Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-19091

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many national entitlement plus one card holders there are, broken down by local authority area.

The issuing of National Entitlement Cards is the responsibility of each local authority.

Based on the information available to Transport Scotland, the number of valid National Entitlement Cards with companion entitlement in circulation at 3 December 2008, broken down by local authority, is set out in the following table.

Local Authority	Category of Disabled Plus Companion	Eligibility Visually Impaired Plus Companion
Aberdeen City	3,976	1,275
Aberdeenshire	1,488	398
Angus	629	127
Argyll and Bute	1,264	196
City of Edinburgh	9,030	1,173
Clackmannanshire	536	61
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	150	20
Dumfries and Galloway	1,148	423
Dundee City	2,373	401
East Ayrshire	2,435	229
East Dunbartonshire	1,094	137
East Lothian	1,672	230
East Renfrewshire	935	104
Falkirk	1,324	286
Fife	12,973	869
Glasgow	17,484	1,441
Highland	1,833	558
Inverclyde	2,219	203
Midlothian	1,618	232
Moray	689	184
North Ayrshire	2,911	357
North Lanarkshire	6,587	515
Orkney Islands	205	20
Perth and Kinross	924	244
Renfrewshire	3,534	362
Scottish Borders	838	222
Shetland Islands	219	20
South Ayrshire	2,003	257
South Lanarkshire	5,723	580
Stirling	580	132
West Dunbartonshire	2,265	237
West Lothian	2,974	307
Totals	93,633	11,800

Question reference: S3W-19006

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 16 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide information on the destination, purpose and costs of all ministerial visits overseas from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2008.

The information requested is set out in the following table.

The cost given for each visit includes all flight, accommodation and other expenses.

Engagements marked * were at zero cost to the Scottish Government. Before any overseas engagement is approved, it must represent good value for the Scottish Government and the taxpayer.

