- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to commemorate Holocaust Day 2011.
Answer
The Scottish National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorations 2011 will take place in Craigroyston High School in Edinburgh on 27 January 2011. As well as working with the school, the event is being developed and delivered by the Scottish Government in partnership with the Edinburgh Inter Faith Association; Edinburgh City Council, and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37308 by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2010, how much over £40,000 and how much under £100,000 are the Government’s estimated provisional costs for this new service.
Answer
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 places a legal duty on Scottish ministers to secure the provision of an advocacy service to be available on request and free of charge to support parents and young people in tribunal proceedings. The Scottish Government awarded a grant to Barnardo''s, following a competitive process, to enable it to deliver that service in partnership with the Scottish Child Law Centre. The provisional costs are £40,127 for year 1, covering five months of operation, £97,202 in year 2 and £99,991 in year 3.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration was given to the transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) regulations (TUPE) obligations prior to appointing a new provider of advocacy services under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 Act.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37941 on 14 December 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37308 by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2010, whether a pre-qualification questionnaire was used before inviting interested parties to complete the tendering process.
Answer
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 places a legal duty on Scottish ministers to secure the provision of an advocacy service to be available on request and free of charge to support parents and young people in tribunal proceedings. The Scottish Government decided to run a competitive grant process to identify one or more organisation that would be awarded a grant to provide advocacy services. Pre-qualification questionnaires were not part of the grant process.
The Educational Development Research and Services (Scotland) Regulations 1999 and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Scotland Act 2009 provide the legal basis for the payment of such a grant.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37310 by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2010, what was discussed at the meeting between it and the new service providers on 21 October 2010.
Answer
The new Additional Support Needs National Advocacy Service will be delivered by a partnership between Barnardo''s and the Scottish Child Law Centre.
Barnardo''s, which submitted the application on behalf of the partners, was informed that the application had been successful on 15 October. A short introductory meeting was held with both Barnardo''s and the Scottish Child Law Centre on 21 October. This provided an opportunity for Scottish Government officials to meet the key individuals who would be involved in delivering the service, to provide some feedback on the application and to discuss key actions in disseminating information about the new service.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, in changing the providers of the national advocacy service from ISEA (Scotland) to the new provider of advocacy services commissioned under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009, whether the transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) regulations (TUPE) regulations apply.
Answer
The issue of whether the transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) regulations (TUPE) applies is a matter of law to be determined by the relevant parties or failing that by an employment tribunal.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37308 by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2010, whether the costs of this contract for advocacy services are higher than the EU procurement threshold at which such contracts should be publicly advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Answer
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 places a legal duty on Scottish ministers to secure the provision of an advocacy service to be available on request and free of charge to support parents and young people in tribunal proceedings. The Scottish Government decided to run a competitive grant process not a commercial tendering process to identify one or more organisations which would be awarded a grant to provide advocacy services. The EU procurement threshold is therefore not relevant in this instance.
The Educational Development Research and Services (Scotland) Regulations 1999 and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Scotland Act 2009 provide the legal basis for the payment of such a grant.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2010
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Current Status:
Awaiting answer
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in relation to reviewing the implementation of mainstreaming children with additional support needs.
Answer
Awaiting answer
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34777 by Fergus Ewing on 21 July 2010, whether it considers that the conviction of Mohammed Sandia for posting anti-Semitic material on The Scotsman website is sufficient evidence that anti-Semitic graffiti at Glenduffhill Jewish cemetery was not an isolated incident.
Answer
We are aware of the recently reported conviction of an individual, following the posting of comments on newspaper websites. We are not aware of any connection between this incident and the incident referred to in S3W-34777.
However, the Scottish Government takes any incidents of anti-Semitic behaviour as of the utmost gravity whether these are isolated incidents or not. We condemn and abhor anti-Semitic views and anti-Semitic behaviour. We continue to work productively with the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and others and through this we can achieve the aspiration of One Scotland of many cultures, faiths and beliefs.
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the procurement process for the new national advocacy service contract for additional support needs took until the end of October 2010 to come to a decision when applicants were informed that this would be made in July 2010.
Answer
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 places a legal duty on Scottish Ministers to secure the provision of an advocacy service to be available on request and free of charge to support parents and young people in Tribunal proceedings. The Scottish Government decided to run competitive tendering exercise to identify one or more organisations which would be awarded a grant to run a national advocacy service.
Expressions of interest for the new service were invited on 14 April 2010 and application packs issued on 30 April 2010 with a deadline of 11 June 2010. Initially it was hoped that a decision on the successful applicant would be made in August 2010, however, it proved difficult to find a suitable date for the assessment panel to meet. The panel met on 24 September 2010. The successful applicants were informed of the outcome on 15 October 2010 while unsuccessful applicants were informed on 25 October 2010.
The new service will be provided by Barnardo''s in partnership with the Scottish Child Law Centre.
