers to teach modern foreign languages. The tables below show the funding allocated to local authorities following their nomination of teachers to undertake this training. Final allocations for 2000-01 are not yet decided.

1997-98

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	175
Aberdeenshire	215
Angus	115
Argyll & Bute	95
Clackmannanshire	44
Dumfries and Galloway	114
Dundee City	101*
East Ayrshire	57
East Dunbartonshire	55
East Lothian	81
East Renfrewshire	75
Edinburgh, City of	150
Falkirk	86
Fife	242
Glasgow, City of	311
Highland	307
Inverclyde	47
Midlothian	70
Moray	102
North Ayrshire	77
North Lanarkshire	172
Orkney Islands	45
Perth and Kinross	181
Renfrewshire	62
Scottish Borders	109
Shetland Islands	81
South Ayrshire	74
South Lanarkshire	140
Stirling	80
West Dunbartonshire	58
West Lothian	70
Western Isles	83

1998-99

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	153
Aberdeenshire	247
Angus	104
Argyll & Bute	97
Clackmannanshire	26
Dumfries and Galloway	99
Dundee City	92
East Ayrshire	57
East Dunbartonshire	110
East Lothian	89
East Renfrewshire	99
Edinburgh, City of	151
Falkirk	82
Fife	219
Glasgow, City of	27
Highland	293
Inverclyde	35
Midlothian	72
Moray	108
North Ayrshire	68
North Lanarkshire	81
Orkney Islands	53
Perth and Kinross	208
Renfrewshire	65
Scottish Borders	101
Shetland Islands	106
South Ayrshire	61
South Lanarkshire	149
Stirling	70
West Dunbartonshire	29
West Lothian	76
Western Isles	29

1999-2000

Local Authority	Actual Paid
	£,000
Aberdeen City	98
Aberdeenshire	122
Angus	54
Argyll & Bute	51
Clackmannanshire	20
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Dundee City	88
East Ayrshire	34
East Dunbartonshire	49
East Lothian	37
East Renfrewshire	49
Edinburgh, City of	115
Falkirk	34
Fife	68
Glasgow, City of	98
Highland	147
Inverclyde	15
Midlothian	39
Moray	49
North Ayrshire	29
North Lanarkshire	88
Orkney Islands	66
Perth and Kinross	83
Renfrewshire	32
Scottish Borders	44
Shetland Islands	29
South Ayrshire	19
South Lanarkshire	110
Stirling	29
West Dunbartonshire	10
West Lothian	34
Western Isles	18

Question reference: S1W-03981

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 23 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty's Government regarding the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act to education, as recommended by the Disability Rights Taskforce.

Question reference: S1W-04233

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 22 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the amount payable to Scottish teachers towards the purchase of a personal computer from #200 to the maximum of #500 available to teachers in England.

Question reference: S1W-04230

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 22 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an estimate of the total cost of teachers' salaries on a local authority by local authority basis.

Teachers' pay and conditions are a matter for local authorities and we do not hold this information centrally. The latest available information on gross expenditure on employee costs for teachers is for 1997-98 and is set out in the table below.1997-98 Gross Revenue Expenditure on Employee Costs: Teachers (£000s)

	Salary	Superannuation	National Insurance	Allowances & other costs¹	Total All
Scotland	1,223,212	86,434	93,308	23,305	1,426,259
Aberdeen City	45,281	3,031	3,424	763	52,499
Aberdeenshire	58,654	3,944	4,461	509	67,568
Angus	26,637	1,895	2,037	589	31,158
Argyll & Bute	23,450	1,626	1,828	220	27,124
Clackmannanshire	11,376	1,037	867	139	13,419
Dumfries & Galloway	36,987	2,695	2,827	570	43,079
Dundee City	37,082	3,075	2,876	404	43,437
East Ayrshire	30,689	2,061	2,360	129	35,239
East Dunbartonshire	27,981	1,888	2,121	123	32,113
East Lothian	18,921	1,329	1,445	454	22,149
East Renfrewshire	22,231	1,904	1,719	6	25,860
Edinburgh, City of	79,529	5,592	5,974	1,719	92,814
Eilean Siar	10,928	737	790	490	12,945
Falkirk	32,217	2,156	2,265	1,082	37,720
Fife	87,082	5,940	6,673	2,034	101,729
Glasgow City	132,180	8,978	10,162	4,056	155,376
Highland	59,484	4,218	4,726	545	68,973
Inverclyde	21,588	1,491	1,645	255	24,979
Midlothian	20,860	1,461	1,579	294	24,194
Moray	22,445	1,534	1,726	418	26,123
North Ayrshire	33,893	2,292	2,624	330	39,139
North Lanarkshire	85,853	6,597	6,640	181	99,271
Orkney Islands	7,001	492	529	247	8,269
Perth & Kinross	30,385	2,126	2,314	542	35,367
Renfrewshire	42,736	2,776	2,924	901	49,337
Scottish Borders	25,540	1,777	1,969	706	29,992
Shetland Islands	9,657	899	779	754	12,089
South Ayrshire	27,163	1,843	2,072	34	31,112
South Lanarkshire	72,804	5,306	5,634	3,555	87,299
Stirling	20,083	1,394	1,541	526	23,544
West Dunbartonshire	24,692	1,687	1,899	188	28,466
West Lothian	37,803	2,653	2,878	542	43,876

Source: As reported by Councils on Local Finance Returns (LFR1 Education).

Notes:

1. Includes relocation, interview and training expenses, advertising, severance payments, Pensions Increase Act, transfer values for unfunded schemes and employee related insurances.

Question reference: S1W-04231

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 18 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to distribute the #41.783 million in the excellence fund which has not yet been allocated to local authorities.

£28.333 million is being distributed through the programmes noted in the following table :-

Undistributed Excellence Fund	Amount (millions)
Reducing Class Sizes	£15.6
New Community Schools	8.0
Specialist Provision	4.733

Most of this funding has already been allocated and authorities have been advised about the procedures for claiming the rest.Authorities will be advised about the balance of funding, £13.45 million, in due course and following the report of the McCrone Committee.

Question reference: S1W-03979

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to give its response to the recent consultation on regulation of early education and childcare.

Question reference: S1W-03944

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 17 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3276 by Mr Jack McConnell on 21 January 2000, whether it will quantify the estimated end year flexibility within the Education, Culture and Sport budget and specify what it has been allocated to.

Question reference: S1W-03982

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 February 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what is the membership, remit and timescale for reporting of the proposed National Planning forum to oversee the development of a national strategy on parental involvement in schools education.

The remit of the group is:

To advise and assist the development of strategies in schools and education authorities designed to improve effective involvement of parents through:

understanding and assisting their children's learning;

addressing parental information needs at individual, school and authority level;

responding to parents - including complaints procedures and advice services;

seeking parental views on relevant issues.

The group will be made up of representatives from the Scottish School Boards Association, Scottish Parent Teacher Council, Scottish Consumer Council and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland. It will advise Ministers at regular intervals as necessary, and therefore does not have a fixed timescale for reporting.