Date of Visit	End Date (if different)	Location	Event	Minister(s)	Number of Officials who Travelled	Cost of Minister''s Travel and Subsistence (£)
02/04/2006	09/04/2006	USA	The Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Tartan Week delegation. The Programme covered events in Washington and New York.	Jack McConnell	3	£8,555.27
02/04/2006	06/04/2006	Canada	The Minister travelled to Toronto to meet and discuss international benchmarking, school transformation, curriculum structure and exams structure within both primary and secondary schools.	Peter Peacock	2	£4,325.02
03/04/2006	07/04/2006	USA	The Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Tartan Week delegation. The programme covered events in Chicago, Washington and New York.	Tom McCabe	5	£6,764.04
05/04/2006	07/04/2006	Denmark	The Minister travelled to Copenhagen to attend a meeting of the Educational Benchmarking Club. He also took the opportunity to look at the Danish Early Years provision.	Robert Brown	2	£1,007.00
25/04/2006	26/04/2006	Belgium	The Minister attended the Committee of the Regions and Associated REGLEG Inter-Regional Group in Brussels.	George Lyon	2	£742.13
05/05/2006	11/05/2006	Australia	The Minister travelled to Melbourne to represent Scotland as part of the UK bidding team to host the Worldskills Competition in London in 2011.	Allan Wilson	1	0.00*
09/05/2006	11/05/2006	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend the European Seafood Exposition.	Ross Finnie	3	£742.60
15/05/2006	16/05/2006	Monaco	The Minister travelled to Monaco where he attended a dinner to mark the resumption of Scotch beef exports to France.	Ross Finnie	3	£499.50
18/05/2006	19/05/2006	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend the Education, Youth and Culture Council.	Peter Peacock	2	£493.50 **
20/05/2006	28/05/2006	Malawi	The Minister travelled to Lilongwe where she confirmed Scotland''s commitment to working with Malawi following the First Minister''s visit in May 2005. The Minister co-chaired, with senior Malawian Ministers, the Joint Commission on Malawi.	Patricia Ferguson	3	£4,017.00
21/05/2006	23/05/2006	Estonia	The Minister travelled to Tallin to support the Scottish Executive''s Scottish Week in Estonia.	George Lyon	2	£838.40
21/05/2006	23/05/2006	Bavaria	The Minister travelled to Munich and Regensburg to visit a number of developments illustrating aspects of planning, particularly in housing developments and to identify good practice which could be introduced to Scotland.	Johann Lamont	2	£962.00
22/05/2006	23/05/2006	Belgium	The Minister attended an Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels	Ross Finnie	3	£723.50
28/05/2006	29/05/2006	Netherlands	The Minister travelled to Rotterdam to attend a Scottish Beef event with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS). The Minister was undertaking a series of engagements organised by QMS to promote Scotch Beef in light of the lifting of the European Export ban.	Ross Finnie	2	£661.00
06/06/2006	08/06/2006	USA	The Minister travelled to Atlanta to support and promote the Delta Airlines'' inaugural flight from Edinburgh to Atlanta. The Minister made a welcoming speech to the incoming flight at a press conference in Edinburgh before joining the outgoing flight.	Tavish Scott	3	£1,647.90
11/06/2006	13/06/2006	Poland	The Minister travelled to Warsaw and Krakow to launch the Fresh Talent Initiative''s Polish Information Pack.	Tom McCabe	5	£348.68
12/06/2006	14/06/2006	Poland	The Lord Advocate travelled to Warsaw to attend the Conference of the Supreme Courts, Attorneys General and Prosecutor General of the Member States of the European Union.	Colin Boyd	1	£1,154.22
12/06/2006	13/06/2006	Italy	The Minister travelled to Bologna to officially launch the promotion of re-entry of Scotch beef into Italy.	Ross Finnie	3	£1,359.30
16/06/2006	17/06/2006	Netherlands	The Solicitor General travelled to Amsterdam to attend the European Arrest Warrant Conference	Elish Angiolini	2	£555.50
16/06/2006	17/06/2006	Netherlands		Elish Angiolini	2	£555.50
18/06/2006	22/06/2006	Finland & Russia	The Minister travelled to Helsinki and Moscow to build on the strong links we have with both countries regarding trade and investment.	Nicol Stephen	4	£2,025.00
26/06/2006	27/06/2006	Luxembourg	The Minister travelled to Luxembourg to attend an Environment Council.	Rhona Brankin	2	£875.00
30/06/2006	02/07/2006	France	The Minister travelled to Paris and Contalmaison to represent Scotland at events on the 90th Anniversary of the battle of the Somme.	Margaret Curran	1	£1,036.66
11/07/2006	12/07/2006	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend a Scottish dinner and meet with Scottish MEPs.	Margaret Curran	1	£617.56
25/07/2006	26/07/2006	Ireland	The Minister travelled to Dublin as part of a wider tour to gain a general insight into transport priorities across Ireland and the challenges faced by them.	Tavish Scott	4	£286.66
25/07/2006	27/07/2006	Norway	The Minister travelled to Bergen to attend a series of events regarding energy and environmental issues.	Nicol Stephen	3	£883.31
06/08/2006	08/08/2006	Norway	The Minister travelled to Trondheim to attend an international Ministerial conference on curbing illegal fisheries.	Ross Finnie	1	£916.80
26/08/2006	31/08/2006	France	The Lord Advocate travelled to Paris where he attended the International Associations of Prosecutors Conference	Colin Boyd	2	£952.68
28/08/2006	29/08/2006	Portugal	The Minister travelled to Lisbon where he met with the Assistant State Secretary for Industry and Innovation.	Nicol Stephen	3	£1,100.60
28/08/2006	02/09/2006	China	The Minister travelled to China to build on the existing strong links between Scotland and China	Tom McCabe	3	£4,460.00
29/08/2006	31/08/2006	Germany	The Minister travelled to D¼sseldorf and Duisburg where she met with State Secretary Dr Shrink. She also undertook a number of environmentally themed visits.	Rhona Brankin	3	£591.40
29/08/2006		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels for discussions with Commissioner Borg.	Ross Finnie	1	£493.30
04/09/2006	06/09/2006	France	The Minister travelled to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to promote the Scottish and UK position on the draft EU Spirit Drinks Regulation.	Allan Wilson	4	£1,459.18
04/09/2006	06/09/2006	France		Allan Wilson	4	£1,459.18
20/09/2006	21/09/2006	Finland	The Minister travelled to Kuopio where he spoke at the Health in all Policies conference.	Andy Kerr	1	£1,799.26
22/09/2006	23/09/2006	Ireland	The Minister travelled to Dublin to support Scotland in the Ryder Cup.	Jack McConnell	1	£131.20
09/10/2006	13/10/2006	New Zealand	The Minister travelled to Wellington and Auckland where she discussed the operation of different devolved and coalition governments.	Margaret Curran	3	£6,722.37
11/10/2006	13/10/2006	Iceland	The Minister travelled to Reykjavik to learn about Iceland''s hydrogen energy policy and the difficulties they have overcome. He toured the island and saw the various demonstration projects in operation.	Alan Wilson	2	£1,462.06
14/10/2006	22/10/2006	USA	The Minister travelled to the USA for a series of business, political and educational visits in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. The programme also included a Dressed to Kilt event.	Jack McConnell	4	£15,012.11
22/10/2006	27/10/2006	China/Japan	The Minister travelled to Beijing to develop Scotland''s business and research agenda in the renewable energy sector. In Tokyo he met with a number of important Japanese investors.	Nicol Stephen	4	£5,792.00
22/10/2006		Luxembourg	The Minister travelled to Luxembourg where she attended the Environment Council	Rhona Brankin	2	£595.70
23/10/2006	24/10/2006	Luxembourg	The Minister travelled to Luxembourg where he attended the Agricultural and Fisheries Council.	Ross Finnie	3	£893.80 **
10/11/2006	12/11/2006	Poland	The Minister travelled to Warsaw to attend the Warsaw Caledonian Society''s Charity Ball as a guest of honour. He also attended the Liberator Memorial Stone where he met Polish Veterans who trained in Scotland.	Tom McCabe	2	£763.40
12/11/2006	13/11/2006	Ireland	The Minister travelled to Dublin and made a joint declaration to commit Scotland and Ireland to work together on a number of issues, including science and education.	Jack McConnell	4	£252.70
13/11/2006	14/11/2006	Kenya	The Minister travelled to Nairobi to co-host a climate change event on the Montreal Declaration.	Ross Finnie	3	£3,868.59
20/11/2006	21/11/2006	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend an Agriculture and Fisheries Council	Ross Finnie	3	£1,022.40
30/11/2006	04/12/2006	Qatar	The Minister travelled to Doha to attend the Asian Games. She hosted a reception for the organisers in particular, the 8 Commonwealth countries in support of the Glasgow 2014 bid.	Patricia Ferguson	2	£2,567.00
05/12/2006	06/12/2006	Finland	The Minister travelled to Helsinki where he met with other EU Education Ministers.	Allan Wilson	2	0.00*
09/12/2006	14/12/2006	South Africa	The Minister travelled to Cape Town to attend the 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers. He also met with Ministers from Ontario, Victoria, New Zealand and Malawi.	Hugh Henry	3	£3,604.00
09/12/2006	14/12/2006	South Africa		Hugh Henry	3	£3,604.00
18/12/2006	21/12/2006	Belgium	The Minister attended an Environment Council and Agriculture and Fisheries Councils, in Brussels	Ross Finnie	5	£1,253.90
08/01/2007	09/01/2007	France	The Minister attended the formal re-opening of the Appeal Court and met with the French Prosecutor General	Elish Angiolini	1	£580.42
19/02/2007		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend an Environment Council	Sarah Boyack	1	£674.00
20/03/2007		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to meet with Commission Vice President Margot WallstrÅ‘m. Launch of communications project with the European Commission.	Jack McConnell	4	£729.02
Total						£98,818.64

