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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: S1W-22472

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times its ministers have requested to speak at meetings of the Council of Ministers and how many times permission was granted since July 1999.

Question reference: S1W-22481

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many official visits have been undertaken outwith Scotland by (a) the Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice in relation to his responsibility for external relations and the development and implementation of links with Europe and (b) the former ministers with responsibility for Europe and external affairs since July 1999.

I have not yet undertaken a visit overseas in relation to my responsibility for external relations. The following table lists visits undertaken by the Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs, Mr Jack McConnell, between November 2000 and November 2001, not including visits relating to education business:

Date of visit	End date	Country	Purpose
28/01/2001		Belgium	Meeting the UK Permanent Representative to the EU and the Swedish Representative Office
15/02/2001	17/02/2001	France	Meeting to prepare for the next CLRAE Conference of Presidents in November
16/03/2001		Belgium	Attendance at Governance Hearing
24/04/2001	26/04/2001	Poland	Address at British Council conference "Borders and their impact on European citizens"
29/05/2001		France	CLRAE: Regional chamber meeting and cultural and education sub-committee meetings
04/09/2001		France	Attendance at CLRAE Working Group
05/10/2001	08/10/2001	Germany	Meeting with Ministerial counterparts and visits to the Bavarian and North Rhine Westphalia Parliaments
09/10/2001	10/10/2001	Belgium	A range of Scotland-themed events in Brussels

Question reference: S1W-22491

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many visits it has received from overseas governments since July 1999 and which ministers met each delegation.

Question reference: S1W-22494

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many visits it has received from UKRep since July 1999 and how many members of UKRep were present during each visit.

Question reference: S1W-22475

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how much the external relations budget was, and how many civil servants were engaged in matters relating to external relations, in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S1W-22499

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many official speeches have been made outwith the Parliament in (a) Scotland and (b) elsewhere concerning Europe and external relations by (i) the Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice and (ii) former ministers with responsibility for Europe and external relations; what the subject matter of any such speech was; where any such speeches were delivered, and whether dates and locations have been arranged for any future speeches.

Scottish ministers have made speeches in full or in part concerning Europe and external relations on a very wide range of occasions. Major speeches outwith Parliament concentrating on Europe and external relations have included those listed in the following table:

Date	Minister	Subject	Location
08/12/1999	Donald Dewar	William & Mary Lecture - Scotland and Europe	Leiden, Netherlands
22/11/2000	Jim Wallace	Globalisation and Legislative Regions	Barcelona, Spain
04/12/2000	Jack McConnell	Scotland in Europe	Centre for Scottish Public Policy, Edinburgh
06/04/2001	Henry McLeish	Scotland and the US	Washington Press Club, USA
09/05/2001	Jack McConnell	EU Enlargement	Edinburgh
24/09/2001	Jack McConnell	Jean Monnet Centre Conference - Future of Europe	Edinburgh
09/10/2001	Jack McConnell	Scotland Week - Future of Europe	Brussels

Ministers will continue to give such speeches at a range of events. I will set out the Executive's current priorities on external relations in a forthcoming appearance before the European Committee, the date of which is to be arranged.

Question reference: S1W-22842

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 21 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many official engagements the First Minister has carried out in the north east Scotland parliamentary region since his appointment and whether it will detail these engagements.

Question reference: S1W-22843

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 21 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance (a) is currently available and (b) will be available in 2002-03 to all farmers whose operations are affected by nitrate vulnerable 'one designations.

None. There is no specific financial assistance available at present but carrying out conservation management proposals which meet the objectives of a nitrate vulnerable zone is one of the criteria used to prioritise applications to join the Rural Stewardship Scheme. As regards 2002-03, regulations are being prepared to allow for a Capital Grant Scheme to be introduced. The proposed scheme would assist farmers in nitrate vulnerable zones by offering grant at a rate of 40% towards the building or upgrading of storage facilities.

