Chamber and committees

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-26636

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 21 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Scottish Borders Council and local agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise, with regard to the proposals to develop two large supermarkets in Galashiels.

Question reference: S2W-26656

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff were disciplined as a result of alleged (a) misconduct, (b) expenses irregularities and (c) travel and related expenses irregularities in each year from 1999-2000 to 2005-06, broken down by department.

The following table showsnumber of Scottish Executive staff who have been disciplined as a result ofmisconduct broken down by year and core department.

Department NumberPer Year

Department	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	Total
Development Department	0	4	2	2	0	0	0	8
Education Department	0	3	2	2	0	1	0	8
Environment and Rural Affairs Department	0	2	2	3	6	5	6	24
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Dept	0	1	2	3	1	0	0	7
Finance and Central Services Department	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	2
Health Department	1	0	1	0	2	1	0	5
Justice Department	0	2	0	1	2	1	1	7
Office Of The Permanent Secretary	2	4	2	6	5	4	0	23
Total	3	16	11	18	17	12	7	84

In the period 1999-2000 to2005-06, one member of staff was disciplined as a result of expensesirregularities and one as a result of travel and related expensesirregularities.

Question reference: S2W-26658

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 20 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were disciplined following investigation into the fraudulent manipulation of witness expense claim forms at the Procurator Fiscal’s Office in Glasgow in 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-26637

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what concerns it has expressed to Scottish Borders Council regarding the proposal to demolish the historic Government Buildings in Galashiels as part of a proposed supermarket development.

Historic Scotland, a ScottishExecutive agency, sought to recognise the historic merit of the Government Buildings(former Textile College) in Galashiels by listing the property as a buildingof special architectural and historic interest in 2004. In doing this, they tookthe exceptional step of listing in the faceof a live planning application, against stated policy. Ensuing action by Tesco Supermarketsaw the listing reduced by the Court of Session in June 2004.

In the absence of statutory protectionHistoric Scotland no longer has any formal locus in the case or remit under planninglaw to intervene. However, in May 2006 the agency formally invited the Scottish Borders Council to alert them shouldTesco decide not to demolish the buildings on the site, as this could give themthe opportunity to consider statutory protection afresh.

Question reference: S2W-26503

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 16 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many referrals have been made to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal since its inception, broken down by month.

Six referrals have been madeto the Additional Support Needs Tribunal since its inception as follows:

one in December 2005

two in January 2006

two in May 2006

two in June 2006.

In addition, tribunal staff havehad a significant programme of work to complete in establishing the tribunals. Thisincludes scoping and designing a new electronic case management system; producingguidance for parents, local authorities and members/conveners; establishing a telephonehelpline and website; designing and completing training events for tribunal members/conveners,and undertaking outreach visits as well as user group meetings. Staff are also involvedin short term placements to fully utilise staff capacity, for example, in helpingto establish the new Scottish Charity Appeals Panel.

The staffing position is beingkept under close scrutiny and will be reviewed in the autumn as we gain a fullerpicture of potential referral activity.

Question reference: S2W-26448

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 16 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations Scottish Ministers have received from the Scottish Information Commissioner in respect of additional resources.

Question reference: S2W-26502

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 16 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been allocated to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal since its inception; what its running costs are, and how often it has sat.

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-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-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