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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: S4O-03017

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what so-called red lines an independent Scotland would set when negotiating membership of the EU.

Question reference: S4O-02867

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what account the business case for the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme takes of the impact that construction work could have on passenger numbers.

Question reference: S4W-18728

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the term "childcare" in its white paper on independence is to be read as "early learning and childcare".

Question reference: S4W-18875

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) breakfast and (b) after-school clubs have been organised by schools in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority.

Information on the number of schools providing breakfast clubs was collected as part of the annual school meals survey until 2010. This information is published on the Scottish Government website in table 23 of the annual School Meals in Scotland publication. Please see following links to the relevant tables:

2007 data on breakfast clubs:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/06/04134749/26

2008 data on breakfast clubs:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/06/11134850/30

2009 data on breakfast clubs:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/06/22104701/30

2010 data on breakfast clubs:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/07/06095048/30

As a result of a consultation in September 2010, on school education statistics collections and publications, information on breakfast clubs is no longer collected. Information on after-school clubs is not available centrally.

Question reference: S4W-18879

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) librarians and (b) science technicians there have been in schools in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority.

The number employed by each local authority is a decision for that authority alone. The information you requested on librarians and science technicians is, however provided in the following tables:

Number of library staff (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013:

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	14	14	14	14	13	11	13
Aberdeenshire	18	19	24	22	23	24	24
Angus	12	13	12	12	12	12	11
Argyll and Bute	8	9	10	9	9	10	10
Clackmannanshire	3	4	3	3	2	3	2
Dumfries and Galloway	11	8	11	11	11	9	10
Dundee City	11	10	11	9	45	9	9
East Ayrshire	8	6	8	7	6	8	9
East Dunbartonshire	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
East Lothian	6	6	6	6	7	6	5
East Renfrewshire	6	7	5	7	6	7	6
Edinburgh, City of	24	19	23	22	23	20	22
Eilean Siar	1	1	1	1	3	1	1
Falkirk	9	9	9	10	9	9	8
Fife	22	20	20	22	20	17	17
Glasgow City	28	28	26	16	4	5	1
Highland	17	19	21	22	20	12	0
Inverclyde	8	6	7	6	5	5	5
Midlothian	6	5	5	6	5	6	4
Moray	9	9	8	9	9	8	8
North Ayrshire	9	10	9	9	9	8	9
North Lanarkshire	25	21	22	23	19	19	17
Orkney Islands	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Perth and Kinross	18	19	18	13	11	12	11
Renfrewshire	11	10	10	10	8	8	6
Scottish Borders	7	8	8	8	7	7	8
Shetland Islands	9	8	7	8	8	6	6
South Ayrshire	7	7	7	8	7	7	8
South Lanarkshire	16	16	8	16	9	8	7
Stirling	5	6	5	6	5	5	5
West Dunbartonshire	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
West Lothian	12	13	13	12	11	11	11
All local authorities	355	346	347	342	341	288	268

Number of Technicians (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013:

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	63	79	78	68	63	63	59
Aberdeenshire	116	115	86	93	93	89	75
Angus	27	25	23	22	23	22	21
Argyll and Bute	23	21	29	30	27	29	29
Clackmannanshire	9	11	9	8	10	10	8
Dumfries and Galloway	50	51	47	46	47	46	45
Dundee City	22	24	23	22	57	20	18
East Ayrshire	32	30	34	27	27	27	26
East Dunbartonshire	39	46	40	39	38	37	38
East Lothian	17	17	17	15	16	14	14
East Renfrewshire	27	28	33	32	28	29	31
Edinburgh, City of	48	42	58	52	55	49	56
Eilean Siar	8	10	10	10	8	8	8
Falkirk	31	31	30	30	33	30	30
Fife	89	89	87	81	64	68	66
Glasgow City	111	118	117	100	79	93	101
Highland	39	45	54	48	36	40	39
Inverclyde	25	24	20	23	17	16	13
Midlothian	12	11	9	13	12	12	13
Moray	37	38	29	32	36	35	35
North Ayrshire	38	38	39	39	37	33	35
North Lanarkshire	101	98	98	101	98	100	84
Orkney Islands	6	7	8	7	7	7	7
Perth and Kinross	26	26	27	30	29	31	28
Renfrewshire	31	26	32	26	25	25	28
Scottish Borders	26	24	25	24	22	22	22
Shetland Islands	3	3	1	1	1	1	1
South Ayrshire	31	29	28	35	34	34	31
South Lanarkshire	92	74	66	76	65	70	64
Stirling	18	20	23	23	22	21	21
West Dunbartonshire	32	30	27	25	12	3	0
West Lothian	37	41	34	37	35	38	44
All local authorities	1265	1271	1241	1215	1156	1122	1089

Question reference: S4W-18729

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what minimum qualification would be required by people employed to deliver early learning and childcare as discussed in its white paper on independence.

Question reference: S4W-18726

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the proposed 1,140 hours of childcare for all one-year-old to school age children would be paid for without increasing any rates of taxation.

Independence offers the opportunity to bring in this long-term proposal as tax revenues generated by more women returning to the labour market will stay in Scotland. The initial investment in early learning and childcare will be funded from the savings and increased revenues set out in “Scotland’s Future”, including reducing defence and security spending to £2.5 billion per year and ending the married couples tax allowance.

