Chamber and committees

We are not yet in a position to announce decisions on the future shape of the Domiciliary Oxygen Therapy Service (DOTS). This will depend on the outcome of the review of DOTS, which is currently underway.

The Scottish Government has provided guidance within Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1: attendance in Scottish schools which recognises that in some circumstances parents may condone absence due to difficulties in school. Guidance encourages early contact with parents through home-link workers or family support staff to build relationships and restore trust. Guidance also indicates that flexible arrangements to secure continued education should be a priority. Included, Engaged and Involved is available from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/12/05100056/0.

Supporting Children’s Learning, the code of practice for additional support for learning, provides clear guidance that parents should have access to free independent mediation services, and/or dispute resolution services, to resolve disagreements relating to provision for additional support needs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13996 on 17 June 2008, which sets out the position with regard to full time education.  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/wa.search.

Guidance on the exclusion of pupils from school, including educational provision during exclusion, is contained within the publication Exclusion From Schools In ScotlandThe circular is available from:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/11/18496/28823.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government collects national statistics on exclusion from school which includes information on the type of alternative provision made. These statistics are available from:

2004-05:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/30144545/28.

2005-06:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/30100624/31.

2006-07:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/28122247.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government collects national statistics on exclusion from school which includes information on the type of alternative provision made. These statistics are available from:

2004-05:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/30144545/28.

2005-06:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/30100624/31.

2006-07:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/28122247.

Whilst there is no specific statute or guidance which defines full time education, legislation does set out the parameters whereby education must be provided. Section 1(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 sets out that every education authority has a duty to provide adequate and efficient school education for their area.

School age is defined in section 31 of the same act as a person who has attained the age of five years and has not attained the age of 16 years and the Schools General (Scotland) Regulations 1975 require local authority schools to be open for 190 days each school year.

The regulations do not define the precise length of the school day or week, which are matters left to the discretion of education authorities. A Scottish Executive Circular (No 4/2002) indicated that the widely accepted norm was a 25 hour week for primary schools and a 27.5 hours week for secondary schools.

We are working with retailers to reduce the number of single-use carrier bags generally. I met retailers on 15 May to discuss this matter and it was agreed a working group should be established. This working group has its first meeting on 19 June and will discuss a variety of issues including public information campaigns on bags. We await with interest the views of the working group on the issue of biodegradable and compostable bags. This is not a straightforward issue and there is some evidence to suggest that biodegradable bags going to landfill can generate methane, a greenhouse gas and that they can also contaminate the recycling stream for conventional plastic bags.

The Scottish Government is in favour of reducing the unnecessary use of carrier bags but our preference at this stage is not in favour of an outright ban of products. In any event, an outright ban on a product might run contrary to Scotland’s EU obligations.

In respect of excess packaging use, none; technical standards of this nature are reserved.

In respect of packaging waste, The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 obligate medium and large companies, including retailers, to recycle and recover packaging waste proportionate to the amounts of packaging that they use. Failure to do so is an offence. The regulations are enforced by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Although concerned with packaging waste the regulations nevertheless act as an incentive on businesses to curb their packaging use. That is, the less packaging a company uses the less its associated recycling and recovery costs will be.