Chamber and committees

Results of the February 2008 survey of school meals are due to be published later this month. These statistics are published annually on the Scottish Government website and are available using the following link:

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

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and I last met Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the Convener of Education, Children and Families, on 27 September 2007, accompanied by other elected members and appropriate officials. Discussion covered a range of educational issues, including the Council’s aspirations for future school building under what they term their “Wave 3” schools programme. In response to a subsequent request from Councillor MacLaren, the Cabinet Secretary has already indicated that she would welcome a further such meeting to discuss the council’s strategy and plans for schools.

The Scottish Government carries out an annual teacher workforce planning exercise. That exercise estimates the number of teachers leaving each year but does not differentiate between retirals and other reasons for leaving. The estimated number leaving in the years requested is set out in the following table:

	Primary Trained Teachers	Secondary Trained Teachers
2006	2,977	2,510
2007	3,064	2,630
2008	3,279	2,795

 

The numbers of students graduating from teacher training in 2006 and 2007 are available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18093809/110.

Comparable figures are not yet available for 2008 but 2,054 primary sector students and 1505 secondary sector students have been allocated to local authorities for the 2008-09 teacher induction scheme. However, not all of these students will graduate and the numbers eligible to take up their allocations will be smaller.

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45748).

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45749).

Our policy is that the financial resources available to the Scottish Government should be applied fully, efficiently and effectively to supporting excellent public services. Consequently we expect unspent balances at the end of each financial year to be very low. We successfully reached agreement with HM Treasury to release large unspent balances accumulated by the previous administration. This money is supporting public service delivery over the period covered by the 2007 Spending Review.

As part of the negotiations with the Treasury any unspent resources from the Scottish Government will be retained by the Treasury and cannot be accessed until after the conclusion of this spending review period.

Local authorities are subject to a financial framework which differs in detail from that applying to the Scottish Government. In particular, local authorities are required by statute to have a general fund. With some exceptions, again defined by statute, all income received by the authority is paid into this fund and all expenditure paid out of this fund. At the end of each financial year any balance on the general fund is held as a general reserve by the local authority and is available for use in future financial years. Local authorities therefore control the use to which any unspent funds at the end of a financial year are put

The Scottish Government’s policy is to provide NHS boards with appropriate financial flexibility, for example in relation to the timing of capital expenditure. An administrative arrangement operates whereby a board can carry forward unspent balances of up to 1% of its total financial allocation for use in the following year.

In my statement to the Parliament on 5 March 2008, I explained that I could not give an exact cost for the railway, because to announce a headline number would prejudice commercial negotiations, and for this reason I am unable to provide any further cost/budget information on the Borders rail reconstruction project.

I also indicated that, at this stage in the project’s development, capital costs are expected to be in the range of £235 million to £295 million. Furthermore, this cost range is for building the railway in accordance with the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Act 2006 and therefore there is no proposal to re-examine the plans for the railway.

The information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member and place a copy of the letter in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45741) as soon as the information is available.

Professor Crerar published The report of the independent review of regulation, audit, inspection and complaints handling of public services in Scotland on 25 September 2007. This was debated by the Parliament on 3 October 2007. The Scottish Government carefully considered the Crerar Review and the issues raised in the debate and published its response on 17 January 2008.

In the response the government accepted most of the recommendations in the review but identified some recommendations where further work was required. We will provide an update to Parliament on progress with this work by summer recess.