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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-11609

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-1660 by Sarah Boyack on 11 May 2000, whether it will introduce a water service charge discount scheme aligned to the existing council tax benefit scheme and, if it has no plans to introduce such a scheme, whether it is considering reducing the impact on the low-paid and those on benefits, as indicated in that answer.

Question reference: S2W-11903

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S2W-10241, lodged on 2 September 2004, regarding the business case for the Waverley railway project, in light of comments made by David Quarmby of the Strategic Rail Authority in The Scotsman on 2 November 2004 that the business case looks “rather weak”.

Question reference: S2W-10944

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities no longer provide a meals on wheels service and have opted for a frozen food option and how many people received such an option in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-10943

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 12 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12043 by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 January 2001, how many people in each local authority area received meals on wheels in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-11282

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many excess winter deaths of people (a) of all ages, (b) aged 60 to 74, (c) aged 75 to 84 and (d) aged 85 or over there were in each year since 1994-95 in (i) Scotland, (ii) each parliamentary constituency and (iii) each NHS board area.

There is no universally accepteddefinition of “excess winter deaths”. A number of options were discussed in an OccasionalPaper entitled The Raised Incidence of Winter Deaths published in 2002 bythe General Register Office for Scotland and available at: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/occ7.

The following table, which presentsthe data requested for Scotland, gives the difference between the number of deaths occurringin the four winter months (December to March) and the average of the number of deathsduring the preceding four months and the following four months. Detailed tables presenting similar information for parliamentaryconstituencies and health board areas have been placed in the Parliament's ReferenceCentre (Bib. number 34231).

Number of Deaths in WinterPeriod Compared with Average of Non-Winter Period, Scotland

Age Group	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
All ages	2,310	3,650	3,640	2,610	4,750
60-74	470	980	780	790	960
75-84	930	1,420	1,350	950	1,660
85 and over	760	1,120	1,350	760	1,920

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
All ages	5,190	2,220	1,840	2,510	2,840
60-74	1,250	480	290	450	610
75-84	1,820	820	820	940	840
85 and over	1,750	760	710	920	1,170

Note: The information for 2003-04 is provisional.

Question reference: S2W-10241

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to the Waverley railway project outline business case sent to it by the Waverley Railway Partnership on 8 June 2004.

Question reference: S2W-11751

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of assault have been reported to the Care Commission in each year since its inception, broken down by local authority area.

The Care Commission operates a complaints procedure approved by Scottish ministers under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. It does not separately identify complaints alleging assaults.

It would be for the police to investigate cases of physical assault reported to them. If such an assault is reported in a regulated care service, the Care Commission will consider what action to take, both during any police investigation and after it has been concluded.

The total numbers of complaints each year, by Care Commission regional office, were as follows:

Care Commission Region	2002-03	2003-04	April - September 2004 (Provisional)
Central West	229	297	126
Central East	211	350	251
North	115	162	90
South West	175	247	125
South East	126	252	149
Total	858	1,308	741

Question reference: S2W-11750

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many recorded assaults there have been on care workers in residential care homes in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-11715

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 9 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11345 by Johann Lamont on 18 October 2004, how many households lived in fuel poverty in each of the last five years, broken down by household type and local authority area.

According to the Scottish House Condition Survey 1996, 738,000 households lived in fuel poverty which made up approximately 35% of the total population. The Scottish House Condition Survey 2002 showed that 286,000 households lived in fuel poverty, approximately 13% of the total population. The Scottish House Condition Survey is the only source we have for reliably measuring fuel poverty, and it has now moved to annual surveys which will mean it will report more frequently in future.

For the breakdown of fuel poverty by household type in 2002, please see the answer to question S2W-11345 answered 18 October 2004. all answers to which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Fuel poverty broken down by local authority area in 2002 was as follows:

Local Authority	Number of Fuel Poor Households (000s)	Percentage of Fuel Poor Households
Aberdeen City	8†	8
Aberdeenshire	15†	17
Angus	8†	16
Argyll and Bute	8†	21
Borders	8†	17
Clackmannan	2†	10
Dumfries and Galloway	14†	23
Dundee City	9†	13
East Ayrshire	6†	11
East Dunbartonshire	3†	7
East Lothian	4†	11
East Renfrewshire	4†	11
Edinburgh City	24	12
Falkirk	6†	10
Fife	17†	12
Glasgow City	38	14
Highland	18†	21
Inverclyde	4†	10
Midlothian	2†	7
Moray	8†	21
North Ayrshire	7†	11
North Lanarkshire	13†	10
Orkney	3	31
Perthshire and Kinross	9†	14
Renfrewshire	8†	11
Shetland	2†	25
South Ayrshire	7†	14
South Lanarkshire	14†	11
Stirling	4†	11
West Dunbartonshire	3†	8
West Lothian	4†	6
Western Isles	4	34
Scotland	286	13

Note: †Indicates an unweighted sample of 30 to 100.

Question reference: S2W-11754

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 8 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether legal advice given to parliamentary committees can now be made public, or will be made public, under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.