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: S1W-34830

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31829 by Mr Jim Wallace on 3 December 2002, whether the fingerprint experts who gave evidence in the case of Shirley McKie have now given any evidence in court under oath since returning to work from suspension and whether it expects them to give any such evidence in court again and, if so, when.

The officers concerned have not yet given evidence under oath as Crown experts. They are being assessed over the next month or so by the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) as part of the return to work strategy. If, thereafter, SCRO is satisfied that they should be allowed to undertake work which would involve giving evidence in court, the Crown Office will be advised accordingly. At that stage it would be for the Crown to indicate whether it would be content to receive reports from these experts.

Question reference: S1W-34143

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any fingerprint evidence brought by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in criminal cases in the last five years from experts working for the Scottish Criminal Records Office arose from a technique employed by that office that can be, and has been, tested against national and international best practice; if so, what testing against such best practice has been undertaken in respect of such evidence and what the results of the tests were.

The report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary's (HMIC) Primary Inspection 2000 of SCRO's Fingerprint Bureau provides detailed information about, among other things, process, quality, standards and performance at the time of the inspection. The report can be found on the HMIC Website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/hmic/docs/fppi-00.asp. Further detailed information may also be found in the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland Presidential Review Report at this address http://www.scottish.police.uk/main/campaigns/interim/interim.htm. I have also asked the SCRO to write to the member about action taken to review Fingerprint Bureau practice.

Question reference: S1W-34144

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any fingerprint evidence brought by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in criminal cases in the last five years from experts working for the Scottish Criminal Records Office arises from a technique, as operated by that office, that has been subjected to peer review and publication and, if so, what peer review and publication.

Question reference: S1W-34145

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether fingerprint evidence brought by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in criminal cases in the last five years from experts working for the Scottish Criminal Records Office has been scrutinised in the light of known or potential rates of error for the technique used in relation to this evidence and against the international standards controlling that technique's operation and, if so, what scrutiny has been undertaken and what the results of such scrutiny were.

Question reference: S1W-34581

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 19 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many proposals it has received from local authorities in respect of the new round of approvals for schemes for school rebuilding and refurbishment and how many such proposals seek to utilise not-for-profit trusts as the vehicle for the development.

Question reference: S1W-34437

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many schools in each local authority area have not been inspected by HM Inspectorate of Education within the last (a) seven and (b) 10 years.

I have asked Graham Donaldson, Chief Executive of HM Inspectorate of Education, to respond. His response is as follows:Details of the number of schools in each local authority area not inspected in the last seven years are given in the following table. For the number of schools not inspected in the last 10 years, I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-34084 today. 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_wa.

Local Authority	Number of Schools not Inspected in the Last 7 Years
Aberdeen City	16
Aberdeenshire	66
Angus	18
Argyll and Bute	32
Clackmannanshire	5
Dumfries and Galloway	56
Dundee City	11
East Ayrshire	11
East Dunbartonshire	16
East Lothian	18
East Renfrewshire	19
City of Edinburgh	55
Falkirk	20
Fife	77
Glasgow City	142
Highlands	95
Inverclyde	25
Midlothian	14
Moray	22
North Ayrshire	24
North Lanarkshire	111
Orkney Islands	14
Perth and Kinross	21
Renfrewshire	39
Scottish Borders	28
Shetland Islands	14
South Ayrshire	28
South Lanarkshire	85
Stirling	18
West Dunbartonshire	23
West Lothian	33
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	23

Question reference: S1W-34084

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each local authority area have not had a full inspection in the last (i) 10, (ii) 15 and (iii) 20 years.

I have asked Graham Donaldson, Chief Executive of HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE), to respond. His response is as follows:Over recent years, HMIE has increased the number of schools inspected each year. In 1996-97 152 school inspections were completed. This rose to 299 in 2002-03. I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-34083 on 3 March 2003, which explained that we are aiming to have inspected all primary schools by 2009 and all secondary schools by 2008. 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_wa.Schools which have not yet been inspected are given priority when we plan the annual inspection programme. However, there are other factors to take in account. These include:ensuring the programme provides sufficient data about the performance of education authorities;ensuring the programme includes a broad range of schools: rural and urban; small medium and large; with a high, medium and low percentage of the roll receiving free meal entitlement, and are located across all 32 local authorities in Scotland, and ensuring the programme can provide a representative sample of data about education in Scotland.Details of the number of primary and secondary schools, by local authority area, not inspected in the last 10, 15 and 20 years is given in the following table:

Local Authority	Number of Schools Not Inspected in the Last:
	10 Years		15 Years		20 years
	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary
Aberdeen City	17	0	8	0	2	0
Aberdeenshire	52	0	31	0	2	0
Angus	14	0	8	0	3	0
Argyll and Bute	31	0	24	0	3	0
Clackmannanshire	3	1	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	40	1	27	0	15	0
Dundee City	5	0	2	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	11	0	2	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	15	0	9	0	1	0
East Lothian	11	0	5	0	3	0
East Renfrewshire	5	2	1	1	1	0
City of Edinburgh	48	1	23	1	9	0
Falkirk	19	0	12	0	3	0
Fife	59	0	32	0	15	0
Glasgow City	87	4	62	1	29	1
Highlands	80	0	54	0	16	0
Inverclyde	4	0	3	0	0	0
Midlothian	11	0	5	0	1	0
Moray	14	0	9	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	21	1	17	0	4	0
North Lanarkshire	42	8	19	4	5	1
Orkney Islands	11	1	6	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	17	0	8	0	1	0
Renfrewshire	21	0	16	0	8	0
Scottish Borders	22	0	6	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	13	0	7	0	3	0
South Ayrshire	13	0	7	0	1	0
South Lanarkshire	41	0	31	0	10	0
Stirling	9	0	3	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	15	0	10	0	3	0
West Lothian	23	0	13	0	8	0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	18	0	12	0	4	0

Question reference: S1W-34554

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 17 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many classroom assistants were working in state schools in each academic year since 1999.

Information on the number of classroom assistants employed in state schools in each academic year from 1999 is not held centrally. However, information on the number of classroom assistants employed through the Excellence Fund for each financial year since 1999 has previously been provided in answer to questions S1W-14460 on 15 May 2001 and S1W-32263 on 9 January 2003. 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_wa.

Question reference: S1W-34553

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 17 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered secondary school supply teachers there were in each local authority area in each year since 1995, broken down by subject.

Question reference: S1W-34434

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 March 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what support is provided to schools to deal with drug and alcohol problems of pupils.

All of the recommendations from the Final Report of the School Drug Safety Team, published in January 2001 are being implemented. £3 million over the three years from 2001-02 is being provided to support this. The recommendations cover all aspects of drug education in schools impacting on the curriculum, management and co-ordination within schools, quality assurance, teacher education and multi-agency training.Guidelines for the Management of Incidents of Drugs Misuse was issued to all schools in June 2000. These guidelines contain clear advice on the procedures which should be in place within school, not only to deal with any incidents but also for protecting the welfare of the young person after an incident. All schools are expected to have policies and procedures in place in line with this national advice by the end of academic year 2002-03.The funding of £3 million includes £900,000 over 2002-03 and 2003-04 on drug-related training for teachers being provided by Scotland Against Drugs and the Scottish Training Agency for Drug and Alcohol.