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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: S2W-02655

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements have been made in the education system at the Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre, as referred to by the Minister for Communities in the Parliament on 11 September 2003.

HM Inspectorate of Education’supdate report on education provision at Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre,published by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in August 2003, sets out the improvementsmade following the October 2002 inspection. The information requested is on page2 of the report, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre,(Bib. number 29149) or on the internet at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs2/dungavelupdate.pdf.

Question reference: S2W-02654

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will take forward the recommendations on education provision at the Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre, as referred to by the Minister for Communities in the Parliament on 11 September 2003.

Question reference: S2W-02652

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what policy and practice issues relating to children, young people and education which impact upon the experiences of refugees in Scotland were identified by the children's services satellite group of the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum.

Question reference: S2W-02656

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the action referred to by the Minister for Communities in the Parliament on 11 September 2003 in relation to education services at the Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre was.

Question reference: S2W-02625

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional pressures have been put on school staffing as a result of mentoring and supervising probationary teachers in the one-year probationary teacher system.

None. Probationer teachers havealways required support and mentoring, and this has traditionally been a responsibilityof all teachers. Since the introduction of the teacher induction scheme, with itsmore formalised mentoring regime, the Executive has made additional funding availableto local authorities towards the cost of mentoring. Local authorities receive 10per cent of a probationer teacher’s salary for each probationer they employ specificallyto contribute to mentoring costs.

Question reference: S2W-02658

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide additional resources for South Lanarkshire Council for translation, interpretation and close support for children detained at the Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre if the Home Office allow the education of such children in mainstream schooling.

Question reference: S2W-02244

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the McCrone agreement has had on the ability of schools to offer supported study and homework classes after the timetabled school day.

The teachers’ agreement ATeaching Profession for the 21st Century introduced a 35-hour working week,which will be combined with a class contact time restricted to a maximum of 22.5hours per week by August 2006. The use of the remaining time is subject to agreementat school level, including activities such as additional time for preparation andcorrection, parent meetings, curriculum development and additional supervised pupilactivity. This can include supported study programmes and homework classes.

Question reference: S2W-02246

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on faculty-style departments in secondary schools.

The agreement A Teaching Professionfor the 21st Century provides for an improved and simplified career structurefor all teachers. The agreement also provides for local negotiation and enhancesthe flexibility to determine staffing issues at local level.

Within the framework of theagreement, it is therefore a matter for local authorities to decide what staffingstructures best suit their local needs. However, existing experience suggests thatfaculty-style departments are already working well in many schools, and can contributeto increasing both the quality of management resources and the teaching resourcesavailable within a school. As such, it would be inappropriate for the Scottish Executive to intervene.

Question reference: S2W-02248

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many principal teachers have been employed in each local authority area in each of the last five years and what projections have been made for the employment of such teachers.

The following table gives thehistoric information requested. The teacher workforce planning exercise which iscarried out annually does not include projections of specific grades of teacher.

Number of PrincipalTeachers (Headcount) by Local Authority

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Scotland	7,140	7,198	7,182	7,221	7,162
Aberdeen City	310	310	304	304	292
Aberdeenshire	388	392	387	398	404
Angus	168	165	166	166	165
Argyll and Bute	137	139	139	137	140
Clackmannanshire	66	66	66	68	63
Dumfries and Galloway	271	266	266	264	256
Dundee City	216	216	222	218	217
East Ayrshire	175	171	171	170	166
East Dunbartonshire	179	181	180	178	180
East Lothian	113	113	115	120	121
East Renfrewshire	138	139	139	140	139
Edinburgh, City of	450	448	450	462	469
Eilean Siar	47	47	50	50	47
Falkirk	174	173	174	172	172
Fife	422	440	446	456	453
Glasgow City	638	664	667	662	639
Highland	347	345	351	350	346
Inverclyde	146	144	140	144	141
Midlothian	122	127	125	127	121
Moray	181	180	180	183	182
North Ayrshire	192	195	177	194	197
North Lanarkshire	502	507	499	498	502
Orkney Islands	36	35	35	36	39
Perth and Kinross	180	181	182	179	179
Renfrewshire	253	255	256	253	238
Scottish Borders	167	169	172	173	170
Shetland Islands	37	35	36	36	37
South Ayrshire	175	177	175	175	174
South Lanarkshire	408	412	406	409	407
Stirling	138	135	135	133	130
West Dunbartonshire	138	147	146	139	148
West Lothian	226	224	225	227	228

Source: annual school censuses.

Question reference: S2W-02247

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that principal teachers have the experience and knowledge to carry out quality assurance and monitor effective teaching and learning in each subject area for which they are responsible.

We have recently published, andare in the process of issuing to all teachers, a document Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment for Educational Leaders which forms part of the National Frameworkfor Continuing Professional Development. The document was prepared in collaborationwith teachers, local authorities, academics and other stakeholders. The purposeof the document is to provide teachers, schools and local authorities with a frameworkto assist the development of leadership and management skills in the teaching workforce.It will be for the teachers and their line managers to ensure that they have accessto appropriate continuing professional development opportunities at the most appropriatestage of their career that allows them to expand their skills and knowledge includingquality assurance.