Question reference: S1W-22496

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Mike Watson on 19 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to Her Majesty's Government in support of the creation of a permanent place for Scotland on the body which is replacing the Independent Television Commission.

Question reference: S1W-22603

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 January 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 February 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sheriff court cases in (a) Scotland and (b) each court have been postponed on the day of commencement due to technicalities or other reasons and what the estimated cost was resulting from such postponements in each case, in each of the past three years and in the current year.

The table which follows sets out the number of summary criminal trials which were called in court for trial, and the number which were adjourned to another trial date for a variety of reasons.No information on the costs of postponements is collected.The figures are as follows:

Summary Trial Adjournments
	1998		1999		2000		2001
	No. of Summary Trials Called	Total No. of adjournments	No. of Summary Trials Called	Total No. of adjournments	No. of Summary Trials Called	Total No. of adjournments	No. of Summary Trials Called	Total No. of adjournments
Aberdeen	1,348	523	1304	452	1,023	374	1,390	576
Banff	82	27	146	62	159	73	215	108
Dingwall	183	55	121	42	157	60	150	53
Dornoch	140	43	102	31	71	24	80	19
Elgin	391	143	416	139	425	143	596	212
Fort William	131	47	123	38	128	55	179	67
Inverness	595	227	479	176	608	240	692	269
Kirkwall	74	25	63	26	67	27	72	31
Lerwick	121	63	157	70	120	59	110	57
Lochmaddy	49	12	25	10	23	9	32	9
Peterhead	372	157	369	146	304	112	344	134
Portree	22	8	23	5	23	5	33	10
Stonehaven	151	45	184	63	116	46	156	57
Stornoway	134	46	100	35	68	29	103	33
Tain	172	54	213	66	170	72	166	59
Wick	159	63	90	28	91	29	131	54
Alloa	284	116	419	170	462	185	551	238
Arbroath	556	189	477	169	357	134	389	142
Cupar	195	80	200	78	194	91	320	146
Dundee	1,987	861	1,818	754	1,592	688	2,187	948
Dunfermline	554	208	477	172	641	193	565	216
Falkirk	980	384	1,033	397	995	377	1,087	460
Forfar	152	65	181	78	182	77	223	101
Kirkcaldy	1,068	425	948	380	1,048	453	1,411	581
Perth	1,038	389	1,030	391	863	368	1,279	547
Stirling	532	223	502	227	589	249	964	434
Edinburgh	6,103	2,338	5,509	2,113	5,255	2,047	5,341	2,028
Haddington	422	145	328	113	423	172	456	183
Jedburgh/ Duns	134	40	144	43	122	38	237	84
Linlithgow	1,123	426	853	319	1,179	458	1,401	569
Peebles	57	23	39	11	37	14	70	29
Selkirk	105	33	86	34	119	47	205	88
Glasgow	8,310	3,441	9,412	4,057	9,169	2,947	11,247	4,853
Campbeltown	106	40	130	53	113	44	96	29
Dumbarton	1,297	532	1,329	525	1,305	567	1,794	724
Dunoon	213	96	194	90	239	115	262	114
Greenock	765	313	766	328	529	244	723	367
Kilmarnock	1,107	352	1,232	344	936	276	1,161	381
Oban	131	48	145	55	141	58	197	68
Paisley	2,330	979	2,333	940	2,008	917	2,424	1,082
Rothesay	53	23	29	10	47	22	66	29
Airdrie	1,735	651	1,653	595	1,215	468	1,601	606
Ayr	1,007	400	1,013	426	1,053	447	1,164	507
Dumfries	480	159	629	193	515	188	466	181
Hamilton	3,558	1,419	3,304	1,319	3,319	1,483	3,595	1,746
Kirkcudbright	87	29	76	26	98	28	46	23
Lanark	442	155	356	155	348	143	403	191
Stranraer	304	105	207	74	202	86	214	69
Total for Scotland	41,339	16,225	40,767	16,028	38,848	14,081	46,594	19,512