Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive provides local authorities with over £5 million per year for in-service development and training of teachers, classroom-based staff and trainee educational psychologists working with children with special educational needs, including autism. There are a variety of courses available, including the Post-Graduate Certificate/Diploma autism course as well as skills-based training courses.

The information requested is provided in the following table:

Publicly-Funded Special School Closures In Scotland: 1997 - 2000
Year	Number of closures
1997	1
1998	6
1999	3
2000	4

Source: Education Authorities.

Notes:

1. These figures relate to schools that have been notified to the Executive as being separate special educational needs schools by the relevant education authority.

2. These numbers do not include any schools that amalgamated with another school or any that were re-classified as SEN units.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:This information is not available.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Prisoners are encouraged to access the learning opportunities provided and the Basic Skills Agency Assessment is used to identify those with difficulties. The principal focus of the work in the learning centres in prisons is on basic and core skill development, including communication. Some 20% of the learning undertaken in the first six months of this year was in this area.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:Learning difficulties in prisoners are addressed by screening prisoners for basic skills levels and prioritising access to specialist learning support for those who have particular difficulties.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:This data is not gathered.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:People on remand are not routinely screened for difficulties with communication due to the short length of time in custody.

The Glasgow Housing Partnership Steering Group was set up to develop a framework within which a transfer proposal could be developed. The work of the steering group ceased to function on the publication of the framework document Better Homes Stronger Communities in April 2000. Since then the Interim Management Committee of the Glasgow Housing Association was formed to take forward the development of the proposal. The names of the members of that committee are available from the Glasgow Housing Association.

Our Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Government sets out the principles underlying our working relationship with Whitehall Departments and ensures good communication where one administration's work may have a bearing upon the responsibilities of another administration. In keeping with this we have kept DSS informed with the progress of the proposed Glasgow Stock Transfer and they have kept us in touch with their proposals for housing benefit reform.

The Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information exempts from disclosure any information which would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion including internal opinion, advice, recommendation, consultation and deliberation (Exemption 2 of Part II). As our discussions regarding housing benefit reform and the proposed Glasgow Stock Transfer with DSS relate to the process by which a decision or policy has been reached, they are exempt from disclosure under the terms of the code. Both the Code of Practice and the Memorandum are available on our website.

I am arranging for copies of the minutes of the meetings of the Part V Voluntary Issues Review Group, which Jackie Baillie chairs, to be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.I expect the group to report by the end of the calendar year on the outcome of its deliberations.