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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-35199

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 22 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many transport-related fines it has settled on behalf of its staff and at what cost in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S3W-35006

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will respond to the findings of the Road Safety Foundation’s report, Saving Lives for Less, which shows that Scotland has the highest average risk rating of all regions in Britain.

Question reference: S3W-35005

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of the Road Safety Foundation’s report, Saving Lives for Less, which shows that Scotland has the highest average risk rating of all regions in Britain, whether it will establish a dedicated accident black spot fund.

Question reference: S3W-34931

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive hhow many (a) accidents, (b) injuries and (c) fatalities there have been at Scottish airports or on flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from them in each year since 1997, also broken down by airport.

Question reference: S3W-34692

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was awarded to each local authority under the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places scheme; how many households have been visited to advocate the merits of public transport in each case, and how many additional public transport journeys have resulted from these visits.

Activities in the seven communities in Smarter Choices Smarter Places include: better public transport services; residential improvements; upgrades in walking and cycling infrastructure; and travel information. The following table outlines funding awarded to each local authority under the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme between 2008 and 2011.

Local Authority (SCSP Community)	Scottish Government Funding (£)	Match Funding from LA/RTP (£)	Project Totals (£)
Dundee City (Dundee - part of)	1,424,000	740,000	2,164,000
Dumfries and Galloway (Dumfries)	2,703,000	2,665,319	5,368,319
East Dunbartonshire (Kirkintilloch and Lenzie)	610,000	440,000	1,050,000
East Renfrewshire (Barrhead)	813,200	545,000	1,358,200
Falkirk (Larbert and Stenhousemuir)	926,362	453,362	1,379,724
Glasgow City (East End)	1,342,500	1,157,500	2,500,000
Orkney Islands (Kirkwall)	762,000	517,000	1,279,000
Funding totals	8,581,062	6,518,181	15,099,243

As an element of the projects being undertaken in Barrhead, Dumfries, Dundee, Larbert and Stenhousemuir, 22,640 households have been visited to date (see the following table for details). There are a further 13,854 household to be visited during the remainder of 2010. The purpose of these visits has been to deliver travel planning guidance and information, in all cases this includes the public transport options available to that community and how an individual or household can use these as an alternative to a journey undertaken by private car.

Household Visits to Date
Local Authority (SCSP Community)	2009	2010
Dundee City (Dundee - part of)	4704	On going
Dumfries & Galloway (Dumfries)	-	2,646
East Dunbartonshire (Kirkintilloch and Lenzie)
East Renfrewshire (Barrhead)	2,500	2,500
Falkirk (Larbert and Stenhousemuir)	5,843	4,447
Glasgow City (East End)
Orkney Islands (Kirkwall)	-	-
Total	13,047	9,593

Monitoring and evaluating the impacts of the SCSP Programme is important. To date a baseline report has been published against which changes in travel attitudes and behaviour are being measured.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Transport/sustainable-transport/Baseline

Interim monitoring results will be available by Autumn 2010.

Question reference: S3W-34693

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 7 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the standard of maintenance of motorways and trunk roads since the responsibility was contracted out to private companies and on what basis it has made its analysis.

The standard of maintenance of motorways and trunk roads by the Trunk Road Operating Companies is independently monitored and audited by the Performance Audit Group (PAG) on behalf of Transport Scotland. PAG''s assessment of the performance of the operating companies is published in its annual report, which is available online at:

http://www.performanceauditgroup.co.uk/publicat.htm.

The most recent PAG annual report (2008-09) notes that overall, the operating companies carried out maintenance of the network well and that the standard of workmanship by the Operating Companies, their sub-contractors and works contractors was generally good.

Question reference: S3W-34930

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) accidents, (b) injuries and (c) fatalities there have been on the rail network in each year since 1997, also broken down by line.

