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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: S5W-01358

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which legal responsibilities that lie only with local authorities it is proposing to offer schools.

Driving up attainment levels is this government's priority and we will seek out and listen to all new ideas and innovative approaches to deliver results in education for all young people. I launched Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education - A Delivery Plan for Scotland on 28 June 2016 which sets out clear milestones for our next steps to towards closing the attainment gap. It can be viewed at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/3853

The delivery plan includes a commitment to launch a governance review of the education system in September 2016 which will involve widespread engagement and consultation across the education sector and beyond. The findings of the review will inform our consideration of where the legal responsibilities for the delivery of education lie.

Question reference: S5W-01639

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-01153

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out a review of higher education funding in light of the EU referendum result.

The Scottish Government has no plans to carry out a specific review of higher education funding in light of the EU referendum result.

However, the Scottish Government is engaging with the higher education sector as part of work to inform the planned spending review. Dialogue will include consideration of the short and longer-term implications of the outcome of the EU Referendum.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with our higher education institutions to maintain Scotland's strong links with colleagues and partners in the EU, and reassure students, researchers and the wider academic community that Scotland remains open to collaboration and knowledge exchange in Europe and beyond.

Question reference: S5W-01325

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used to determine the eligibility of pupils for a free school meal in Primaries 1 to 3.

<>On 5 January 2015, free school meals were extended to all Primary 1 to 3 children in Scotland to help ensure that every child has the best possible start in life and gets every chance to succeed at school. The policy has had a huge take up with latest figures showing that over 134,500 primary 1 to 3 children (81.7%) across Scotland are now taking a nutritious free school meal, saving families around £380 a year for each eligible child. The Scottish Government is fully funding this policy and is providing £54 million revenue funding in 2016-17, building on the £70.5 million of revenue funding provided over 2014-16 and the £24.8 million of capital funding which was provided to support implementation.

Question reference: S5W-01004

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many children were taken into care from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2015, broken down by (a) year and (b) local authority, and how many of those were defined as being (i) looked after and (ii) accommodated.

The data requested is set out in the following table. It is published each March in the Children's Social Work Statistics release, from the Children Looked After data collection.

We do not hold the 2007 data to this level of detail, and the data from 2008 is of insufficient quality to be included here.

Details are as follows:

2009-10

2010-11

	At home with parents	Away from home	Total	At home with parents	Away from home	Total
Aberdeen City	117	102	219	66	121	187
Aberdeenshire	90	83	173	83	81	164
Angus	31	57	88	40	55	95
Argyll and Bute	41	41	82	19	39	58
Clackmannanshire	44	32	76	32	41	73
Dumfries and Galloway	43	60	103	131	84	215
Dundee City	96	132	228	78	174	252
East Ayrshire	65	50	115	71	98	169
East Dunbartonshire	19	24	43	23	20	43
East Lothian	37	36	73	29	35	64
East Renfrewshire	28	9	37	41	7	48
Edinburgh, City of	162	262	424	157	254	411
Falkirk	84	76	160	77	83	160
Fife	100	180	280	96	181	277
Glasgow	356	360	716	243	414	657
Highland	89	112	201	73	123	196
Inverclyde	70	45	115	50	43	93
Midlothian	54	71	125	36	54	90
Moray	34	54	88	31	47	78
Na h-Eileanan Siar	18	8	26	9	7	16
North Ayrshire	64	83	147	83	97	180
North Lanarkshire	241	37	278	160	70	230
Orkney Islands	*	*	12	*	*	*
Perth and Kinross	34	46	80	29	45	74
Renfrewshire	135	93	228	70	110	180
Scottish Borders	19	61	80	22	52	74
Shetland Islands	*	*	9	*	*	*
South Ayrshire	90	41	131	56	53	109
South Lanarkshire	57	89	146	53	117	170
Stirling	48	37	85	60	52	112
West Dunbartonshire	69	74	143	77	54	131
West Lothian	64	84	148	68	55	123
All	2,409	2,450	4,859	2,068	2,678	4,746

2011-12

2012-13

	At home with parents	Away from home	Total	At home with parents	Away from home	Total
Aberdeen City	63	106	169	80	131	211
Aberdeenshire	70	78	148	50	75	125
Angus	69	48	117	44	51	95
Argyll and Bute	25	45	70	32	38	70
Clackmannanshire	20	39	59	26	42	68
Dumfries and Galloway	95	70	165	59	98	157
Dundee City	83	151	234	55	141	196
East Ayrshire	41	78	119	75	48	123
East Dunbartonshire	25	38	63	20	20	40
East Lothian	37	45	82	18	48	66
East Renfrewshire	51	28	79	51	5	56
Edinburgh, City of	120	312	432	134	285	419
Falkirk	101	78	179	57	9	169
Fife	89	206	295	45	112	281
Glasgow	232	414	646	124	236	525
Highland	86	152	238	57	401	213
Inverclyde	71	48	119	62	156	92
Midlothian	22	57	79	61	30	111
Moray	27	50	77	20	50	74
Na h-Eileanan Siar	10	9	19	13	54	22
North Ayrshire	78	68	146	89	112	201
North Lanarkshire	167	71	238	131	72	203
Orkney Islands	*	*	8	*	*	7
Perth and Kinross	33	58	91	29	60	89
Renfrewshire	86	107	193	65	80	145
Scottish Borders	15	60	75	12	52	64
Shetland Islands	*	*	17	*	*	14
South Ayrshire	65	52	117	59	47	106
South Lanarkshire	116	103	219	84	93	177
Stirling	24	51	75	37	54	91
West Dunbartonshire	61	73	134	47	53	100
West Lothian	54	55	109	62	98	160
All	2,051	2,760	4,811	1,704	2,766	4,470

