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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 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.

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Question reference: S1W-10005

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 4 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8592 by Rhona Brankin on 24 July 2000, when it decided to introduce charges for Stirling residents wishing to park on the esplanade at Stirling Castle and how much revenue this is expected to generate on an annual basis.

I have asked Graeme Munro, Chief Executive of Historic Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Parking charges on the esplanade for residents of Stirling Old Burgh were introduced on 30 May this year. The number of residents now using the esplanade is very small and the annual revenue raised from them is expected to be less than £100. The main reason for introducing charges, however, was to maximise the space available to visitors to Stirling Castle given the rise in numbers in recent years. This is expected to produce significant additional revenue from admissions, retail and catering, as well as helping the tourist economy of Stirling and providing a better service to the public.

Question reference: S1W-09594

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 3 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of the Scottish Qualifications Authority since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.

I met with the Chairman and Chief Executive of the SQA on 6 March 2000 when a range of issues were discussed, including approval of SQA's Corporate Plan, financial and IT matters, qualifications developments, international activities and vacancies in board appointments.

Mr Sam Galbraith, Minister for Children and Education, met SQA representatives on 5 August 1999 when visiting the SQA offices to see the dispatch of the 1999 examination results. On that occasion he received a general briefing on SQA activities. Mr Galbraith also met the Chairman and Chief Executive of SQA informally when he addressed the organisation's annual conference on 19 May 2000.

Mr Galbraith met the Chairman and Chief Executive of SQA on 25 July 2000 to discuss examination issues. Mr Galbraith subsequently met the SQA Chairman and senior staff on 13 August 2000 to discuss SQA's plans to resolve problems surrounding this year's examination results and, on the same day, met with SQA and COSHEP representatives to discuss how to protect the interests of higher education applicants.

Mr Galbraith also met with the SQA Chairman and interim Chief Executive informally when visiting the SQA's Dalkeith offices on 14 August 2000 to meet operational staff dealing with examination results problems.

In addition to the above meetings, SQA representatives will have attended a number of ministerial meetings and engagements along with representatives of other bodies.

Question reference: S1W-09584

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 25 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Ordinary Grade, Standard Grade, Higher Grade, Higher Still and Certificate of Sixth Year Study examinations were taken in each year between 1990 and 2000 and how many candidates made appeals against the result of the examinations.

Information is available for 1990 to 1999 from the SQA Annual Statistical Reports which have been deposited with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. [Bib. Reference 8639].

A summary is provided in table 1 below for these years. Note that appeals information was included in the SQA reports from 1993 onwards, and is not readily available prior to then. Information on entries in 2000 is provisional at this stage and is provided in table 2.

Table 1: Entries and Appeals: 1990 to 1999

	Year
Level	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999

Ordinary Grades	204,457	84,647	23,952	5,740	75	-	-	-	-	-

Standard Grades	256,895	375,719	424,763	441,679	464,675	490,112	504,098	496,820	475,507	475,568
Number of Appeals				27,424	25,548	25,975	27,206	30,461	29,084	29,539
as % of entries				6	5	5	5	6	6	6
% Appeals Successful				43	48	48	53	50	51	54

Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) Higher Grades	158,191	155,794	157,995	159,548	160,646	160,925	164,701	167,257	163,817	160,909
Number of Appeals				16,724	18,760	18,987	18,281	19,046	18,691	16,933
as % of entries				10	12	12	11	11	11	11
% Appeals Successful				45	41	34	32	30	28	32

Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS)	11,240	10,638	11,586	11,482	11,942	12,092	12,273	13,044	12,292	13,107
Number of Appeals				854	990	970	1,007	1,161	1,043	1,155
as % of entries				7	8	8	8	9	8	9
% Appeals Successful				33	33	46	39	39	41	43

Table 2: Provisional Entries: 2000

	Year
Level	2000
Standard Grades	481,411
Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) Higher Grades	46,049
National Qualification (NQ) Intermediate 1	7,980
National Qualification (NQ) Intermediate 2	33,987
National Qualification (NQ) Higher	116,531
Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS)	12,949

Question reference: S1W-09607

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of the General Teaching Council for Scotland since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.

In response to requests made by the General Teaching Council for Scotland, formal meetings have taken place on two occasions with Education Ministers since 1 June 1999. The meetings were held on 6 September 1999 and 25 April 2000. The purpose of the meetings was to hear representatives from the GTC on the proposals relating to the GTC within the Standards in Scotland's Schools Bill.

The Deputy Minister for Enterprise in the Highlands and Islands and Gaelic met representatives of the GTC at their request to discuss their report on Teaching Gaelic Medium Education-Recommendations for Change.

Question reference: S1W-09401

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 August 2000
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 21 September 2000

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) received from The Scottish Office information as to whether, at the outset of the Holyrood Project, (a) a committee of appropriate personnel was established to assess the project requirements and prepare a basic specification, (b) associated technical personnel were on hand to give advice to this committee and make any necessary assessment, (c) any assessment of the original building project was required and made and (d) any overall specification was produced incorporating all operational requirements so that a proper budget could be estimated, and whether the SPCB received information as to how the original estimated budget of #40 million was arrived at.

I understand that, following the selection of the Holyrood site on 9 January 1998, the new Parliament building project was administered by the Holyrood Project Team (HPT) within The Scottish Office. The HPT appointed a suitably qualified Project Manager, (who was initially appointed as a Project Adviser), who produced a Building User Brief, seeking advice from appropriate Scottish Office Departments and from the Consultative Steering Group as required. The SPCB acquired legal responsibility for the project on 1 June 1999 and received regular briefing from the HPT and the Design Team on a wide range of issues, including budgets. The composition of the original budget estimates is a matter which was investigated by the Auditor General for Scotland in preparing his recent report into the Management of the Holyrood Project.

Question reference: S1W-09480

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 20 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is towards employees who smoke and what facilities it provides for staff who smoke at its Victoria Quay and St Andrew's House locations.

The Scottish Executive has a formal policy on smoking in the workplace which is available on its Intranet and in hard copy. The main thrust of the policy is to discourage smoking due to its detrimental effects on health. The Scottish Executive makes special provision for smokers as a concession, by permitting smoking in designated areas. The Executive provides a smoking room for staff use in each of its major buildings, including both Victoria Quay and St Andrew's House.

Question reference: S1W-09602

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of Scottish Screen since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S1W-09591

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of the Scottish Further Education Funding Council since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S1W-09598

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of the National Library of Scotland since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S1W-09597

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how often Ministers have met representatives of the National Galleries of Scotland since 1 June 1999, on what dates these meetings took place and what issues were discussed.