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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-11287

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the quality of response provided by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to parliamentary questions, in particular whether responses answer the question asked and are worded in order to provide the information sought and, if not, whether it will direct the SPS to make any necessary improvements in the responses it provides.

Question reference: S2W-11133

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its civil servants are employed on energy policy.

Question reference: S2W-10974

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how its education and skills policy will contribute towards growing the renewables economy.

We believe that it is important that the renewable energy industry’s immediate and future skills needs are identified and plans put in place to deliver these needs. The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland (FREDS) has therefore established a sub-group to look at this issue, it will report in the spring of next year. In taking forward its remit, the sub-group will work with the appropriate sector skills councils and take account of existing education and skills policies.

Question reference: S2W-10970

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current level of carbon dioxide emissions in Scotland is, expressed also as a percentage of such emissions in the United Kingdom, and what information it has on the average level of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and internationally.

Carbon dioxide emissions data for Scotland and the UK are available in the publication Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1999-2001, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 32027) and is also available on the Executive’s climate change web-site at www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange.Both the European Environment Agency and the United Nations publish data on European and international carbon dioxide emissions which can be accessed at www.eea.eu.int/ and http://unfccc.int/.

Care must be taken when comparing countries emissions levels, which are not always reported on a like-for-like basis. For example, in the case of carbon dioxide, the “National Total” on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Greenhouse Gas Inventory database does not include emissions from biomass burning or emissions or removals from the land use change and forestry sector. By contrast, the UK inventory does include such emissions and removals.

Question reference: S2W-10967

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings of Her Majesty’s Government’s Transmission Issues Working Group have been attended by Executive ministers, expressed also as a percentage of all such meetings; whether it will give details of the specific objectives ministers are pursuing at this working group, and what progress has been made.

The Transmission Issues Working Group comprises officials from the Department for Trade and Industry and from the devolved administrations, the electricity transmission companies and the regulator, Ofgem. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of implementation of the additional infrastructure required in order to meet the needs of the Government’s renewables targets. Executive officials have attended all meetings of the group.

Question reference: S2W-10809

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 14 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children in (a) each local authority and (b) total were defined as living in a state of poverty in each of the last five years, expressed also as a percentage of the child population and giving the percentage change on a year-on-year basis.

The following table presents the number and proportions of children living in low income in Scotland in each of the last five years. Estimates are available at Scotland level only, not by local authority area.

Proportion and Number of Children in Low-Income Households, below 60% of GB Median Income, Scotland (Thousands)

Year	Absolute	Relative
Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
%	Numbers	%	Numbers	%	Numbers	%	Numbers
1998-99	26	290	29	320	27	300	31	340
1999-2000	20	220	24	260	24	260	28	310
2000-01	18	190	21	230	25	260	30	320
2001-02	14	140	16	170	25	260	30	320
2002-03	12	130	16	170	23	240	27	280

The key low-income results, above, are for 60% of both the relative and absolute median thresholds. Estimates on the full range of income thresholds and explanation of how these estimates are calculated are published in Households Below Average Income, 1994-95 to 2002-03, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 32212).

The relative low-income measure compares against the median in the same year. The absolute measure compares against the median in the baseline year of 1996-97. Both areas are uprated to remove the effects of inflation.

The figures are estimates based on a sample survey and are therefore subject to sampling variation. As such, small percentage changes are not significant when considered on a year-on-year basis; identification of trends should be based on several years of data.

Question reference: S2W-10973

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 13 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce regional or local authority area targets for renewable energy production.

Question reference: S2W-10800

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change the formula for calculating police force funding.

Yes. Today I am publishing the findings of the Police Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) Working Group which was set up to consider how best to distribute police funding between Scottish forces. The working group has produced a new formula which aims to ensure that the way we distribute funding is linked much more directly to the cost of policing each force and recommends a target share for each force. The formula takes into account a range of factors including the population in each area, deprivation and the demands on forces.

An interim report from the working group, submitted in late 2002, had indicated that the allocations at that time merited adjustment and additional resources. As a result, an additional £4.5 million was added to the GAE allocations for Grampian Police, Fife Constabulary, Central Scotland Police and Northern Constabulary in 2005-06.

The group’s final report now makes clear that further adjustment is needed and recommends this continues to be achieved by “levelling up” the funding allocations for forces rather than by redistributing existing funding between forces. I have accepted this recommendation which means that no force will have its allocation cut as a result of the model. The overall extra amounts allocated for levelling-up are £5.5 million in 2005‑06, rising to £8.5 million in 2006-07 and £15.5 million in 2007‑08. We intend to find the balance needed to complete levelling-up by 2009-10. Once the levelling up process is complete, subsequent allocations will then be made using the new formula.

Question reference: S2W-10753

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 12 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of expenditure was on developing renewable energy in each of the last three years, expressed also on a per capita basis, and how this expenditure compares to similar expenditure in other European countries.

The information is not available in the form requested. A separate budget for renewable energy was not introduced until 2003-04, when direct spending from within the Executive’s energy budget amounted to £1.6 million. This compares to an estimated £0.4 million in 2002-03.

These figures do not take into account budget transfers to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to fund and operate our Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative (SCHRI). We estimate that Executive spending on the SCHRI from its introduction in 2002 until April 2005 will come to a further £5 million.

The Executive has also contributed funding of £2.2 million towards the establishment of the European Marine Energy Centre.

We also fund a range of other renewables support measures through the activities of HIE, Scottish Enterprise, EST and the Carbon Trust, in addition to direct business support and Regional Selective Assistance funding for small businesses and companies involved in renewable energy activities.

Renewables activity in Scotland also benefits from a range of UK capital and research support schemes administered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Awards to Scottish companies from DTI renewable programmes since 2002 amount to an estimated £28 million.

Question reference: S2W-10751

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 12 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding has been provided for the development of clean technologies in each of the last five years, detailing the source of funding in each case.