Chamber and committees

Nursery teachers are paid on the same scale as other teachers employed in local authorities. The salary scale ranges from £16,644 to £26,670. The starting salary for probationer teachers from 1 August 2002 will be £16,644 rising to £17,726 from 1 January 2003.

The Scottish Executive does not plan to make any representations to the UK Government, Civil Aviation Authority or BAA Scottish Airports on airport tax/charges. BAA Scottish Airports has, and is continuing to have, considerable growth in passenger numbers. The taxation regime does not appear to provide either an economic disadvantage or a disincentive to tourists and other visitors.

The Scottish Executive has worked in partnership with the UK Government on the aviation policy review as it affects Scotland. The Executive has also ensured that Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have been involved at all stages of the policy development process and have been represented directly on associated working/steering groups.

The information requested is not held centrally. COSLA's advisory Scheme of Salaries and Conditions of Service for Nursery Staffs recommends a salary range of £10,679 to £13,664 for a nursery nurse class 1 (qualified) employed by a local authority. This salary range applies on entering the profession.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The Estates Review document did not refer to the 2000-01 report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) because the purpose of the review was to identify the likely pressures on the Scottish Prison Service estate over the long term and to generate a series of options for meeting them, rather than to look back at specific aspects of the performance of existing prisons such as Kilmarnock.The review's conclusion that private build, private operate prisons have proved themselves capable of providing good, effective custodial services was based on experience of such prisons in a number of jurisdictions. In the case of Kilmarnock, account was taken of all the detailed information available in forming the view that it operates effectively. That information came from a range of sources, primarily the monitoring of the prison on a continuous basis by Scottish Prison Service staff and the results of prisoner surveys but also including HMCIP reports.

I understand that City of Edinburgh Council has no such policy in Trinity Academy primary school. Similarly, there is no such policy in Trinity Academy secondary school, although practical classes will be limited to a maximum of 20 by national agreements on teachers' terms and conditions.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24436 on 16 May 2002.

The Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Bill was introduced on 7 May 2002. The bill introduces a radical new approach to debt management which puts money advice and information at the forefront to enable debt problems to be tackled before court and enforcement action become a possibility. It implements the central recommendations of the independent Working Group's report Striking the Balance: a new approach to debt management, published on 6 July 2001, which were the subject of extensive public consultation and which received widespread support. In particular, it establishes the framework for a nation-wide debt arrangement scheme to allow managed repayment of multiple debt by negotiated instalment. In doing so, it fulfils the Executive's commitment to bring forward an humane and workable alternative to the existing system in response to the request of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee expressed in its Stage 1 Report on the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill (SP Paper 82, paragraph 48).

The targets set in Another Kind of Home in 1992 proved difficult to meet and were re-established in 1999. This may be due to the fact that whilst the number of children and young people accommodated in residential schools and units has decreased, there has been a major increase in staffing. The increases in the percentage of local authority staff who hold a qualification are as follows:

Course	1999	2002	% Increase
DipSW/CCS/CQSW	11	12.6	1.6
HNC and/or SVQ3/4	26	33	7
Total holding a currently recognised qualification	37	45.6	8.6

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24436.