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-09680

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 9 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average percentage is of the total budget costs of schools, including wages and infrastructure, of which headteachers in state secondary schools have discretion over the allocation.

Under Devolved School Management (DSM) arrangements, an education authority passes control of a proportion of a school's budget to the Headteacher through a detailed scheme which lays out clear spending requirements. Each local authority operates its own DSM Scheme, in accordance with guidance issued by the Scottish Executive. In 2004-05, councils are budgeting to allocate on average 78.3% of secondary education net expenditure to head teachers.

The total net secondary education expenditure for 2004-05 is estimated to be £1,581.9 million.

Question reference: S2W-09607

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 3 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many state secondary schools have become specialist schools since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-09608

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 3 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many schools it envisages will become specialist schools during the current session of the Parliament.

Question reference: S2W-09606

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 3 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a list of all specialist schools, detailing their area of expertise.

No central list is kept ofschools which may be designated by an education authority, or by the schoolitself, as “specialist”. However, the following local authority managed schoolsare in receipt of support funding, via the education authority, either on anannual basis through the specialist provision programme for Centres ofExcellence under the National Priorities Action Fund, or on a pilot basisthrough the Future Learning and Teaching programme, for the development ofaspects of specialist educational provision.

Centres of Excellencefunding Areaof specialism

Bellahouston Academy, Glasgow* Sport

Broughton High School, Edinburgh Music

Douglas Academy, Bearsden Music

Dyce Academy, Aberdeen* Music

Knightswood Secondary, Glasgow Dance

Plockton High School, Highland* Music

Shawlands Academy, Glasgow* Modern Languages

In addition, Centres ofExcellence funding supports the Fife Music Project* (musical excellenceprovision for a number of Fife schools), and the Partners in Excellence Project*,bringing enhanced modern language provision to schools across East Ayrshire,North Ayrshire and Argyll and Bute.

Future Learning andTeaching funding Areaof specialism

Braidhurst Academy, Motherwell* Sport

St Ambrose’s High School, Coatbridge* Music

St Margaret’s High School,Airdrie* Sport

St Maurice’s High School, Cumbernauld* Sport

*Specialism developed since1999.

Question reference: S2W-09406

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8798 by Peter Peacock on 18 June 2004, whether the figures for gross local authority expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 include capital expenditure.

Question reference: S2W-09407

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the capital education expenditure was per pupil in state (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in (i) 2002-03 and (ii) 2003-04.

Information collected on capital expenditure is not broken down into primary or secondary education. However, the total capital expenditure figure for primary and secondary education in Scotland in 2002-03 was £143.6 million. Using school roll data from the September 2002 school census, this represents capital educationexpenditure per pupil of around £197. Figures are not yet available for 2003-04.

Question reference: S2W-09424

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the combined total local authority and Executive expenditure is per pupil in state primary schools for (a) each local authority area and (b) Scotland as a whole in the current financial year.

Gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on primary education in 2002-03, the latest year for which figures are available, is given in the following table.

Executive expenditure on education is generally channelled through local authorities and is therefore included in the figures in the table.

Local Authority	£ Per Pupil
Aberdeen City	3,284
Aberdeenshire	3,160
Angus	2,787
Argyll and Bute	3,710
Clackmannanshire	2,936
Dumfries and Galloway	2,786
Dundee City	3,087
East Ayrshire	2,832
East Dunbartonshire	2,980
East Lothian	3,250
East Renfrewshire	3,217
Edinburgh City	3,214
Eilean Siar	5,814
Falkirk	2,905
Fife	2,966
Glasgow City	3,216
Highland	3,444
Inverclyde	2,963
Midlothian	3,143
Moray	2,923
North Ayrshire	3,271
North Lanarkshire	3,160
Orkney	4,984
Perth and Kinross	3,385
Renfrewshire	3,016
Scottish Borders	3,116
Shetland	5,337
South Ayrshire	3,416
South Lanarkshire	2,896
Stirling	2,932
West Dunbartonshire	3,176
West Lothian	2,991
Scotland	3,148

Source: LFR1 returns submitted to the Scottish Executive by Local Authorities and the Pupil Census September 2003.

Question reference: S2W-09436

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8798 by Peter Peacock on 18 June 2004, whether the figures for gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 include figures for additional sources of state funding available to schools, such as funds for IT projects and the promotion of sport and health.

The figures for gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 given in the answer to question S2W-8798 on 18 June 2004,represent expenditure, however financed, including additional state funding.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search.

Question reference: S2W-09277

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what specific targets it has set for schools since 1999.

Since 1999, the Executive has set out national targets for schools in its Programme for Government documents Making it Work Together and Working Together for Scotland, its spending proposals Making a Difference for Scotland and Building a Better Scotland and its partnership agreement A Partnership for a Better Scotland.

Specific performance measures have been developed, following extensive discussion with local authorities, to monitor and evaluate delivery of the National Priorities in Education through the School Improvement Framework, introduced under the Standards in Scotland’s School etc. Act 2000. Local authorities and schools publish an annual report on progress towards meeting targets and delivering the National Priorities in Education. The full set of performance measures and quality indicators can be found in The National Priorities in Education Performance Report 2003, available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30161).

Question reference: S2W-09274

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children leave primary school in the state sector having attained the required level of competency in (a) arithmetic, (b) reading and (c) writing.

The information requested can be found in Table 6 of the Statistical Publication Notice 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2002/03 (by June 2003) published by the Scottish Executive on 9 December 2003. Most pupils are expected to attain at least Level D of the 5-14 attainment levels by the end of P7. Copies of the above publication are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30289).