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-08708

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-7295 and S2W-8168 by Peter Peacock on 27 April and 25 May 2004 respectively, how many teacher vacancies there were in each local authority in (a) mathematics, (b) physics, (c) technology and design, (d) modern languages, (e) English, (f) chemistry, (g) biology, (h) art, (i) drama, (j) home economics, (k) computer studies and (l) physical education, in each year since 1999 where figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-06806

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5817 by Hugh Henry on 10 February 2004, what funding, under the drugs strand of the Changing Children's Services Fund, was spent on drug treatment or rehabilitation services or both in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The response given on the 10 February details the funding from the Changing Children’s Services Fund to support drug related work with young people and their families, which is allocated through local authorities. Few authorities are coterminous with NHS board areas therefore it is not possible to provide this information by NHS board area. The response also provides a breakdown of the allocation to each local authority from 2001 to 2003, the period for which this information is available.

This funding is allocated to each local authority for specific projects and we do not hold information centrally that would allow us to break down each allocation to the detail requested. Indeed, each project is unique and may cover one or more drug-related problems targeted at very different groups.

Question reference: S2W-08705

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 15 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the funding specified in its draft budget 2004-05 for the Spark Project and the additional cost of teachers in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 will go towards ICT.

Procurement of the intranet element of the Scottish Schools Digital Network (formerly known as Spark) is currently under way, and it would not be appropriate to disclose the budget.

The costs of this will be met from within a budget of £0 in 2003-04, £29 million in 2004-05 and £49 million in 2005-06 which also covers the costs of teacher training and induction programmes as we build towards the 53,000 teachers to which we are committed in Partnership for a Better Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-08709

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 15 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is required to provide PGCE training for a secondary teacher of (a) mathematics, (b) English, (c) Gaelic, (d) Gaelic-medium (any subject), (e) technological education, (f) French and German, (g) physics, (h) home economics, (i) computing, (j) art, (k) religious education, (I) chemistry, (m) music, (n) physical education, (o) geography, (p) drama, (q) other modern languages, (r) biology, (s) history, (t) business studies and (u) modern studies.

The Scottish Executive funds PGCE teacher training places through the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC). The SHEFC makes no distinction in funding levels for different PGCE subjects. For 2004-05, SHEFC has allocated funding of £6,435 to institutions for each PGCE place, inclusive of the £1,150 fee payable for undergraduate courses. This figure excludes the cost of student support provided by SAAS.

Question reference: S2W-08276

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 26 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether early release of the Scottish Census records of 1911 and 1921 was discussed at the Scottish Records Advisory Council on 26 April 2004 and, if so, what the outcome was.

Question reference: S2W-08168

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there were in each local authority area at 30 April 2004 for teachers of (a) chemistry, (b) biology, (c) art, (d) drama, (e) home economics, (f) computer studies and (g) physical education.

The latest information available from the teacher vacancies survey returned by local authorities at February 2004 shows the following vacancies:

Full-time Equivalents Teacher Vacancies in Schools

Local Authority	Chemistry	Biology	Art	Drama	Home Economics	Computer Studies	Physical Education
Aberdeen City	0.4	0	0	0.8	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	1.9	3	0	0	1.7	0	0.6
Angus	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
Dundee City	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	1	0	0	0	0.5	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Edinburgh City	0	1.5	2	0	3	0	0
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	1.5	1	1
Falkirk	0	2.9	0.7	0.5	0.8	1	0.8
Fife	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Glasgow City*
Highland	1	1.7	0	0	1.8	0	4.8
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	2	0	2	0	4.4	4	1
Orkney	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	1	2	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	2	0	1
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
South Lanarkshire	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Stirling	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	9.3	16.1	8.7	3.3	18.7	10	15.2

Note: *No return as yet.

Question reference: S2W-08137

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6805 by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2004, what funding was allocated to each NHS board for drug treatment services in 2003-04.

Details of allocations to NHS boards for drug treatment services in 2003-04 are set out in the table below.

NHS Board	Allocation 2003-04 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	1,338
Ayrshire and Arran	987
Borders	162
Dumfries and Galloway	258
Fife	789
Forth Valley	557
Grampian	1,313
Greater Glasgow*	4,488
Highland	414
Lanarkshire	1,449
Lothian	3,539
Orkney	32
Shetland	55
Tayside	1,483
Western Isles	87
Total Scotland	16,951

Note: *Funding does not include additional resources of £500,000 allocated to Greater Glasgow NHS Board to meet the treatment costs of the Glasgow Drug Court pilot.

An additional £6.8 million per annum is allocated to local authorities for drug rehabilitation services via grant aided expenditure.

Question reference: S2W-07298

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 19 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the implications are of devolved school management on teacher recruitment policies in relation to shortages in specified subjects.

Question reference: S2W-07117

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current financial position is of each NHS trust and board in respect of (a) primary and (b) secondary health care.

Financial monitoring of NHS trusts and boards is carried out at an aggregate level by the Scottish Executive. Information is not held on the current financial position of each NHS trust and board in respect of primary and secondary health care.

As at April 2004, the net forecast position for NHSScotland for 2003-04 is an in-year over commitment of £35 million as shown in Table 1. Given that this figure is a forecast it is expected to change, and indeed improve, by the year-end.

Projected 2003-04 forecast as at April 2004

NHS Boards	2003-04 Forecast Under/(Over) Spend £000
Argyll and Clyde	(36,000)
Ayrshire and Arran	11,671
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	5,200
Fife	(500)
Forth Valley	0
Grampian	(11,600)
Greater Glasgow	0
Highland	1,855
Lanarkshire	(23,542)
Lothian	8,000
Tayside	2,000
Orkney	(152)
Shetland	(72)
Western Isles	(341)
Common Services Agency	425
NHS Education for Scotland	3,200
State Hospital	1,770
Scottish Ambulance Service	0
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland	500
NHS24	1,045
NHS Health Scotland	0
National Waiting Times Centre	1,500
Total	(35,041)

Question reference: S2W-07296

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on directing teachers to schools with subject shortages within the employing local authority.