Question S1W-21339: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 20/12/2001

To ask the Presiding Officer when Scots language translations of the Parliament's information leaflets will be available.

Answered by David Steel (16/01/2002): The Parliament's Factfiles are available in Gaelic, and a Welcome Guide is available in French, German, Italian and Spanish. We are currently developing our policy on translations of public information material into other languages, and a decision will be taken by the SPCB in due course.

Question S1W-21082: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 13/12/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take steps to extend the definition of "text" in the Personal Study Component of the revised Higher Still in English and Communication to allow non-literary discourse in English and Scots.

Answered by Nicol Stephen (07/01/2002): This is a matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority who provide guidance to centres about the requirements of courses.

Question S1W-18122: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 13/09/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what joint action it plans to take with Her Majesty's Government to comply with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of the Scots language.

Answered by Allan Wilson (01/10/2001): The Executive does not consider any joint action is necessary to comply with the Charter in respect of the Scots language.

Question S1W-18123: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 13/09/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its policy to increase the numbers of speakers of Scots and, if so, how this policy is being implemented.

Answered by Allan Wilson (01/10/2001): The Executive has not formulated a policy on the number of speakers of Scots.

Question S1W-18124: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 13/09/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what targets have been set for the number of speakers of Scots in (a) 2011 and (b) 2021.

Answered by Allan Wilson (01/10/2001): The Executive has not set targets for the number of Scots speakers.

Question S1W-15887: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 21/05/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive why information about traditional arts, culture and the Scots language is not available on the visitscotland website.

Answered by Alasdair Morrison (04/06/2001): Decisions about the content of the website are an operational matter for visitscotland. The website links in to other sites that provide much of this information. visitscotland is currently redeveloping the website form, content and links.

Question S1W-14808: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 04/04/2001

To ask the Presiding Officer, further to his answer to question S1W-14079 on 23 March 2001, which ethnic and European languages are being considered for use in making public information about the Parliament available on its website and under which of these language categories information is likely to be made available in Scots.

Answered by David Steel (10/04/2001): The languages under consideration are Urdu, Chinese, Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Scots, French, German, Spanish and Italian. For the purposes of presentation of information on the website, there will be no distinction between categories of language. Users will select from a menu of options listing the languages currently available.

Question S1W-14079: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 09/03/2001

To ask the Presiding Officer, further to the answer to question S1W-13566 by Sir David Steel on 7 March 2001, which languages are being considered for use on the Parliament's website to provide public information resources and whether Scots is likely to be one of these languages.

Answered by David Steel (21/03/2001): Consideration is being given to making public information about the Parliament available in ethnic and European languages on the website. One of these languages is likely to be Scots.

Question S1W-13565: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 20/02/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to address any difficulties in the teaching of the Scots language caused by scarcity of qualified teachers and materials and small number of pupils and whether it will introduce a pilot project on Scots language teaching similar to the approach to Latin teaching currently being tested in North Lanarkshire.

Answered by Jack McConnell (13/03/2001): The Scots language is not taught as a course, as the subject of Latin is, but is an element of more general language work aimed at giving children experience of and teaching them about Scots language and literature.

Question S1W-13566: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 20/02/2001

To ask the Presiding Officer why a Scots language version of the Scottish Parliament website has not been made available.

Answered by David Steel (07/03/2001): The Scottish Parliament's website publishes information in English in line with Standing Orders, Rule 7.1 which states, "The Parliament shall normally conduct its business in English......".

There are no plans to create a full version of the website in any other language, though summary information is presented in Gaelic, and public information resources in several other languages will be available on the website in the near future.

Question S1W-12574: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 18/01/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to encourage the production of material in the Scots language which is suitable for use with pre-school children.

Answered by Nicol Stephen (01/02/2001): The provision of support materials for pre-school children is a matter for each centre to decide, taking account of the Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5 and any parental cultural preferences.

Question S1W-12575: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 18/01/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that training for nursery nurses will include the promotion and development of pupils' Scots language skills.

Answered by Nicol Stephen (01/02/2001): Qualifications held by nursery nurses are developed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority based on occupational standards determined by the industry itself, through the relevant National Training Organisation. The Executive has no direct involvement.

Question S1W-12576: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 18/01/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that any expansion of nursery provision will not lead to the diminution of the place of the Scots language in pre-school provision.

Answered by Nicol Stephen (01/02/2001): The Executive aims to provide a part-time pre-school education place for every three and four-year-old whose parents wish it by April 2002. Within the principles set by the Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5, providers are free to adjust the content of learning programmes to reflect the cultural preferences of parents. The framework makes clear that a child's home language should always be valued.

Question S1W-12458: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 12/01/2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11354 by Mr Jack McConnell on 10 January 2000, in what specific ways the guidelines for initial teacher education require institutions to prepare teachers to be responsive to the linguistic needs of pupils in relation to the Scots language.

Answered by Jack McConnell (26/01/2001): The guidelines for initial teacher education courses are not prescriptive. The competencies set out in the guidelines are generic to enable interpretation relevant to the particular education sector and situation the student teacher is training in. The competence to be attained by new teachers in relation to being responsive to the linguistic needs of pupils is therefore not specific to any language group.