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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: S4W-04979

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on (a) security and (b) rent for properties not in use in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4O-00614

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had about the future of modern language teaching in primary and secondary schools.

Question reference: S4W-04484

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 15 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in its discussions with COSLA, it has been made aware of any moves to reclassify rural schools.

Question reference: S4W-03668

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing in Scotland an equivalent of the Teach First Programme in England and whether it has had discussions with the UK Government regarding the programme.

Teaching Scotland’s Future, the report of the Donaldson Review of Teacher Education, included at Recommendation 4:

“The suitability for Scottish Education of a Teach First/Teach Now model of placing students predominantly in a school for their initial teacher education should be investigated.”

This is one of a range of recommendations being considered by the Early Phase sub-group of the National Partnership Group which is expected to report next summer.

Question reference: S4W-03667

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with the UK Government regarding the Teach First Programme and possible applications in Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-00430

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions ministers have had with the European Parliament regarding additional funding for broadband.

Question reference: S4W-03916

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 18 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many music teachers each local authority has employed in each year since 1999.

Information for 2003-09 is published on the government website in the latter chapters of each year’s Teachers in Scotland, and for 2010 in the Teacher Census supplementary data.

These can be accessed using the following links:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubTeacherCensus

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/teachersupplementarydata.

The data have been summarised in the following table. Information on visiting specialist music teachers was only collected from 2006 onwards. Data for other years were not collected centrally.

Number of Teachers (FTE) whose Main Subject Taught is Recorded as Music

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Aberdeen City	36	34	36	38	38	36	34	24
Aberdeenshire	27	42	44	41	43	47	52	58
Angus	27	21	22	23	25	23	26	25
Argyll and Bute	19	17	14	17	16	20	19	16
Clackmannanshire	7	7	8	8	8	13	12	11
Dumfries and Galloway	29	29	30	29	30	40	29	28
Dundee City	31	30	29	35	33	31	36	29
East Ayrshire	26	26	26	27	23	23	28	25
East Dunbartonshire	23	27	26	30	29	31	26	28
East Lothian	12	12	9	13	9	21	24	23
East Renfrewshire	15	16	15	24	21	29	27	26
Edinburgh, City of	62	70	76	78	58	59	57	55
Eilean Siar	9	7	10	12	12	9	10	10
Falkirk	32	31	33	38	34	34	33	33
Fife	71	67	61	74	60	61	75	75
Glasgow City	72	79	81	87	84	81	86	80
Highland	45	66	49	57	62	60	59	63
Inverclyde	16	19	18	19	18	17	18	17
Midlothian	21	22	23	28	25	25	20	21
Moray	18	18	23	24	19	24	22	21
North Ayrshire	28	25	28	29	29	30	23	23
North Lanarkshire	55	63	66	67	70	70	70	69
Orkney Islands	7	8	8	9	10	8	8	8
Perth and Kinross	23	19	25	30	21	28	29	29
Renfrewshire	20	25	29	33	37	35	36	36
Scottish Borders	30	33	24	28	22	26	26	26
Shetland Islands	11	14	14	13	12	15	14	13
South Ayrshire	21	22	26	24	26	24	24	25
South Lanarkshire	35	37	44	43	41	49	52	59
Stirling	17	17	19	22	19	18	21	24
West Dunbartonshire	24	24	22	23	24	21	19	20
West Lothian	14	8	5	37	42	41	43	41
All local authorities	883	933	943	1,059	999	1,048	1,058	1,042
Grant aided	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

Question reference: S4W-03917

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 18 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been learning to play a musical instrument in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-03669

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 16 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding the provision of music tuition in primary and secondary schools.

Education Scotland now have responsibility for leading and supporting implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and the Scottish Government works closely with them on issues around education and the curriculum.

We believe that music plays an important role in education, helping to shape our sense of personal, social and cultural identity. Learning music and the wider expressive arts also plays a role in supporting children and young people to recognise and value the variety and vitality of culture locally, nationally and globally.

The Scottish Government has recently announced that the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) will continue in 2012-13. In it's tenth year the YMI will continue to be funded at £10 million per annum, with £8 million, routed through Creative Scotland, to local authorities for use in schools to ensure that all children receive the opportunity of one year's music tuition by primary six. The remaining £2 million (also administered by Creative Scotland) is allocated to activities planned and delivered by organisations working within the informal sector, outwith school time. This year, for example, Kingdom Brass in Fife are receiving £30,000 to support a two year programme of growth and development in their youth music programme.

Question reference: S4O-00366

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding motorway gantry signage.