Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-40049

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 11 March 2011

The following table contains the number of teachers in full-time, temporary posts, from the September Teacher Census for the years 2006 to 2010. As data are not collected in April, teacher numbers in September from the previous calendar year should be used in each case as these relate to the same academic year.

Local Authority	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Aberdeen City	202	205	147	166	180
Aberdeenshire	212	228	245	272	275
Angus	89	99	89	111	138
Argyll and Bute	82	85	78	69	75
Clackmannanshire	39	67	67	82	51
Dumfries and Galloway	123	136	147	139	149
Dundee City	142	156	145	131	145
East Ayrshire	171	242	217	213	204
East Dunbartonshire	149	168	175	186	210
East Lothian	130	119	134	153	156
East Renfrewshire	188	176	160	200	216
Edinburgh City	389	295	385	406	410
Eilean Siar	12	33	22	34	34
Falkirk	180	180	192	179	214
Fife	366	423	397	373	455
Glasgow City	741	869	874	761	728
Highland	154	305	277	217	204
Inverclyde	121	129	105	102	82
Midlothian	120	120	105	106	89
Moray	91	87	90	83	81
North Ayrshire	200	190	201	155	196
North Lanarkshire	560	585	512	472	457
Orkney Islands	10	24	34	32	25
Perth and Kinross	126	163	141	154	190
Renfrewshire	215	251	266	213	238
Scottish Borders	76	137	152	116	117
Shetland Islands	23	28	30	35	36
South Ayrshire	130	147	114	118	156
South Lanarkshire	408	404	404	346	364
Stirling	122	106	87	130	140
West Dunbartonshire	179	183	187	139	117
West Lothian	212	275	296	279	345
Grant-Aided	6	10	8	15	9

Note: The data exclude pre-school teachers.

Question reference: S3W-39586

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has provided since May 2007 to supported employment providers to enable them to bid for public contracts.

The Scottish Government is taking action to remove barriers which prevent supported businesses, along with social enterprises and other third sector organisations, from accessing the public sector market. This includes (as part of general support for small and medium-sized enterprises and enterprising third sector organisations) giving supported businesses the guidance, training and skills they need to submit competitive bids for public sector business.

The Enterprising Third Sector Action Plan, published in June 2008, includes the provision of a wide range of support to help third sector and supported businesses to prepare competitive bids for public sector contracts. Since then, three phases of Tender Writing Training have occurred which have to date been attended by around 600 delegates from third sector groups. This has included a number of representatives from four supported businesses attending a variety of courses.

Question reference: S3W-39589

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what public contracts have been awarded to supported employment providers under Article 19 of the European Union Procurement Directive, broken down by (a) awarding body and (b) date.

Question reference: S3W-39588

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what public contracts have been awarded to supported employment providers since May 2007.

The government does not currently hold information on public sector contracts with supported businesses or contracts awarded under Article 19.

Analysis of procurement spend data for 2008-09 shows that the public sector spent £26.4 million with 23 of the 24 Scotland based Supported Businesses in that year. The Scottish Government currently uses Capability St Judes to provide laundry services to Marine Scotland in Aberdeen. Our design and print contractor has supported businesses in their roster of sub-contractors. At January 2011, we are aware of three other reserved contracts put in place by other Scottish public sector organisations:

Highlands and Islands Council “ CCTV Services

North Lanarkshire Council “ Bunk Beds

The State Hospital Carstairs “ Curtains.

The Public Procurement Reform Programme is taking steps to encourage public sector buyers to place contracts with supported businesses when appropriate. For example:

The British Association of Supported Employment (BASE), in partnership with the Scottish Government, published a brochure Supported Businesses in Scotland, which provides guidance to buyers on the use of Article 19 (which allows public buyers to reserve participation in tendering for contracts to Supported Businesses) and has details of the 24 Supported Businesses based in Scotland along with the products and services they can provide.

Supported Businesses exhibited at the National Procurement Conference held at the SECC in October 2010

We are working collaboratively with supported business. So far this year, two meetings have been held to identify the needs of Scottish supported businesses and explore what more government could do.

