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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-10754

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times each minister has travelled overseas on official duties since being appointed, detailing the destination and date of each visit.

Question reference: S2W-10732

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 October 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new homes have been financed by Communities Scotland, expressed as a percentage of the estimated overall demand in each local authority area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows:

Working in close partnership with its key stakeholders, including local authorities, RSLs and other agencies, Communities Scotland bases its investment decisions on a combination of assessments in respect of the need for new housing supply, replacing poor quality housing stock and making provision for housing for particular needs. There is no single measure which encompasses the demand from these separate pressures.

The following table sets out the total number of housing approvals issued by Communities Scotland since 2001-02 until 2003-04, although it should be noted that Communities Scotland came into being in November 2001.

	Approvals 2001-02 to 2003-04
Aberdeen City	457
Aberdeenshire	723
Angus	299
Argyll and Bute	238
Clackmannanshire	105
Dumfries and Galloway	348
Dundee City	759
East Ayrshire	76
East Dunbartonshire	27
East Lothian	197
East Renfrewshire	79
City Of Edinburgh	1,112
Falkirk	82
Fife	698
Glasgow City	4,600
Highland	696
Inverclyde	447
Midlothian	60
Moray	106
North Ayrshire	276
North Lanarkshire	941
Orkney Islands	195
Perth and Kinross	482
Renfrewshire	898
Scottish Borders	198
Shetland Islands	85
South Ayrshire	235
South Lanarkshire	956
Stirling	208
West Dunbartonshire	442
West Lothian	260
Western Isles	102
Scotland	16,387

Question reference: S2W-10810

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 30 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children in (a) each NHS board area and (b) total were classified as clinically obese 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.

Question reference: S2W-10807

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 30 September 2004

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

The following table presents the number and proportions of persons 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 Individuals 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	17	870	21	1,070	19	940	23	1,150
1999-2000	15	770	19	950	18	920	22	1,110
2000-01	15	740	18	880	19	960	24	1,190
2001-02	11	540	13	650	18	890	21	1,070
2002-03	12	580	14	690	19	960	22	1,100

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 – 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-10811

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 30 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in (a) each NHS board area and (b) total were classified as clinically obese in each of the last five years, expressed also as a percentage of the population and giving the percentage change on a year-on-year basis.

Information on the prevalence of adult information in Scotland by NHS board for the last five years is not centrally available. The latest source of this information is from the 1998 Scottish Health Survey and is shown in the following table.

Percentage and Number of Persons Aged 16-64 Years who are Obese

Health Board	% who are Obese, 1998	Estimated Population who are Obese, 1998	Percentage Difference 1998 to 1995¹
Scotland	19.8	653,277	17.8
Argyll and Clyde	22.8	62,452	42.1
Ayrshire and Arran	21.7	51,252	30.1
Borders	17.7	11,642	-5.5
Dumfries and Galloway	19.5	17,979	22.0
Fife	20.2	44,756	24.4
Forth Valley	17.5	31,547	3.0
Grampian	18.6	64,690	6.6
Greater Glasgow	18.6	104,856	18.4
Highland and Islands	21.1	37,292	9.6
Lanarkshire	22.3	81,025	10.7
Lothian	19.0	97,044	35.2
Tayside	19.4	48,466	7.7

Note: 1. The percentage difference was determined by calculating the change in the percentage obese between 1995 and 1998.

Question reference: S2W-10813

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hours of exercise the average adult undertakes weekly.

Question reference: S2W-10812

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hours of exercise the average child undertakes weekly.

Question reference: S2W-10795

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 30 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were employed in agriculture in each of the last five years, giving the percentage change on a year-on-year basis.

Question reference: S2W-10734

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of (a) household, (b) commercial and (c) total waste was recycled by each local authority in each of the last three years.

