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The Howden Park Centre, the venue for the National Conversation event held in Livingston on 16 June, was booked on 18 May 2009.

There have been no further discussions to date regarding possible changes to the eligibility criteria. As recommended by the review, an independent led examination will look at improving the evidence for setting the reimbursement rate payable to bus operators. We are currently in the process of commissioning this work.

The event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 1 July was agreed by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body in autumn 2008 and all costs associated with the event will be met from budgets already approved as part of the corporate events and exhibitions budget for 2009-10.

We are still awaiting final invoices for the event, but the estimated event cost to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will be just over £55,000. These costs include travel and, where appropriate, accommodation for the 10 year olds and their families attending the event, hire of equipment to support the event, fees for performers and workshop coordinators and refreshments for all that attended the event. Other associated costs such as printing, cleaning etc are included in relevant budgets for these services as with any event.

The costs and distribution of the Scottish Funding Council Corporate Plan 2009-2012 are operational matters for that body. I have asked the Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council to write to the member with the information.

The Scottish Funding Council are currently producing an operational plan for 2009-10.

Prosecution in court is only one of a range of possible options for dealing with an individual who has been charged with an offence of this type. The majority of persons who are caught breaching the smoke-free legislation are issued with a fixed penalty notice.

In 2006-07 and 2007-08 (the most recent years available from the Scottish Government court proceedings database), there was no one convicted of either (a) smoking or (b) permitting others to smoke in an enclosed public place, where this was the main offence in the case.

The Scottish Government incurred no additional expenditure as a result of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 2009.

The Scottish Government seeks to support local authorities in protecting children by overseeing that the system for protecting children in Scotland “ its structures and its legislative and scrutiny regime “ support local delivery of services which produce better outcomes for children at risk of neglect or abuse. The robust child protection inspection regime evaluates the provision of services in each local authority, and enables improvements.

The Early Years and Early Intervention Framework, published in December 2008, and the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) programme, provides the overall strategy.

The Scottish Government is taking vigorous action on several fronts:

A review of the 1998 national child protection guidance, in line with GIRFEC, is being taken forward in close collaboration with multi-agency child protection committees and other stakeholders.

Work is underway with the child protection practitioner community, through one of the workstreams of the 1998 review group, to ensure the GIRFEC risk assessment approach can be robustly and confidently used to support improved recognition of risks to vulnerable children and improved response to meeting their needs

HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) are near the end of the first round of inspections of services to protect children in each local authority area in Scotland. As well as identifying excellent practice and enabling this to be shared, inspection has brought to light some areas where urgent action has been needed to improve child protection service provision. This has led to significant improvements, notably in Midlothian and more recently Aberdeen.

The Scottish Government instructed HMIE in March 2009 to commence planning to conduct a second round of more targeted child protection inspections, which will build on the findings of the first round, and help embed self-evaluation and continuous improvement through a more proportionate inspection model.

The Scottish Government facilitates quarterly national meetings of child protection committee chairs, allowing areas to come together to discuss priorities for child protection and share good practice.

We have also established a multi-agency resource service (MARS), to advise and support partners in the handling of complex child protection cases.

We are pressing ahead with the implementation of an efficient vetting and barring scheme to exclude from the relevant workforce those who would harm vulnerable groups.

The Road to Recovery, the national drugs strategy was launched last May, supported by Changing Scotland''s Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action. These outline the work being taken forward to support children affected by parental substance misuse.

Scottish social work statistics published on 24 June show social work staffing levels have improved in recent years. Social workers vacancies, which stood at nearly 13% in 2003, are down to 7%. Numbers of local authority children''s services staff stand at 7,398 (Whole-time Equivalent in 2008), up 4% from 2006. The full statistics are published at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/06/23092957/0.

The Scottish Government produces a quarterly update reporting detailed progress on SG projects and programmes which are relevant to protecting vulnerable children. The latest update is lodged with the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 48575).

This information is not collated centrally. All head teacher posts are allocated a specific salary point on the common pay spine for both head teachers and deputes. Salaries for head teachers in all primary and secondary schools are determined on an individual basis in line with the responsibilities of the post.

All newly qualified teachers who are eligible to join the teacher induction scheme are offered full-time teaching posts for a one year probationary period. Information is not collected centrally on the full employment history of individual teachers.

The employment of teachers is a matter for local authorities. Between 2007 and 2008 the average primary class size fell from 23.3 to 23.2.