- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many state-funded denominational schools have been closed by local authorities in each of the last five years.
Answer
The number of suchdenominational schools closed in each of the past five calendar years is shownin the table. The information is derived from the Scottish Executive Education Department’s register of schools which is updated annually.
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| 1 | nil | 2 | 1 | 5 |
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its consent is required before a local authority can sanction the closure of a state-funded denominational school.
Answer
Ministerial consent for theclosure of such denominational schools is required only in certaincircumstances.
Schedule 2 to the Education(Publication and Consultation Etc)(Scotland) Regulations 1981, which applies tonon-denominational and denominational schools alike, covers circumstances wherethe school concerned is more than 80% full, or where the alternative school is fiveor more miles distant in the case of a primary school and 10 or more milesdistant in the case of a secondary school from the school proposed for closure.
Sections 22C and 22D of theEducation (Scotland) Act 1980 cover circumstances where pupils would no longerbe able to attend a school of the denomination concerned; or where, followingrepresentations from the church or denominational body concerned, ministers considerthat the proposal would result in a significant deterioration in the provision,distribution or availability of school education in denominational schoolscompared with other public schools.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase funding to Scottish Opera.
Answer
The budget allocation forScottish Opera for 2003-06 has been set. Scottish Opera must operate within thelevel of resource that has been identified as being available to it.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to categorise abusers according to their relationship with the abused child, including step-mother, live-in boyfriend and natural father, so that such information may be available in Scotland, in light of the findings of Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Answer
The Scottish Executive publishes child protection statistics for Scotland,including the relationship of the child’s primary known/suspected abuser to thechild, for children who were subject to a case conference. The categories usedare: natural mother, natural father, step parent, parent’s co-habitee, otherrelative (including sibling), other person known to the child/family, or personunknown to the child/family.
Figuresfor 2002-03 were published on 31 October 2003, as part of Children’s SocialWork Statistics, and are available on the Scottish Executive website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00287-00.asp.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many telephone calls there have been to the visitscotland.com national booking hotline in each month since it was established.
Answer
Although this is anoperational matter for VisitScotland, the number of telephone enquiriesreceived by visitscotland.com since its inception total over 437,000. Thenumber of calls received during the summer months of this year varied between 40,000and 56,000 per month. A note setting out the number of telephone calls receivedby visitscotland.com in each month since its establishment has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29760).
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what public funds have been spent by Historic Scotland or any other public agency on capital works in connection with the management of Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, in each of the last four years for which figures are available, broken down by spending on (a) roads, (b) pavements, (c) cycle lanes and (d) landscaping.
Answer
The following table showsthe Historic Scotland expenditure to date under the specified headings over thepast four years. I am not aware of capital expenditure by any other public agencyin Holyrood Park during the same period.
| | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| (a) Roads | | | | |
| Queen's Drive and South Approach Upgrade | 65,891 | 1,353,092 | | |
| Broad Pavement Car Park - repairs | | | 208,236 | 35,521 |
| | | | | |
| (b) Pavements (incl in item (a) above) | | | | |
| | | | | |
| (c) Cycle Lanes | | | 102,000 | 45,255 |
| | | | | |
| (d) Landscaping | | | | |
| | 65,891 | 1,353,092 | 310,236 | 80,776 |
The figures under the“Roads” heading include the cost of footpath works and ancillary verge seedingworks carried out as part of the overall roads upgrade contract. These are theonly capital-funded landscaping works to have been carried out in the park inthis period.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the visitScotland.com national booking hotline cost to (a) establish and (b) run on a monthly basis since it was launched.
Answer
The total cost of setting upvisitscotland.com as a public private partnership in 2002-03 was £7.5 million.Of that sum, the public sector contribution through VisitScotland and the areatourist boards in partnership was £1.875 million, most of which was in the formof a loan repayable by the company. The monthly running costs of visitscotland.comare an operational matter for the company, and are met by it from revenue.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how it is measuring the effectiveness of the free fruit scheme for primary one and two pupils.
Answer
We are in the process of commissioning a research project designed both to monitor the introduction of local schemes and also to evaluate the impact of the initiative. This will examine issues of supply and distribution both to the school and within schools, as well as the impact on consumption of fruit and changed eating habits.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on each programme or project allocated funds under the current Highlands and Islands Enterprise budget of #91.55 million and how much each programme or project has been allocated, grouped by strategic theme and priority.
Answer
Information on projects andprogrammes to which Highlands and Islands Enterprise have allocated funds iscontained in their Operating Plan for 2003-06, which is available on theirwebsite.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on each project or programme allocated funds under the current Scottish Enterprise budget of #461.2 million and how much each programme or project has been allocated, grouped by strategic theme and priority.
Answer
Information on projects andprogrammes to which Scottish Enterprise have allocated funds is contained intheir Operating Plan for 2003-04, which is available on their website.