Figures available from the Accounts Commission are:

Authority	Household Waste Recycled (%)	Commercial and Industrial Waste Recycled (%)	Total Waste Recycled (%)
2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Aberdeen City	3.6	5.8	8.2	9.5	5.0	4.8	4.6	5.7	7.5
Aberdeenshire	16.4	21.0	13.8	1.2	1.5	8.1	13.3	17.0	13.0
Angus	14.7	18.5	23.1	14.8	27.2	29.4	14.8	20.2	24.3
Argyll and Bute	11.5	8.9	8.9	4.7	5.0	10.5	8.9	7.7	9.1
Clackmannanshire	4.4	4.6	6.6	0.0	0.0	6.0	4.2	4.4	6.6
Dumfries and Galloway	4.0		4.1	0.0		0.0	3.5		3.6
Dundee City	7.4	24.4	24.1	4.2	14.8	17.3	6.3	21.1	21.9
East Ayrshire	2.3	2.5	3.8	14.8	15.5	14.8	3.7	4.0	5.0
East Dunbartonshire	6.0	7.8	10.5	0.0	6.4	9.7	5.3	7.6	10.4
East Lothian	6.2	6.5	12.9	0.0	0.0	3.0	5.3	5.6	11.6
East Renfrewshire	8.2	13.1	15.3	3.4	3.3	3.9	7.8	12.2	14.5
Edinburgh, City of	5.5	5.2	8.4	0.0	3.8	5.0	4.3	4.9	7.7
Eilean Siar	0.0	1.0	7.1	0.7	2.6	0.8	0.4	1.9	5.0
Falkirk	7.6	7.3	10.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	6.0	5.6	6.8
Fife	2.2	2.0	5.0	3.4	3.2	6.0	2.4	2.2	5.2
Glasgow City	3.3	4.7	6.2		5.1	6.4		4.8	6.2
Highland	2.0	2.0	4.4	2.3	1.9	1.5	2.1	1.9	3.5
Inverclyde	3.8	4.8	5.6	0.0	0.0	6.4	3.1	4.0	5.8
Midlothian	3.3	4.0	4.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.1	3.8	4.1
Moray	3.5	5.2	9.6	6.2	8.6	15.7	4.6	6.6	12.2
North Ayrshire	8.0	6.6	13.9	0.0	0.0	1.0	6.9	5.8	12.3
North Lanarkshire	1.3	5.7	13.5	0.0	14.4	15.7	1.1	7.3	13.8
Orkney Islands	16.0	20.6	16.0	0.1	6.1	6.6	13.4	16.0	13.3
Perth and Kinross	17.9	18.6	18.6	9.6	2.6	13.5	16.4	15.8	17.7
Renfrewshire	4.7	5.6	9.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.9	5.0	8.4
Scottish Borders	15.2	18.7	13.8	2.1	2.5	1.0	11.4	13.6	9.7
Shetland Islands	11.0	10.3	5.6	17.5	10.3	5.5	12.0	10.3	5.6
South Ayrshire	6.4	5.9	6.9	5.2	2.8	17.4	6.0	5.1	10.7
South Lanarkshire	6.6	12.1	12.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	5.5	11.1	12.4
Stirling	8.0	10.1	11.6	7.3	5.1	7.2	7.8	8.4	10.2
West Dunbartonshire	9.0	9.8	10.2	0.7	0.9	1.9	5.3	6.1	6.6
West Lothian	3.4	6.1	10.1	5.8	4.5	7.3	3.9	5.7	9.8

The percentages are based on the tonnages of waste that are recycled or composted. Ash used for daily top cover at landfill sites is excluded. All figures for 2001-02 for Dumfries and Galloway and the commercial and industrial and total waste figures for Glasgow for 2000-01 have been excluded as the figures supplied to the Accounts Commission are considered unreliable.

Question reference: S2W-10733

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 29 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9973 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 September 2004, what percentage of the total number of police stations each figure represents.

The number of police stations closed as a percentage of the number of stations closed plus the current number of stations, for each police force area, is shown in the following table.

Force	Percentage
Central Scotland Police	0
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	5
Fife Police	5
Grampian Police	20
Lothian and Borders Police	0
Northern Constabulary	10
Strathclyde Police	25
Tayside Police	15

Note: Percentages take no account of the size of stations closed. A significant number were single officer stations which were seldom used by the public.