Seòmar agus comataidhean

The proposal to merge has been made to ministers by the colleges themselves. Ministers will consider the detailed merger proposal document submitted by the colleges and the advice of the Scottish Funding Council, which has a statutory duty to advise ministers. Ministers will consider the range of views and comments received in response to their own public consultation launched in December 2009. Ministers will also consider responses to the separate consultation exercise undertaken by the colleges themselves, as well as any other representations which have been made to ministers since these consultations closed.

Authorities have a duty under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to make such arrangements as they consider necessary for the transport between home and school of pupils residing, and attending schools, in their area. In considering whether to make arrangements, authorities are required to have regard to the safety of the pupil.

The statutory provisions on school transport prescribe neither distances beyond which authorities must, nor distances below which they must not, provide transport. It is, however, for authorities themselves to determine criteria for eligibility for free school transport.

The following table sets out Scottish Government investment that includes support for encouraging primary school children to cycle and walk to school in financial years 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10:

Grant/Recipient	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets/ LAs	£9.09m	£9.09m	£9.09m
School Travel Coordinators/LAs	£1.05m	Incl	Incl
Tackling the School Run/Sustrans	£3.62m	£2.515m	£2.285m
Cycling Scotland	£0.90m	£1.40m	£0.90m
Smarter Choices, Smarter Places/LAs	-	£2.11m	£4.48m
Total	£14.66m	£15.115	£16.755

 

The Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets grant to local authorities can be used to extend and improve safe routes to schools. From 2008-09, the grant to local authorities for School Travel Coordinators was included in the block grant settlement for years 2008-11. Cycling Scotland grants include promotional campaigns to encourage more active travel to school and the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme funding includes measure to encourage all forms of active travel including to schools.

The Scottish Government is supporting a range of initiatives to encourage primary school children to walk and cycle to school. This includes support for local authorities to encourage active travel through the Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets grant of £9.09 million in each year of this spending review. Support is allocated to Sustrans to tackle the school run and to Cycling Scotland to promote the benefits of travelling actively to school.

The above investment includes the creation of new shared walking and cycling facilities, new secure cycle parking, various incentives to cycle or walk to school, including, for example, cycle training skill kits. Almost all schools now have 20 mph zones and around 80% are implementing or developing a travel plan. In all, over 2000 schools in Scotland will continue to benefit from the Scottish Government''s commitment to encouraging children to walk or cycle to school through partnership working with key stakeholders.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34279 on 18 June 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

This information is not collected centrally. However, I understand that the Hands Up Survey, which can be found electronically on the organisation Sustrans web site at www.sustrans.org.uk, may be able to provide some or all of the information requested.

Free school transport is already provided for school children living some distance from school. For those living nearer, the work of School Travel Co-ordinators is already significantly focused on this issue of reducing car journeys, but by increasing walking and cycling to school “ rather than by replacing car with bus “ on environmental, physical health, road safety and congestion grounds.

The information requested is not available. I am, however, able to provide information with regard to the total spend on school transport in each authority for financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09, the latest year for which we have information. The information is set out in the following table.

Local Authority	£000	£000
	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen City	576	649
Aberdeenshire	4,261	4,834
Angus	1,084	1,229
Argyll and Bute	2,024	2,113
Clackmannanshire	52	44
Dumfries and Galloway	308	332
Dundee City	115	99
East Ayrshire	772	964
East Dunbartonshire	795	907
East Lothian	275	310
East Renfrewshire	926	603
Edinburgh, City of	829	526
Eilean Siar	965	997
Falkirk	528	522
Fife	2,079	2,226
Glasgow City	869	786
Highland	3,620	3,756
Inverclyde	288	252
Midlothian	312	346
Moray	1,328	1,391
North Ayrshire	1,321	1,208
North Lanarkshire	3,559	3,926
Orkney Islands	776	823
Perth and Kinross	1,604	1,599
Renfrewshire	1,044	1,155
Scottish Borders	1,509	1,716
Shetland Islands	469	505
South Ayrshire	1,314	1,175
South Lanarkshire	2,675	2,546
Stirling	443	448
West Dunbartonshire	301	367
West Lothian	592	710
Scotland Total	37,613	39,064

 

The Scottish Government is not aware of any members of the British National Party who are currently employed as classroom teachers in Scottish schools.

The General Teaching Council Scotland Code of Professionalism and Conduct states that teachers must not be prejudiced in their views about learners lifestyle, culture, disability, beliefs, colour, gender, language, sexuality or age. If a teacher breached the Code the Council could take action to remove them from the register.

A similar arrangement is in place for the police force where the Police (Scotland) Regulations 2004 require members of the police to at all times abstain from any activity which is likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of that member''s duties or which is likely to give rise to the impression amongst members of the public that it may so interfere, and in particular a member of a police force shall not take any active part in politics.

Of course this is a complex issue and any use of the Scottish Government''s powers in this area would require to take into account human rights standards, employment law and potentially also the boundary between reserved and devolved powers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33951 on 14 June 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.