Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 3475 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-27451

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 14 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals were treated by the NHS for alcohol dependency in each year since 1999.

Tables providing thisinformation are available in, the Scottish Parliaments Information Centre.

Table 1 (Bib. number 40168)shows the number of people discharged from Scottish general acute hospitalswith an explicit diagnosis of alcohol dependence for each year from 1999-2000to 2004-05.

Table 2 (Bib. number 40169)shows the number of people discharged from Scottish mental illness andpsychiatric units with an explicit diagnosis of alcohol dependence from eachyear available from 1999-2000 to 2002-03.

Question reference: S2W-27465

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public appointments made by Scottish ministers were of individuals with known or declared membership of the Labour or Liberal Democrat parties in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of public appointments.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-13115 answered on 2 February 2005 which provided thisinformation for the period from 1 April 2001 until 31 March 2004 and explainedwhy the annual data for the preceding period was not available. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Regular returns on politicalactivity were supplied to the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments for periods preceding 31 May 2004 and, since 1 June 2004, havebeen provided to the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland. This information has been submitted by the Executive for inclusion in the Commissioners’ annual reports. The followingtable contains data taken from these returns and details the number of boardmembers of public bodies regulated by the Commissioner who, on appointment orreappointment between 1 April 2004 and 31 May 2006, have declared political activityon behalf of all parties:

	1 April 2004 – 31 May 2004	1 June 2004 – 31 May 2005	1 June 2005 – 31 May 2006
Total number of appointments made in period (including reappointments)	78	179	172
Total number of appointees declaring party political activity	12	33	23
Conservative	2 made to Executive NDPBs (2% of all new appointments and reappointments). 1 made to an NHS Body (1% of all new appointments and reappointments).	5 made to Executive NDPBs (3%).	2 made to Executive NDPBs (1%)
Labour	5 made to NHS Bodies (6% of all new appointments and reappointments).	11 made to Executive NDPBs (6%). 1 made to a NHS Body (0.5%).	7 made to Executive NDPBs (4%) 7 made to NHS Bodies (4%)
Liberal Democrat	0	3 made to Executive NDPBs (2%).	3 made to Executive NDPBs (2%) 2 made to NHS Bodies (1%)
SNP	2 made to Executive NDPBs (2% of all new appointments and reappointments).	2 made to Executive NDPBs (1%).
Other	2 made to Executive NDPBs (2% of all new appointments and reappointments).	10 made to Executive NDPBs (6%). 1 made to an NHS Body (0.5%)	2 made to a Nationalised Industry (1%)

The Executive continues topublish details of the declared political activity of all current regulatedMinisterial appointments on its public appointments website which can be foundat:

www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies.

Question reference: S2W-27515

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost to each local authority has been of administering housing benefit in each year since 1999.

The information requested iscontained in the following table:

Housing BenefitAdministration - Net Expenditure¹

Local Authority	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04²	2004-05 ⁽²⁾
Scotland	17,913	20,077	22,351	23,481	13,658	12,143
Aberdeen City	904	927	1,456	1,466	1,410	1,315
Aberdeenshire	321	545	895	973	896	950
Angus	350	352	509	565	396	464
Argyll and Bute	265	233	286	335	259	30
Clackmannanshire	155	146	4	140	102	111
Dumfries and Galloway	139	328	331	403	423	0
Dundee City	816	919	1,010	1,467	1,456	1,528
East Ayrshire	903	1,014	825	1,071	341	148
East Dunbartonshire	86	81	141	217	18	-44
East Lothian	261	298	297	366	72	2
East Renfrewshire	270	232	236	261	138	211
Edinburgh City	5,030	5,943	4,779	4,012	3,529	3,407
Eilean Siar	63	75	119	137	92	139
Falkirk	401	393	692	733	456	573
Fife	872	1,128	1,062	1,446	808	1,279
Glasgow City	2,914	2,974	3,060	3,074	-276	-508
Highland	725	1,012	985	1,150	830	778
Inverclyde	154	136	265	262	171	66
Midlothian	293	271	576	591	136	213
Moray	117	151	227	265	189	245
North Ayrshire	208	256	514	544	277	52
North Lanarkshire	9	-148	-89	486	-522	-274
Orkney Islands	32	39	46	60	84	120
Perth and Kinross	216	252	317	241	102	129
Renfrewshire	753	709	968	837	561	110
Scottish Borders	180	237	264	205	84	191
Shetland Islands	133	121	102	114	76	62
South Ayrshire	128	48	641	559	202	217
South Lanarkshire	389	415	439	257	598	439
Stirling	441	463	503	235	110	128
West Dunbartonshire	275	236	226	364	201	-21
West Lothian	110	291	665	645	439	83

Source: Asreported on the Local Financial Return LFR 9 for Housing.