Date of Visit	End Date (if different)	Location	Event	Minister(s)	Number of Officials who Travelled	Cost of Minister''s Travel and Subsistence (£)
18/04/2007	20/04/2007	Luxembourg	The Lord Advocate travelled to Luxembourg to attend an EU Justice and Home Affairs Committee.	Elish Angiolini	1	£1,071.93
11/06/2007	12/06/2007	Luxembourg	The Minister travelled to Luxembourg to attend an EU Agriculture & Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£1,017.00
18/06/2007	19/06/2007	France	The Minister travelled to Paris to attend the International Airshow where he promoted Scotland''s contribution to the aerospace sector in the global market.	Jim Mather	2	£802.39
24/06/2007	27/06/2007	Canada	The Solicitor General travelled to Vancouver to promote Scotland as an independent and active participant in the development of international criminal justice processes. He was also invited to speak on the application of police powers in the prosecution of crime.	Frank Mulholland	2	£4,685.00
11/07/2007	12/07/2007	Belgium	The First Minister travelled to Brussels where he held a reception for key European contacts and attended a Passchendaele memorial service with Her Majesty The Queen.	Alex Salmond	4	£1,335.69
11/07/2007	12/07/2007	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels where she supported First Minister at a reception for Brussels stakeholders and undertook a series of separate engagements including meeting with Geert Bourgeois, Flemish Minister for Administrative Affairs, Foreign Policy, Media and Tourism.	Linda Fabiani	2	£1,310.19
02/08/2007	07/08/2007	France	The Minister travelled to Lorient to attend the Interceltique Festival. 2007 was the year of Scotland at the Festival with a specific Scottish focused programme which highlighted Scotland''s rich Celtic culture and promote Scotland as a great place to visit, live and work.	Linda Fabiani	2	£761.52
24/08/2007	26/08/2007	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to represent the Scottish Government at Scots Passchendaele Commemorations.	Linda Fabiani	2	£833.26
15/09/2007	20/09/2007	China	The Lord Advocate travelled to Hong Kong to attend the International Association of Prosecutors Conference. The topics discussed included International fight against crime, the growth in serious transnational crime, particularly drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud.	Elish Angiolini	2	£4,480.11
26/09/2007		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£569.80
10/10/2007	13/10/2007	USA	The First Minister travelled to New York to promote Scotland as an attractive location for investment.	Alex Salmond	2	£6,349.84
11/10/2007	12/10/2007	France	The Lord Advocate attended a conference in Paris organised by the Prosecutor General of the Court of Cassation	Elish Angiolini	2	£852.00
14/10/2007	20/10/2007	Canada & USA	The Minister visited 6 cities to promote Scotland as a place to do business and invest in as well as to brief Provincial Ministers on the priorities of the new Scottish Government. Also supported Scotland Funds events in Vancouver and Toronto.	Jim Mather	1	£3,926.65
15/10/2007	16/10/2007	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend a meeting prior to the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£700.12
22/10/2007	23/10/2007	Luxembourg	The Minister travelled to Luxembourg to attend an EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£1,066.40
24/10/2007	27/10/2007	Spain	The Lord Advocate travelled to Madrid to attend European Justice Ministers Conference.	Elish Angiolini	2	£1,118.56
05/11/2007	12/11/2007	Sri Lanka	The First Minister travelled to Sri Lanka for the decision on the bid by Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.	Alex Salmond	3	£3,912.50


