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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: S1O-03590

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to increase efficiency within courts.

The Scottish Court Service is working to improve the efficiency of the courts by investing in the training and development of court staff and the introduction of information technology. The national roll-out to all courts of the Case Management System, which will enable the electronic registration and handling of civil business, was completed at the beginning of June 2001.The SCS collaborates with the Justice Department and others in the review of court rules and procedures and is working closely with Crown Office to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the programming of criminal business.

Question reference: S1W-16222

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 25 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to encourage oil and gas companies to increase their expenditure on research and development in Scotland and particularly in the north east.

This is a reserved matter and the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry. As Vice-Chair of the Pilot joint oil industry/Government working group, I take a close interest in ensuring that research and development is kept at the top of the industry's agenda as research and development is essential if the Pilot objective of maintaining a strong and vibrant industry is to be achieved. Additionally, Scottish Enterprise is currently developing outline proposals to stimulate further oil and gas research and development activity.

Question reference: S1W-16157

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jackie Baillie on 18 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding for (a) Social Inclusion Partnerships, (b) CCTV installation, (c) community safety projects and (d) New Housing Partnerships has been committed to each local authority area or the smallest identifiable geographical area within the North-East Scotland parliamentary region in each year from 1997-98 to the current financial year and whether it will show each figure as a percentage of the funding made available for this purpose in Scotland in each of these years.

The available information is as follows:

	£000
	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Social Inclusion Partnerships
Aberdeen City	1,520(3%)*	1,040(2%)	809(1%)	844(1%)		940(1%)
Dundee City	3,946(7%)	3,839(7%)	3,660(7%)	3,177(4%)		3,158(4%)
CCTV
	296(16%)	-	100(7%)	83(5%)		150(9%)
Community Safety
	-	-	-	250(22%)		41(3%)

New Housing Partnerships

	1997 Funding Round	1998 Funding Round	1999-2002 Funding Round
	1997 Funding Round	1998 Funding Round	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Aberdeenshire	223 (2.3%)	65 (0.2%)	929 (4.4%)	2,088 (3%)	3,753 (6.7%)
Aberdeen City	367 (3.6%)	330 (0.9%)	67 (0.3%)	1,188 (1.7%)	736 (1.3%)
Dundee City¹	324 (3.2%)	3,275 (8.9%)	1,381 (6.6%)	8,309 (11.9%)	14,165 (25%)

( )* Denotes figure as a percentage of total funding made available in each of these years.Notes:1. The figures for the 1999-2002 funding round include continuation funding relating to the 1998 allocation.Out of seven applications made for funding for CCTV projects within the North-East Scotland parliamentary region between 1997-98 and 2001-02 (no applications were made in 1998-99), six were successful.Funding for community safety projects did not start until 2000-01. Out of six applications made over the two years, four were successful.Information on New Housing Partnerships funding is held on a local authority basis. Details of the sums allocated to the three local authorities wholly contained in the North-East Scotland Parliamentary Region are set out in the table.

Question reference: S1W-14833

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 18 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it instructed any of its civil servants to bring to the attention of the media any disagreement within the fishing industry over the content of the recently announced fisheries aid package.

Question reference: S1W-15723

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jackie Baillie on 11 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail (a) the level of New Housing Partnership funding allocated, (b) any changes made to these allocations and (c) actual or projected underspend against those allocations in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01 and (iii) 2001-02, both overall and broken down by local authority.

Details of the New Housing Partnership funding allocated to councils in February 1999 for the period 1999-2002 are shown in column (2) below, together with any subsequent revisions. Actual or projected variations in spend are shown in columns (3)-(5).

		Variations
Council (1)	Resource Allocation (a) Original(b) Revised (2)	1999-2000 (3)	2000-2001 (4)	2001-2002 (5)
Aberdeen City	(a) 1,990,600	-20,000	-797,600	+817,600
Aberdeenshire	(a) 6,869,680	-	+17,101	-17,029
Argyll & Bute	(a) 270,000	-	-75,000	+75,000
Clackmannanshire	(a) 100,000	-20,975	+7,224	-
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	(a) 368,000	-61,595	+32,250	+29,345
Dumfries & Galloway	(a) 3,913,000	-6	-1,525,000	+1,525,006
Dundee City	(a) 9,330,000 (b) 24,399,000(Includes resources awarded under the 1988 round)	+531,315	+8,041,980	+6,269,000

East Dunbartonshire	(a) 8,436,000 (b) 8,736,000	-361,751	-6,571,413	-543,000
East Lothian	(a) 50,000 (b) 63,712	-33,138	+48,850	-
East Renfrewshire	(a) 100,000	-100,000	+80,000	+20,000
City of Edinburgh	(a) 36,592,125 (b) 36,751,125	-393,496	-10,324,336	-7,583,125
Fife	(a) 6,000,000	-895,420	-3,000,000	-1,428,000
Glasgow City	(a) 25,500,000	-2,005,000	-7,808,307	+9,813,307
Highland	(a) 7,052,975	-127,460	+330,608	-203,148
Inverclyde	(a) 129,500 (b) 339,500	-85,600	+74,200	+221,400
Midlothian	(a) 172,000	-172,000	+139,000	+15,000
Moray	(a) 12,439,000 (b) 12,559,000	-631,360	-5,872,294	+6,054,314
North Ayrshire	(a) 2,643,500	+88,447	-2,171,805	+1,185,306
North Lanarkshire	(a) 700,000	-230,000	+68,375	+130,000
Orkney Islands	(a) 563,000	-48,500	-415,000	+235,000
Perth & Kinross	(a) 422,000	-319,000	-101,000	+420,000
Renfrewshire	(a) 2,424,500 (b) 2,826,330	-846,025	-972,233	+1,818,258
Scottish Borders	(a) 2,392,000	+130,298	-111,284	-19,014

Shetland Islands	(a) 707,000	-141,000	-280,749	+421,749
South Ayrshire	(a) 197,000	-18,887	+18,886	-
South Lanarkshire	(a) 4,958,500 (b) 7,067,000(Includes resources awarded under the 1998 bidding round)	-246,800	-173,888	+2,529,118
Stirling	(a) 7,585,000	-911,000	-1,209,136	+2,120,136
West Dunbartonshire	(a) 80,000 (b) 100,000	-80,000	+70,000	+30,000
West Lothian	(a) 5,099,500	-1,451,000	-1,767,108	+3,218,108
Total	(a) 147,084,880 (b) 165,486,922	-8,449,952	-34,247,679	+27,154,331

Question reference: S1W-15915

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 5 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the mesh si'e currently being negotiated within the EU and subsequently to be negotiated with the Norwegians, to be applied in the North Sea to protect cod, will not impact on other species.

Question reference: S1W-15916

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 5 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many boardings of (a) Scottish vessels and (b) non-Scottish vessels were made by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency during the recent closure of North Sea grounds under the Cod Recovery Plan (i) within the closed area and (ii) outwith the closed area.

Question reference: S1W-15852

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether East of Scotland Water Authority plans to enter into any lease arrangements in connection with the Carron Valley reservoir or into any new arrangements for the management of the reservoir and its associated distribution system.

Question reference: S1W-15850

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive which health Trusts source patient meals from outwith Scotland, specifying in each case the amount spent on such meals on 2000-01 and the proportion of the total budget for patient meals which this figure represents.

Question reference: S1O-03499

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to provide direct assistance to visitor attractions suffering from a downturn in tourism.