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: S2W-26733

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25794 by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006, whilst it is not aware of any targets for adoption set by local authorities, whether it has set any targets for adoption of children.

Question reference: S2W-26728

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26016 by Lewis Macdonald on 30 May 2006, what are listed as grounds for referral in section 52 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

Section 52(2) of the Children(Scotland) Act 1995 states that a child may be in need of compulsory measures of supervisionif at least one of a list of conditions is satisfied in respect of the child.

These conditions are generallyreferred to as “grounds for referral”. There are 12 conditions or grounds whichmay indicate the child is in need of compulsory measures of supervision as follows:

The child:

A. is beyond the control of anyrelevant person;

B. is falling into bad associationsor is exposed to moral danger;

C. is likely to suffer unnecessarilyor be impaired seriously in his health or development, due to lack of parental care;

D. is a child in respect of whoma Schedule 1 offence has been committed;

E. is or is likely to becomea member of the same household as a child against whom a Schedule 1 offence hasbeen committed;

F. is, or is likely to become,a member of the same household as a person who has committed a schedule 1 offence;

G. is or is likely to becomea member of the same household as a person who has committed the offence of incestor sexual intercourse with a child by a step-parent or person in a position of trust;

H. has failed to attend schoolregularly without reasonable excuse;

I. has committedan offence;

J. has misused alcohol or anydrugs, whether or not a controlled drug within the meaning of the Misuse of DrugsAct 1971;

K. has misused a volatile substanceby deliberately inhaling its vapour, other than for medicinal purposes, and

L. is being provided with accommodationby a local authority under section 25, or is the subject of a parental responsibilitiesorder obtained under section 86 and, in either case, his behaviour is such thatspecial measures are necessary for his adequate supervision in his interest or theinterest of others.

Question reference: S2W-26734

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26018 by Robert Brown on 30 May 2006, whether this answer indicates that social workers do not have to declare to their employers or the Scottish Social Services Council any additional work in which they may be engaged beyond their employment as a registered social worker.

Provision of full employmenthistory when applying for registration with the Scottish Social Services Council(SSSC) comprises all work social workers have undertaken since leaving school, includingall work undertaken outside social services, work undertaken on a voluntary basisand work outside the UK.

Theyare also obliged to inform SSSC about any change in their circumstances includingnew employment.

It is a matter for employersto decide what information they require employees to declare.

Question reference: S2W-26731

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26016 by Lewis Macdonald on 30 May 2006, if Munchausen syndrome by proxy, or fabricating or inducing illness, are not grounds for referral to the Principal Reporter, how they are defined within existing legislation.

Question reference: S2W-26666

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26487 by Allan Wilson on 8 June 2006, what the cost will be of the evaluation of the Skills for Business Network and how the evaluation will be funded.

Question reference: S2W-26667

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26487 by Allan Wilson on 8 June 2006, who has been commissioned with undertaking the Evaluation of the Skills for Business Network and when the evaluation will be completed

Question reference: S2W-26730

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26016 by Lewis Macdonald on 30 May 2006, whether section 52 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is the only legislation governing the grounds for referral to the Principal Reporter and, if not, what other legislation exists.

Question reference: S2W-26736

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children in each local authority area have been taken into care in each year since 1995 and, of these, how many were diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder.

The numbers of children who startedto be looked after in each year since 1999-2000 are shown in the following table.Information for previous years, and information about how many children startingto be looked after were diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder, are not heldcentrally. However, information about the number of children looked after as at31 March each year since 2000 with autism is presented at a national level in Children’sSocial Work Statistics 2004-05 (Bib. number 38157). This information is not providedat local authority level because much of the data would need to be suppressed toprotect confidentiality.

Local Authority Area	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen City	247	199	194	235	193	303
Aberdeenshire	227	118	116	114	160	163
Angus	54	52	73	70	79	79
Argyll and Bute	143	131	138	110	85	80
Clackmannanshire	30	37	59	54	64	72
Dumfries and Galloway	135	137	183	161	126	134
Dundee City	206	163	176	172	209	222
East Ayrshire	120	141	126	143	124	85
East Dunbartonshire	62	42	29	43	41	33
East Lothian	64	120	110	88	83	63
East Renfrewshire	56	16	25	14	44	18
Edinburgh, City of	352	449	404	427	349	367
Eilean Siar	16	16	16	20	19	35
Falkirk	88	85	75	98	77	109
Fife	181	221	183	214	207	275
Glasgow City	861	922	717	671	680	593
Highland	187	144	140	144	125	161
Inverclyde	17	35	57	178	125	107
Midlothian	129	88	73	69	81	82
Moray	46	32	226	174	109	142
North Ayrshire	192	208	155	108	141	151
North Lanarkshire	289	290	250	258	212	125
Orkney Isles	17	15	10	7	17	11
Perth and Kinross	97	88	68	57	63	49
Renfrewshire	119	176	264	264	242	160
Scottish Borders	105	88	81	93	88	78
Shetland	12	9	6	9	8	9
South Ayrshire	76	89	131	76	130	107
South Lanarkshire	236	275	214	171	139	189
Stirling	89	68	67	71	63	51
West Dunbartonshire	135	118	127	115	125	132
West Lothian	184	122	185	85	357	148
Scotland	4,771	4,694	4,678	4,513	4,564	4,333

Question reference: S2W-26727

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26016 by Lewis Macdonald on 30 May 2006, whether this answer indicates that it and its agencies, such as the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, have no records or knowledge of children being taken into care as a result of a referral on the grounds of Munchausen syndrome by proxy in either or both parents.

Question reference: S2W-26462

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-24473 by Cathy Jamieson on 13 April 2006, how it reconciles the statement that no credible or reliable information exists regarding the facilitation of “extraordinary rendition” flights through Scottish airports by US agencies with its statement, in answer to question S2W-24475 by Cathy Jamieson on 13 April 2006, that it would not comment on the credibility of a report handed to it by Angus Robertson MP regarding the existence of such flights, on the grounds that “it is not for ministers to judge the credibility, or otherwise, of the information in the report”.