Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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-20860

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the modelling for its childcare policy in an independent Scotland does not differentiate between gender and, in light of women having both lower average pay and working fewer hours per week, whether if it will carry out further modelling based solely on the impact on women.

The Scottish Government modelled the impacts of increased female participation using a detailed Computable General Equilibrium model of the Scottish economy. CGE models are widely used for dynamic policy modelling by many national governments and international organisations.

Many women work less hours and earn less than men precisely because of current or previous childcare commitments. This only reinforces the argument for the transformational change in the provision of childcare proposed in Scotland’s Future. When fully implemented, universal childcare entitlement would represent a fundamental change in the choices and opportunities women with young children face in the labour market, providing clear social and economic benefits.

Changes in the labour market have the potential to happen relatively quickly. The latest available breakdown of the employment figures by the working pattern shows that over the year between October to December 2013, the number of women in full-time employment rose by 48,000 whilst part-time employment increased by 17,000.

Question reference: S4W-20379

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 3 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government who formed the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning’s delegation to the OECD education summit in New Zealand.

The parameters of the delegation were set by OECD and Education International, the organisers of the International Summit on the Teaching Profession. The UK delegation comprised the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning; Ken Muir, Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland; Larry Flanagan, the General Secretary of the EIS; Darren Northcott, National Official for Education at NASUWT and Ian Mitchell, Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4O-03088

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how widely it estimates zero hours contracts are used.

Question reference: S4O-03072

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take to improve public transport links to and from Renfrewshire.

Question reference: S4W-19928

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-13054 by Derek Mackay on 5 March 2013, how many planning appeals in the (a) energy, (b) retail, (c) commercial property, (d) environmental waste management and (e) hotel, leisure and recreation sectors ministers have considered since February 2013 and with what outcome.

Question reference: S4O-03017

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what so-called red lines an independent Scotland would set when negotiating membership of the EU.

Question reference: S4O-02867

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what account the business case for the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme takes of the impact that construction work could have on passenger numbers.

Question reference: S4W-18728

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the term "childcare" in its white paper on independence is to be read as "early learning and childcare".

Question reference: S4W-18875

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) breakfast and (b) after-school clubs have been organised by schools in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority.

Information on the number of schools providing breakfast clubs was collected as part of the annual school meals survey until 2010. This information is published on the Scottish Government website in table 23 of the annual School Meals in Scotland publication. Please see following links to the relevant tables:

2007 data on breakfast clubs:

2008 data on breakfast clubs:

2009 data on breakfast clubs:

2010 data on breakfast clubs:

As a result of a consultation in September 2010, on school education statistics collections and publications, information on breakfast clubs is no longer collected. Information on after-school clubs is not available centrally.

Question reference: S4W-18877

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) classroom assistants and (b) additional support for learning staff there have been in schools in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority.

The number employed by each local authority is a decision for that authority alone. The information you requested on classroom assistants and additional support for learning staff is, however, provided in the following tables:

��

Number of classroom assistants (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013

��	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	176	189	207	224	186	199	219
Aberdeenshire	190	174	178	177	178	190	73
Angus	133	136	121	128	115	122	126
Argyll and Bute	115	95	93	94	81	99	75
Clackmannanshire	63	62	55	55	54	78	85
Dumfries and Galloway	143	128	133	95	76	77	75
Dundee City	102	99	71	89	66	57	68
East Ayrshire	288	219	190	215	208	224	209
East Dunbartonshire	209	155	148	131	104	103	100
East Lothian	50	47	45	47	49	48	50
East Renfrewshire	70	86	79	86	141	106	103
Edinburgh, City of	434	436	396	440	475	495	552
Eilean Siar	32	31	30	23	24	22	19
Falkirk	334	392	371	309	340	338	339
Fife	215	222	181	200	196	179	156
Glasgow City	718	735	694	648	828	1086	1077
Highland	136	159	143	175	131	0	0
Inverclyde	106	95	77	88	89	89	85
Midlothian	180	103	116	121	111	109	120
Moray	138	112	109	103	69	118	70
North Ayrshire	300	329	338	313	291	299	300
North Lanarkshire	400	393	388	367	379	373	371
Orkney Islands	32	32	37	19	18	18	19
Perth and Kinross	69	65	83	81	79	80	81
Renfrewshire	258	228	244	191	115	140	109
Scottish Borders	44	45	49	49	76	50	54
Shetland Islands	18	17	19	18	18	17	18
South Ayrshire	136	130	110	122	110	112	202
South Lanarkshire	176	232	212	227	325	165	230
Stirling	80	83	107	123	173	256	119
West Dunbartonshire	234	216	227	184	219	154	120
West Lothian	164	242	281	288	299	263	281
All local authorities	5743	5687	5532	5430	5623	5666	5505

��

Number of additional support needs auxiliary or care assistants (Full time equivalent) by local authority, 2007-2013

��	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen City	331	361	278	273	215	211	207
Aberdeenshire	528	572	540	565	524	513	673
Angus	87	91	107	108	104	110	111
Argyll and Bute	80	81	136	140	173	218	162
Clackmannanshire	124	89	74	84	83	49	62
Dumfries and Galloway	174	202	155	178	205	216	229
Dundee City	93	122	161	139	229	162	355
East Ayrshire	6	8	59	28	38	13	37
East Dunbartonshire	225	202	195	195	191	207	202
East Lothian	76	70	82	94	119	134	133
East Renfrewshire	157	112	128	114	60	153	112
Edinburgh, City of	262	156	195	194	161	116	122
Eilean Siar	73	75	77	64	70	66	75
Falkirk	116	102	104	147	103	111	95
Fife	505	522	491	565	595	585	627
Glasgow City	612	655	578	488	291	599	120
Highland	378	370	460	541	509	638	669
Inverclyde	164	155	154	135	140	141	136
Midlothian	20	63	65	65	86	96	63
Moray	199	210	196	171	223	305	461
North Ayrshire	26	21	5	10	1	3	0
North Lanarkshire	543	514	525	498	495	468	485
Orkney Islands	11	5	2	42	42	46	56
Perth and Kinross	185	178	243	198	218	219	257
Renfrewshire	159	164	113	144	178	139	197
Scottish Borders	149	150	167	157	146	162	152
Shetland Islands	86	87	82	92	96	100	84
South Ayrshire	120	125	114	120	130	121	66
South Lanarkshire	267	242	246	241	212	340	298
Stirling	64	113	89	75	157	59	68
West Dunbartonshire	44	59	39	71	42	122	121
West Lothian	163	171	128	80	27	72	88
All local authorities	6024	6047	5991	6016	5863	6494	6522

��	Appeals Decided	Number Allowed
Energy	103	41
Retail	11	8
Commercial Property	20	11
Environmental Waste Management	2	1
Hotel, Leisure and Recreation	19	10