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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: S3W-04242

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have absconded while under escort in each year since 1987.

I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The following tableillustrates the number of incidents recorded where a prisoner has escaped whilebeing escorted from an SPS establishment. Reliable information is not availableprior to 2001.

2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
4	1	1	3	0	5	3

Question reference: S3W-04109

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were employed by each quango in each year since 1995.

Question reference: S3W-04112

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recent outbreak of E. coli O157 in Paisley, what plans it has to reduce the likelihood of similar incidents of food poisoning across Scotland.

An expert group,under the Chairmanship of Professor Hugh Pennington, was established inDecember 1996 to examine the circumstances which led to the e.coli outbreak incentral Scotland and to advise on the implications for food safety and lessonsto be learned. This group made a total of 32 recommendations, all of which wereaccepted and actioned by the Scottish Government.

The group’srecommendations focussed mainly on improving hygiene standards andstrengthening enforcement controls in fresh meat plants and butcher shops. Therewere also recommendations around consumer education and awareness, improvingsurveillance methods, research and outbreak management.

A leafletentitled Shedding Light on Ecoli 0157 – What you need to know wasproduced by the Scottish Government in 2005 to raise awareness and give adviceto those visiting the outdoors and enjoying outdoor activities such as farmsand petting zoos. The document is available electronically on the dedicatedwebsite www.handsclean.info/ and isdistributed once a year to a range of interested parties such as Directors ofPublic Health, Scouts and Girl Guides and outdoor organisations.

The ScottishGovernment also continues to promote a Hand Hygiene Campaign to ensure that allhealth workers, the general public and young children are made aware of theimportance of good hand washing in preventing the spread of infection.

Question reference: S3W-04108

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many quangos there have been in each year since 1995, giving the name of each.

The following tableshows the trend in the number of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) from1999 to 2006.

Number of NDPBs: 1999to 2006

1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
186	184	183	151	144	140	142	140

Information on thenumber of NDPBs was maintained by the Cabinet Office prior to formation of the Scottish Parliament.

The Public Bodiesand Appointment pages of the Scottish Government website provide details of allcurrent NDPBs in Scotland and includes financial and staffing data.

The site isregularly updated and is the main source of publicly available information onNDPBs in Scotland. The site’s address is http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies/.Prior to thewebsite’s establishment in 2002, detailed historical information on NDPBs waspublished in the annual Cabinet Office document Public Bodies. Copies of the 1998 to 2006 versions of the document are available at http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/other/agencies/public_bodies/index.asp.

The 1997 versionis available from:

http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/caboff/bodies97/contents.htm.

Question reference: S3W-04113

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost of governing Scotland has been in each year from 1979 to 2007 in (a) cash and (b) real terms.

Since Devolution,the cost of governing Scotland could be deemed to comprise a number ofdifferent elements, including: the cost of running the Scottish Parliament(further information can be found within the Scottish Parliamentary CorporateBody’s accounts); a proportion of the administration costs for the ScottishGovernment; and an element of the expenditure by Scottish local authorities.

Prior toDevolution, such costs would have been a matter for the Secretary of State forScotland.

Question reference: S3W-04106

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much local authority (a) capital and (b) revenue expenditure was in the West of Scotland parliamentary region in each of the last two years, broken down by single transferable vote ward.

The informationrequested is only collected at council level. The West of Scotland regionalconstituency does not match an exact aggregation of whole council areas.

The following tablecontains 2004-05 and 2005-06 revenue and capital expenditure for each of thelocal authorities covered by the constituency. Councils which are only partlycovered by the constituency are noted by an asterisk.

LocalAuthority Expenditure of Local Authorities Covered Wholly or Partly* by West ofScotland Regional Constituency

Local Authority	Net Revenue Expenditure ¹		Gross Capital Expenditure
Local Authority	2004-05	2005-06	2004-05	2005-06
Argyll and Bute*	197,401	220,834	32,673	37,719
East Dunbartonshire*	186,049	205,050	13,990	19,043
East Renfrewshire	165,397	179,479	15,691	21,045
Inverclyde	174,868	199,085	14,789	21,792
North Ayrshire*	245,404	292,333	24,753	46,371
Renfrewshire*	309,942	349,563	37,161	50,581
West Dunbartonshire	194,726	203,470	31,561	33,945

Sources: Councilscovered wholly or partly* by West of Scotland regional constituency. Capital -CR FINAL returns.

Note: 1.Expenditure on police, fire, registration of electors and council tax andnon-domestic lands valuation is apportioned to councils using the amount thatthe joint boards requisition from them.

Question reference: S3W-04110

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost of running quangos has been in each year since 1995, also giving staffing costs in (a) cash and (b) real terms.

I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-4108 on 19 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Non-departmentalpublic body annual reports and accounts also provide cost information. Copiesare available directly from individual organisations.

Question reference: S3W-04111

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken, or plans to take, as a result of the BBC's Whistleblower programme on 22 May 2007 which highlighted health and safety concerns relating to supermarkets selling food products beyond their sell-by date.

I have beenadvised by the Food Standards Agency that the supermarkets concerned in the BBCprogramme were not based in Scotland and therefore were not under the directresponsibility of any Scottish local authority environmental health department.

It is the legal responsibility of food businesses toensure that food is safe and this includes correct use of labelling.

The“Use-by” date is the key date in terms of food safety. “Sell by” and “displayuntil” dates are to help shop staff know when to remove a product from sale.“Best before” dates are focused on quality rather than safety.

Question reference: S3O-00594

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it has had with EU ministers and officials since May 2007 and what issues were discussed.

The ScottishGovernment has had many meetings with the EU since May 2007. Focusing on ministerialmeetings, the First Minister met European Commissioners Borg (Fisheries andMaritime Affairs), Grybauskaite (Budget), Mandelson (Trade) and McCreevy(Internal Market and Services) when visiting Brussels on 11 July. He discusseda range of Scottish interests in relation to each of the Commissionersportfolios.

He also met withCommissioner Piebalgs (Energy) in Edinburgh on 19 Julywhere carbon capture and storage projects, renewable energy targets and otherenergy issues were discussed.

The CabinetSecretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and I met with Commissioner Figel(Education) on 28 June where we discussed higher education issues, the EuropeanInstitute of Technology and the Erasmus programme.

Richard Lochhead,along with the EU Commission, Ministers and representatives from all the other memberstates, attended the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Luxembourg on 11-12June where the main issues on the agenda were: reform of the fruit andvegetables sector, rules on organic production and labelling, a single CommonMarket Organisation, recovery plans for Baltic cod, for blue fin tuna and forEuropean eel, and the Greenland fisheries partnership.

Finally, this isnot the appropriate forum for me to list each of the many meetings thatScottish Government officials have had with the EU Institutions since May. However,I will say that Scottish Government officials, from our EU Office in Brussels,and from Scotland, frequently attend working group meetings in the Council of the EU as well as management committees chaired by the Commission.

Officials alsoattend meetings in the European Parliament and have discussions with EuropeanCommission officials on issues of importance to Scotland, particularly in relation to fisheries, agriculture, justice,structural funds, energy and environment matters.

Question reference: S3O-00462

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what investigations it has undertaken in relation to the recent outbreak of E.coli O157 in Paisley.

This outbreakwas a matter for the local health board. The outbreak in Paisley was therefore investigated andmanaged by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in close collaboration with Environmental Health, the Food StandardsAgency, Health Protection Scotland and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.The Scottish Government was inclose communication with the local Board and Health Protection Scotland throughoutthe incident.

Once the outbreakis declared over the health board will follow up its own investigations with a report.