Notes:

1. NetRevenue Expenditure to be financed by Grants,RSG, Council Tax and NDR.

2. Thesudden decrease in net expenditure from 2002-03 onwards is due to the abolitionof the specific grant for HB Administration. The grant transferred to an"other government grant" and so counts towards net expenditure. Thisitem is deducted from expenditure from 2003-04 onwards and leads to negativefigures for some councils.

Question reference: S2W-27459

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of media training has been for Scottish ministers in each year since 1999 showing which ministers have undertaken media training and which have not.

From 1999 until August 2006the Scottish Executive spent £17,870 on Ministerial media training. The following Ministers and LawOfficers attended the course.

Wendy Alexander MSP, ElishAngiolini QC, Jackie Baillie MSP, Sarah Boyack MSP, Rhona Brankin MSP, ColinBoyd QC, Robert Brown MSP, Margaret Curran MSP, Neil Davidson QC, Iain GrayMSP, Ross Finnie MSP, Patricia Ferguson MSP, Hugh Henry MSP, Cathy JamiesonMSP, Andy Kerr MSP, Johann Lamont MSP, Angus MacKay MSP, Frank McAveety MSP,Tom McCabe MSP, Lewis McDonald MSP, Jack McConnell MSP, Des McNulty MSP, MaryMulligan MSP, Elaine Murray MSP, John Home Robertson MSP, Euan Robson MSP,Tavish Scott MSP, Nicol Stephen MSP, Jim Wallace MSP, Mike Watson MSP.

Question reference: S2W-27244

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 9 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have ministers or their officials held with officials from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) at which the SCRA’s annual report for 2005/06 was discussed since May 2006.

Scottish Executive officialshave held one meeting with the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration(SCRA) since May 2006 at which SCRA’s Annual Report 2005-06 was discussed.

Separately I have establisheda “task group” with representatives of SCRA, the Association of Chief PoliceOfficers in Scotland and the Association of Directors of Social Work. Inrespect of cases which otherwise might generate a referral to the reporter onnon offence grounds, the role of the group is to consider what appropriatealternatives might be available for the Police Service to adopt. Since May 2006the group has met twice.

Question reference: S2W-27463

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what quantity of illegal drugs it estimates are brought into Scotland annually (a) via Scottish ports, (b) via Scottish airports and (c) across the border by car or train.

Question reference: S2W-27311

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered class A drug users there have been in Scotland in each year since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Question reference: S2W-27312

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of class A drugs in circulation in Scotland it estimates originate from Afghanistan.

Information on thepercentage of class A drugs in Scotland estimated to originate from Afghanistanis not held centrally.

At the UK level, however,the “UK Threat Assessment 2006-07”, published by the Serious Organised CrimeAgency (SOCA) on 31 July 2006 estimates that 90% of the UK's identified heroinsupply originates in Afghanistan. The report is available at http://www.soca.gov.uk/assessPublications/downloads/threat_assess_unclass_250706.pdf.

Question reference: S2W-27310

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out into the impact of any increase in the supply of class A drugs in Scotland originating from Afghanistan following the invasion by US, UK and other NATO forces in 2001.

Question reference: S2W-27520

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the evidence to the Communities Committee by Johann Lamont at Stage 2 of the Housing Bill on 28 September 2005 (Official Report, Communities Committee, c. 2468-72) and the Stage 3 proceedings of the Bill on 24 November 2005 (Official Report, c. 21058-21118), when draft regulations pertinent to the house seller pack will be available; what progress has been made with regard to the “loan scheme” to fund such packs and, in particular, whether such loans will be secured loans and whether a seller can make repeat loan applications in respect of the same property should it fail to sell within the shelf life of the single seller survey, and what discussions it has had with building societies and other lenders regarding the status of the single seller survey.

Since the Housing (Scotland) Act2006 received Royal Assent we have been working with stakeholders including mortgagelenders on the design of the mandatory Single Survey scheme. I expect that draftregulations will be available next year. We intend, as far as possible, to go withthe grain of the current house buying and selling system. Discussions with lendersindicate that an arrangement similar to the present one under which they are providedwith transcripts of information from surveys in order to assess mortgage applicationsis most likely to meet their requirements for information from the single survey.

Work is also under way to developthe scheme of assistance under part 2 of the act. The form of any assistance forhouse sellers will be considered as part of that.