Section E – Written questions lodged on 5 December 2011
Questions marked with a triangle (Δ) are initiated by the Scottish Executive in order to facilitate the provision of information to the Parliament.
Questions in which a member has indicated a declarable interest are marked with an "R".
S4W-04317 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the revised pay and conditions agreed by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers in May 2011 has had on the availability of short-term supply teachers to schools in each local autthority and how it has monitored this.
S4W-04319 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to address the shortage of short-term supply teachers, as reported in TES Scotland on 11 November 2011.
S4W-04320 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive whether teacher workforce plans for 2012-13 will take account of any supply teacher shortage.
S4W-04321 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be an increase in the number of places on the teacher induction scheme for 2012-13 to address any supply teacher shortages.
S4W-04322 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with (a) COSLA, (b) the third sector and (c) the NHS regarding the Early Years and Early Intervention Change Fund.
S4W-04324 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects agreements to be reached between local authorities and NHS boards regarding their contributions to the Early Years and Early Intervention Change Fund.
S4W-04325 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03568 by John Swinney on 8 November 2011, how the Early Years and Early Intervention Change Fund will be divided across each (a) portfolio and (b) year of the current spending review period.
S4W-04327 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive how the Early Years and Early Intervention Change Fund will be allocated, broken down by budget line.
S4W-04328 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03880 by Angela Constance on 17 November 2011, how much of the £272 million it will provide and how much will be provided by (a) local authorities and (b) the NHS in each year of the current spending review period.
S4W-04330 Claire Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive whether the money set out on page 59 of the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13 for implementing Getting it Right for Every Child is new money.
S4W-04354 John Park: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03255 by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 November 2011, whether it will review the policy of keeping records in relation to crimes committed under section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 in order to assist the analysis of data.
S4W-04362 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive what steps Scottish Water and its subsidiaries are taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change as per the duties of public bodies set out in Part 4 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
S4W-04363 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive how Scottish Water is using the £20 million allocated to it for climate change mitigation measures in the 2010 to 2015 water industry investment period.
S4W-04365 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish Water is doing to promote water conservation and water-use efficiency as per section 74 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
S4W-04366 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that water-pricing policies provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently, as required under Article 9 of the water framework directive.
S4W-04367 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive what it has done to promote efficient water use by the (a) domestic and (b) industrial sector since the commencement of the water framework directive, and what the resulting per capita reduction in water use has been.
S4W-04368 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish Water has done and how much it has spent on its own land to meet the duty to further the conservation of biodiversity under Part 1 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004.
S4W-04369 Jenny Marra: To ask the Scottish Executive when the Water Bill will be introduced and what its scope will be.
S4W-04370 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason it has not set an earlier target date than October 2014 for delivery of its objective to roll out a further road equivalent tariff pilot for passengers and cars including small commercial vehicles and coaches to Arran.
S4W-04379 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive how many farmers have undertaken an environmental impact assessment before ploughing species-rich grassland and how many possible breaches have been investigated, in each of the last three years.
S4W-04380 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the statement in Scottish Agricultural College technical note TN629 that 40% of species-rich grassland was lost in the period 1983 to 2005 and what monitoring is being undertaken by it or its agencies to avoid further loss of this habitat.
S4W-04381 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive how many and which sites of special scientific interest have been damaged in each of the last five years; what the cause of the damage was; what area was damaged; whether the damage was due to illegal activities and, if so, whether these were subject to investigation and prosecution; what restoration management has been implemented, and whether any of the damaged land was de-notified.
S4W-04382 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that any (a) change of use or (b) development in a marine special protection area is compatible with management objectives for the features for which the area is designated.
S4W-04383 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) plans and (b) projects have been subject to appropriate assessment in the marine extensions to seabird breeding colony special protection areas around the coast, and how many were consented or subject to change as a result.
S4W-04384 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of work under the Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) regarding the assessment of ecological coherence of marine planning areas.
S4W-04385 Elaine Murray: To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that its network of marine Natura sites and nature conservation marine planning areas under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 will be ecologically coherent in terms of assessment under the Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR).
S4W-04386 Mary Fee: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is transferring (a) short and (b) long-term prisoners from HMP Barlinnie in order to reduce overcrowding and, if so, whether it is considering taking action to speed up this process.
S4W-04387 Mary Fee: To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Prison Service staff are trained on child protection issues that might arise during prison visits and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
S4W-04388 Mary Fee: To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on reports that 70.4% of prisoners at HMP Barlinnie do not have access to vocational or educational classes and whether it considers that this contributes to 42.4% prisoners from that establishment re-offending within two years of release.
S4W-04389 Mary Fee: To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to reduce the number of remand prisoners.
S4W-04390 Mary Fee: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to fund improvements to the reception area at HMP Barlinnie.
S4W-04391 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to Stirling Council’s rejection of Scottish Power’s proposals to mitigate the visual impact of the Beauly to Denny power line.
S4W-04392 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of Stirling Council’s objections to the proposals, whether it will allow Scottish Power to go ahead with building the Beauly to Denny power line.
S4W-04401 Marco Biagi: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a list of the 10 Scottish Government completed consultations that have received the greatest number of responses from individuals, showing how many such responses were received in each case.
S4W-04402 James Kelly: To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be available to South Lanarkshire Council for the No Knives, Better Lives initiative.
S4W-04403 James Kelly: To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be available for the No Knives, Better Lives initiative in (a) South Lanarkshire, (b) North Lanarkshire, (c) South-east Glasgow, (d) West Edinburgh, (e) East Ayrshire and (f) North Ayrshire.
S4W-04404 Marco Biagi: To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be any changes to the methodology for (a) distributing or (b) deciding the composition of the Research Excellence Grant for universities.
S4W-04405 Alex Fergusson: To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual income from licensing fees has been in each year since 2009, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) rateable value category.
S4W-04406 Dave Thompson: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it anticipates an increase in penalties as a result of the 2011 sheep inspections relating to the electronic identity document.
S4W-04407 Nanette Milne: To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to ensure that the governing body for swimming in Scotland is fully representative and consults all stakeholders with an interest in matters related to swimming policy development.
S4W-04408 Nanette Milne: To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to monitor the stakeholder engagement activities of the governing body for swimming in Scotland and how regularly it will review this activity.
S4W-04409 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive who are the participants are in the review of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and which of them are representing organisations.
S4W-04410 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive who decided to review the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and when this decision was made.
S4W-04411 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive which stakeholders will be consulted during the review of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
S4W-04412 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit is of the review of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
S4W-04413 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers are the core functions of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
S4W-04414 Willie Rennie: To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) terms and conditions and (b) salary will be of the chief constable of the proposed single police force and what relevant discussions have taken place.
S4W-04415 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has held with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland prior to deciding to review the organisation.
S4W-04417 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether there are plans to amend the royal charter of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
S4W-04418 Patricia Ferguson: To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the review of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to be published; whether it will refer the findings to the Education and Culture Committee, and what further steps it will take following publication.