The following table includes all accidents on the Scottish rail network statutorily reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. They include workforce accidents, accidents involving the general public and accidents arising from trespass and vandalism such as missiles through cab windows, fires and running into obstructions, etc. The injury statistics also include all workforce and general public injuries occurring on railway premises, including those arising from trespass and attempted suicides.

	1997-88	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
All Accidents	121	156	139	151	116	83	50	49	41	46	53	47
All Injuries	440	329	339	385	375	326	303	293	316	248	274	210
All Fatalities	19	19	25	27	20	17	27	19	21	28	21	21
Fatalities Excluding Trespassers and Suicides	0	0	0	2	5	2	1	1	3	1	4	1

Source: Scottish Transport Statistics.

Note: Statistics broken down on a line by line basis are not readily available.

Question reference: S3W-34694

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many concessionary bus passes have been issued in each year since the scheme commenced, broken down by (a) eligible group, (b) cost to the taxpayer and (c) number of journeys undertaken in each case.

Information made available to Transport Scotland indicates that the following valid National Entitlement Cards were in circulation giving access to Scotland-wide Free Bus Travel for Older and Disabled People as of the specific dates. This information was obtained from the Local Authority Card Management System.

NECs Issued Allowing Access to Concessionary Travel

Category of Eligibility	23 June 2006	1 May 2007	8 April 2008	27 February 2009	10 June 2010
60+	767,555	850,890	926,726	957,852	1,003,065
Disabled	48,855	55,749	59,366	55,737	172,787*
Disabled + Companion	66,306	80,082	88,255	93,005
Visually Impaired	6,457	5,257	5,179	4,980
Visually Impaired + Companion	9,192	9,876	11,466	11,272
Total	=SUM(ABOVE) 898,365	=SUM(ABOVE) 1,001,854	=SUM(ABOVE) 1,090,992	=SUM(ABOVE) 1,122,846	=SUM(ABOVE) 1,175,852

Note: * Due to development work being undertaken with the local authority card management system, we are currently unable to obtain more recent figures broken down by disability type.

From figures held by Transport Scotland, as at 2009-10 year end, the number of journeys made each year, and the subsequent reimbursement costs to operators are as follows.

Year	Journeys	Reimbursement
2006-07	155.7m	£153.4m
2007-08	158.7m	£163m
2008-09	156.9m	£179.7m
2009-10	151.2m	£186.8m

Question reference: S3W-34690

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-7246 by Stewart Stevenson on 13 December 2007 and in light of the feasibility study carried out by Transport Scotland, whether a decision has been made on the possibility of introducing hard shoulder running.

Intervention 9 of the Scottish Government''s Strategic Transport Projects Review (http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/stpr) has recommended using Intelligent Transport Systems on the most congested parts of the road network to enhance capacity and operations. This can include hard shoulder running.

We have completed a technical feasibility study for a pilot project for bus hard shoulder running on an 8km stretch of the northbound M77 between J4 and J1 in the morning peak period.

Subject to funding pressures, we shall take forward the project to a detailed design phase over the coming months.

We are also developing route strategies for the Forth Replacement Crossing and its approaches, the M8 and A720, and the remaining sections of the M74 and M80 (towards Glasgow). Hard shoulder running may also be appropriate at these locations.

Question reference: S3W-34691

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress each local authority has made in establishing schemes for reducing council tax where improvements are made to the energy efficiency of homes, as outlined in section 65 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

The Scottish Government has no formal role in overseeing the introduction of such schemes under the 2009 act but we have been working with COSLA, local authorities, the energy companies and some other interested parties to support implementation. As a result, we understand that 15 local authorities currently have a scheme in place, 11 have plans which are at an advanced stage and the six remaining authorities are planning to introduce schemes for the start of the 2011-12 financial year.

The Scottish Government also provided a small amount of funding to allow COSLA and the Improvement Service to commission a review of energy efficient council tax rebate schemes in Scotland. The review has been completed and a copy of the review report, which is currently being finalised, will be placed in SPICe (Bib. number 51226) when it is published.