We have added a new facility to Public Contracts Scotland which automatically alerts buyers when a supported business can fulfil the requirements of their planned contract, and offers them the facility to reserve the contract under Article 19. This facility will also capture information on the number of contracts being awarded to third sector organisations and supported businesses in future.

Question reference: S3W-39587

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what training it has provided since May 2007 to supported employment providers to enable them to bid for public contracts.

Question reference: S3W-36874

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-35881 and S3W-35882 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010, how many business properties are eligible for rates relief of (a) 100%, (b) 50% and (c) 25% under the small business bonus scheme as of 1 October 2010.

As stated in my answer to S3W-35882, final figures on take-up of Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) for the current year will be available in 2011.

However, following the 2010 revaluation and the uplift and expansion of SBBS, latest estimates indicate the number of properties which are potentially eligible for SBBS has increased from 102,070 in 2009-10 (pre-revaluation) to 114,657 in 2010-11 (post-revaluation). That represents an increase of just over 12%.

Throughout 2010-11 we will continue to encourage businesses that are eligible for SBBS to take-up the relief to which they are entitled.

Question reference: S3W-36875

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36251 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010, what the total non-domestic rates payable were in each local authority area as of 1 April in each year from 2005 to 2009.

The following table shows the Non-Domestic Rates payable to each local authority for the years requested.

Local Authorities	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
	£s	£s	£s	£s
Aberdeen City	128,382,453	127,788,615	129,724,462	134,854,597
Aberdeenshire	51,898,043	53,119,127	54,147,403	55,702,993
Angus	22,681,380	22,779,371	22,704,487	22,636,003
Argyll and Bute	27,390,265	27,014,186	27,161,646	25,268,638
Clackmannanshire	11,919,201	12,279,220	11,998,587	12,128,277
Dumfries and Galloway	35,484,794	35,025,950	35,341,068	36,583,533
Dundee City	60,839,815	59,851,830	59,392,999	61,081,165
East Ayrshire	27,022,446	25,845,998	26,051,706	26,274,958
East Dunbartonshire	19,544,791	19,953,104	19,835,365	20,181,874
East Lothian	14,816,542	15,931,016	16,680,693	17,237,226
East Renfrewshire	11,614,569	11,773,430	12,026,278	12,177,464
Edinburgh, City of	281,894,322	284,429,242	285,740,621	294,922,390
Eilean Siar	5,580,236	5,452,756	5,546,953	5,550,135
Falkirk	57,832,324	56,571,909	55,834,386	57,380,117
Fife	119,504,914	118,988,495	118,867,291	120,861,427
Glasgow City	301,435,976	300,792,650	300,056,667	312,531,931
Highland	76,231,135	82,106,087	82,195,013	85,150,121
Inverclyde	20,072,740	19,121,380	19,080,513	19,034,970
Midlothian	19,543,047	19,900,092	20,335,070	21,283,181
Moray	24,656,742	23,783,593	24,033,467	24,394,016
North Ayrshire	33,327,330	31,794,634	31,689,291	31,873,458
North Lanarkshire	98,194,438	96,148,460	98,125,870	100,883,994
Orkney	6,926,342	7,040,902	7,053,447	6,878,296
Perth and Kinross	43,996,764	44,675,583	44,418,292	44,437,456
Renfrewshire	71,895,913	70,946,970	73,182,184	73,159,470
Scottish Borders	21,283,290	21,822,573	23,088,361	22,869,828
Shetland	12,424,394	12,292,787	12,353,202	12,259,032
South Ayrshire	34,863,199	35,383,567	35,510,712	35,970,422
South Lanarkshire	185,465,982	177,274,569	172,848,103	176,864,122
Stirling	35,316,900	35,621,639	35,672,509	36,820,420
West Dunbartonshire	59,915,669	59,291,905	56,667,661	59,490,762
West Lothian	60,501,305	62,236,393	63,396,987	66,707,592

Notes:

1. All figures are from the audited Non-Domestic Rate Income returns from the relevant financial year.

2.Figures relate to gross amount of Non-Domestic Rates income minus mandatory and discretionary reliefs.

3.Backdated Small Business Bonus Scheme and Small Business Rates Relief Scheme are not included (i.e. there is no reduction for these).