05/11/2007	12/11/2007	Sri Lanka	The Minister for Communities and Sport travelled to Sri Lanka for the decision on the bid by Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.	Stewart Maxwell	1	£2,382.50
07/11/2007	08/11/2007	Belgium	The Solicitor General travelled to Brussels to attend an EU Justice & Home Affairs Council.	Frank Mulholland	1	£1,150.00
15/11/2007	16/11/2007	Spain	The Minister travelled to Barcelona to attend the conference of Regions with Legislative Powers.	Linda Fabiani	1	£976.04
25/11/2007	26/11/2007	Netherlands	The Minister travelled to The Hague to attend a EUROPOL conference.	Kenny MacAskill	2	£1,186.40
25/11/2007	27/11/2007	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend an EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	5	£697.67
27/11/2007		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend a series of meetings on energy and structural funds policy.	Jim Mather	2	£475.50
02/12/2007	03/12/2007	USA	The Minister travelled to New York to attend the Global Scot conference.	John Swinney	1	£2,920.28
06/12/2007	07/12/2007	Belgium	The Solicitor General travelled to Brussels to attend an EU Justice & Home Affairs Council.	Frank Mulholland	1	£847.00
09/12/2007	10/12/2007	Denmark	The Minister travelled to Copenhagen to meet with members of the Danish Government to discuss and learn about minority government. He also met with the Head of the Nordic Council.	Bruce Crawford	2	£800.00
13/12/2007		Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to meet with Commissioner Borg in advance of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£588.23
16/12/2007	20/12/2007	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.	Richard Lochhead	3	£1,401.53
25/01/2008	26/01/2008	France	The Minister travelled to Paris to attend a workshop with the GlobalScots from the Southern Europe Region. He also attended a Burns supper hosted by Scottish Development International.	Stewart Stevenson	0	£283.50
28/01/2008	30/01/2008	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to meet with Commissioners, MEPs and	Linda Fabiani	2	£557.33
28/01/2008	30/01/2008	Belgium	Member State Permanent representatives. She also hosted a Burns supper.	Linda Fabiani	2	£557.33
03/02/2008	04/02/2008	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to meet with Commissioners Poto‰nik and Dimas.	Mike Russell	2	£584.80
09/02/2008	16/02/2008	Malawi	The Minister travelled to Malawi to affirm the new Scottish Government''s commitment to working with Malawi. She met with Malawi Ministers to discuss future priorities. She also visited a number of projects funded by the Scottish Government''s International Development fund.	Linda Fabiani	2	£5,494.54
13/02/2008	14/02/2008	Ireland	The First Minister travelled to Dublin to attend the British-Irish Council.	Alex Salmond,	3	£182.72
13/02/2008	14/02/2008	Ireland		Alex Salmond,	3	£182.72
13/02/2008	14/02/2008	Ireland	The Minister for Community Safety travelled to Dublin to attend the British-Irish Council.	Fergus Ewing	as above	£217.23
13/02/2008	14/02/2008	Ireland	The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning travelled to Dublin to attend a series of meetings around the British-Irish Council focusing on workplace innovations.	Fiona Hyslop	as above	£169.40
27/02/2008	28/02/2008	Belgium	The Solicitor General travelled to Brussels to attend an EU Justice and Home Affairs Council.	Frank Mulholland	1	£871.00
04/03/2008	06/03/2008	Norway	The Minister travelled to Oslo to attend the North Atlantic Seafood Forum.	Richard Lochhead	1	£600.00
14/03/2008	16/03/2008	Italy	The Minister travelled to Rome to attend the Italy v Scotland 6 Nations rugby international. He also had discussions with representatives of the Italian Rugby Federation about a possible bid to host Rugby World Cup 2015.	Stewart Maxwell	0	£716.00
17/03/2008	18/03/2008	Belgium	The Minister travelled to Brussels to attend the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council. He also held bilateral meetings with Hilary Benn and Commissioner Fischer Boel and Borg.	Richard Lochhead	3	£300.00
29/03/2008	07/04/2008	USA	The Minister travelled to the USA where she undertook a series of engagements as part of the Scotland Week delegation. The programme covered events in Washington and New York. The Minister then travelled to Toronto, Canada, where she visited Guelph University which has strong educational links with Scotland. She also attended a reception organised by VisitScotland and SDI.	Linda Fabiani	3	£4,443.84
29/03/2008	06/04/2008	USA	The First Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Scotland Week delegation. The programme covered events in Washington and New York.	Alex Salmond	4	£6,915.27
28/03/2008	06/04/2008	USA	The Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Scotland Week delegation. The programme covered meetings and events in Seattle, San Jose, Houston and Austin.	Jim Mather	1	£5,981.59
Total						£75,535.33

