- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish GDP would currently be had it increased at the same rate as the UK average since 1997.
Answer
Based on the latest data available from the Office for National Statistics for the value of ScottishGross Value Added (GVA), if Scottish growth had matched the UK average(excluding extra-regio) between 1997 and 2001, the estimated level of ScottishGVA in 2001 would have been £73.4 billion.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3412 by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2003, what the procedures are in the Glasgow fingerprint bureau.
Answer
The procedures, which areISO9001:2000 accredited, referred to in the Glasgow Bureau on quality managementprocedures. These are contained in: the quality assurance manual; the processand procedures manual; local work instructions and forms and records
The procedures relate to allthe processes involved in the identification systems and control servicessupplied by the Scottish Fingerprint Service Glasgow bureau to the criminal justicesystem.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there have been any issues regarding the payment of NHS student bursaries to recipients and, if so, what these issues were and what actions were taken to resolve them.
Answer
There was an issue with theNovember NHS student nurse bursary payments being paid four days later thanplanned. The problem arose as a result of us processing an unusually largevolume of transactions through our central payment system. Once we discoveredthe problem, we took urgent steps to accelerate the processing of thebursaries. We have reviewed procedures to minimise the risk of anyreoccurrence.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the additional value, compared with the actual value, of Scottish GDP would be had its GDP grown at the same rate as the UK average since 1999.
Answer
Based on the latest data available from the Office for National Statistics for the value of Scottish grossvalue added (GVA), if Scottish growth had matched the UK average(excluding extra-regio) between 1999 and 2001, the level of GVA in 2001 wouldhave been £1.5 billion higher than the actual estimate of £69.2 billion.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on increasing the income threshold at which students repay their graduate endowment/student loan.
Answer
The partnership agreementcontains a commitment to support a higher threshold for the repayment ofstudent loans across the UK. There is no income threshold for paying the graduateendowment although graduates can meet their liability by adding the amount totheir student loan account.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3412 by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2003, when, and by whom, the fingerprint experts in the Glasgow fingerprint bureau have been subject to external annual competency testing and what the criterion is for such testing.
Answer
The fingerprint experts inthe Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) Glasgow Bureau have been subject toannual external competency testing since 2001. It is mandatory for all fingerprintexperts in the SFS Glasgow bureau to undertake the competency testing annually.
The tests are conducted by collaborativetesting service, a USA-based forensic testing service.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3412 by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2003, when the Glasgow fingerprint bureau was certified as competent to the ISO 9001: 2000 standard.
Answer
The Scottish FingerprintService Glasgow Bureau was certified to ISO9000 in December 2000. The ISOstandard was upgraded to ISO9001:2000 in 2002 and the Glasgow Bureau wasaccredited to ISO9001:2000 in December 2002.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated expenditure required to achieve its performance targets for reducing class si'es is, in each of the next three years, and how much of this expenditure has been allocated, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) primary and secondary education target.
Answer
Funding of £29 million and £49million for 2004-05 and 2005-06 respectively was included in the draft ScottishBudget published on 16 September 2003 for additional teachers and the Spark project.Funding for future years will be agreed in the forthcoming spending review. Existingfunding has yet to be allocated to local authorities, since employment costswill not arise until new teachers have been trained and are fully qualified.Even once allocations are agreed with local authorities, a precise splitbetween primary and secondary costs may not be possible, since one of the aimsof the overall partnership commitment on teacher numbers is to break downbarriers between primary and secondary teaching.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to announce the outcome of the review of the area tourist board network.
Answer
The ministerial group on tourismhas been taking an in-depth look at the current state of Scottish tourism includingthe overall public expenditure on tourism and related services. The area touristboard review is being considered in the context of these wider issues. I, andmy ministerial colleagues, are taking the time to get the right supportstructure, so we can achieve our long-term vision for Scottish tourism. It is hopedthat an announcement on the outcomes will be made in the near future.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what targets it has set for class si'es and what its performance against such targets has been to date.
Answer
The partnership agreementfor a Better Scotland (PABS) contains a commitment significantly to increaseteacher numbers to 53,000 by 2007. These additional teachers will be targetedon reducing class sizes to a maximum of 20 in S1/S2 for Maths and English, 25in P1 and increasing the number of visiting specialists working across theboundary between secondary and primary.
Asa start to training the additional teachers required funding was provided for200 additional places on the primary postgraduate certificate in educationcourse in session 2003-04.
Further substantialincreases in initial teacher education intakes in 2004-05 and subsequent yearswill be required to meet the PABS commitments. These are currently beingconsidered as part of the annual teacher workforce planning exercise which willculminate in guidance to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The councilexpect to announce target intakes to courses of initial teacher education inFebruary.
