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-31160

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers (a) were recruited and (b) retired in each year from 1997 to 2006, broken down by local authority.

Available information on thenumber of teachers who were (a) recruited by and (b) retired from each local authoritysince 1997 is set out in the following tables. Up to 2002-03 the data representsall teachers in the workforce, excluding supply and part-time temporary staff.

From 2003-04 the recruitmentdata is obtained by comparing all those in schools on census day, with those inschools on census day of the previous year, excluding supply teachers covering absenceand centrally employed teachers. It will also therefore exclude teachers who wererecruited during the year but who left before the census day. While informationon those leaving is therefore also available, information on why they left, andtherefore how many have retired, is incomplete.

Teachers Recruited	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen City	127	114	129	96	73	125	240	237
Aberdeenshire	189	166	193	234	210	54	470	441
Angus	99	101	139	68	99	111	121	158
Argyll and Bute	72	129	80	50	70	78	169	110
Clackmannanshire	27	10	16	16	26	19	59	60
Dumfries and Galloway	115	123	140	90	139	130	239	195
Dundee City	62	69	73	69	89	107	168	121
East Ayrshire	20	35		78	1	72	137	146
East Dunbartonshire	90	84	69	43	65	85	175	140
East Lothian	34	18	52	11	75	39	156	153
East Renfrewshire	45	38	36	38	133	92	151	176
Edinburgh, City of	247	210	387	244	273	203	443	462
Eilean Siar	27	29	51	37	32	34	81	83
Falkirk	56	28	80	37	108	128	159	206
Fife	78	89	189	167	85	145	368	363
Glasgow City	140	49	155	134	123	96	636	587
Highland	74	88	155	84	52	61	316	342
Inverclyde	35	43	50	63	51	46	71	94
Midlothian	32	30	42	33	19	54	106	133
Moray	57	61	73	76	120	83	144	125
North Ayrshire	31	19	35	47	27	12	162	242
North Lanarkshire	149	182	275	172	120	116	463	625
Orkney Islands	16	6	6	4	15	21	48	47
Perth and Kinross	92	31	37	31	10	33	178	153
Renfrewshire	28	61	38	114	100	11	173	127
Scottish Borders	55	65	75	44	76	44	147	142
Shetland Islands	27	21	76	26	27	45	62	62
South Ayrshire	10	2	17	4	45	17	154	118
South Lanarkshire	33	106	216	140	78	195	336	370
Stirling	67	45	129	44	95	98	140	152
West Dunbartonshire	100	32	127	71	62	77	155	136
West Lothian	91	63	129	74	112	136	118	275

Source: Up to 2002-03, TeacherFlow Survey, From 2003-04 Teacher Census.

Notes:

1. Teacher Census data is notcomparable with the Teacher Flow Survey as it includes all temporary staff.

2. Data does not include thoserecruited during the year but not present at the census.

3. Numbers are Headcounts

Teachers Retired	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Aberdeen City	33	21	39	26	33	51
Aberdeenshire	32	29	109	20	28	44
Angus	29	18	27	22	26	43
Argyll and Bute	6	6	7	6	14	20
Clackmannanshire	6	6	11	7	16	9
Dumfries and Galloway	15	21	23	17	37	28
Dundee City	28	33	16	17	36	33
East Ayrshire	28	28	37	23	33	51
East Dunbartonshire	7	18	19	9	14	8
East Lothian	3	11	14	18	15	4
East Renfrewshire	12	14	11	15	19	16
Edinburgh, City of	52	46	55	45	47	56
Eilean Siar	10	10	6	9	5	16
Falkirk	15	15	21	18	27	53
Fife	33	34	87	87	110	95
Glasgow City	37	30	32	29	109	40
Highland	20	40	39	35	50	52
Inverclyde	1	5	8	7		6
Midlothian	19	6	8	5	10	24
Moray	18	16	23	14	24	24
North Ayrshire	20	29	28	13	37	18
North Lanarkshire	60	51	87	53	71	97
Orkney Islands	4	2		1	3	12
Perth and Kinross	23	13	21	18	5	25
Renfrewshire	23	18	24	29	77	17
Scottish Borders	9	2	16	11	12	23
Shetland Islands	4	6	15	8	8	16
South Ayrshire	18	22	16	18	19	12
South Lanarkshire	30	36	75	35	44	246
Stirling	23	11	29	17	6	19
West Dunbartonshire	8	10	21	21	22	19
West Lothian	17	18	30	16	31	56

Source: Teacher Flow Survey.

Note: 1. Numbers are Headcounts.

Question reference: S2W-31158

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents involving (a) sale and (b) use of illegal drugs on school property have been reported in each local education authority in each year since 2000.