4.Figures exclude bad debts, rates written offs and refunds for overpayments.

Question reference: S3W-36877

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36259 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010, what the cost would have been of introducing transitional relief for businesses facing increased bills as a result of rates revaluation from 1 April 2010 that capped increases in rates payable at (a) 15%, (b) 20%, (c) 25% and (d) 37.5% per year, if that cost had been calculated on the basis of rateable values at 1 April 2010.

This analysis requires property valuations from both the 2005 and 2010 revaluations to be compared.

As valuation appeals are now beginning to be settled, the dataset containing rateable values of properties as at 1 April 2010 will contain information which is increasingly out of date. Additionally, the deadline for lodging appeals on the grounds of material changes against the 2005 revaluation was 30 September and successful resolution of these appeals will reduce the rateable values of properties, changing the underlying dataset.

As such, it would be misleading to now revisit both the 2005 and 2010 datasets and model transitional relief schemes based on out of date data.

Question reference: S3W-36876

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36257 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010, what its income was from non-domestic rates from each local authority area in each year from 2005-06 to 2008-09.

The following table shows the amount of business rates income collected by each local authority between 2005-06 to 2008-09.

Local Authorities	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
	£s	£s	£s	£s
Aberdeen City	127,291,272	122,604,982	138,469,643	124,143,614
Aberdeenshire	51,198,649	53,093,744	53,362,896	53,733,621
Angus	22,233,522	22,788,427	22,172,382	21,388,941
Argyll & Bute	26,967,799	26,627,574	26,398,178	20,377,258
Clackmannanshire	11,608,903	11,765,628	10,793,546	11,468,621
Dumfries & Galloway	34,560,389	34,187,475	34,875,970	35,716,976
Dundee City	58,846,940	57,802,261	57,784,368	58,399,990
East Ayrshire	26,249,971	25,055,970	25,229,486	24,477,922
East Dunbartonshire	19,016,800	19,053,393	18,970,434	19,302,792
East Lothian	14,612,022	16,113,738	16,505,060	16,752,877
East Renfrewshire	11,485,371	11,658,305	11,576,257	11,805,242
Edinburgh, City of	279,396,486	280,708,369	278,897,969	279,905,716
Eilean Siar	5,510,520	5,305,408	5,460,840	5,282,937
Falkirk	56,466,473	55,641,107	53,673,340	55,066,248
Fife	117,830,098	117,327,939	116,946,656	115,134,630
Glasgow City	282,733,441	287,465,074	287,091,783	292,651,136
Highland	75,585,529	86,018,529	76,407,739	80,997,965
Inverclyde	19,430,495	18,555,568	18,316,247	17,689,376
Midlothian	19,253,630	19,734,603	19,756,425	20,135,319
Moray	23,578,141	17,874,681	23,779,427	23,413,092
North Ayrshire	32,547,321	30,365,478	30,910,814	30,157,446
North Lanarkshire	94,321,138	91,786,391	92,242,028	93,801,761
Orkney	6,880,760	7,156,821	6,977,954	6,095,020
Perth & Kinross	43,153,561	45,441,409	42,518,983	43,312,047
Renfrewshire	68,706,967	67,907,469	69,924,112	65,663,293
Scottish Borders	20,979,720	22,194,298	22,975,359	21,535,229
Shetland	12,498,598	12,129,176	12,242,974	11,571,893
South Ayrshire	34,013,912	35,228,816	34,212,473	33,544,224
South Lanarkshire	182,790,018	176,929,367	169,567,369	173,097,356
Stirling	34,855,168	35,559,764	34,625,857	35,271,247
West Dunbartonshire	58,839,361	56,614,123	55,084,241	57,663,946
West Lothian	59,987,456	62,321,312	60,737,687	64,213,801

Note: *These figures are based on audited returns by individual local authorities.

Question reference: S3W-36878

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36259 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010, what it estimates the cost would be of introducing transitional relief for businesses facing increased bills as a result of rates revaluation from 1 April 2010 that capped increases in rates payable at (a) 12.5%, (b) 15%, (c) 20%, (d) 25% and (e) 37.5% per year, if that cost were calculated on the basis of rateable values at 1 October 2010.

Chamber and committees