Chamber and committees

Whilst decisions about teaching provision and departmental structure are matters for the university, not Scottish ministers, I am keen to ensure that any decisions taken by the university are only taken once the views of staff, students and academics have been fully heard. I made this point when I last formally met, Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal of Glasgow University, on 16 March 2011.

Together with Sandra White MSP, I also met Professor Muscatelli informally during the election campaign.

The information requested is not centrally available. However, the latest information on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde employees as at 30 September 2010 is published on the NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division (ISD) website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Overall%20staff%202010.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment

Staff in post data at 31 March 2011, will be published on this website on
28 June 2011. Future publication dates for workforce information is shown in the following table:

Information on those employees who hold a temporary contract (casual) is not currently published. However, it has been ascertained from the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS) that there were 2,080 (head count) and 1856.0 (whole-time equivalent) employees with a contract description of “fixed term” as at 30 September 2010 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. This excludes GPs and GDS dentists.

Information about employees employed by other NHS bodies in Glasgow cannot be provided within the time frame associated with this question. This information will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52922) when available.

I have asked Mark Batho, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Funding Council does not allocate funded student places to specific courses, as the allocation of places to courses is a matter for institutions to decide themselves.

Reducing the number of deaths from heart disease is a national priority for the Scottish Government. Health and Wellbeing is a central pillar of Curriculum for Excellence and includes learning on how to respond in a range of emergency situations. It is however for schools and authorities to decide what measures to take and what resources to put in place to meet local needs and circumstances. Every school can bring in expertise as necessary to cover the different elements of Health and Wellbeing.

Publication decisions are a matter for the media. Such decisions may be expected to take appropriate account of the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks.

We recognise the importance of cities to the economy of Scotland. Government’s role is to provide strategic leadership and engage with cities individually and collectively to support the development of a more coherent approach to unlocking their potential. The details of our strategy will be developed collaboratively with the cities.

The Scottish Government has not yet reached any conclusions following the recent consultation on independent monitoring of prisons. We will do so in early course.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including the relationship between the different legal systems within the UK and the appropriate approach to mutual recognition and enforcement of each other’s Court orders.

I spoke to Professor McDonald on 11 May 2011 and we discussed the proposed reforms during our conversation.

While this is a matter for the University of Strathclyde, not Scottish ministers, I am keen to ensure that any decisions taken by the university are only taken once the views of staff, students and academics have been fully heard.

Proposals for the reform of governance in the higher education sector will be brought forward in due course.