Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 940 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-27091

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland are not currently employed in Scottish schools.

This information is not heldcentrally.

We do know that as at 1April 2006, there were 79,162 people on the General Teaching Council forScotland’s register, of whom 67,364 had their registration fee deducted fromsalary. However, having fees deducted from salary does not equate to beingemployed in Scottish schools - staff in, for example, independent sectorschools, further educaton colleges, universities and local authoritydirectorates might also have fees so deducted and some people employed inschools may choose not to have their fees deducted from salary.

Question reference: S2W-27094

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of teachers have taken up a permanent post in the school where they completed their probation in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S2W-27092

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any problems with the recruitment of teaching staff to meet class reduction and McCrone-related non-contact time targets.

The recruitment of teachersis a matter for local authorities.

Overall sufficient teachershave been trained to meet the reduction in class contact time to 22.5 hours inAugust 2006. There are no interim targets for the delivery of the commitment toreduce class sizes by August 2007, but very good progress continues to be madein training the teachers required to meet our target.

We are providing additionalfunds of £18 million to £44 million in 2006 and 2007 for authorities to employadditional teachers. In addition, we will be fully funding around 1,000probationer teachers each year in 2006 and 2007 who can also be used to meetclass contact and class size reductions.

In addition, we recentlydecided that a further £14.5 million of central resources would also bedistributed through the National Priorities Action Fund for the employment ofadditional teachers this year over and above previously set employment levels. Thisbrings total additional resources for 2006-07 to £32.5 million.

Question reference: S2W-26704

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will implement procedures under the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 and investigate West Lothian Council’s practice of charging for assistance with the preparation of food for elderly residents in West Lothian.

A letter issued to localauthorities last month which set out the guiding principles that we expect localauthorities to follow when deciding what services should be provided for free. Thecurrent evaluation of the free personal care policy is looking at differencesacross the country in how it operates and this will provide us with evidence ofany variations in practice between local authorities. We will then be able to considerwhat, if any, further action is required. In the meantime we will discussparticular problems with COSLA and specific local authorities, and take furtheraction if appropriate.

Question reference: S2W-25001

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23161 by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2006, whether it will provide details of Transport Scotland's operational responsibilities for rail.

Question reference: S2W-24650

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considers it appropriate that the Lothian and Borders Police Call Grading Protocol, which categorises call to the police for the purpose of the allocation a response time band, categorises calls, including 999 calls, about silent abusive calls where the caller is believed to be a partner or ex-partner of the recipient as Grade 4 which means that they can, if necessary, be attended in excess of four hours, and whether this complies with the Executive's commitment to tackle domestic abuse.

The Lothian and Borders PoliceCall Grading Protocol makes it clear that where it appears that there is a seriousand immediate threat to life or personal safety resulting from an on-going incident,including from partners or ex-partners, this will result in the immediate attendanceof police officers.

The seriousness which Lothianand Borders Police attaches to incidents of this type reflects the Executive’s commitmentto tackling domestic abuse, including ensuring protection for those who experienceit.

Question reference: S2W-24520

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be any additional financial implications for local authority budgets following the recommendations of NHS Lothian’s External Reference Group for Older People’s Services’ Final Report.

Local authorities are given anannual core local government finance settlement. It is for each local authorityto determine its priorities to meet the needs of its resident population.I refer the member to theanswers to questions S2W-24515, 24518 and 24519 on 19 April 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-24808

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will amend section 73 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 to introduce a new offence of refusing to produce a Blue Badge when requested to do so by police, traffic wardens or local authority parking attendants in residential parking bays.

Abuse of the Blue Badge Schemeis a serious offence. It deprives disabled people of the freedom and independenceoften taken for granted by able-bodied members of society.

It is already classified as anoffence to fail to produce a Blue Badge when requested to do so by a police officer,traffic warden or local authority parking attendant. In the event of failure toproduce a badge on request, the parked vehicle is then treated as though there isno badge in force, and a fixed penalty ticket issued for any parking offence.

The Scottish Executive thereforehas no plans to amend section 73 of the Transport (Scotland) Act2001 in this respect.

Question reference: S2W-24937

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will issue new guidance stating that there should be no nuts or nut products in schools.

Question reference: S2W-24936

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of pupils in schools are known to have a nut allergy, shown as a percentage of average class size for (a) nursery, (b) primary and (c) secondary schools.