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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: S2W-26580

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what deadline the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration initially set for publication of its annual report.

Question reference: S2W-26579

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration intends to publish its next annual report.

Question reference: S2W-26215

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions its officials have met to discuss the possible impact of fiscal autonomy, financial independence or full fiscal power in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-26217

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the information it holds on the benefits of fiscal autonomy, financial independence and full fiscal power as referred to in its Brix note, Fiscal Autonomy, Financial Independence, Full Fiscal Power.

Question reference: S2W-26500

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15629 by Peter Peacock on 15 April 2005, how many calls have been received by Enquire in each year since its inception, broken down by local authority area and expressed also in percentage terms.

It is not possible to providea complete answer, as many callers opt not to provide addresses or other identitydetails. In addition, between the inception of Enquire in November 1999 and 30 June 2005 the Enquiredatabase did not store this information with regard to relatively straightforwardcalls such as requests for publications. However, since 1 July 2005, Enquirehas been recording calls to their helpline using a more sophisticated database whichallows inclusion of all call types. Therefore, the data for calls received in2005-06 is provided in two parts:

(i) calls received in Quarter1, recorded on the original database and,

(ii) calls received in Quarter2-4 recorded on the new database.

Where the callers’ details areknown, the breakdown is as follows:

Local Authority	1999-2002 Number	1999-2002 %	2002-03 Number	2002-03 %	2003-04 Number	2003-04 %	2004-05 Number	2004-05 %
Aberdeen City	67	3.1	57	4.1	84	4.1	67	3.2
Aberdeenshire	69	3.2	52	3.7	100	4.9	115	5.6
Angus	31	1.4	14	1.0	46	2.3	42	2.0
Argyll and Bute	55	2.6	26	1.9	30	1.5	26	1.3
Borders	36	1.7	29	2.1	23	1.1	44	2.1
Clackmannanshire	42	2.0	26	1.9	33	1.6	13	0.6
Dumfries and Galloway	55	2.6	26	1.9	30	1.5	61	3.0
Dundee City	51	2.4	27	1.9	40	2.0	52	2.5
East Ayrshire	30	1.4	20	1.4	28	1.4	15	0.7
East Dunbartonshire	33	1.5	11	0.8	24	1.2	50	2.4
East Lothian	47	2.2	26	1.9	42	2.1	33	1.6
East Renfrewshire	21	1.0	21	1.5	9	0.4	19	0.9
Edinburgh	316	14.7	199	14.2	293	14.4	225	10.9
Falkirk	93	4.3	52	3.7	88	4.3	80	3.9
Fife	103	4.8	55	3.9	86	4.2	105	5.1
Glasgow	218	10.2	196	14.0	257	12.6	243	11.8
Highland	133	6.2	95	6.8	73	3.6	125	6.1
Inverclyde	15	0.7	18	1.3	18	0.9	16	0.8
Midlothian	25	1.2	20	1.4	34	1.7	32	1.6
Moray	40	1.9	17	1.2	12	0.6	37	1.8
North Ayrshire	28	1.3	23	1.6	29	1.4	26	1.3
North Lanarkshire	66	3.1	30	2.1	74	3.6	70	3.4
Orkney	13	0.6	4	0.3	25	1.2	9	0.4
Perth and Kinross	84	3.9	54	3.8	102	5.0	69	3.3
Renfrewshire	35	1.6	28	2.0	51	2.5	53	2.6
Shetland	10	0.5	2	0.1	11	0.5	10	0.5
South Ayrshire	38	1.8	33	2.4	25	1.2	26	1.3
South Lanarkshire	70	3.3	43	3.1	45	2.2	56	2.7
Stirling	56	2.6	30	2.1	38	1.9	43	2.1
West Dunbartonshire	34	1.6	39	2.8	27	1.3	13	0.6
West Lothian	79	3.7	54	3.8	67	3.3	82	4.0
Western Isles	21	1.0	5	0.4	7	0.3	13	0.6
National	8	0.4	8	0.6	3	0.1	9	0.4
Outside Scotland	43	2.0	20	1.4	47	2.3	34	1.6
Not recorded	0	0.0	1	0.1	45	2.2	61	3.0
Unknown	80	3.7	43	3.1	86	4.2	88	4.3
Total	2,145		1,404		2,032		2,062

New Database Figures for 2005-06

Local Authority	2005-06 Q1 Number	2005-06 Q1 %	2005-06 Q2-Q4 Number	2005-06 Q2-Q4 %
Aberdeen City	12	2.9	82	3.7
Aberdeenshire	23	5.6	94	4.2
Angus	8	2.0	50	2.2
Argyll and Bute	1	0.2	35	1.6
Borders	12	2.9	52	2.3
Clackmannanshire	1	0.2	5	0.2
Dumfries and Galloway	5	1.2	55	2.5
Dundee City	16	3.9	40	1.8
East Ayrshire	0	0.0	16	0.7
East Dunbartonshire	8	2.0	40	1.8
East Lothian	5	1.2	31	1.4
East Renfrewshire	6	1.5	13	0.6
Edinburgh	52	12.7	259	11.6
Falkirk	17	4.2	45	2.0
Fife	32	7.8	110	4.9
Glasgow	56	13.7	206	9.2
Highland	32	7.8	60	2.7
Inverclyde	1	0.2	29	1.3
Midlothian	9	2.2	26	1.2
Moray	1	0.2	36	1.6
North Ayrshire	1	0.2	29	1.3
North Lanarkshire	16	3.9	101	4.5
Orkney	2	0.5	2	0.1
Perth and Kinross	20	4.9	49	2.2
Renfrewshire	6	1.5	38	1.7
Shetland	2	0.5	17	0.8
South Ayrshire	7	1.7	47	2.1
South Lanarkshire	15	3.7	59	2.6
Stirling	5	1.2	41	1.8
West Dunbartonshire	8	2.0	20	0.9
West Lothian	14	3.4	46	2.1
Western Isles	1	0.2	13	0.6
National	0	0.0	0	0.0
Outside Scotland	5	1.2	57	2.6
Not recorded	6	1.5	71	3.2
Unknown	3	0.7	355	15.9
	408		2,229

