Michael Russell

25 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proof of ownership will be required to exempt third party goods from poinding during actions for the recovery of commercial debt.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29971 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at <A HREF="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/searc…

25 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements it is making to ensure that goods in the ownership of third parties are not poinded during actions for recovery of commercial debt.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Executive is not making new arrangements in relation to existing safeguards for third party articles in actions for recovery of commercial debt. In this respect, the procedure proposed in the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Bill is essentially …

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it currently provides for the promotion and development of women's sport.

Answer · Elaine Murray: The national strategy for sport, <I>Sport 21</I>, has a target to increase the participation of women in sport.<B><P>Sport</B>scotland are represented on the UK Co-ordinating Group for Women in Sport. This group has the aim of forming a collective strategy fo…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many indoor tennis facilities are managed by each local authority and what the average hourly cost is of hiring such facilities.

Answer · Elaine Murray: The City of Aberdeen Council has four indoor courts, the City of Edinburgh Council has six indoor courts, Glasgow City Council has eight indoor courts at Scotstoun Leisure Centre and four indoor courts at Gorbals Leisure Centre, and East Dunbartonshire Counci…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to target 3 in the tourism, culture and sport section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys, whether it will define "under-represented groups" and how many people from such groups are currently estimated to be participating in cultura…

Answer · Elaine Murray: Technical Notes setting out the detail for each target in <I>Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys</I> will be available shortly. The Technical Notes will include information on definitions, who will gather the data, how…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many schools have had broadband connection in each year since 1999.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Figures on broadband connections to schools are published in the <I>Survey of Information and Communication Technology in Schools</I> for the years 2000 and 2001. No figures are available for 1999 as the survey of that year did not seek information on broadba…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to section 2.4 of Working Together for Scotland: A Programme for Government, what progress has been made towards achieving the aim to support pilot future school projects, giving details of any such projects currently planned or under way.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Details of pilot future school projects supported by the Executive will be published shortly, in line with our commitment in <I>Working together for Scotland: A Programme for Government</I>.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to section 2.4 of Working Together for Scotland: A Programme for Government, what progress has been made towards achieving the aim to reduce re-referrals to hearings for children and young people on offence grounds by 10% by 2004.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: We are implementing the 10-point action plan announced on 27 June, building on existing strategies to reduce youth crime and disorder.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which recommendations made by the expert panel on school meals it has accepted in full and how much funding has been provided for the implementation of each such recommendation.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The panel is currently consulting on the recommendations within its interim report and will consider all responses before submitting a final report. We will consider what action to take once we receive the panel's final report later this year.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will define "improving the quality of life in our schools", as referred to in the education and young people section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys

Answer · Nicol Stephen: In <I>Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys</I> we indicated that we would invest £60 million in improving the quality of life in our schools. We shall announce shortly the arrangements under which this money will be mad…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public sector schools are currently undertaking redevelopment or rebuild projects and how many such projects are being funded by public private partnerships or private finance initiatives.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is not held centrally.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28041 by Nicol Stephen on 27 August 2002, what the (a) starting date, (b) cost, (c) date of completion and (d) school roll in the year of completion was for each new public sector school completed between April 1999 and March 2001.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is not held centrally.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28041 by Nicol Stephen on 27 August 2002, whether it will list the 14 new public sector schools completed between April 1999 and March 2001 that were not funded by public private partnership or private finance initiative.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The 14 schools are Charleston Primary School (Aberdeen), Rosemount Primary School (Angus), Auchinleck Primary School (East Ayrshire), Eaglesham Nursery (East Renfrewshire), Ullapool High School (Highland), Gourock Primary School (Inverclyde), Beith Primary Sc…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the purpose is of Education Action Plan funding; whether it will give any examples of how such funding is used; which local authorities have received such funding in each year since the funding was introduced, and what level of funding was received in each case.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Education Action Plan programme came to an end on 31 March 2002. The purpose of the funding was to provide additional time-limited support to help education authorities to raise standards in schools facing major challenge.<P>A total of £14.1 million was m…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have access to an after school club.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Executive does not collect figures on the number of children who have access to an after school club. However, based on information from the 2002 Pre-school and Daycare Census, we estimate that during the census week in January this year there were approx…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many newly-qualified or probationary teachers did not enter employment in a public sector secondary school in August in each year since 1995.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is not held centrally.<P>However, Table 20 of the <I>Standard Tables on Higher Education and Further Education in Scotland 1995-96 to 2000-01</I> published on 26 September contains information on the first destinations of newly train…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average annual turnover of teachers in publicy-funded schools has been in each year since 1995, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Information on the annual turnover of teachers in publicly-funded schools can only be calculated from the Teacher Flow Survey, which has been conducted since 1996. The following tables show the percentages entering and leaving local authority employment from …

