To ask the Scottish Executive whether it holds information on the average age of staff employed by local authorities under each of the departmental headings used in the joint staffing watch survey.

The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the average age of staff employed by local authorities under each of the departmental headings used in the Joint Staffing Watch Survey. However, information on age is held for teachers employed by local authorities. The Scottish Executive carries out a periodic census of teachers working in schools during a given week in September. Individual teachers provide a range of data, including their date of birth, which allows average age to be computed. Information on the average age of publicly funded school teachers is given in Table 3, page 3 of Teachers in Scotland: September 1998 published by the Scottish Executive in 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 16320).