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: S4W-03372

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of whether looked-after children are inappropriately placed as a result of funding issues.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to meet their duties in a number of ways including through the work of the Looked After Children Strategic Implementation Group which exists to improve outcomes for looked after children in part by helping local authorities to modernise care planning practice to meet the challenges they face.

The responsibility for the assessment of whether a child or young person requires placement away from home lies with the local authority.

The Care Inspectorate is responsible for the regulation of these services and ensuring local authorities comply with legislation.

Question reference: S4W-03369

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money has been allocated to secure units and to (a) private and (b) charitable residential schools in each year since 2007.

Both the Scottish Government Parole Unit and Scottish local authorities are responsible for the allocation of funds for secure units.

Information on the allocation of funds by local authorities to secure units is collected by central government on a financial year basis as part of the Local Financial Return. The amounts spent by local authorities in Scotland on Secure Care accommodation are £22,946,000 in 2006-07, £22,074,000 in 2007-08, £20,630,000 in 2008-09 and £24,703,000 in 2009-2010.

Information on local authority spend on secure units in the financial year 2010-11 will be published early in 2012.

The amount spent by the Scottish Government Parole Unit on Secure Accommodation was £3,566,555 in 2006-07, £5,374,286 in 2007-08, £5,163,945 in 2008-09, £6,497,126 in 2009-10 and £6,924,330 in 2010-11.

The Scottish Government does not collect information from local authorities on the funds allocated to residential schools by type of provider – i.e. charitable trust or private provider.

Question reference: S4W-03367

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on caring for looked-after children in each year since 2007.

Information on the allocation of local authority funds toward the care of Looked After Children is collected each financial year in the Local Financial Return. The total amount spent on caring for Looked After Children by local authorities since 2006-07 is presented in the following table. The total excludes spend on children with a disability and on respite care.

Funds spent by Local Authorities on caring for Looked After Children (£000)

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Accommodation-based services	197,895	206,218	204,478	225,963
Homecare	8,087	7,134	6,480	8,916
Day Care	40,967	43,990	48,192	45,162
Fostering/Family Placement	77,686	90,325	105,403	122,215
Other services to support carers	5,410	8,643	11,725	12,082
Adoption services	9,925	10,360	9,682	11,273
Total	339,970	366,670	385,960	425,611

In addition, Scottish Government Parole Unit spend on Secure Care accommodation was £3,566,555 in 2006-07, £5,374,286 in 2007-08, £5,163,945 in 2008-09, £6,497,126 in 2009-10 and £6,924,330 in 2010-11.

Question reference: S4W-03370

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to intervene when concerns are raised regarding private and charitable residential schools and secure units involved in caring for looked-after children.

Residential schools and secure units are registered and regulated by the Care Inspectorate. The Care Inspectorate has a number of powers under the Public Sector Reform Act 2010 and can impose recommendations, requirements, conditions and improvement notices as well as applying to the courts for the de-registration of a service.

Following that, all independent residential schools and secure units are registered and regulated as independent schools in accordance with sections 98 to 103B of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. If a registered school or secure unit is found to be failing, the Scottish Ministers have the power to impose conditions or in more serious cases serve a notice of complaint on a school or secure unit to seek improvements. In extreme cases they also have the option of ordering the removal of the school from the register which would result in the closure of the school or secure unit.

Question reference: S4W-03616

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to electrify the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts railway line and what (a) the timescale is and (b) estimate it has made of the cost.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review, published in 2008, estimated the cost of the second phase of electrification of the strategic rail network to be between £250 million and £500 million. The Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts railway line is part of this phase.

The Initial Industry Plan, published in September 2011, proposes that this phase of electrification programme can start to be delivered between 2014 and 2019.

The timescale for electrification of the Shotts line will not finally be agreed until Network Rail have published their strategic business plan in January 2013 and the Office of Rail Regulation has published its determination in October 2013.

To ensure competitively priced tenders Network Rail do not publish estimated costs for individual elements of each phase.

Question reference: S4W-03612

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations will have 24-hour cover in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013 and how many have had such cover in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-03615

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of plans made by police authorities to close stations in each of the next five years.

Question reference: S4W-03611

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the policing budget is for (a) 2012 and (b) 2013 and what it has been in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-03613

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations will operate on a part-time basis in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013, broken down by those operating (i) part-time each day and (ii) some days in the week, and how many have operated on this basis in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-03614

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations will lose their 24-hour cover status and how many with part-time cover will have their hours reduced, in each of the next five years.