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-09419

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 18 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many home detention curfew agreements have been breached in each year since 2008.

Question reference: S4W-09420

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 18 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether performance indicators for the Scottish Prison Service's learning, skills and employability contract will include the number of prisoners who complete educational classes to an agreed standard.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Learning and Skills Services Contracts require providers to submit monthly performance data on the number of: SQA courses completed by prisoners; other educational qualifications achieved, and the number of certificates awarded by them to prisoners in recognition of their efforts.

Question reference: S4O-01300

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its not meeting its first climate change target, how it plans to ensure that subsequent targets are achieved.

Question reference: S4W-09256

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-05880 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 March 2012, whether it will make an announcement on the introduction of such a service and, if so, (a) when it will be launched, (b) how much it will cost to (i) develop and (ii) operate, (c) who would run it, (d) how many new jobs would be created and where they will be located, (e) how many existing jobs would be lost and (f) whether call handlers would be able to (A) identify the location of callers and (B) patch callers through to the emergency services.

Consideration of the adoption of the “111” number for access to non-emergency healthcare services in Scotland is still ongoing; a decision will be made in due course. Should it be adopted, this number would replace the existing number for NHS 24 and therefore no new service would be set up. The Scottish Government has been in regular contact with the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament on this matter (PE1285 refers).

Chief Constable Kevin Smith, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, announced the establishment of a single non-emergency number for the police, on 31 May at their annual conference. It is anticipated that the new number will become operational from 1 April 2013. However, specific information relating to the establishment of this number will be a matter for the new Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland.

In due course, we will seek to ensure that the issue is also considered by the new Fire and Rescue Service.

Question reference: S4W-09275

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many police support staff there were in (a) each police force, (b) the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and (c) the Scottish Police Services Authority on 30 June 2012.

Police staff play a critical role in the success of Scottish policing, and supporting the delivery of crucial frontline services, and will continue to do so in the future. The number of police support staff (full-time equivalent) on 30 June 2012 are given in the following table. Operational decisions about levels of police support staff are a matter for chief constables, the Scottish Police Services Authority and Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

Number of Police Support Staff (FTE) on 30 June 2012

Central	304
Dumfries and Galloway	219
Fife	383
Grampian	629
Lothian and Borders	1,044
Northern	319
Strathclyde	2,280
Tayside	469
SPSA	1,114
SCDEA	127
Scotland	6,890

Notes:

1. Figures are expressed in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE) police support staff, rounded to the nearest whole number.

2 Scotland totals may not equal the sum of the parts due to rounding.

Question reference: S4W-09232

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how successful the Scottish Prison Service's Learning, Skills and Employability contract has been; how the contract is evaluated, and what impact it has had on prisoners' (a) literacy and (b) numeracy levels.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

During the first year of the Learning and Skills Services (LSS) contracts, the learning providers have performed in accordance with contractual requirements.

The learning providers’ operational performance is reviewed monthly at each prison against contract requirements and overall performance is monitored centrally by SPS HQ. Scheduled quarterly meetings also take place between the learning providers and SPS HQ staff to review overall performance and to discuss opportunities for future service development.

Since the introduction of the current contract on 1 August 2011 until 31 July 2012, 5,575 opted to be assessed for literacy and numeracy needs. The results have been taken into account when developing learning programmes for these offenders. As a result of the learning programmes 4,081 SQA courses have been completed by prisoners and 1,249 other educational qualifications have been achieved. A further 500 have received certificates awarded by the supplier in acknowledgement of their efforts.

Question reference: S4W-09231

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how successful the literacy screening tool, the Big Plus, has been.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

A total of 5,575 prisoners opted to be assessed under the Big Plus screening tool from its introduction on 1 August 2011 to 31 July 2012. Approximately 81% of prisoners screened were assessed as lacking in functional literacy and 71% as lacking in functional numeracy. As a result, the individual learning plans (ILPs) for these prisoners will be able to reflect the indicative level of literacy and numeracy the prisoners have reached and make the appropriate provision for their development.

Question reference: S4W-08917

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to support the identification of dyslexia and related conditions.

Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, as amended, education authorities have a duty to identify any additional support needs for all children and young people for whom they are responsible, and to tailor provision to their individual circumstances.

To help all teachers identify the signs of literacy difficulties and dyslexia early, the Scottish Government provided Dyslexia Scotland with £39,000 to develop an online “Assessing Dyslexia” toolkit launched in June 2010. Since then, we have provided Dyslexia Scotland with an annual grant of £3,000 to maintain the toolkit.

In November 2011, the Scottish Government announced an additional £40,000 grant to Dyslexia Scotland, to review and update the toolkit. This includes new materials on effectively supporting children and young people with dyslexia, increased accessibility for teachers and information for local authorities on implementation of the toolkit. It is expected to be available early in the 2012-13 academic year.

For adults, assessment for dyslexia is not available on demand and adults wishing to be assessed require a private assessment from a suitably qualified educational psychologist. Costs vary but may be around £400 per assessment.

Further and higher education institutions may offer dyslexia assessments. Each institution has its own arrangements and services differ between institutions.

Question reference: S4W-08916

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what action is taken to identify young people with Meares-Irlen Syndrome.

Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, as amended, education authorities have a duty to identify any additional support needs for all children and young people for whom they are responsible and to tailor provision to their individual circumstances.

The act also enables parents to request a specific assessment, such as an educational, psychological or medical assessment, at any time, to identify if their child has additional support needs.

In order to help all teachers in Scotland identify the signs of barriers to learning, such as Meares-Irlen Syndrome, and dyslexia early in a child’s school life, the Scottish Government, in partnership with Dyslexia Scotland, launched the online ‘Assessing Dyslexia’ Toolkit in June 2010.

In November 2011, we announced an additional £40,000 grant to Dyslexia Scotland. This will be used to review and update the toolkit, add new materials on how to effectively support children and young people, make it more accessible for teachers and develop a section for local authorities on how to best implement the toolkit. We expect this to be available to schools early in the 2012-13 academic year.

Question reference: S4W-08527

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Marine Scotland Science has deleted data on sea lice levels at salmon farms.

Under The Fish Farming Businesses (Record Keeping) (Scotland) Order 2008, Schedule 1, Part 2) Marine Scotland Science can require that sea lice records be submitted for scrutiny. Where compliance has been demonstrated, that record will either be returned to the company in question, or deleted, with a note appended to the case that the company has demonstrated compliance with the legislation in question.