2013-14

2014-15

	At home with parents	Away from home	Total	At home with parents	Away from home	Total
Aberdeen City	77	93	170	48	91	139
Aberdeenshire	47	81	128	53	82	135
Angus	62	62	124	42	48	90
Argyll and Bute	24	25	49	28	33	61
Clackmannanshire	19	32	51	26	32	58
Dumfries and Galloway	79	90	169	93	85	178
Dundee City	62	116	178	68	129	197
East Ayrshire	58	62	120	51	56	107
East Dunbartonshire	22	25	47	35	32	67
East Lothian	35	37	72	26	39	65
East Renfrewshire	44	6	50	28	14	42
Edinburgh, City of	175	271	446	179	230	409
Falkirk	45	90	135	52	84	136
Fife	58	276	334	57	261	318
Glasgow	78	371	449	127	392	519
Highland	58	177	235	74	119	193
Inverclyde	24	17	41	22	39	61
Midlothian	34	79	113	13	49	62
Moray	17	43	60	31	33	64
Na h-Eileanan Siar	8	8	16	8	9	17
North Ayrshire	115	83	198	110	96	206
North Lanarkshire	110	86	196	102	72	174
Orkney Islands	*	*	18	*	*	8
Perth and Kinross	21	65	86	32	69	101
Renfrewshire	73	82	155	97	77	174
Scottish Borders	15	47	62	12	55	67
Shetland Islands	*	*	8	*	*	15
South Ayrshire	35	35	70	30	48	78
South Lanarkshire	88	105	193	66	82	148
Stirling	29	52	81	24	34	58
West Dunbartonshire	53	61	114	54	60	114
West Lothian	55	72	127	56	81	137
All	1,631	2,664	4,295	1,654	2,544	4,198

Question reference: S5W-01007

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected spend is for children taken into care in its next budget.

Spending on children taken into care is the responsibility of a number of corporate parents set out in schedule 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. The level of spending on looked after children is set by each body, including local authorities. The Scottish Government makes no discrete projections on the level of such spend.

Scottish Government supports corporate parents with a number of nationally funded initiatives funded through the improving outcomes for looked after children budget within the children and families directorate. Funding for these national initiatives and for local government is determined through the annual budget and local government settlement and these will be informed later in 2016 by the spending review.

Question reference: S5W-01006

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the total spend was on looked after children in each year from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2015.

Question reference: S5W-00801

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many air guns were surrendered to police stations during the amnesty between 23 May and 12 June 2016, also broken down by Police Scotland division.

Police Scotland’s ‘SurrendAir’ campaign ran from 23 May 2016 to 12 June 2016, with 72 designated police offices around the country accepting unwanted air weapons in advance of licensing opening on 1 July 2016. During the three week initiative the police collected 11,569 air weapons.

The divisional breakdown of weapons surrendered is as follows:

Division.	Area	Number of weapons surrendered
A	North East	1,562
C	Forth Valley	800
D	Tayside	1,018
E	Edinburgh	616
G	Greater Glasgow	1,020
J	Lothian and Borders	1,210
K	Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	470
L	Argyll and West Dunbartonshire	517
N	Highlands and Islands	1,287
P	Fife	784
Q	Lanarkshire	933
U	Ayrshire	739
V	Dumfries and Galloway	613

Police Scotland will continue to accept unwanted air weapons until licensing is fully in force from 31 December 2016.

Question reference: S5W-00803

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent on (a) print and (b) broadcast advertising and marketing materials to promote the air gun amnesty between 23 May and 12 June 2016.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with Police Scotland to highlight awareness of the legislative change around licensing of air weapons, which opens on 1 July 2016. The first stage of the public information campaign has been to support Police Scotland’s ‘SurrendAir’ campaign for unwanted weapons, which ran from 23 May 2016 to 12 June 2016.

The government spending on this was as follows:

(a) Print advertising - Nil

(b) Broadcast advertising - £18,337.19

Question reference: S5W-00567

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the SQA regarding what checks are put in place to ensure that all exam papers are correctly compiled and moderated.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is responsible for the setting and marking of exam papers. It has robust processes in place to ensure that papers and marking instructions are accurate and set to the correct standard.

Each year, SQA considers in detail the experience of the exam diet across all qualifications, and introduces any modifications considered necessary. The SQA board, appointed by Scottish Ministers, receives regular updates on all aspects of the diet.

In 2015, the former Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning wrote to the Chair of SQA to seek additional assurances on SQA processes, and subsequently met with the Chief Executive of SQA to review progress. I will also be meeting Dr Janet Brown, the Chief Executive of SQA, on a monthly basis.

Scottish Government officials regularly meet with SQA to discuss progress throughout the year on a range of SQA activities.

	FY2007-08	FY 2008-09	FY 2009-10	FY 2010-11	FY 2011-12	FY 2012-13	FY 2013-14	FY 2014-15
Gross Expenditure	£685 million	£721 million	£765 million	£773 million	£792 million	£837 million	£858 million	£887 million