Question reference: S2W-31159

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offensive weapons were confiscated in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S2W-31156

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) permanent and (b) temporary exclusions from school there were in each year since 1999 and, of these, how many were as a result of (i) drug taking, (ii) selling drugs, (iii) violence towards other pupils, (iv) violence towards teachers, (v) vandalism of school property, (vi) theft of school property and (vii) possession of a weapon and how many were for other reasons.

Information on temporary exclusionsand removal from the register and the reasons for those are contained within statisticalpublications produced annually.

Information for the period 1999-2000is available from:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00055-06.asp.

Information for each year from2000-01 onwards is available from:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubExclusions.

Question reference: S2W-31115

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) longest, (b) shortest and (c) average waiting times were for persons seeking (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four-bedroom local authority homes in each of the last five years, broken down by authority, and which local authorities had the (A) longest and (B) shortest waiting times.

The information requested isnot held centrally. The numbers of households on waiting lists for each local authorityare published on an annual basis in the quarterly Scottish Executive StatisticalBulletin (Housing Series) Housing trends in Scotland: quarters ending 31 March.This is available online in the publications section of the housing statistics branchreference site http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/PubHousingTrend.

Question reference: S2W-31223

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many racially motivated assaults (a) were reported and (b) resulted in a case being brought before the courts in each year since 1999, broken down by sheriff court.

Official statistics on racist incidentsrecorded by the police in Scotland from 2003-04 to 2005-06 will by published bythe Scottish Executive in March 2007. This will be the first time that such informationhas been collated and published, and it will contain data on racist incidents wherea crime of assault was subsequently recorded.

The available data for persons proceededagainst in Scottish courts where a racial aggravator has been recorded is givenin the following table. Racial aggravator data is not available for earlier years.

Persons Proceeded Against forAssault^1,2 in Scottish Courts where a Racial Aggravator Code³has been Recorded, 2004-05.

Court Procedure	2004-05
High Court	4
Sheriff Summary
Aberdeen	4
Airdrie	3
Alloa	-
Arbroath	-
Ayr	1
Banff	-
Campbelltown	-
Cupar	-
Dingwall	1
Dornoch	-
Dumbarton	2
Dumfries	2
Dundee	8
Dunfermline	-
Dunoon	-
Duns	-
Edinburgh	24
Elgin	2
Falkirk	1
Forfar	1
Fort William	-
Glasgow	54
Greenock	1
Haddington	3
Hamilton	1
Inverness	4
Jedburgh	-
Kilmarnock	7
Kirkcaldy	1
Kirkcudbright	1
Kirkwall	-
Lanark	1
Lerwick	-
Linlithgow	2
Lochmaddy	-
Oban	-
Paisley	6
Peebles	-
Perth	2
Peterhead	-
Portree	-
Rothesay	-
Selkirk	-
Stirling	3
Stonehaven	-
Stornoway	-
Stranraer	-
Tain	1
Wick	-
Scotland	140

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Assault defined as serious assault,robbery and assault with intent to rob, assault with intent to commit unnaturalcrimes, assault with intent to ravish, indecent assault, petty assault, petty assaultof an emergency worker.

3. Offence aggravator codes will not be recorded for non-Integrationof Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems (ISCJIS) cases and courts thatare not yet ISCJIS compliant.

Question reference: S2W-31116

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacant local authority houses there were in each of the last five years, broken down by authority.

The numbers of vacant local authoritydwellings as at 31 March are published on an annual basis in the quarterly ScottishExecutive Statistical Bulletin (Housing Series) Housing trends in Scotland: quartersending 31 March. Bulletins for the past five years are available on-line in thepublications section of the housing statistics branch reference site:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/PubHousingTrend.

Question reference: S2W-30806

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the Scottish Prison Service budget was spent on education in 2005-06.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The information requested isnot available. The Scottish Prison Service incurred direct expenditure of some £3.5million on education in 2005-06. This figure excludes the cost of education serviceincluded in the cost of the HM Prison Kilmarnock contract – which has a unitary payment for the full service– and internal resources at all establishments which provided education servicesduring this period.

An extensive analysis of correctionalopportunities for prisoners was published in January 2005 by Audit Scotland. Thisreport sought to provide estimated costs for correctional opportunities and thisremains the most comprehensive attempt to quantify the associated costs. A similarexercise has not been undertaken since then.

Question reference: S2W-30835

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on each official residence made available to a Scottish minister on (a) council tax, (b) rent, (c) repairs and maintenance, (d) redecoration and (e) other running costs in 2005-06.

Question reference: S2W-30834

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what official residences have been made available to Scottish ministers in the course of their duties; where each residence is; what the council tax banding of each is, and to which Scottish minister each residence is allocated.