Notes:

*No costs incurred to Scottish Executive.

**Costs relate to flights only “ other additional costs unavailable.

Question reference: S3W-18005

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 2 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that the Sheriffmuir battlefield in Stirlingshire (a) is associated with historical events or figures of national significance, (b) has significant physical remains or archaeological potential, (c) has a clear landscape context that allows the events of the battle to be understood or interpreted and (d) is capable of definition on a map.

Ministers have yet to finalise the criteria for inclusion of a battlefield on any Inventory and to develop guidance for assessing a battlefield against the criteria. At that stage, it will be possible to consider how well individual sites meet the criteria in a systematic, comparable and transparent way. It would therefore be premature at present to offer a view on any individual site, however well-established its contribution is to the history of our nation.

Question reference: S3W-17539

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people are undertaking community service sentences, broken down by local authority area.

The numbers of young people undertaking community service sentences at any one time is not held centrally. The following table details the number of young people who were sentenced to community service orders in 2006-07, the latest year for which data is available.

Persons Aged Under 18 Sentenced to Community Service Orders (where this was the Main Penalty) in Scottish Courts by Approximate Local Authority Area¹, 2006-07

Local Authority	2006-07
Aberdeen City	14
Aberdeenshire	2
Angus	15
Argyll and Bute	3
Clackmannanshire	5
Dumfries and Galloway	34
Dundee City	30
East Ayrshire	58
East Dunbartonshire	-
East Lothian	11
East Renfrewshire	-
Edinburgh, City of	55
Eilean Siar	4
Falkirk	13
Fife	31
Glasgow City	77
Highland	33
Inverclyde	8
Midlothian	-
Moray	11
North Ayrshire	-
North Lanarkshire	23
Orkney Islands	4
Perth and Kinross	10
Renfrewshire	22
Scottish Borders	16
Shetland Islands	-
South Ayrshire	9
South Lanarkshire	32
Stirling	12
West Dunbartonshire	13
West Lothian	7
High Court	3
Scotland	555

Note: 1. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authority areas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriff court.

Question reference: S3W-17553

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive for each language for which there is a recognised secondary school teaching qualification how many (a) higher education institutions offer the qualification in that language and (b) people graduated with the qualification, in each year between 1999 and 2007.

