- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 11 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what the average European (EU-15) population growth is forecast to be from 2007 to 2017.
Answer
Eurostat’s (
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu) 2004-basedpopulation projections show that the population of the EU-15 is projected to riseby around 2.2 per cent between 2007 and 2017.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 11 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what the population has been in each European (EU-15) member state in (a) 1950, (b) 1960, (c) 1970, (d) 1980, (e) 1990, (f) 2000 and (g) 2007 and what the Scottish population was in the same periods.
Answer
The populations ofeach of the EU-15 member states and of Scotland are provided in the table below. Figures for EU member states are from theEurostat website (
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/)and are as at 1 January. Figures for Scotland are from theGeneral Register Office for Scotland (
www.gro-scotland.gov.uk)and are as at 30 June.
Populations ofEU-15 Countries and Scotland (000)
| Country | a | b | c | d | e | f | g |
| 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2007 |
| EU-15 | N/A | 314,862 | 339,975 | 354,568 | 363,493 | 375,550 | 389,952 |
| Austria | 6,926 | 7,030 | 7,455 | 7,546 | 7,645 | 8,002 | 8,299 |
| Belgium | 8,639 | 9,129 | 9,660 | 9,855 | 9,948 | 10,239 | 10,585 |
| Denmark | 4,251 | 4,565 | 4,907 | 5,122 | 5,135 | 5,330 | 5,447 |
| Finland | 3,988 | 4,413 | 4,614 | 4,771 | 4,974 | 5,171 | 5,277 |
| France | 41,647 | 45,465 | 50,528 | 53,731 | 56,577 | 58,850 | 61,538 |
| Germany | 68,376 | 72,543 | 78,269 | 78,180 | 79,113 | 82,163 | 82,315 |
| Greece | 7,566 | 8,300 | 8,781 | 9,584 | 10,121 | 10,904 | 11,172 |
| Ireland | 2,969 | 2,836 | 2,943 | 3,393 | 3,507 | 3,778 | 4,315 |
| Italy | N/A | 50,026 | 53,685 | 56,388 | 56,694 | 56,924 | 59,131 |
| Luxembourg | 295 | 313 | 339 | 363 | 379 | 434 | 476 |
| Netherlands | 10,027 | 11,417 | 12,958 | 14,091 | 14,893 | 15,864 | 16,358 |
| Portugal | 8,437 | 8,826 | 8,698 | 9,714 | 9,996 | 10,195 | 10,599 |
| Spain | 28,009 | 30,327 | 33,588 | 37,242 | 38,826 | 40,050 | 44,475 |
| Sweden | 6,986 | 7,471 | 8,004 | 8,303 | 8,527 | 8,861 | 9,113 |
| UK | 50,616 | 52,200 | 55,546 | 56,285 | 57,157 | 58,785 | 60,853 |
| Scotland | 5,115 | 5,178 | 5,214 | 5,194 | 5,081 | 5,063 | 5,138 |
Note: The 2007 figurefor Scotland is taken from the 2006-based national populationprojections. The mid-year population estimate for 2007 will be published in April2008.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 6 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what median gross weekly earnings have been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The preferredsource for earnings estimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings(ASHE), which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics. The latestearnings available are April 2007.
I have placedtables from ASHE containing the median gross weekly full-time earnings by localauthority area for 1999-2007 in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 44176).
The data arebased on place of work as place of residence statistics are not available priorto 2002.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 6 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has planned that are designed to counter the finding on page 14 of The Government Economic Strategy that “despite rising skill levels over the past twenty years, there has not been an accompanying rise in the level of influence which employees report they can exercise over their jobs”.
Answer
Both the GovernmentEconomic Strategy (GES) and Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong LearningStrategy identify the need to address this issue as part of translating Scotland’s relatively high skill levels into higherproductivity and growth. Both strategies proposes a focus on working withemployers and employees to increase the effective utilisation and demand forskills.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) individuals, (b) families and (c) children it estimates are in the three lowest income deciles identified in The Government Economic Strategy.
Answer
It is estimated thatthere are (a) 1,500,000 individuals, (b) 860,000 families and (c) 350,000 children in the three lowest income deciles.
