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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government at what age women are eligible for breast screening and how often they are invited for screening.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the take up is of the (a) breast and (b) cervical cancer screening programme in the (i) most and (ii) least deprived areas.

Table 1 shows the breast screening uptake^1,2 of women aged 50-70³ by deprivation category⁴ for 2011-12⁵.

¹ Only routine appointments are included, self/GP referral and early recall appointments

are not included.

²Women are invited to attend screening once every three years.

³The age range for routine invitation is 50-70 years.

⁴ Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintiles version 2012

⁵ The 2011-12 data is the latest year available by deprivation category. More recent years are unavailable due to ongoing data quality issues.

Source: Scottish Breast Screening Programme Information System

Table 2 shows the cervical screening uptake¹ of women aged 20-60² by deprivation category³ for 2013-14⁴.

Table 2.

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation		2013-14
Category		Uptake
1 (Most deprived)		65.7
5 (Least deprived)		73.3

¹ Women are invited to attend cervical screening once every three years. Uptake statistics are

based on women attending in the previous three and a half; the additional half year ensures that

all data for those women screened are reported on.
² The age range for routine invitation is 20-60 years.
³ Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintiles version 2012.

⁴ The 2013-14 data is the latest year available by deprivation category. More recent years are unavailable due to ongoing data quality issues

Source: Scottish Cervical Call Recall System, Information Services Division Scotland.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, during a telephone conference with local authority chief executives and directors of finance stated that the (a) voluntary, (b) independent and (c) private sector would be expected to pay 25% of the costs of implementation of the living wage of £8.25 per hour for their staff.

The fair work agenda in social care is a priority for and responsibility shared between the Scottish Government, local authorities and care providers and all partners are expected to make a contribution.

During a telecom briefing to chief executives, I referred to previous agreements on fair work which were based on a tripartite model with providers and local government each making a 25% contribution.

In correspondence to local authorities setting out the terms of my offer, I confirmed that our investment assumes that private and third sector providers will meet their share of the costs. I did not stipulate a specific contribution expected from providers. These costs will be different in each area depending on local markets and therefore local negotiations will determine the overall cost and share of contributions required.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-28360 by Jamie Hepburn on 19 November 2015, whether it has made the transitional financial arrangements to cover the gap between the end of carer information strategy funding and the commencement of funding from the Carers (Scotland) Act 2015.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-28765 by Jamie Hepburn on 10 December 2015, when the fund will be open to new claimants.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-30050 by Shona Robison on 23 February 2016, for what reason it has referred to national guidance that is not relevant to the closure of ward six at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) science, (b) English, (c) maths and (d) PE teacher training places there have been in each year since 2007.

Prior to academic year 2014-15, student teacher intake targets for Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) secondary programmes of initial teacher education were not set on a subject specific basis. The table indicates the targets that have been set since 2014-15.

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Science*	175	211	226
English	139	170	194
Maths	120	146	179
PE	39	37	33

*Science = Biology + Chemistry + Physics

In addition to the target for PGDE PE, 100 undergraduate PE places are allocated to the University of Edinburgh each year.

In addition to the target for PGDE science, 30 undergraduate places are allocated to the University of Strathclyde for concurrent degrees in chemistry, maths and physics, and 115 undergraduate places are allocated to the University of Stirling for combined degrees in a broad range of subjects including biology, English, maths and PE.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many probationary teachers there have been in each year since 2007.

The following table shows the number of teachers registered by the General Teaching Council for Scotland as being on the teacher induction scheme recorded in post in a publicly funded school at the time of the annual teacher census.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Number of probationers

3,502

3,102

3,044

2,857

1,944

2,044

2,215

2,448

2,524

A small proportion of probationer teachers do not join the teacher induction scheme, preferring to follow the 'flexible route' but the Scottish Government does not gather data relating to them.

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school teacher training places there have been in each year since 2007.

The information requested is already in the public domain. It is published annually by the Scottish Funding Council and can be viewed at the following links:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/01/2016&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2016&To=01/02/2016

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/04/2015&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2015&To=28/02/2015

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/AN/03/2014&Type=Announcements&Sector=&From=01/01/2014&To=28/02/2014

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/guidance/guidance.aspx?Search=SFC/02/2013&Type=Circulars&Sector=&From=01/01/2013&To=28/02/2013

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/Circulars/2012/SFC0312.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110411221734/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2011/SFC0111.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110411230019/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/CircularsSFC0510/sfc0510.pdf

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411231559/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2009/SFC1809.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411231556/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2009/SFC0809.aspx

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100411234441/http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/CircularsSFC0808/sfc0808.pdf

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20081012001058/http:/www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2007/sfc4407/sfc4407.html

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20101011225710/http://www.sfc.ac.uk/news_events_circulars/Circulars/2007/SFC1307.aspx

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

1 (Most deprived)

5 (Least deprived)

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils will sit Higher (a) physics, (c) biology, (c) chemistry and (d) computing in 2016 and how many have sat the exam in each year since 2007, broken down by gender.