- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 26 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it provides to community councils in rural areas.
Answer
Current legislation provides a framework for local authorities to put in place their own schemes for the establishment of community councils, to take account of local needs and geographical circumstances. The Scottish Government plays no direct role in the day-to-day operation of community councils and does not provide any direct funding to them.
The government is committed to encouraging rural and urban community councils throughout Scotland to work to their full potential. We will shortly be consulting on a model Community Council Scheme, and a Code of Conduct for Community Councillors. These documents have been developed in partnership with the Community Council Working Group, which includes representation from the Highlands, Islands and Scottish Borders, and we are confident that they will provide the tools required for all community councils to represent their communities in the most effective way.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 26 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what corporate functions organised by or on behalf of PPP/PFI consortia have been attended by officials in the Financial Partnerships Unit and who met the costs associated with any attendance since 1999.
Answer
We do not hold records on attendance by officials in the Scottish Government Financial Partnerships Unit to corporate functions organised by or on behalf of PPP/PFI consortia. Any attendance by officials at these events would have been in the interests of furthering infrastructure investment and PPP policy, and would have been undertaken in the normal course of business. Any costs incurred in attending such events would not have been met by the Scottish Government other than, if relevant, those costs which would come under the government''s travel and subsistence rates.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 25 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what average (a) annual earnings and (b) house prices have been in each year since 1979.
Answer
Table 1 provides median annual earnings and average house price from 1979-2006 which is the most recent whole year that data is available for. 2007 data is due to be available in April.
The preferred source for earnings estimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics. ASHE was developed to replace the New Earnings Survey (NES) from 2004, which included improvements to the coverage of employees. NES data for 2003 back to 1998 has been reworked using the ASHE methodology in order to provide a consistent time series from 1998 onwards. However, the data does not take account of the improved coverage. Data prior to 1998 is from NES and is not directly comparable with ASHE data. Data relates to full-time employees only.
Average dwelling price has been drawn from the Regulated Mortgage Survey. Data up to and including 1992 was based on returns from building societies only. Data from 1993 onwards are based on returns from all mortgage lenders. From September 2005, data are collected via the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS) of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML)/BankSearch.
Table 1
| Year | Median Annual Earnings | Average House Price |
| 1979 | £4,550 | £19,371 |
| 1980 | £5,585 | £21,754 |
| 1981 | £6,344 | £23,014 |
| 1982 | £6,942 | £22,522 |
| 1983 | £7,504 | £23,818 |
| 1984 | £8,096 | £25,865 |
| 1985 | £8,622 | £26,941 |
| 1986 | £9,183 | £28,242 |
| 1987 | £9,771 | £29,591 |
| 1988 | £10,634 | £31,479 |
| 1989 | £11,513 | £35,394 |
| 1990 | £12,688 | £41,744 |
| 1991 | £13,796 | £48,772 |
| 1992 | £14,908 | £50,010 |
| 1993 | £15,434 | £49,568 |
| 1994 | £15,642 | £50,651 |
| 1995 | £16,297 | £53,143 |
| 1996 | £16,895 | £56,674 |
| 1997 | £17,514 | £57,883 |
| 1998 | £16,318 | £63,585 |
| 1999 | £17,108 | £69,312 |
| 2000 | £17,597 | £69,961 |
| 2001 | £18,465 | £73,570 |
| 2002 | £19,328 | £77,655 |
| 2003 | £19,828 | £103,641 |
| 2004 | £20,301 | £118,932 |
| 2005 | £21,247 | £129,631 |
| 2006 | £22,261 | £137,192 |
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 25 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are taken to ascertain the projections of costs of each PFI/PPP project entered into by (a) the Scottish Government, (b) local authorities and (c) NHS boards.
Answer
It is the responsibility of every public sector procuring body, when entering into a contract, to ensure all payments committed through that contract are affordable. This applies to all contracts and not just PPP contracts. In a PPP contract, the total costs, including the whole life costs, under the contract are agreed locally and parcelled up into manageable, affordable, annual payments all agreed in advance. This applies whether the procuring body is the Scottish Government, local authorities or NHS boards.
The total costs in a PPP contract are usually modelled by financial advisers to the project in a financial model. This involves such calculations as sensitivity analyses on key variables within the model.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many overseas visits each official in the Financial Partnerships Unit, or predecessor equivalent, has undertaken since 1999, broken down by (a) purpose and (b) cost of each visit.
Answer
This information was the subject of a Freedom of Information request in November 2007 and is still current. The response provided can be accessed on the Scottish Government Financial Partnership Unit''s website under the sub-heading PPP miscellaneous.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/FOI.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-7640, S3W-7639 and S3W-7637 by John Swinney on 13 December 2007, what categories of information about PFI/PPP contracts entered into by (a) the Scottish Government, (b) local authorities and (c) NHS boards are held centrally.
Answer
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are circumstances under which Scottish ministers can act as bail guarantor for Scottish citizens under criminal charge in foreign jurisdictions and, if so, what they are.
Answer
No, there are no such circumstances.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how the additional funding for wheelchair services allocated in each year of the spending review will be distributed, broken down by (a) NHS board, (b) parliamentary constituency and (c) local authority within Central Scotland region and what the funding levels would be without the additional allocation.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-8593 on 25 January 2008. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 24 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans exist to educate children on how to use the internet safely.
Answer
The Scottish Government wantschildren and young people to make full use of the internet and is committed to ensuringthat they are able to do so in a safe and responsible manner.
Wecontinue to work with a number of agencies to raise children and young people’sawareness about how to “surf safely”. Learning and Teaching Scotland provides adviceon school policies for internet use and access and links to a number of websitesthat provide advice on internet safety. Respectme the national bullying servicerecently published advice on the use of the internet to prevent cyber bullying.Chatsafer, a Scottish Government information website, is a parental guide to saferchatting on the web. “Safe and Well” guidance, whichissued to schools in 2005, includes good practice guidance on computer safety.
As part of our on-going commitmentto protect children, the draft outcomes and experiences for technology, which willbe published later this year as part of the work on the curriculum review, are likelyto include opportunities for teachers to develop young people’s knowledge of safeand responsible use of the internet.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Fire Brigades Union on pension entitlement for its members.
Answer
My officials and I have had anumber of meetings with the Fire Brigades Union to discuss a range of subjects.These discussions have included pensions issues.