Question reference: S2W-26499

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15630 by Peter Peacock on 15 April 2005, whether it has completed its review of Enquire and, if so, whether the findings have been published and what issues have arisen as a result of the review.

Question reference: S2W-26501

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15096 by Peter Peacock on 19 March 2005, how much funding Enquire has received in each year since its inception and how much it is projected to receive in future.

Question reference: S2W-26150

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 8 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for information it received were not answered within 20 working days, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of requests received, in each month since January 2005.

Most requests forinformation are handled routinely and not all are recorded or countedcentrally. In line with centrally produced guidance some requests for informationare notified to the Scottish Executive’s FOI Unit and recorded centrally. the Scottish Executive have published a report on information requests handling inthe Scottish Executive for requests received during 1 January to 31 December 2005;this is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number39491) and on the Freedom of Information pages of the Scottish Executive Website. The reportprovides information on the number and percentage of requests dealt without-with the 20 working-day time period for the each of the quarters of 2005. Areport on the information requests handling in the Scottish Executive for thefirst six months of 2006 will be published later in the year.

Question reference: S2W-25709

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the top 5% of earners within each local authority area were women in each year since 2000.

The preferred source for earningsestimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is carried outby the Office for National Statistics.

Table 1 shows the percentageof the top 5% of earners within each local authority area that were women in eachyear since 2000. These estimates are taken from ASHE and are based on the area thatemployees work in.

The estimates in the followingtable are based on a sample survey, and as such, are subject to sampling error.This error can be used to assess the reliability of an estimate. Only those estimatesthat are judged to be reliable are reported.

Table 1: Percentage of the Top 5% of Earners That Were Women, Scotland, 2000-05

Work Place Area	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	22.3%	26.2%	21.0%	22.3%	28.5%	31.5%
Aberdeen City	x	x	x	x	x	x
Aberdeenshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
Angus	x	x	x	x	x	x
Argyll and Bute	x	x	x	x	x	x
The Scottish Borders	x	x	x	x	x	x
Clackmannanshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
Dumfries and Galloway	x	x	x	x	x	x
Dundee City	x	x	x	x	x	x
East Ayrshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
East Dunbartonshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
East Lothian	x	x	x	x	x	x
East Renfrewshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
City of Edinburgh	21.4%	29.6%	25.7%	30.1%	29.7%	33.8%
Falkirk	x	x	x	x	x	x
Fife	x	x	x	x	x	x
Glasgow City	21.3%	18.5%	23.4%	22.2%	29.5%	27.2%
Highland	x	x	x	x	x	x
Inverclyde	x	x	x	x	x	x
Midlothian	x	x	x	x	x	x
Moray	x	x	x	x	x	x
North Ayrshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
North Lanarkshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
Orkney Islands	x	x	x	x	x	x
Perth and Kinross	x	x	x	x	x	x
Renfrewshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
Shetland Islands	x	x	x	x	x	x
South Ayrshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
South Lanarkshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
Stirling	x	x	x	x	x	x
West Dunbartonshire	x	x	x	x	x	x
West Lothian	x	x	x	x	x	x
Western Isles	x	x	x	x	x	x

Source: Annual Survey of Hoursand Earnings, Office for National Statistics.

x – Estimate is unreliable.

Notes:

1. The estimates are based onthe hourly pay excluding overtime for employees on adult rates whose pay for thesurvey pay-period was not affected by absence.

2. The estimates are based on a samplesurvey, and as such, are subject to sampling error.

3. To improve coverage and hencemake the survey more representative, supplementary information was collected fromthe 2004 ASHE survey onwards. The 2004 and 2005 ASHE results are therefore discontinuouswith the results for 2003 and previous years, for which no supplementary informationwas collected.

Question reference: S2W-26153

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new voluntary organisations were established in each year since 1999.

This information is notcollected centrally. Only those voluntary organisations seeking charitablestatus have been required to register their establishment.

Generally speaking,voluntary organisations include unincorporated community and voluntary groups,registered charities, friendly societies and a growing number of social economyorganisations. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations estimates thereto be around 50,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland.

Information on the number ofcharities registered between 1999 and 2005 can be obtained from Her Majesty’sRevenue and Customs. The number of new organisations granted charitable statusfrom April 2006 onwards will be available from the Office of the ScottishCharity Regulator (OSCR), recently established under the Charities and TrusteeInvestment (Scotland) Act 2005.