Parliamentary questions

Mary Mulligan

707 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

9 Jan 2008 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what capital funding it is making available to respond to increasing demands at local health centres.

Answer · Shona Robison: An announcement was made in October2007 to confirm allocations of £23 million for the Primary and Community Care PremisesModernisation Programme (PCCPMP) in 2008-09 and this week this amount has been increasedby a further £6.8 million.NHS boards also r…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what agencies, apart from local authority social work departments, will be involved with the national Child Protection Line.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The range of agencies involved with the CPLine are represented on the CPLine Working Group which consists of several Child Protection Committee (CPC) representatives, including social work and police. In addition, the working group includes representatives fr…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff will be recruited to provide the national Child Protection Line and how they will be managed.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The tender for this service waswon last January (2007) by Essentia Group based in Glasgow. Essentiarun this service using a reserved bureau of 26 specialist staff within their staffcomplement of 400+ who work exclusively on the CPLine and other more specialis…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the national Child Protection Line will be funded.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The tender for this nationalservice was won last January by Essentia Group based in Glasgow. Operationalcosts paid to Essentia to date (after 10 months of service) amount to £29,100. Weexpect the operating costs for the first year of service to be around £35,…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executivehow many calls were made to the national Child Protection Line pilots held in Highland, Edinburgh, north-east Scotland and Midlothian; in what period the calls were made, and how these figures compared with the numbers of calls made to social work and children’s agencies prior to the pilot…

Answer · Adam Ingram: We do not hold information centrallyon the numbers of calls made to local social work and children’s agencies.The CPLine has been operatingas a national service since its launch last February. The following table showsthe number of calls received each …

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what lessons it has learned from the national Child Protection Line pilots held in Highland, Edinburgh, north-east Scotland and Midlothian.

Answer · Adam Ingram: S3W-8239 answered on 21 January 2008, explainsthat the service was launched last February on a national basis and the fourareas named were not pilots except in terms of the locally-tailored PR campaignwhich accompanied the launch.Lessons already learnt…

7 Jan 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish an analysis of the national Child Protection Line pilots held in Highland, Edinburgh, north-east Scotland and Midlothian.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The 24 hour national freephonegateway line to local child protection service providers was launched inFebruary 2007. It was not piloted in Highland, Edinburgh, north-east Scotland and Midlothian as described in recent media reports, but was fromthe outset a n…

2 Jan 2008 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its timetable is for developing its early years strategy.

Answer · Adam Ingram: As I confirmed in the courseof the debate on early years in October, we aim to publish the early years strategyby summer or autumn 2008.

7 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers are expected to retire in each of the next four years.

Answer · Maureen Watt: In the annual teacherworkforce planning exercise the number of teachers retiring each year are notdistinguished from those leaving for other reasons.

7 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many student teachers are expected to successfully complete teacher training courses in each of the next four years.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The number of studentteachers successfully completing their courses in the next four years willdepend on two factors, the numbers currently on the four year BEd degreecourses and the number entering the one year Professional Graduate Diploma inEducation cours…

7 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are expected to begin teacher training courses in each of the next four years.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The annual intakes toteacher training courses are matters for the Scottish Funding Council. the Scottish Government offers advice to the Funding Council on these matters andthe advice for 2008-09 is currently being prepared.

7 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what actions it will take other than class size reductions to raise the educational attainment of children living in poverty and deprivation.

Answer · Maureen Watt: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-7215 on 12 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/w…

7 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its statement that “local government will deliver year-on-year progress in reducing class sizes in primary 1 to primary 3 to a maximum of 18 pupils” (Official Report, c. 4067), when it expects the reduction to be complete.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The delivery of a reductionin primary 1 to primary 3 class sizes to a maximum of 18 will be dependent onthe rate of progress made by individual local authorities. We expect localauthorities to make year on year progress towards reducing primary 1 to primary3 …

29 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take to raise the educational attainment of children identified as living in poverty.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The concordat thatwe have signed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities is founded on improvingeducational outcomes and providing more choices and more chances for all childrenand young people, including those identified as living in poverty.<p…

29 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are living in poverty.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: This information ispublished in the Scottish Household’sBelow Average Income Statistics Publication Notice 2005-06 – Revised (Bib. number 43209).

29 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Sure Start programme can be used to reach children and families identified as the most difficult to reach.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Under the terms of the concordat between the Scottish Government and local government, resources allocatedunder the Sure Start formula through the unhypothecated Revenue Support Grant, remainto fund work around improving children’s social and emotional develo…

29 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Sure Start programme can help to raise children out of poverty.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Sure Start Scotland was intended to deliver four high-level objectives aroundsupport for vulnerable families with very young children rather than an anti-povertymeasure. Under the terms of the concordat between the Scottish Government and localgovernment, res…

29 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be spent on the Sure Start programme in each year of the 2008-11 spending review.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Resources allocatedto local authorities under the Sure Start Scotland formula through the unhypothecated Revenue Support Grant remain availablefor local authorities to meet the needs of vulnerable families with very young children.

21 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people from Scotland entered higher education in countries outside the United Kingdom in each of the last five years, also showing the percentages that these numbers represented of all young people entering further education.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: This information isnot held centrally.

21 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people from Scotland entered further education in countries outside the United Kingdom in each of the last five years, also showing the percentages that these numbers represented of all young people entering further education.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: This information isnot held centrally.

21 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding will be made available to West Lothian Council to deliver class sizes of 18 or less in primary 1 to primary 3.

Answer · Adam Ingram: There are substantialadditional resources to help local authorities lower class sizes. On 20 June weannounced the provision of an additional £9 million additional funding to employ300 additional teachers in pre-school and in primary 1 to 3 in deprived areas. …

21 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects children in primary 1 to primary 3 in West Lothian schools to be taught in classes of 18 or less.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The Concordatbetween the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish LocalAuthorities sets out how we will work with councils, including West Lothian, toreduce class sizes as quickly as possible as part of our approach to earlyyears intervention.

21 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is committed to supporting the development of business improvement districts after March 2008.

Answer · John Swinney: We have providedsignificant support for the six business improvement district (BID) pilots in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 in theexpectation that they will put their proposals successfully to ballot.Based on theexperience of the BID pilots, the onus is now…

21 Nov 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to improve pre-school education.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Improving pre-schooleducation is a key priority for the Scottish Government. We have already increasedentitlement from 412.5 to 475 hours and will increase entitlement further to 570hours from August 2010. We are working with partners to provide access to a t…