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: S1W-20889

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Public/Private Partnership contract for the new Wishaw Hospital requires Lanarkshire Health Board or the relevant NHS Trust to maintain a specific bed occupancy in the hospital and whether the board or the trust could face any financial penalties should they fail to do so.

Question reference: S1W-20396

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 10 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the numbers of beneficiaries under the Millennium Volunteer Programme will not be artificially inflated by lower cost matchmakers being favoured over more specialist and expensive placement providers.

Each application for support under the Millennium Volunteers initiative is treated on individual merit. There is no bias that gives advantage to the matchmaker approach. Applications for support are made to the voluntary sector consortium that manages the scheme. They assess applications against the principles of the scheme and make recommendations to the Scottish Executive. The awards of grant are made by the Executive.A review group is currently looking at how the Millennium Volunteers Initiative has operated and how best to support volunteering by young people. I expect to receive their report in the spring.

Question reference: S1O-04178

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 29 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making towards the introduction of a small business rates relief scheme.

Question reference: S1W-19919

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 26 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18955 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001, whether the debt owners have changed since 31 March 2001 and, if so, who the present debt owners are and how much is owned by each company.

Question reference: S1W-19883

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 26 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18956 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001, when the contract awarded to the Student Loans Company Ltd to administer the debt portfolio on behalf of private owners ends, and whether the terms of the administration and collection arrangements could be altered upon renewal of the contract.

Under the terms of both debt sales, concluded in March 1998 and March 1999, the Student Loans Company remains responsible for the administration of debt and the collection of repayments for at least the first five years of private ownership. The administration arrangements can be altered upon renewal of the contracts or before, but the collection arrangements are specified in the Regulations which govern the provision of student loans.

Question reference: S1W-18955

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8121 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 27 September 2001, how many of the court actions raised against graduates to recover student loans were (a) sold in (i) 1997-98 and (ii) 1998-99 and (b) retained by the Student Loans Company.

I am advised by the Student Loans Ltd Company that the breakdown requested is as follows:

Financial Year	Debt Owner	Total Number of Actions Raised	Decrees Obtained
1998-99	Student Loans Company Ltd	878	732
	First National Tricity Finance	-	-
	Honours Trustee Ltd	-	-
1999-2000	Student Loans Company Ltd	1,257	880
	First National Tricity Finance	421	306
	Honours Trustee Ltd	33	20
2000-01	Student Loans Company Ltd	1,142	774
	First National Tricity Finance	404	275
	Honours Trustee Ltd	288	201

Question reference: S1W-18954

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) educational psychologists were employed by each local authority in each of the past three years and (b) posts for educational psychologists are currently vacant in each authority.

The information requested is provided in the following table.

	1999		2000		2001
Authority	Staffing complement	Unfilled vacancies	Staffing complement	Unfilled vacancies	Staffing complement	Unfilled vacancies
Aberdeenshire	17.5	2.4	15.5	2	17.5	0
Aberdeen City	11.75	0.1	11.8	0.2	11.5	1
Angus	7	0	7.4	0	7	0
Argyll & Bute	6	0	5.8	0.6	6	0.4
Clackmannan	4.6	0	5.8	0	3.6	1
Dum & Galloway	10	2	7	3	10	0
Dundee	8.8	0.5	9.6	0.6	10.5	0
East Ayrshire	8.5	2.4	6	2.5	7	1.5
East Dunbartonshire	8	1	8	0	8	0
East Lothian	7.15	1.1	5.95	1.7	7.05	0.6
East Renfrewshire	7	1	8.3	0	7.9	0.4
Edinburgh	26	0	27.75	0	27.14	2.6
Falkirk	10.3	3.4	10.5	0	10	0.5
Fife	26.5	2.5	22.5	4	21.8	4.7
Glasgow	52.5	3.1	52	0.5	51.5	1
Highlands	15.7	2	13.8	1.1	12.9	1
Inverclyde	6	0	6	0	5.5	0.5
Midlothian	5.9	0	6.4	0	5.9	0
Moray	6.9	0.6	7.3	0	7.3	0
North Ayrshire	10.5	1.1	11.3	0	11.3	0
North Lanarkshire	23	0	23	2	23	1
Orkney	2	0	2	0	2	0
Perth & Kinross	7.5	0	7.5	0.5	7.5	0
Renfrewshire	12	0	11	1	11	2
Scottish Borders	5.6	0	5.6	0	5.6	1
Shetland Isles	2	0	1	2	1	2
South Ayrshire	8	0.5	8	0	6.5	1.5
South Lanarkshire	21	2.9	17.9	3.1	19.1	0.9
Stirling	5.5	0	5.5	0	6.5	0
West Dunbartonshire	7	1	7.7	0	7	1
West Lothian	12.4	0	13	0	12.6	0
Western Isles	3	0	3	0	3	0
Total	365.6	27.6	353.9	24.8	354.19	24.6

Sources:1. Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP) Staffing Surveys 31 August 1999 and 2000.2. National Review of Educational Psychology Services August 2001

Question reference: S1W-18956

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18120 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 27 September 2001, whether the operational procedures adopted by the Student Loans Company Ltd in respect of the collection of loan debt sold to Finance for Higher Education Ltd and Honours Trustee Ltd are identical to those for the debt retained by the Student Loans Company Ltd and, if not, in what way do they differ.

I am advised by the Student Loans Company Ltd that there is no difference between the collections procedures which are applied to loans under the sold debt portfolios and those applied to the retained loans. Although occasional additional work has been carried out by the Student Loans Company Ltd on behalf of the owners of the sold portfolios, the procedures for actioning all accounts remain the same.

Question reference: S1W-18953

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to education authorities on the advance notice and information given to teachers about children joining their classes who have autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or dyspraxia.

Question reference: S1W-18950

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will issue guidelines to local authorities on minimum training requirement guidelines for staff recruited to provide support services to school-age children with special needs.

There are no plans to issue such guidelines. The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Manual of Good Practice emphasises the need for appropriate training for all staff. All teachers should, as part of their Initial Teacher Education (ITE), receive some grounding in special educational needs. The Ministerial Continuous Professional Development committee is looking at Continuous Professional Development requirements for all teachers (but not support staff). An Education Inclusion sub-group of this committee is considering training requirements of teachers working with pupils with SENs. Teachers specialist qualifications are also being considered as part of the review of The Schools Scotland Code.In addition, the Scottish Executive provides over £5 million annually for in-service training of teachers and other staff working with children who have special educational needs.