- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 11 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage public sector take-up of communications systems such as Integrated Services Digital Network and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line and what the potential cost of such take-up might be.
Answer
Many public sector bodies already make extensive use of high speed communications links to facilitate dealings with the public and businesses; to provide access to information sources on intranets and the world wide web; and to speed up internal public sector processes. It is a matter for individual public bodies to decide whether such communication services represent an appropriate investment for them. The Executive's response to the Digital Scotland report made clear that where public sector investment in communication services is taking place we are keen to see closer collaboration between the public sector bodies involved where this will help to reduce costs or improve services.
The Scottish Executive has been connected to broadband services through the Government Secure Intranet (GSI) for two years, and has had active discussions with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and individual local authorities about the possibility of their organisations joining the GSI.
The Higher Education sector already has communications links with capacity many times larger than ADSL or ISDN can provide. All Scottish Further Education colleges will have high capacity communication links by April 2001. Over half of all Scottish secondary schools and nearly 40% of primaries are already using ISDN communications. PricewaterhouseCoopers are concluding an investigation for the Scottish Executive into how broadband communications will be provided to all Scottish schools.
The total current and projected future costs of high-speed communications services for the public sector are not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to establish Scotland as the prime location for the translation of English-language, North American new economy business models such as ebay or Monster.com for the country markets of the EU.
Answer
The expanding e-commerce sector is one which is expressing a strong interest in Scotland as a business location.
Locate in Scotland and its partners see these projects as representing substantial opportunities for inward investment and are ensuring that companies are aware of the attributes Scotland has to offer to make it a prime location for e-business. These include a first class telecoms infrastructure, the availability of suitable sites and a workforce which possesses the language skills that will encourage dot.com companies to make Scotland the base for their European operations.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Children and Education on 6 September 2000 and in particular his reference to reports from schools and colleges about problems with electronic transfer of information to the Scottish Qualifications Authority in March, (a) whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) all documentary evidence of and relating to such reports; (b) when it first became aware of such reports; (c) when action was first considered and taken by the Minister in relation to such reports and whether it will place documentary evidence in SPICe, and (d) what recommendations were made by its officials on what steps should be taken regarding such reports and whether it will place documentary evidence in SPICe.
Answer
I refer Fergus Ewing to the answer I gave to question S1W-9737 on 28 September. It is not the practice of the Scottish Executive to make available advice from officials to Ministers.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publicise the precise remit of each inquiry or review referred to in the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Children and Education on 6 September 2000 on the exam results which it has initiated and whether it has carried out any consultation as to the extent of such remits.
Answer
The terms of reference for the independent review being carried out by Deloitte and Touche have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Consultation on the remit for this inquiry was not possible in the time available. The precise terms of reference for the Policy and Financial Management Review of the Scottish Qualifications Authority have yet to be agreed, but will be made public in due course.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date or dates it was informed of (a) potential and (b) actual difficulties in recruiting sufficient exam markers.
Answer
The Executive became aware of potential difficulties with the recruitment of markers at the Scottish Executive/Scottish Qualifications Authority Liaison meeting on 10 May. Actual difficulties were identified as a result of a letter from SQA to centres on 31 May.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, regarding the meeting between the Minister for Children and Education and the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) on 25 July 2000, whether it will provide full details of the personal assurances given to the Minister that missing data was being addressed and, in particular, whether (a) the SQA explained which data was missing and, if so, what explanation was given and (b) the Minister sought a detailed explanation of how the problem was being addressed.
Answer
Details of the meeting on 25 July will be supplied to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether HM Inspectorate of Schools was alerted to any potential difficulties with the administration of the marking of this year's exam results, and, if so, when.
Answer
HM Inspectorate of Schools has no locus in the administration of marking. However, Education Department officials including HMI became aware in June that SQA were short of markers in some subjects.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consult teachers, parents and others directly involved in education regarding its response to any interim conclusions of the reports of the Education, Culture and Sport and Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committees into this year's exam results.
Answer
I will have to see the nature of any interim conclusions in the reports of the two committees before deciding whether any consultation on the Executive's response is appropriate.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what recommendations were made by officials to Ministers regarding this year's exam results, whether any of these were (a) rejected outright, (b) not acted upon within one month of the date of the recommendation and (c) subject to deferred action, and whether it will place a copy of all relevant documents in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
It is not the practice of the Scottish Executive to make available advice from officials to Ministers.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre details of the recommendations made by the senior member of its IT Directorate following his meeting with the Scottish Qualifications Authority; when this meeting took place, and what steps the Executive took to ensure that all recommendations were accepted and implemented.
Answer
A senior official within the Scottish Executive Communications and Information Services Division met with the Scottish Qualifications Authority on 28 March. Details of the meeting and further action by the Executive have been provided to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee.
