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-29032

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many 0870 numbers it operates.

Information Systems and InformationServices Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive.The division does not use any 0870 numbers in the provision of telephony services.

Individual departments may fromtime to time run public awareness campaigns which offer advice on health,education etc that use NTS services. These services would not be funded from theadmin budget and no information is held centrally on the use of these services.

Information on the use of 0870numbers across agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrallyand therefore that information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S2W-29034

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the services for which it has responsibility that operate an 0870 number, also listing the telephone number.

Information Systems andInformation Services Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive. The division does not use any 0870 numbers in theprovision of telephony services.

Individual departments may fromtime to time run public awareness campaigns which offer advice on health, educationetc that use NTS services. These services would not be funded from the admin budgetand no information is held centrally on the use of these services.

Information on the use of 0870numbers across agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and therefore that information could only be provided atdisproportionate cost.

Question reference: S2W-29036

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which of its departments operate 0870 phone lines.

Information Systems andInformation Services Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive. The division does not use any 0870 numbers in theprovision of telephony services.

Individual departments mayfrom time to time run public awareness campaigns which offer advice on health, educationetc that use NTS services. These services would not be funded from the admin budgetand no information is held centrally on the use of these services.

Information on the use of 0870numbers across agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and therefore that information could only be provided atdisproportionate cost.

Question reference: S2W-29191

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 30 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in view of the forthcoming UK Discrimination Law Review Green Paper, it plans to make representations to Her Majesty's Government that it should consult on whether the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland should consider discrimination cases in education which are currently dealt with by the sheriff courts.

Question reference: S2W-28819

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on plans for the future of the National CJD Surveillance Unit, based in Edinburgh.

The Secretary of State forHealth in England and the University of Edinburgh have an agreement ‎to continue funding theNational CJD Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) until at least 31 ‎March 2010,with an option to extend for three years. The Scottish Executive HealthDepartment contributes to this funding and is represented on the ManagementBoard for NCJDSU. It has been agreed between ‎officials from the NCJDSUand the Department of Health in England to review in 2008 the nature ‎and scope offuture work required of NCJDSU, so that agreement can be reached by‎March 2009. It is likely that the UK Health Departments will requiresome form of CJD ‎surveillance activity for the foreseeablefuture.‎

Question reference: S2W-28398

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the attainment levels are of students domiciled in Scotland completing higher and further education, broken down by ethnic group.

Number of students domiciledin Scotland completing a higher education (HE) course in 2004-05,broken down by level of attainment and ethnic group.

	Total	Postgraduate	First Degree	Other HE
Total	58,660	10,245	23,250	25,160
White	53,470	8,570	21,145	23,750
Black Caribbean	30	5	10	20
Black African	270	50	65	155
Black Other	60	5	20	35
Indian	250	45	130	75
Pakistani	570	90	285	195
Bangladeshi	45	5	25	15
Chinese	385	95	175	110
Other Asian	195	45	55	95
Other	485	90	200	190
Refused/not known	2,895	1,245	1,130	520

Sources: Higher Education StatisticsAgency (HESA) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Notes:

1. Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Numbers may not sum to total dueto rounding.

2. Numbers include higher educationstudents graduating from UK Higher Education Institutions or Scottish Further Education Colleges.

Number of students domiciledin Scotland completing a further education course in 2004-05, brokendown by level of level of attainment and ethnic group.

	Total	Assessed and Successful	Completed; Course Not Assessed
Total	285,165	136,900	148,265
White	263,470	128,390	135,075
Black Caribbean	100	55	50
Black African	1765	825	940
Black Other	225	100	125
Indian	960	510	445
Pakistani	2585	1260	1325
Bangladeshi	225	115	110
Chinese	1810	995	815
Other Asian	1465	700	765
Other	3905	1155	2755
Refused/not known	8,655	2,800	5,855

Source: Scottish Funding Council(SFC)

Note:

1. Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Numbers may not sum to total dueto rounding.

2. Numbers include further educationstudents completing a course at a Scottish Further Education College.

This data include Scottish domiciledstudents studying at any UK Higher Education Institution or any of Scotland’s Colleges.The Scottish Executive does not hold data on Further Education Colleges outsideof Scotland.

At further education level thereare a considerable number of courses that are not formally assessed; the numberof students who completed such courses is shown in the last column of the abovetable.

Question reference: S2W-28397

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals domiciled in Scotland are undertaking studies at higher and further education level, broken down by ethnic group.

The numbers of individuals domiciledin Scotland that studied at higher or further education level inthe academic year 2004-05, broken down by ethnic group, are indicated in the followingtables.

Scottish Domiciled Students inUKHigher Education Institutions by Ethnicity and Level of Study in 2004-05

	Total	HE	FE
Total	193,740	193,100	640
White	172,275	171,720	555
Black Caribbean	85	80	0
Black African	695	695	0
Black Other	155	155	0
Indian	855	855	0
Pakistani	1,775	1,770	0
Bangladeshi	140	140	0
Chinese	1,120	1,120	0
Other Asian	570	565	5
Other	1,700	1,690	10
Refused/not known	14,370	14,305	65

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency (HESA).

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Numbers may not sum to total dueto rounding.

Scottish Domiciled Students inScottish Further Education Colleges by Ethnicity and Level of Study in 2004-05

	Total	HE	FE
Total	340,495	50,330	290,165
White	317,040	47,085	269,955
Black Caribbean	145	25	120
Black African	2,065	370	1,695
Black Other	280	55	220
Indian	1,130	180	950
Pakistani	3,095	535	2,560
Bangladeshi	250	35	210
Chinese	1,875	265	1,605
Other Asian	1,575	215	1,360
Other	3,220	415	2,805
Refused/not known	9,820	1,150	8,670

Source: Scottish Funding Council(SFC).

Note:

1. Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Numbers may not sum to total dueto rounding.

2. Includes a small amount ofdouble counting of students who have enrolled on a combination of HE and FE coursesor two HE courses concurrently.

The data above include Scottishdomiciled students studying at any UK Higher Education Institution or any of Scotland’s Colleges.The Scottish Executive does not hold data on Further Education Colleges outsideof Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-28396

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many racist incidents have been reported in schools since 2002 (a) in total and (b) broken down by local authority area.

This information is not heldcentrally. Under the Race Relations Amendment (Act) 2000, local authorities musthave a Race Equality Policy in place. Local authorities must monitor and assessthe impact of their policies including the Race Equality Policy on minority ethnicgroups. Recording of racist incidents is one method of monitoring the impact of the Race Equality Policy. The majority of authorities instruct their schools tocollect these statistics and provide them to the authority. They can be obtained direct from local authorities.

Question reference: S2W-28395

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 22 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers have undertaken specific training in dealing with racist incidents and addressing racial discrimination in the last five years.

This information is not heldcentrally.

The four year BEd course forinitial teacher education contains modules on discrimination and inclusion. the Executive currently allocates £13.5 million per annum to assist localauthorities in providing relevant, high quality professional developmentopportunities for teachers. The subjects covered are for each local authorityand school to decide but will take account of school, local and nationalpriorities.

The Executive has producedteaching resources to deliver anti-racist education and there are plans toproduce more.

Question reference: S2W-28394

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 22 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many exclusions from schools have been imposed for racist bullying since 2002.

Statistics specifically on thenumber of exclusions relating to racist bullying are not collected. However, statisticsare collected on the number of exclusions where race has been a motivating factor.These are available from:

2002-03

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/02/18912/33196.

2003-04

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/36496/0029072.pdf.

2004-05

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/30144545/0.