Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-24338

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many teacher vacancies there are in (a) Highland, (b) Moray, (c) Orkney Islands, (d) Shetland Islands, (e) Western Isles and (f) Argyll and Bute Council.

Question reference: S4W-24339

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 2 January 2015 regarding 250 additional teacher training places for 2015-16, what further action it is taking to create more teacher training places at colleges in (a) the Highlands, (b) the Western Isles, (c) the Northern Isles and (d) Moray.

The Scottish Government has recommended that initial teacher education (ITE) student intake targets for 2015-16 should be increased by 150 in the primary sector and by 100 in the secondary sector.

The Scottish Government’s advice to the Scottish Funding Council recommends that, from the planned additional ITE places in 2015-16, target intakes for the Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Primary course at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) should be increased from 40 to 60. On the strength of this recommendation, UHI are planning to train teachers in each of the following six UHI colleges in 2015-16: Argyll, Inverness, Lews Castle, Moray, Orkney and Shetland.

It is also recommended that the remaining increase in the primary sector should be distributed between the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee and the West of Scotland.

It is also recommended that eight of the secondary places should be allocated for the PGDE Secondary course that UHI is planning to introduce in 2015-16 in partnership with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and that the remaining increase in the secondary sector be distributed proportionately across all the other universities that offer ITE courses, including Aberdeen.

The University of Aberdeen has been allocated additional places since 2014-15 and, with Scottish Government funding, is working with partner local authorities to train existing employees, such as classroom assistants, as primary teachers, through a part-time PGDE course on a distance learning basis. Highland Council already has a cohort following this route into teaching and Moray Council is due to join soon.

Question reference: S4W-24328

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 18 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it protects land used for sport or recreation from development not related to sport or recreation.

There are existing planning measures in place, both in terms of planning policy and through the notification direction, which help safeguard outdoor sports facilities from inappropriate development.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), published in 2014, sets out ministers’ clear position on the protection of outdoor sports facilities, that they should be safeguarded from development except in a limited number of prescribed circumstances, such as where the proposed development is ancillary to the use as sports facility, only involves a minor part of the sports facility and would not affect its use for sport and training, or where if the facility to be lost would be replaced by a new facility of comparable or greater value. Through SPP, ministers expect local authorities to identify and protect open space in their local development plans.

Ministers also have a scrutiny role, and have set out in the Town and Country Planning (Notification of Applications) (Scotland) Direction 2009 details of the types of applications which require to be notified to them. This includes development which is likely to a) result in the loss of an outdoor sports facility; b) prejudice the existing use of an outdoor sports facility for that purpose; or c) prevent the use of land, which was last used as an outdoor sports facility, from being used again for that purpose, to which sportscotland has objected or has recommended conditions which the planning authority does not intend to attach to the planning permission.

Question reference: S4O-04020

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the recent fall in oil prices has had on the economy of and employment in the Highlands and Islands.

The fall in oil prices will be beneficial in terms of reduced transport costs – helping individuals and businesses. We are aware that this has the potential to impact on levels of investment in the UK Continental Shelf and that is why we have repeatedly pressed the UK Government to ensure a competitive and stable fiscal regime, and proposed a package of measures which we believe will sustain investment and support thousands of jobs.

The First Minister launched the Energy Jobs Taskforce in January 2015 to deliver a co-ordinated response to the issues being faced by the industry, with partners working across the sector both to maintain jobs and to mitigate the potential impact of any losses.

Question reference: S4W-24304

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans there are to accommodate court business if Inverness Sheriff Court is unavailable.

Question reference: S4W-24303

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for the former Dingwall Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Court building.

Question reference: S4W-24137

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect the terms and conditions of GPs on 17C contracts.

Question reference: S4W-24136

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage NHS boards to recruit and retain GPs on 17C contracts.

Health boards have a range of options at their disposal in ensuring appropriate service provision: in addition to securing provision through independent contractors under the terms of the nationally negotiated general medical services contract, or through section 17C (of the 1978 NHS (Scotland) Act) contractual agreements, they can provide services directly themselves with board employed GPs.

Statutory responsibility for the provision of primary medical services rests with health boards and it is for each board to put in place those services that best meet the reasonable needs of their patient populations.

The service options chosen for each community are entirely operational matters for the territorial health board.

Scottish Ministers are fully committed to ensuring that all communities in Scotland receive safe, reliable and sustainable health care services.

Recruitment into GP training remains high, with a 91 per cent fill rate. However the Scottish Government is certainly not complacent, and we are working on a range of initiatives to improve matters.

The new GP contract, agreed in August 2014, contains several measures to help ease recruitment and workload pressures in general practice.

Question reference: S4W-24138

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect dispensary services for GPs on 17C contracts.

Statutory responsibility for the provision of primary medical services rests with health boards and it is for each board to put in place those services that best meet the reasonable needs of their patient populations.

Under the provisions set out in the NHS Pharmaceutical Services (Scotland) (Regulations) 2009 NHS boards must establish a Pharmacy Practices Committee to consider applications made to them to open a community pharmacy in their area. If an application is granted to open a pharmacy in an area where a GP practice has authority to prescribe and dispense to its patients, the board must take a decision on whether that GP practice can continue to dispense.

Question reference: S4O-03976

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle poverty in the Highlands and Islands.

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