These estimates werecalculated using the Department for Work and Pensions’ 2005-06 Family ResourcesSurvey.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average life expectancy is for (a) males and (b) females in the three (i) lowest and (ii) highest income deciles identified in The Government Economic Strategy.
Answer
We do not currentlyhold data for average life expectancy for male and females in Scotland broken down by income decile.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to encourage the widest possible geographic spread of training bases for participating teams at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Answer
The Scottish Governmentis committed to ensuring that benefits from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Gamesare felt across Scotland, and will work with the Games Organising Companyand local authorities to enable this.
A Commonwealth GamesAssociation (CGA) Services team will be set up within the OrganisingCompany to look after the needs of the visiting CGAs. This will include advisingthem of which Scottish facilities would best suit their athletes training needs.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of income was held by those in the three (a) lowest and (b) highest income deciles identified in The Government Economic Strategy in (i) 1950, (ii) 1960, (iii) 1970 and (iv) each year since 1980.
Answer
Information for eachyear since 1994-95 is published on the Scottish Government Income and Poverty website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty/CoreAnalysis.Information for previousyears in not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what gross domestic product per capita was in (a) 1950, (b) 1960, (c) 1970, (d) 1980, (e) 1990, (f) 2000 and (g) the most recent year for which figures are available and what comparative information it has for (i) each EU member state and (ii) each OECD nation.
Answer
Gross Domestic Product(GDP) per capita data are available for Scotland from 1989 onwards. Table 1 presents Scottish GDP per capita data for1990, 2000, and 2005, which is the most recent year. Table 2 presentscomparative information for the EU member states for 2005. Information onearlier years is available from the Eurostat web site at the following link:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1090,30070682,1090_33076576&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTALData on the OECDcountries are available from the OECD web site:
http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/default.aspx?datasetcode=SNA_TABLE1Table 1: GVA perhead, Scotland and UK,£, current prices
| Scotland | 1990 | 2000 | 2005 |
| £8,507 | £13,256 | £16,944 |
Source:ONS.
Notes:GVA is equalto GDP at basic prices.
Table 2: GDP percapita, measured in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS), 2005
| Ranking | Economy | PPS |
| 1 | Luxembourg | 58,800 |
| 2 | Ireland | 32,200 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 29,500 |
| 4 | Austria | 28,700 |
| 5 | Denmark | 28,200 |
| 6 | Belgium | 27,500 |
| 7 | United Kingdom | 26,700 |
| 8 | Sweden | 26,600 |
| 9 | Germany | 25,600 |
| 10 | Finland | 25,600 |
| 11 | France | 25,500 |
| 12 | Italy | 23,600 |
| 13 | Spain | 22,900 |
| 14 | Cyprus | 20,900 |
| 15 | Greece | 19,400 |
| 16 | Slovenia | 19,400 |
| 17 | Czech Republic | 17,200 |
| 18 | Malta | 17,000 |
| 19 | Portugal | 16,900 |
| 20 | Hungary | 14,500 |
| 21 | Estonia | 14,000 |
| 22 | Slovakia | 13,400 |
| 23 | Lithuania | 12,000 |
| 24 | Poland | 11,400 |
| 25 | Latvia | 11,200 |
| 26 | Bulgaria | 7,900 |
| 27 | Romania | 7,700 |
Source:Eurostat.
Notes:These estimates for GDP per capita are measured in Purchasing Power Standards(PPS). PPS is a statistical currency unit produced by Eurostat which takesaccount of the different cost of living between countries and adjusts GDP percapita accordingly.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Falkirk High and (a) Glasgow Queen Street and (b) Edinburgh Waverley in the event of the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.
Answer
The improvementsproposed for the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line are part of a managed programme of change, providing a moreefficient and greener rail network in Central Scotland,delivering faster journey times, increased capacity and more services. It istoo early in the design of the scheme to produce a detailed timetable. However,the target for Edinburgh to Glasgow journey times is a reduction from around 50 minutes to around 35minutes.
The averagejourney time between Falkirk High and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 23.5 minutes.
The averagejourney time between Falkirk High and Edinburgh Waverley at present is 32.5minutes.
