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: S3W-03571

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost per head of pre-school provision is in each local authority in respect of (a) education and (b) childcare services.

The information requestedis not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-3570 on6 September 2007 for information on local authority pre-primaryeducation expenditure. It is not possible to split these data between educationand child care services.All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-03570

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority spends per child on pre-school provision.

Statistics onlocal authority spend are not collected on a per child basis. The pre-primaryeducation expenditure figures for 2005-06 (the latest year for which figuresare available) are provided in the following table. Pre-primary educationexpenditure includes expenditure on nursery schools, other under 5s expenditurenot located in primary schools or special schools, childcare services andregistration services.

Pre-primary EducationExpenditure 2005-06 (£000)

Local Authority Area	Gross	Net
Scotland	284,484	267,174
Aberdeen City	8,689	8,608
Aberdeenshire	9,661	9,623
Angus	4,706	4,602
Argyll and Bute	5,252	4,854
Clackmannanshire	3,563	2,900
Dumfries and Galloway	7,592	7,389
Dundee City	8,077	7,384
East Ayrshire	8,824	7,905
East Dunbartonshire	4,776	4,251
East Lothian	5,053	4,472
East Renfrewshire	6,346	5,693
Edinburgh, City of	20,793	19,179
Eilean Siar	1,587	1,474
Falkirk	8,405	7,269
Fife	16,265	15,777
Glasgow City	45,061	43,826
Highland	11,478	9,766
Inverclyde	5,224	5,004
Midlothian	4,855	4,547
Moray	4,035	3,899
North Ayrshire	6,951	6,750
North Lanarkshire	18,916	18,023
Orkney Islands	801	801
Perth and Kinross	5,380	5,155
Renfrewshire	12,625	12,054
Scottish Borders	4,767	4,519
Shetland Islands	1,365	1,329
South Ayrshire	5,403	5,157
South Lanarkshire	13,391	12,191
Stirling	5,934	5,472
West Dunbartonshire	8,255	7,630
West Lothian	10,454	9,671

Source:LFR 1 (Education) returns.

Note:Gross expenditure is the total expenditure. Net expenditure is the grossexpenditure minus any income, for example from grants, fees or charges.

Question reference: S3W-03558

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Lord Sutherland’s review of the policy of free personal and nursing care will consider the effect of the policy on other services delivered to older people in Scotland and, in particular, whether resources have been diverted from general services for older people to pay for free personal and nursing care services and what action will be taken to prevent any such diversion.

The Independent FundingReview of Free Personal and Nursing Care, chaired by Lord Sutherland, will investigatethe level and distribution of resources to local authorities in implementing thispolicy. Local authorities arerequired to meet their statutory responsibilities for the assessment and deliveryof services to older people in their area. It is for each individual local authorityto determine the most appropriate allocation of the total resources available toit to meet these and it’s other responsibilities.

Question reference: S3W-03566

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will investigate the reasons for pre-school closures and make the findings available to the Parliament.

Theresponsibility for planning and delivering pre-school education lies with localauthorities. Authorities need to take population projections into account toensure that there is enough pre-school education provision available in theright areas. Over time this may involve opening new provision and closing othercentres in line with patterns of demand.

The Scottish governmenthas no plans to undertake an investigation into the reasons for the closure ofindividual pre-school education settings.

Question reference: S3W-03559

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many telephone calls have been handled by the National Child Protection Line in each month since its launch in February 2007.

Question reference: S3W-03565

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pre-school providers are at risk of imminent closure, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) type of provider.

Question reference: S3W-03560

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 5 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review the operation and effectiveness of the National Child Protection Line.

The operation of theChild Protection Line is under review and development through a national workinggroup, whose membership includes representatives from Child Protection Committees(including police and social workers) and out-of-hours and phone-based child protectionservice providers. See www.scotland.gov.uk/childprotectionfor further information.

We plan to commissiona rigorous independent evaluation of the service after it has been operational for18 months, in August 2008.

Question reference: S3W-03561

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 5 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase public awareness of the National Child Protection Line.

Question reference: S3W-03379

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total estimated cost is of meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015 in respect of local authority owned housing stock, also broken down by local authority.

I have asked Angiolina Foster Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Local authoritiesthat have submitted Standard Delivery Plans (SDPs), setting out how they will achievethe Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), plan to invest approximately £1.94billion by 2015. This figure is in 2004-05 prices and is based on individual localauthorities’ interpretations of the Standard and assessment of investment needs.

The breakdown of plannedSHQS investment by local authority is as follows:

Local Authority	Total Expenditure to Meet SHQS (£000)
Aberdeen City Council	210,752
Aberdeenshire Council	115,084
Angus Council	10,405
Clackmannanshire Council	15,307
Dundee City Council	133,760
East Ayrshire Council	91,759
East Dunbartonshire Council	38,019
East Lothian Council	131,485
East Renfrewshire Council	40,191
Falkirk Council	124,796
Fife Council	200,420
Midlothian Council	34,534
Moray Council	7,382
North Ayrshire Council	147,474
North Lanarkshire Council	237,317
Orkney Islands Council	5,066
Perth and Kinross Council	53,729
Shetland Islands Council	6,777
South Ayrshire Council	65,712
South Lanarkshire Council	213,000
West Lothian Council	55,350
Total Expenditure	1,941,328

Local authoritiesthat have transferred their stock to housing associations (Glasgow, Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Eilean Siar and Argyll and Bute),or that are in the process of doing so (Inverclyde) are not required to submit anSDP. Stirling, Renfrewshire, Highland, Edinburgh and West Dunbartonshire Councilsare currently developing their SDPs which will include details of their plannedSHQS related investment.

Question reference: S3W-02455

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the implementation among local authorities of the principle of full cost recovery for voluntary organisations delivering public services.

Feb 2007	98
March 2007	82
April 2007	40
May 2007	36
June 2007	44
July 2007	27
Total	327