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Our aim is to ensure that Scotland isan unattractive place for any organised crime gangs to do business. We haveworked with the UK Government on a number of measures including a joint ScottishExecutive and Home Office Action Plan on Human Trafficking. Law enforcementorganisations across the UK work together using an intelligence led approach toidentify emerging issues which are likely to impact on Scotland inthe future, including the accession of new member states to the European Union.Where intelligence indicates that a threat from organised crime exists the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency in support of the Scottish policeservice takes action to deal with it.

The co-operation of primary employers,whether in the public or private sector, is essential to supporting the role ofa retained firefighter. The government has no plans to prescribe how this is done,rather it will continue to fall to each Fire and Rescue Service to enter into dialoguewith primary employers to encourage local agreements.

It is already the case that,consistent with agreements made at the National Joint Council for Local AuthorityFire Brigades where responsibility for this matter lies, retained firefighters areprotected with respect to any loss of earnings incurred as a result of respondingto an emergency.

Jim Smith, a retainedfirefighter and a large employer with experience of releasing staff for fire-fightingduties, has recently been appointed as an Assistant Inspector with Her Majesty’sFire Inspectorate. Mr Smith’s role will revolve around drawing upon his experienceto raise awareness amongst employers about the benefits of employing staff who arealso retained firefighters.

The Scottish Executive recentlycarried out a public consultation exercise on whether or not snaring should be bannedin Scotland. Analysis of the responses is currently underway andI expect to make an announcement to Parliament after summer recess.

The non-confidential responsescan be viewed on the Executive website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent/Q/Page/4.

Between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2007, fourScottish children were seen at Stoke Mandeville. As there have been no newreferrals of Scottish children to Stoke Mandeville since 1994, each of the fourchildren concerned received a short-stay review of their rehabilitation care,rather than a full initial assessment, resulting in nine admissions in totalfrom Scotland to the unit.

We are committed to workingwith education professionals to stretch every child to achieve their fullpotential and will be considering at an early stage our particular commitmentto raising the achievement of the poorest performing 20% of school pupils, withincreased intervention and support.

The Scottish Executive’sguidance pack on Vulnerable Children and Young People, which was published inJuly 2003, contains specific recommendations on young runaways. Localauthorities are expected to have developed local protocols which give effect tothe guidance in ways which best suit their own circumstances.

In response to therecommendations of this report, the Executive has:

provided substantialadditional support to ChildLine and ParentLine;

funded, on a pilot projectbasis, the Running Other Choices (ROC) project run by Aberlour Child CareTrust, and

provided a guidance pack toChild Protection Committees on Vulnerable Children and Young People (July2003), with the expectation that local authority areas will develop their ownprotocols to support the guidance, as suits their local circumstances.

Some of the recommendationsin this report were overtaken by the implementation of the three-year ChildProtection Reform Programme (2003 to 2006-07) which provided a strengthenednational framework, and mechanisms, for local agencies to work together toidentify the needs of all children in their area and make appropriate provisionto meet these.

At the end of the first Parliament there were nine special advisers in post at an annual salary cost of £602,449 and at the end of the second Parliament there were 12 special advisers in post at an annual salary cost of £854,376. Both cost figures include ERNIC and employer pension contributions.

The specific role and duties of special advisers is set out in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers at Schedule 1 of the Model Contract for Special Advisers which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37226).

 

The following is the original answer (published on 5 June 2007); see below

 

At the end of the first Parliament there were nine special advisers in post at an annual salary cost of £602,449 and at the end of the second Parliament there were 12 special advisers in post at an annual salary cost of £851,520. Both cost figures include ERNIC and employer pension contributions.

The specific role and duties of special advisers is set out in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers at Schedule 1 of the Model Contract for Special Advisers which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37226).

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-134 on 5 June 2007. Information on the remits of non-domestic publicbodies is provided in the directory of Scottish public bodies on the Scottish Executivewebsite at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/public-bodies/directory.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

 

The employment of teachers, includingthe type of contract offered, is a matter for local authorities. However, teacherworkforce planning is designed so that new teachers are completing their inductionyear at the volume needed to achieve a broad balance between supply and demand forteachers.

Inprevious years, surveys by the General Teaching Council have found that most newlyqualified teachers are in full-time positions by the middle of the autumn term.

The Scottish Executive has madeadditional funding of £50.3 million available to local authorities for the employmentof additional teachers to meet the target of a workforce of 53,000 by August 2007.This funding covers staffing costs for the end of school year 2006-07, and partyear costs for 2007-08.