Further detail on the link between increased female labour market participation and increased tax revenues is available in the note on Childcare and Female Labour Market Participation at the link below:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00439259.pdf

The Scottish Government does not plan to raise any rates of taxation to pay for the expansion of early learning and childcare set out in “Scotland’s Future”.

Question reference: S4W-18877

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) classroom assistants and (b) additional support for learning staff there have been in schools in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority.

The number employed by each local authority is a decision for that authority alone. The information you requested on classroom assistants and additional support for learning staff is, however, provided in the following tables:

Number of classroom assistants (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	176	189	207	224	186	199	219
Aberdeenshire	190	174	178	177	178	190	73
Angus	133	136	121	128	115	122	126
Argyll and Bute	115	95	93	94	81	99	75
Clackmannanshire	63	62	55	55	54	78	85
Dumfries and Galloway	143	128	133	95	76	77	75
Dundee City	102	99	71	89	66	57	68
East Ayrshire	288	219	190	215	208	224	209
East Dunbartonshire	209	155	148	131	104	103	100
East Lothian	50	47	45	47	49	48	50
East Renfrewshire	70	86	79	86	141	106	103
Edinburgh, City of	434	436	396	440	475	495	552
Eilean Siar	32	31	30	23	24	22	19
Falkirk	334	392	371	309	340	338	339
Fife	215	222	181	200	196	179	156
Glasgow City	718	735	694	648	828	1086	1077
Highland	136	159	143	175	131	0	0
Inverclyde	106	95	77	88	89	89	85
Midlothian	180	103	116	121	111	109	120
Moray	138	112	109	103	69	118	70
North Ayrshire	300	329	338	313	291	299	300
North Lanarkshire	400	393	388	367	379	373	371
Orkney Islands	32	32	37	19	18	18	19
Perth and Kinross	69	65	83	81	79	80	81
Renfrewshire	258	228	244	191	115	140	109
Scottish Borders	44	45	49	49	76	50	54
Shetland Islands	18	17	19	18	18	17	18
South Ayrshire	136	130	110	122	110	112	202
South Lanarkshire	176	232	212	227	325	165	230
Stirling	80	83	107	123	173	256	119
West Dunbartonshire	234	216	227	184	219	154	120
West Lothian	164	242	281	288	299	263	281
All local authorities	5743	5687	5532	5430	5623	5666	5505

Number of additional support needs auxiliary or care assistants (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	331	361	278	273	215	211	207
Aberdeenshire	528	572	540	565	524	513	673
Angus	87	91	107	108	104	110	111
Argyll and Bute	80	81	136	140	173	218	162
Clackmannanshire	124	89	74	84	83	49	62
Dumfries and Galloway	174	202	155	178	205	216	229
Dundee City	93	122	161	139	229	162	355
East Ayrshire	6	8	59	28	38	13	37
East Dunbartonshire	225	202	195	195	191	207	202
East Lothian	76	70	82	94	119	134	133
East Renfrewshire	157	112	128	114	60	153	112
Edinburgh, City of	262	156	195	194	161	116	122
Eilean Siar	73	75	77	64	70	66	75
Falkirk	116	102	104	147	103	111	95
Fife	505	522	491	565	595	585	627
Glasgow City	612	655	578	488	291	599	120
Highland	378	370	460	541	509	638	669
Inverclyde	164	155	154	135	140	141	136
Midlothian	20	63	65	65	86	96	63
Moray	199	210	196	171	223	305	461
North Ayrshire	26	21	5	10	1	3	0
North Lanarkshire	543	514	525	498	495	468	485
Orkney Islands	11	5	2	42	42	46	56
Perth and Kinross	185	178	243	198	218	219	257
Renfrewshire	159	164	113	144	178	139	197
Scottish Borders	149	150	167	157	146	162	152
Shetland Islands	86	87	82	92	96	100	84
South Ayrshire	120	125	114	120	130	121	66
South Lanarkshire	267	242	246	241	212	340	298
Stirling	64	113	89	75	157	59	68
West Dunbartonshire	44	59	39	71	42	122	121
West Lothian	163	171	128	80	27	72	88
All local authorities	6024	6047	5991	6016	5863	6494	6522

Question reference: S4W-18719

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the expected annual increase in tax revenues would be from providing (a) 600 hours of childcare to half of the country's two-year-olds, (b) 1,140 hours of childcare to three and four-year-olds and vulnerable two-year-olds and (c) 1,140 hours of childcare to all children from one to school age.

Improving access to high quality early learning and childcare reduces barriers to parents’ participation in the labour market and is considered to be a crucial element of the wider equality and welfare policy package that would improve economic activity, particularly for females.

As an illustration, the Scottish Government has provided estimates of the potential long-run changes in key economic variables, including tax revenues that could result from increasing female labour market participation in Scotland to match some of the best performing countries in The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on this measure. This analysis showed that, for example, matching the female economic activity rate in Sweden could increase tax revenues by around £700 million per annum in the long-term. Further detail on the results of this analysis is available in the note on childcare and female labour market participation at the link below:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00439259.pdf

Question reference: S4W-18713

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the estimated 35,000 new jobs to be created by its proposed increase in childcare provision will result from providing (a) 600 hours of childcare to half of the country’s two-year-olds, (b) 1,140 hours of childcare to three and four-year-olds and vulnerable two-year-olds and (c) 1,140 hours of childcare to all children from one to school age.