Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the numbers of teachers receiving modern languages in the primary school training. However, we do engage closely with interested parties, particularly through meetings of the COALA (Cultural Organisations and Local Authority Advisers) network, which brings together local authority quality improvement officers with a focus on modern languages and a range of other organisations. This gives us regular opportunities to hear directly about issues in relation to modern languages in primary schools, including training, and to discuss developments.

In addition the Scottish Government provides annual funding to Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, and British Council Scotland to help primary and secondary teachers engage fully with the expectations for modern languages within Curriculum for Excellence, one of which is that schools will offer a modern language beginning no later than primary six.

Ministers have had no correspondence or discussions with Argyll and Bute about the proposed closure of Castle Toward. I refer the member to the question to S3W-31095 on 4 February 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31088 on 4 February 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The implementation of Curriculum for Excellence will increasingly make different demands on Scotland''s teachers and it is timely that we consider whether our existing arrangements for teacher education and development are best suited to developing the flexible, creative, learner centred teachers we need in the longer term; that is why we have set up the Donaldson Review.

The out‘going Senior Chief Inspector of HMIE has been commissioned to conduct a wide ranging review of teacher education and development. The review will start later this month and report towards the end of the year.

The scope of the review will be wide - nothing has been ruled out. The Scottish Ministers will consider the review''s recommendations in due course.

Ministers meet regularly with Scottish Enterprise and other key agencies on strategic issues, to ensure that their activities and resources are focused on the matters likely to make the most significant contribution to delivering sustainable economic growth. However, the Scottish Government is not involved routinely in detailed matters connected to the funding or refocusing of specific interventions. These are matters for the agencies themselves to determine, taking account of this overarching purpose and the need to optimise the value derived from their spend.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the regulations governing changes to bus timetables.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the regulations governing changes to bus timetables.

We believe that the current legislation governing changes to bus timetables as administered by the Traffic Commissioner strikes the right balance between maintaining a stable network and allowing operators to adjust services to meet commercial needs. A strength of bus as a mode of transport is its ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances when compared to fixed route modes. We also welcome partnership working between operators and local authorities that leads to increased stability of networks.

Buses and trains work in very different operating environments. We believe that the current legislation governing changes to bus timetables as administered by the Traffic Commissioner strikes the right balance between maintaining a stable network and allowing operators to adjust services to meet commercial needs. The legislation governing rail timetable changes is necessarily less flexible given the limited capacity of the infrastructure and the number of train operators.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the regulations governing changes to bus timetables.