The first table shows the number of teacher education institutions offering teaching qualifications in the languages shown.

Language Teaching Qualification	Number of HEIs Offering TQ
Community languages (e.g. Urdu, Bengali)	1
English	7
Gaelic	2
Greek	Not currently offered at any TEI
Latin	1
Modern foreign languages	7

The second table shows the number of people graduating with a teaching qualification, split by subject, from 1999 to 2007.

Subject by Teaching Qualification	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Community languages	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
English	165	140	125	150	125	130	235	330	325
Gaelic	5	0	0	5	5	5	5	5	10
Greek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Latin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Modern foreign languages:
French	60	60	50	60	35	70	60	75	75
German	10	20	15	10	20	20	10	15	10
Spanish	15	10	5	15	5	5	5	5	10
Italian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Russian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	20	10

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Note: Figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest five. Zero, one and two have been rounded to zero.

Question reference: S3O-04813

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on how the fiscal fines system is working.

Question reference: S3W-16623

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was paid to students in higher education by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland through all means including loans, bursaries, grants and hardship/access funds and how many students received support in these ways in each year since 2002-03

The number of students supported by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) and the amount of support they received in the form of tuition fees, tuition fee loans, awards and entitlement to maintenance loans in academic years 2002-03 to 2006-07 is given in table 1 of the publication Student Awards in Scotland 2006-07, published on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/23093807/0. In 2006-07 the number of students supported (excluding discretionary and child care funds) was 121,990 and the total support assessed was £440.8 million; 97% of loan amounts assessed were paid out. (table 6b of the same publication). This publication does not include Nursing and Midwifery students who are funded through the Scottish Government Health Directorate''s Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary Scheme (NMSB).

The table below shows the amount spent to support higher education students through the Discretionary Fund (formerly Hardship Fund) and Childcare Fund (formerly Mature Student''s Bursary Fund) and the number of times support was provided. Discretionary funding is paid in addition to other forms of student support for Scottish domiciled students and is also available to eligible students from the rest of the UK who study in Scotland.

	Discretionary Fund		Childcare Fund
	Instances of Assistance	Amounts Issued by Institutions (£000)	Instances of Assistance	Amounts Issued by Institutions (£000)
2002-03	14,705	6,128	6,815	5,018
2003-04	10,775	6,415	6,180	5,899
2004-05	10,930	6,794	5,855	6,537
2005-06	12,395	9,970	1,715	3,094
2006-07	13,995	11,360	1,260	3,228

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland Discretionary Fund Management Information.

Note: Instances of Assistance have been rounded up or down to the nearest five, Amounts Issued have been rounded to the nearest thousand.

Individual identifying student details of payments from these funds are not held centrally and therefore there is a degree of overlap in the student numbers: students can receive help from both the Childcare and the Discretionary Fund in the same academic year; students are also able to receive help more than once from the same fund; student can receive discretionary funds and also receive the loans and awards reported in the first paragraph. The overlap does not affect amounts.

Academic year 2006-07 is the latest for which data on students supported by SAAS and through the Discretionary and Childcare Funds is available.

Question reference: S3W-16691

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many items of correspondence, meeting requests or other recorded contacts have been received from members of the UK Parliament by Transport Scotland concerning the M9 Chartershall bridge near Stirling, broken down by MP.

Question reference: S3W-16864

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will report on the outcome of the British-Irish Council summit held in Edinburgh on 26 September 2008.

On 26 September 2008, Scotland hosted the 11th British Irish Council Summit. We had a very successful meeting attended by ministers from all the member administrations. The focus of the summit included useful discussions on energy, demography and the global economic situation.

As with previous summits, the meeting received progress reports and agreed a plan for future work on the other subjects currently being taken forward by council members. These are drugs; environment; minority and lesser-used languages; transport, and social inclusion.

The council agree to the establishment of a new work stream on Early Years and recognised the valuable work that had been achieved by the work streams on tourism, the knowledge economy, and eHealth and agreed that these three subjects could now be concluded.

I am placing a copy of the communiqu© that was issued by the British Irish Council after the meeting in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46719).

Question reference: S3W-16516

Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 25 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the First Minister’s commitment to the Parliament on 21 February 2008 (Official Report c. 6246), it will publish the First Minister’s proposal paper to the British Irish Council in which he suggests that the council agree to take forward a new work sector on energy led by Scotland.

Chamber and committees