Parliamentary questions

Nicola Sturgeon

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

5 Jul 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the minimum entry qualifications for admission to teacher education courses have been lowered for any subjects.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The minimum entry requirements for admission to teacher education courses have not been lowered for any subject.

5 Jul 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by education authority of free school meals uptake as at the last available census day.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The information requested is shown in the table below and has been derived from the 1999-2000 Survey of School Meals conducted by the Scottish Executive Education Department.Free School Meal Uptake in January 2000 by Education Authority<TAB…

5 Jul 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a national breakdown of placing requests for pre-school education in 1998-99 by type and outcome.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The Scottish Executive does not collect this information centrally.

5 Jul 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of placing requests in 1998-99 by type and outcome broken down by education authority.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The information requested is given in the attached table.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 BORDERCOLOR="#000000" CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=650><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=16 HEIGHT=14>Education Authority Primary & Secondary Schools, 1998…

6 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children subject to home supervision requirements by Children's Panels in the last year have not been allocated to a social worker within (a) one month, (b) six months and (c) one year of the order being made, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Implementation of supervision requirements made by children's hearings, whether for supervision at home or in residential accommodation, is a matter for individual local authorities. The information requested is not held centrally.The Time …

6 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S1W-5364 lodged on 1 March 2000.

Answer · Peter Peacock: I refer to the answer I gave to question S1W-7690.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6255 by Mr Jack McConnell on 10 May 2000, why the #42 million undistributed Excellence Fund has been excluded from AEF when it is included in the GSE figure for education in Investing in You and formed part of the GAE figure for education notified to…

Answer · Jack McConnell: Question S1W-6255 sought information on the aggregate external finance (AEF) for particular individual councils, thus my reply quoted the relevant AEF distribution figures published in the report which accompanied the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order…

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4231 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 18 February 2000, what programmes the #13.45 million remaining in the Excellence Fund for 2000-01 will be allocated to, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: Announcements on the balance of resources will follow once decisions have been made on their allocation.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce maximum class si'es for primary three to primary seven.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: We have made regulations to set a maximum class size of 30 for primary three from August 2001. A maximum class size of 33 for primary four to seven is set by an agreement of the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee. This will remain in force following commenc…

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funds was left in the education budget at the end of the last financial year.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The position regarding expenditure by the Education Department in 1999-2000, and any possible underspend, will be subject to the production of final accounts for that period. These accounts will be published on 31 August 2000.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding was provided to the Children's Traffic Club in Scotland in each year since it was formed and what the club's projected funding is in the next three years.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive provides grant to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign to fund free membership of the Children's Traffic Club in Scotland for all children aged three to four years in Scotland who are registered by their parents. Invitations to register ar…

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S1W-6744 and S1W-6745 by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2000, what target percentage of (a) primary schools and (b) special schools will have access to the internet for World Wide Web use by the end of (i) 2000 and (ii) 2001.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has not set any intermediate targets for schools' Internet access.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S1W-6732, S1W-6733 and S1W-6734 by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2000, to provide details, from information collated from the October 1999 School Survey of Information and Communication Technology, of the ratio of computers of less than four years of age to p…

Answer · Peter Peacock: The data collected in the October 1999 Schools ICT Survey do not distinguish computers used mainly for administration purposes. The information requested will be available when the detailed results of the 1999 School Census are published in July 2000.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S1W-6740, S1W-6741 and S1W-6748 by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2000, what target percentage of pupils in (a) secondary schools, (b) primary schools and (c) special schools will have their own e-mail addresses by the end of (i) 2000 and (ii) 2001.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has not set any intermediate targets for schools to have their own e-mail addresses.

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6739 by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2000, whether it intends to introduce targets for the provision of e-mail addresses to teachers in pre-school centres.

Answer · Peter Peacock: No. Staff in pre-school teams are variously qualified; and the potential for using ICT in pre-school settings needs to be thoroughly and sensitively explored. Our priority for this sector is to assess the scope for using ICT as an aid to young children's lear…

5 Jun 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S1W-6736, S1W-6737 and S1W-6738 by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2000, what target percentage of teachers in (a) secondary schools, (b) primary schools and (c) special schools will have their own e-mail addresses by the end of (i) 2000 and (ii) 2001.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has not set any intermediate targets for teachers' e-mail addresses.

17 May 2000 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to receive the report of the McCrone Committee of Inquiry into the professional conditions of teachers.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: 31 May.

16 May 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to attract new graduates into the teaching profession.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive undertakes a wide range of recruitment publicity activities to attract new graduates into the profession.Work currently undertaken by the Department to promote teaching as a career includes production of publicity mat…

16 May 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to increase the number of female teachers in promoted posts in publicly funded (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: Promotion procedures for teaching staff are a matter for local authorities. In developing procedures they must take account of employment and equal opportunities legislation.

16 May 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to increase the number of male teachers in publicly funded (a) pre-school education, (b) primary schools and (c) special schools.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Recruitment of teachers to posts in publicly funded schools is a matter for education authorities. The Scottish Executive actively promotes teaching as a career through a range of recruitment and publicity measures. At career events and on other occasions the…

16 May 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current pupil/teacher ratio is in publicly funded (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) pre-school education.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The latest information available from the 1998 School Census provides the following pupil:teacher ratios in publicly funded schools: At September 1998:(a) 19.4 in Primary Schools, (b) 13.0 in Secondary…

16 May 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent teachers were employed in publicly funded (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) pre-school education in 1999.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Figures on how many full-time equivalent teachers were employed in publicly funded (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) pre-school education in 1999 are not yet available. The most recent information is for 1998 and is avail…