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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: S4W-26775

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government in how many primary (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3, (d) 4, (e) 5, (f) 6, and (g) 7 classes team teaching is used, and which year groups are taught in composite classes, broken down by local authority.

The numbers of classes in which team teaching is used, by local authority and by year group, are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of classes with two or more teachers, 2014*

Local authority	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7	Composite Classes
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Angus	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	3
Argyll and Bute	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	5
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
East Ayrshire	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	4	0	2	0	1	0	1	0
Edinburgh City	17	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Glasgow City	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	11
Inverclyde	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	1
Midlothian	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Moray	2	3	2	2	1	1	0	10
North Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2
North Lanarkshire	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	4
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Renfrewshire	0	1	4	0	3	1	1	3
Scottish Borders	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	4
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
South Lanarkshire	9	2	3	3	0	1	0	27
Stirling	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0
West Lothian	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	52	13	17	8	7	10	11	81

All local authorities have pupils in all primary year groups in composite classes. The numbers of pupils in composite classes, by local authority and by year group, are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Number of pupils in composite classes by stage, 2014*

Local Authority	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7	Total Number of Composite Classes
Aberdeen City	265	551	536	593	452	348	185	133
Aberdeenshire	988	1336	1219	1175	1257	1385	937	415
Angus	215	339	399	328	324	277	226	110
Argyll and Bute	309	401	387	373	394	508	349	168
Clackmannanshire	87	186	201	162	163	146	98	50
Dumfries and Galloway	572	886	759	808	812	771	606	257
Dundee City	197	326	331	353	271	355	228	89
East Ayrshire	199	407	380	395	331	303	238	104
East Dunbartonshire	127	186	218	261	356	367	191	80
East Lothian	155	277	288	265	331	256	136	83
East Renfrewshire	10	15	22	11	7	31	30	7
Edinburgh City	267	599	383	452	443	402	244	133
Eilean Siar	194	245	211	220	239	190	167	89
Falkirk	158	374	375	252	328	259	115	92
Fife	806	1532	1477	1281	1350	1234	716	397
Glasgow City	782	1498	1300	1341	1240	1219	634	364
Highland	1002	1385	1309	1213	1140	1232	867	448
Inverclyde	97	173	145	192	137	148	58	41
Midlothian	87	162	178	188	210	170	105	56
Moray	275	462	486	373	448	352	234	123
North Ayrshire	265	523	498	486	473	392	263	131
North Lanarkshire	599	1514	1262	1231	1116	1296	617	351
Orkney Islands	79	122	95	88	65	58	60	37
Perth and Kinross	485	617	570	595	666	723	379	205
Renfrewshire	178	472	471	496	397	317	93	112
Scottish Borders	405	564	467	452	489	525	481	169
Shetland Islands	133	169	132	160	157	157	131	56
South Ayrshire	90	224	231	203	219	201	145	73
South Lanarkshire	886	1338	1414	1356	1216	1313	871	407
Stirling	183	291	300	314	297	247	160	92
West Dunbartonshire	86	210	209	230	300	303	177	74
West Lothian	298	529	469	426	427	434	329	143
Scotland	10479	17913	16722	16273	16055	15919	10070	5089

*As recorded in the September 2014 Pupil Census

Question reference: S4W-26742

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the European Commission in the last two years regarding the (a) eligibility criteria and (b) scope of the Air Discount Scheme.

None. The Air Discount Scheme, SA. 40925, was notified to the commission under the General Block Exemption Regulation Article 51 – Social aid for transport for residents of remote regions. This is valid from 1 April 2015 until 31 March 2019, and replaces the full notification to the commission for SA.32497 - Aid of a Social Character for Air Services. This notification was made electronically and did not require any discussion with the European Commission.

Question reference: S4W-26740

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to raising the rate of the Air Discount Scheme from 40% to 50%.

Question reference: S4W-26741

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the rate of the Air Discount Scheme from 40% to 50%.

Question reference: S4W-26743

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Highlands and Islands Airports Limited in the last three months regarding landing charges.

Question reference: S4W-26317

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it has informed MSPs of the work of the Commission on Widening Access.

The intention to create a Commission on Widening Access was published in the Programme for Government and formally announced to the Parliament by the First Minister on 26 November 2014.

In addition, the commission’s work has featured regularly in answers to parliamentary questions and in official press releases. The commission has also set up its own website and twitter account to keep interested parties informed of its work.

Question reference: S4W-26315

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-25348 by Angela Constance on 5 May 2015, what subsequent changes there have been to the (a) membership and (b) remit of the Commission on Widening Access; whether it has informed the Parliament, and, if so, when.

Consistent with the plans outlined in the answer to question S4W-25348, that there would be one further member to bring a UK perspective, Conor Ryan from the Sutton Trust has been appointed as the final member of the Commission on Widening Access.

The commission’s published remit is consistent with the broad themes outlined in the answer to question S4W-25348.

Both the remit and final membership were made publically available on the commission’s website on 23 June 2015.

Question reference: S4W-26316

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the final remit has been set for the Commission on Widening Access.

Question reference: S4W-25930

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place to enable renewable energy generation in Orkney and the other island groups to be exported to the mainland.

Since S4W-22028 answered on the 30 July 2014, the Scottish Island Renewables Delivery Forum has met on a further two occasions, in September 2014 and January 2015. As a result of close intergovernmental work the UK Government has recognised calls for additional support to help renewable generators on Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles to overcome the high level of grid charges they would face. Significant progress has been made, and at the January meeting that I co-chaired with the former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey:

DECC announced it intended to publish details of strike prices for islands onshore wind for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 in July 2015.

DECC informed members that the State Aid pre-notification for remote island wind contracts for difference had been submitted to the European Commission.

The Secretary of State gave a commitment to take forward proposals to secure EU funding to help the Orkney marine sector overcome barriers to grid access.

I wrote to Ed Davey’s successor, the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd MP on 15 May 2015, and spoke with her on the 8 June 2015. She has agreed to the continuation of the delivery forum and confirmed her intention to attend its next meeting, which will be convened by September 2015. SHE-Transmission and Ofgem have both stated that they expect needs cases for the Western Isles and Shetland to be submitted at the end of 2015.

Question reference: S4W-26284

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the additional £125 bursary payment for students with household incomes of between £0 and £23,999 will be paid and for what reason this will be a one-off payment.

The additional £125 bursary payment is not a one off award. From academic year 2016-2017, the additional bursary payment of £125 will be embedded into the total available bursary and spread across eligible students’ monthly instalments.

For academic year 2015-2016 Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) will be treating the additional £125 separate to the normal monthly payment process. The £125 will be issued to eligible students as a one-off payment. SAAS are working on the detail of the exact timings of the payment date.