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: S4W-06324

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what details it can provide of the programme of support that is being provided by Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority to local authorities to assist them in all aspects of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Education Scotland, through its District Inspector and Area Advisor networks, maintains regular discussions with local authorities over delivery of Curriculum for Excellence. Education Scotland’s audit of the state of readiness of secondary schools will inform further tailored support for individual schools or departments where required.

In addition to the unprecedented involvement of practitioners in the development of the new qualifications, an SQA support programme will be delivered to ensure that every Principal Subject Teacher can attend relevant CPD events. This supplements the existing programme of activities that includes:

Publication of all draft documents to allow all practitioners to feed in to developments from January 2011 through to April 2012

Updated version of the National Assessment Resource released, enabling users to add assessment exemplars

Eight SQA/Education Scotland curriculum events attended by over 1000 practitioners in November/ December 2011

Support from the SQA CfE Liaison Team

Focussed, practical advice and guidance from Education Scotland to support teachers in the delivery of some courses at National 4 and 5 where there are aspects of significant changes in April 2012

National Implementation Support events in May and Autumn 2012.

Course and Unit Assessment support materials available well in advance of the implementation of the new qualifications in 2013-14.

Question reference: S4W-06321

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many subjects each school is allowing pupils to choose when making their exam choices.

Question reference: S4W-06319

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive in how many schools S2 pupils who will be in S3 in 2012-13 will choose their S3 subjects in that year.

Question reference: S4W-06325

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is auditing schools to establish whether they are ready to implement the Curriculum for Excellence.

Question reference: S4W-06314

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many and (b) what (i) schools and (ii) local authorities have asked for additional help in relation to their implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Question reference: S4W-06168

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S4W-05947 and S4W-05950 by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2012, what the concerns were about the corporate governance arrangements that resulted in it taking over NHS Lothian's external audit process and, in light of these, for what reason it does not plan to review the board's corporate governance arrangements.

I detailed my response to the findings of the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into aspects of NHS Lothian’s waiting times management and processes in a statement to Parliament on 21 March 2012. The official report of this session is available on the Scottish Parliament website at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=6922&mode=html#iob_62863.

A copy of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report has been made available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 53792).

Question reference: S4W-06128

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Water has estimated the loss to (a) households and (b) businesses in Torphichen in West Lothian and the surrounding area as a result of interruption to the water supply since April 2010.

Question reference: S4O-00859

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health Wellbeing and Cities Strategy last met NHS Lothian and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-06129

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid in compensation to (a) residents and (b) businesses in Torphichen in West Lothian and the surrounding area in relation to interruptions to the water supply since April 2010.

Question reference: S4W-06124

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many interruptions there have been to water supply in Torphichen in West Lothian and the surrounding area since April 2010, broken down by date.

The information you have requested is not held centrally. I have asked that Scottish Water meet you to discuss the questions you have asked and update you on the progress on its project to improve the security of supply in the Torphichen area.

I recognise the inconvenience and disruption which has been experienced by the residents of Torphichen during the past 18 months and would like to reassure you that Scottish Water is committed to providing a long-term solution.