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many days have been lost on average because of ill health amongst public sector teachers in each year since 1995, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is not held centrally.<P>The management of teacher absence and the causes of absence are matters for individual local authorities as employers. However, Scottish local authorities provide Audit Scotland with information on sickness a…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers have taken early retirement in each year since 1995.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The table shows how many teachers have retired early from the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=236><TR><TD WIDTH="36%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year</TD><TD WIDTH="36%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Premature<P>(under 60)</TD>…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many supply teachers were temporarily employed in a publicly-funded secondary school in August in each year since 1995.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is not held centrally.

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of pupils did not reach 5-14 attainment levels relating to their stage of primary and secondary education in each local authority area in each year since 1999, broken down by age cohort and subject.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The following tables show the percentage of pupils in each local authority who did not reach the target 5-14 attainment level for their stage in the school years 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01. The school stages where there are target levels of 5-14 attainmen…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school-based candidates for examinations at SCE higher grade or Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework level 6 obtained a qualification in a language other than English in each year since 1995

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The following table shows the numbers of school-based candidates obtaining at least one qualification at SCQF level 6 in a language other than English (for publicly funded schools only):<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=198><TR><TD WIDTH="24%" V…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school-based candidates entered for examination in at least one (a) SCE higher grade or (b) qualification at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework level 6 in each year since 1995.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The following table shows the numbers of school-based candidates entered for an examination at SCQF Level 6 (for publicly funded schools only):<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=198><TR><TD WIDTH="24%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year</TD><TD WIDTH="76%" VAL…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of students staying on in S5 beyond December obtained at least one (a) SCE higher grade or (b) national qualification at higher level in each year since 1995.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The following table shows the proportion of students voluntarily staying on in S5 who obtained at least one qualification at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Level 6 which includes SCE Higher and National Qualifications at Higher Level (for publicly funded …

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the S4 cohort progressed to S5 and stayed on at school beyond December in each year since 1995.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The following table shows the proportions of the S4 cohort who voluntarily stayed on at school beyond the minimum school leaving age (for publicly funded schools only):<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=255><TR><TD WIDTH="33%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Yea…

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why there are no targets relating to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework level 6 or above under objective 3 in the education and young people section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The emphasis is to ensure that as many pupils as possible obtain qualifications, and especially those who are currently leaving school without qualifications. The targets chosen for <I>Building A Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-2006: what the money …

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the Social Justice Annual Report: Scotland 2001, when it hopes to achieve the milestone 9 target to bring the poorest-performing 20% of pupils, in terms of standard grade achievement, closer to the performance of all pupils.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Education authorities are being asked to set for the first time, via the School Improvement Framework, a target for the average tariff score of their lowest attaining 20% of pupils for academic year 2004-05. We will be monitoring progress against these local …

24 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to milestone 9 of the Social Justice Annual Report: Scotland 2001 and, in particular, the information presented graphically in chart 9, what the average tariff scores in S4 were in figures for (a) all students, (b) the poorest-performing 20% and (c) the remaining 80%.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is given on page 39 of the <I>Social Justice Annual Report 2001: Indicators of Progress</I> published by the Scottish Executive in 2001, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 17777).

13 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what priority it gives to the safety and security of those living in local authority sheltered accommodation.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Scottish Executive considers that the safety and security of residents of all sheltered housing including that provided by local authorities is paramount.<P>Since the establishment of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care in April 2002 under …

13 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what national standards of care apply to the provision of warden services in sheltered housing and whether any such standards contain information on the minimum acceptable levels of staffing and hours of provision of the service.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish ministers, prior to the establishment of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (Care Commission) on 1 April 2002, published national care standards covering a wide range of care provision. The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 defin…