Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published plans in November 2010 for scrutiny reform to drive out savings, as highlighted in our response to the Christie Commission. The plans were published in the Efficiencies from Improvement to Scrutiny document which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/11/17093821/0.

Curriculum for Excellence is now being delivered in all public funded schools in Scotland and is already well established. Subjects are an essential feature of the curriculum, particularly in secondary school and as learning becomes more specialised subjects increasingly become the principal means of structuring learning and delivering outcomes.

There is flexibility for new subjects to be developed and introduced in the context of the new curriculum to help ensure the aims and principles of Curriculum for Excellence are maintained. Chinese Mandarin, for example, has been introduced recently in some schools concurrently with the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.

Proposals on Scottish studies are being considered by the Scottish Studies Working Group which is mindful of the risk of marginalisation of learning about Scotland by introducing a discrete subject.

The Scottish Government agrees that there is considerable scope to improve the quality, transparency and comparability of performance data for key public services.

At a local level, I understand that the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) and the Improvement Service are working to improve the quality of performance information for local authorities and their community planning partners through the development of a menu of local outcome indicators for use in their single outcome agreements. They are also working to support benchmarking by local authorities, recognising that local government is responsible for its own performance management. The Scottish Government is supporting the work in a number of ways, for example, providing professional advice for the menu of local outcome indicators. Audit Scotland have also been kept advised of the work being done and have expressed their support for this initiative.

The Scottish Studies Working Group is already taking account of guidance on Curriculum for Excellence and anecdotal evidence which suggests that while the place of learning about Scotland has been strengthened it remains a fortunate accident for some rather than an expectation for all. There is existing good practice and high quality learning and teaching using Scottish contexts and we want to ensure all young people can access a distinct, coherent strand of learning about Scotland.

The group will consider the need for a sample survey among practitioners to inform their advice and recommendations.

The government is in touch with teaching unions and universities regularly on a whole range of matters including developments in Curriculum for Excellence.

Curriculum for Excellence does not prescribe subjects and any developments which may impact on teachers and teacher education will be informed by engagement with a range of partners, including teaching unions and universities.

Ministerial Correspondence

The Scottish Government aims to respond as quickly as possible and within 20 working days from the date correspondence is received in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit and logged on the Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence System. If we are unable to send a final reply within 20 working days we will send an interim reply explaining the reason for any delay and indicating when the correspondent can expect to receive a full reply. We have recently established a new cross-Scottish Government group to consider ways of improving on both target times and quality of ministerial replies.

The volume of correspondence dealt with by each directorate has varied considerably from only one case received per year to over 700.

The following table provides the information requested on performance by directorate for the last three years, including the percentage of final replies issued within the 20 working day target, for those directorates handling a minimum of 300 cases per year.

Parliamentary Questions

The Scottish Government aims to answer all parliamentary questions on time within the deadlines set in Rule 13.5.2 of Standing Orders. However, there are occasions when this may not be possible, for example, when clusters of questions are received which deal with more complex and sensitive issues. In these cases, more detailed research is required in order to provide a full and comprehensive answer.

Audits of parliamentary questions are published quarterly. It is up to directorates to monitor performance in answering questions and to take the appropriate measures to improve it where necessary.

The volume of parliamentary questions dealt with by each directorate has varied considerably from nil questions received per year to over 700.

The following table provides the information requested on performance by directorate for each of the last three years, including the percentage of questions answered within the deadlines specified in Rule 13.5.2 of Standing Orders, for those directorates handling a minimum of 200 questions per year.

Note: * Transport Directorate and Transport Scotland merged in August 2010

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-02891 on 6 October 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

Since 1 July 2011 there have been two changes to the special adviser team. Malcolm Fleming was appointed on 25 July 2011 as Communications and political spokesperson. Jennifer Erickson resigned on 2 August 2011.

The current Special Adviser Pay Bands and Ranges and the number of Special Advisers within each Pay Band are:

Special Advisers provide policy, political and presentational advice and support to ministers. They do not provide legal advice.

The total number of overnights stays in hotels claimed by all special advisers since May 2011 is six. The costs were either incurred by the adviser and claimed back through the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence system or the rooms were booked through the Scottish Government’s official travel agency and paid via a large consolidated invoice.

Overnight stays by Special Adviser are incurred in the course of carrying out official business on behalf of the Scottish Government.