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: S3W-29573

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the £30 million announced for student support by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 28 October 2009 (Official Report c. 20531) is from savings through fiscal drag on the parental income thresholds.

Question reference: S3W-29570

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many undergraduate secondary teaching degree places (a) have been funded in each year since 2000 and (b) are expected to be funded in each of the next five years.

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent Bachelor of Education (four year BEd) secondary places funded in each year since 2000.

Academic Year	BEd Secondary
2000-01	617
2001-02	599
2002-03	623
2003-04	677
2004-05	716
2005-06	713
2006-07	678
2007-08	695
2008-09	680
2009-10	678

Note: Numbers of BEd places cover students in years one to four of courses.

The Scottish Government carries out an annual teacher workforce planning exercise that underpins advice to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) on intakes to initial teacher education courses. Decisions have not yet been announced relating to 2010-11 and subsequent years.

Question reference: S3W-29572

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 10 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to match the maximum amount of student support available to dependent students under the age of 25 in Scotland with the maximum amount offered in England.

The government has no plans to match the maximum amount of student support available to dependent students under the age of 25 in Scotland with the maximum amount offered in England.

Following discussions with opposition parties and the NUS around the recent consultation paper, Supporting a Smarter Scotland, we have matched the income of dependent and independent students. These measures will take the income of students from low income families in colleges and universities to £5,852 per annum in academic year 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-29571

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 10 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on student support on 28 October 2009 (Official Report c. 20531), what changes to the eligibility criteria for the additional loan are envisaged for dependent students under 25 years of age.

Question reference: S3W-29574

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the £30 million announced for student support by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 28 October 2009 (Official Report c. 20531) is from efficiency savings, broken down by (a) type of saving and (b) year accrued.

Question reference: S3W-28403

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students have undertaken teacher training courses since 2000, broken down by (a) institution and (b) year of study.

The following table shows how many students entered four year Bachelor of Education (BEd) and one year full-time and two year part-time Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) courses, by institution in each year since 2004-05.

BEd and PGDE Intakes

University	Academic Year
University	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen	441	551	555	479	553
Dundee	237	311	344	273	321
Edinburgh	698	889	878	811	768
Glasgow	636	785	796	712	751
Stirling	-	-	-	-	34
Strathclyde	1,040	1,381	1,411	1,179	1,204
West of Scotland	262	334	350	317	330
Total	3,314	4,251	4,334	3,771	3,961

Notes:

1. Information available shows intake numbers to BEd and PGDE course.

2. BEd primary courses not offered at Stirling University prior to 2008-09.

3. Open University offer a PGDE maths (five to 10 places have been available). No returns have been received confirming numbers each year on the course.

Question reference: S3W-28423

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 11 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have fully implemented the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.

The implementation of the Disabled Persons'' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009 is a matter for local authorities, not the Scottish Government.

The provisions of the act state that local authorities have until 30 September 2010 to initiate the statutory process for disabled parking spaces that they wish to make enforceable, and to remove those advisory disabled spaces that are no longer needed. In 2011, local authorities must report to Scottish ministers outlining their completed implementation process and then on an annual basis thereafter.

Question reference: S3W-28406

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers have been made redundant in each year since 2006, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) school.

Question reference: S3W-28404

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many trainee teachers have entered their probationary year in each year since 2006.

Upon satisfactory completion of their courses of initial teacher education student teachers are eligible for provisional registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland and are required to complete a period of probation; most, but not all, opt to join the one year teacher induction scheme but this is not obligatory.

The following table provides relevant data.

Year	No. of Graduating Student Teachers Granted Provisional Registration	No. of Students/Probationers Entering the Teacher Induction Scheme
2006	3,907	3,491
2007	3,968	3,431
2008	3,509	3,094
2009	3,439	3,056

Question reference: S3W-28405

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many probationer teachers have found placements with (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 2006, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) school.

The following table shows the number of probationers allocated to each local authority as part of the teacher induction scheme.

Information is not held centrally about the relatively small numbers of probationers who are not involved in the teacher induction scheme. Neither is information held centrally about the schools to which probationers are assigned by local authorities.

	2006		2007		2008		2009
	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary
Aberdeen City	56	64	50	72	3	20	51	27
Aberdeenshire	59	60	66	52	100	60	110	52
Angus	40	32	40	33	42	25	47	33
Argyll and Bute	31	16	32	16	29	19	22	10
Clackmannanshire	19	21	23	18	21	14	25	16
Dumfries and Galloway	24	35	30	29	56	31	42	21
Dundee City	53	47	44	39	41	31	27	32
East Ayrshire	49	51	46	50	43	29	58	42
East Dunbartonshire	24	26	45	36	36	35	49	32
East Lothian	58	44	40	42	47	37	56	33
East Renfrewshire	59	85	49	76	49	49	56	55
Edinburgh City	138	96	128	89	118	84	113	71
Eilean Siar	8	14	12	15	6	8	8	7
Falkirk	56	63	59	44	69	36	75	31
Fife	87	90	123	86	122	85	122	69
Glasgow	161	152	141	116	134	89	139	122
Highland	67	57	64	62	61	45	73	39
Inverclyde	36	38	48	23	32	10	38	7
Jordanhill School			1	3	1	4	1	5
Midlothian	36	42	40	37	38	37	41	24
Moray	23	26	30	18	28	22	34	13
North Ayrshire	48	60	44	54	53	49	39	32
North Lanarkshire	144	132	149	126	126	94	130	68
Orkney	7	5	5	10	9	9	9	6
Perth and Kinross	49	29	41	33	42	33	40	28
Renfrewshire	75	82	79	89	86	72	64	61
Scottish Borders	21	9	37	33	25	15	27	17
Shetland Islands	13	8	12	6	10	5	14	6
South Ayrshire	40	39	46	28	40	25	39	18
South Lanarkshire	130	118	112	122	130	98	120	83
Stirling	40	50	35	51	34	37	50	44
West Dunbartonshire	54	48	51	42	51	45	46	31
West Lothian	80	67	96	63	98	62	106	50
Total	1,785	1,706	1,818	1,613	1,780	1,314	1,871	1,185
Overall Total	3,491		3,431		3,094		3,056