- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average weekly cost to parents is of full-time nursery provision in pre-school centres run by (a) the private sector, (b) the voluntary sector and (c) local authorities.
Answer
Information on the costs of full-time pre-school education and child care is not collected centrally.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what maximum number of sessions of free nursery provision is available per child per week and how many children are receiving this level of free provision.
Answer
Each eligible child is entitled to up to 412.5 hours of free pre-school education per year. The following restrictions have been imposed on the provision of pre-school education in the interests of the child:no child should have more than three continuous hours of pre-school education without a clear rest period;education provision should not exceed five hours in any one day, andthere should not be any more than five sessions of 2.5 hours of education in any one week.Many centres, of course, provide care to complement this education provision.The number of children undertaking pre-school education is shown in Table 1 of the 2002 Pre-school and Daycare Census, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 24310). A total of 123,007 children were taking up their full entitlement to 412.5 hours of funded pre-school education in 2002.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated total cost of provision of free part-time places for every three- and four-year-old has been in each year since the scheme for such provision began.
Answer
Prior to 2002-03, the Scottish Executive administered funding for pre-school education. It was made up of three elements, grant per place, rural and development. Grant per place was claimed by local authorities on the basis of the number of sessions undertaken by children. The rural element was allocated to 12 authorities in recognition of the difficulties and increased costs associated with operating in a rural setting. The development funding was allocated to expand the provision available for three-year-olds to meet the target of full participation. Funding for the provision of pre-school education for all three-year-olds came on stream from 1999-2000.The pre-school education grant issued to local authorities to administer since 1998-99 are shown in the following table.
| Year | Distributed Per Capita (£ million) | Rural Element(£ million) | Development(£ million) | Total(£ million) |
| 1998-99 | 42.7 | 3.9 | 5.5 | 52.1 |
| 1999-2000 | 85.6 | 5.8 | 20.8 | 112.3 |
| 2000-01 | 105.3 | 6 | 18 | 129.3 |
| 2001-02 | 118.2 | 6.3 | 11.6 | 136 |
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what maximum level of subsidy is available per child in private sector, voluntary sector or local authority pre-school centres to provide a free part-time place for every three- and four-year-old.
Answer
Resources amounting to £137 million were transferred to the local government settlement from 2002-03. No maximum figure has been set for the provision of a pre-school education. However, an annual minimum payment per child has been set for 2002-03 and 2003-04 of £963 and £987 respectively.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the provision of free nursery places for all three- and four-year-olds includes a guarantee of a minimum number of hours of free provision per child.
Answer
Local authorities have a duty to secure pre-school education amounting to a minimum of 412.5 hours over the school year. Parents are free to ask for fewer hours but that does not relieve the authority from their duty to secure appropriate pre-school education provision.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any local authorities are implementing waiting lists for the provision of nursery places and, if so, how many children are on such lists, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Information received from local authorities indicates that none are implementing a waiting list for pre-school education.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what minimum standards of warden cover for sheltered housing complexes it expects local authorities to provide; what system exists for ensuring that such minimum standards are observed; what legislation covers this matter, and how many local authorities are failing to provide such a minimum standard.
Answer
There are currently no minimum standards of warden cover for local authority housing complexes.However, such services which fall within the definition of "housing support services" in the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 will be regulated by the Care Commission from 1 April 2003. The Commission regulates services by inspecting them against the associated subordinate legislation and the relevant National Care Standards. From 1 April 2003, legislation will require that providers of housing support services ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent persons are working in the care service in such numbers as are appropriate for the health and welfare of the service users, having regard to the size and nature of the services, the statement of aims and objectives and the number and needs of service users. The relevant National Care Standards reinforce this by stating that it is for the Commission and the provider to agree staffing levels. Existing housing support services will be deemed to be registered with the Care Commission from 1 April and required to submit an application for registration by 1 October 2003.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mike Watson on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has a strategy for attracting people from overseas to come to Scotland and carry out ancestral research; whether such people played any role in the formulation of this strategy, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
Ease of access to information to allow people from overseas to research their Scottish ancestry is part of VisitScotland's marketing strategy. This information is available through the website ancestralscotland.com, which also has a link from the main visitscotland.com website. VisitScotland carry out visitor surveys and research in this area to maximise the benefit to Scotland of ancestral tourism, and to assess its impact in overseas tourism markets.The Scottish Family History Service project will provide web access to the most important genealogical sources currently available through scotlandspeople.gov.uk and scottishdocuments.com.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the time period required to photocopy certain archive material in genealogical and historical archive centres acts as a barrier to people from overseas researching their genealogical history.
Answer
I have asked Mr George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland, to respond. His response is as follows:The National Archives of Scotland provides over 40,000 photocopy pages per year for genealogical and historical researchers from unique and often fragile documents. In order to minimise the risk of damage, careful handling procedures are followed and specialised equipment is used. We have no evidence that the time this takes acts as a barrier to overseas researchers.Digital images of the most popular documents, wills from 1500 to 1901, are available to view and to purchase on the ScottishDocuments website at
http://www.scottishdocuments.com.The Executive cannot respond in relation to local, private or other archives which are outwith its responsibility.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on road building in the North Ayrshire local authority area in (a) 1996-97, (b) 1997-98, (c) 1998-99, (d) 1999-2000, (e) 2000-01 and (f) 2001-02.
Answer
Records of trunk road expenditure are not broken down by local authority area.For local roads, the information requested is given in tables number 11.1 and 11.5 of Scottish Transport Statistics No. 21, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 23316). Table 11.1 shows expenditure for all authorities year by year. Table 11.5 breaks the most recent year down by authority. A breakdown by authority for previous years is given in earlier editions of the publication (Bib. numbers 26533, 16385, 8690 and 15770).Figures are not yet available for the year to March 2002.
