Chamber and committees

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: S3W-26725

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 24 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Renfrewshire Council’s policy of removing all full-time teachers and head teachers from nurseries and pre-5 establishments is in line with the Scottish National Party’s manifesto commitments.

Question reference: S3W-26727

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that priority should be given to either ex-probationers or recent graduates in the allocation of teaching supply work.

Two of the recommendations of the Teacher Employment Working Group report published last year referred to post probationers and supply work. These were:

Recommendation 4: Local authority employers should wherever possible use post-probation teachers to fill supply vacancies.

Recommendation 5: Local authorities should consider making more use of permanent supply pools to ensure stable employment opportunities are available to post-probation teachers.

The purpose of both recommendations was to help to develop more employment opportunities for post-probationer teachers. The Scottish Government accepted these recommendations along with all the other recommendations of the report. The recommendations on supply are for local authorities as the employers of teachers to take forward while bearing in mind age discrimination legislation. The recommendations aimed at local authorities were drawn to their attention in a letter issued by officials on 12 December 2008.

Question reference: S3W-26726

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether guidance has been offered to local authorities about the employment of supply teachers and, if so, what guidance.

The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, the tripartite body responsible for pay and conditions of service for teachers, has developed a Code of Practice on the Use of Temporary Contracts which aims to assist councils in managing their staffing requirements in a co-ordinated way and ensure that employees on temporary contracts are not treated less favourably than permanent staff.

In addition two of the recommendations of the Teacher Employment Working Group report published last year referred to post probationers and supply work. These are:

Recommendation 4: Local authority employers should wherever possible use post-probation teachers to fill supply vacancies.

Recommendation 5: Local authorities should consider making more use of permanent supply pools to ensure stable employment opportunities are available to post-probation teachers.

The purpose of these recommendations was to help to develop more opportunities for post-probationer teachers. The recommendations on supply are for local authorities as the employers of teachers to take forward while bearing in mind both employment and age legislation.

Question reference: S3W-27087

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, given the shortage of teaching positions and the rise in those seeking teaching supply positions, whether it will consider making teaching disclosure arrangements portable so that there are no unnecessary delays in supply teachers securing work.

It has been recognised that a Disclosure Scotland check is valid only on the day of issue. This means that they are not portable and this can be a burden for some users. This will change when the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Scheme (PVG Scheme) is introduced next year.

The PVG Scheme will establish a membership scheme that people doing regulated work (and that includes teaching) will be able to join. The PVG Scheme will be membership-based and workforce specific. This means that membership will be portable between posts in the same workforce. One advantage for the scheme member and the prospective employer is that once someone is in the PVG Scheme, a full written application will not be needed if the teacher moves to a new post in a different council area. A scheme record update will be available that will confirm to the new employer that membership is still valid.

At week ending, 6 September 2009, the average turnaround time for standard and enhanced applications that were correctly completed and which did not require further enquiries disclosures was 7.6 days. An enhanced disclosure would be the level requested for teaching positions.

Question reference: S3W-27086

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reasons it considers it reasonable for each local authority to require a different disclosure arrangement for each supply teacher when the relevant teacher has a record of service in other local authority areas where disclosure has taken place.

There is no requirement in the Police Act 1997 (the legislation under which Disclosure Scotland operates) for criminal record checks to be carried out. It is, however, an offence (under the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003) for an employer to offer such work to someone who is disqualified. It is also an offence for someone who is disqualified from working with children to seek work in a child care post in Scotland. Teaching is a child care post and a prospective employer would have to be satisfied that an offence was not being committed with regard to a new member of staff.

Current Disclosure Scotland checks are not transferable because they are post‘specific meaning that their content could vary from employer to employer. Also, employers cannot share certificates with each other. The subject of the check can show his or her certificate to anyone but that does not mean that a future employer would be willing to accept one from an earlier date.

Under arrangements to be introduced next year, teachers “ and others working with vulnerable groups “ will apply once to join the new Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme. Once they are a member of this scheme, employers would be notified of any change in the disclosure status of their employees. Any new employer would be able to perform a simple check to ensure that a prospective new employee to work with vulnerable groups is already a member of the scheme.

A Disclosure Scotland check is one aspect of good recruitment practice and it should be used in conjunction with interviewing, taking up references and exploring career history. Local authority recruitment policy and employment decisions are matters for councils and it would not be appropriate for ministers to comment on either.

Question reference: S3O-07849

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the forthcoming housing Bill will tackle public concern that factors continue to rely on responsible tenants to meet the full costs of communal repairs and are not effectively pursuing owners unwilling to contribute.

Question reference: S3O-07732

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that public bodies and local authorities pay their bills within 10 days of receipt.

The payment performance of the Scottish Government and the bodies that use the Scottish Government''s systems is at a very high level, with an average of 95% of payments for the month of August 2009 made within 10 days consistent with the kind of levels we have been sustaining over a number of months.

The commitment to the 10 day target was communicated to all of our public bodies and to colleagues in health boards and local government. All public bodies are being encouraged to adopt this target in as short a timescale as possible. However, the necessary action lies with those bodies.

Question reference: S3O-07648

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 3 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address knife crime in Paisley.

Question reference: S3W-26234

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Renfrewshire benefited from the Energy Assistance Package between 1 April and 30 July 2009 and to which specific aspect(s) of the package can each be attributed.

The number of people and the number of households benefiting from the Energy Assistance Package in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire Council areas during the period requested, as notified by the Energy Saving Trust, was 450 and 327 respectively.

The aspects of the package attributed to applicants are shown in the following table:

Aspect	Households Benefiting
Energy Saving Advice	363
Income Maximisation Referral	102
Tariff Check Signposting	134
Stage 3 Referral	115
Stage 4 Referral	45
Total	759

Note: Some households may benefit from more than one aspect of the package.

Question reference: S3W-26182

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-25932 by John Swinney on 28 July 2009, whether it regards it as desirable that local authorities publish real terms data for their major spending programmes.