Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-06604

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
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.

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.

Question reference: S3W-06603

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Croy and Edinburgh Waverley in the event of the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

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.

At present theaverage journey time between Croy and Edinburgh Waverley is 38.5 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06606

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Cumbernauld and Glasgow Queen Street in the event of the line to Cumbernauld being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

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 Cumbernauld and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 27 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06605

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Polmont 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.

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 Polmont and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 28 minutes.

The averagejourney time between Polmont and Edinburgh Waverley at present is 30.5 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06710

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners served custodial sentences for non-payment of fines in each of the last 15 years, shown also as a percentage of the prison population, and what comparable information it has for (a) the rest of the United Kingdom, (b) each EU member state and (c) each OECD country.

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

The availableinformation is provided in the following table:

Average dailypopulation in custody for fine default by country and calendar year: actualnumbers and percentages of the total prison population.

Year	Scotland¹		England and Wales²		Northern Ireland
Year	Number	% of Total	Number	% of Total	Number	% of Total
1992	n/a	n/a	382	0.8%	34	1.9%
1993	n/a	n/a	546	1.2%	32	1.7%
1994	n/a	n/a	537	1.1%	30	1.6%
1995	n/a	n/a	516	1.0%	29	1.6%
1996	n/a	n/a	141	0.3%	24	1.5%
1997	102	1.7%	131	0.2%	30	1.8%
1998	75	1.2%	110	0.2%	30	2.0%
1999	59	1.0%	99	0.2%	33	2.7%
2000	61	1.0%	87	0.1%	22	2.1%
2001	62	1.0%	43	0.1%	22	2.4%
2002	61	1.0%	34	0.0%	17	1.7%
2003	61	0.9%	46	0.1%	20	1.7%
2004	63	0.9%	52	0.1%	24	1.9%
2005	56	0.8%	78	0.1%	25	1.9%
2006	48	0.7%	n/a	n/a	29	2.0%

Notes:

1. For yearsbefore 1997, figures on fine defaulters were not collected separately.

2. The figuresfor England and Wales are as at 30 June rather than an annual average.

Question reference: S3W-06709

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the prison population is from each of the top 10 postcode areas where prisoners are from and what percentage of the total population is resident in each of these postcode areas.

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

Unfortunately, wedo not currently hold information on the prison population in the form that hasbeen requested. The information that is currently available is the prisonpopulation at local authority level. The following table gives the populationof prisoners in custody on 30 June 2006 by the localauthority of their home address, for the local authorities which have the 10highest percentages of the total prison population. Also given is thepercentage of the total population of Scotland in each ofthese local authorities.

Local Authority	Prison Population	Percentage of Prison Population	Total Population	Percentage of Total Population
Glasgow City	1,569	21.8	580,690	11.3
Edinburgh, City of	600	8.3	463,510	9.1
North Lanarkshire	455	6.3	323,780	6.3
Fife	384	5.3	358,930	7.0
Dundee City	380	5.3	142,170	2.8
South Lanarkshire	371	5.1	307,670	6.0
Aberdeen City	272	3.8	206,880	4.0
Renfrewshire	253	3.5	169,590	3.3
North Ayrshire	233	3.2	135,490	2.6
East Ayrshire	177	2.5	119,290	2.3
Scotland	7,205		5,116,900

Question reference: S3W-06708

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average daily prison population has been in each year since 1960.

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

The average dailyprison population for each year since 1960 is given in the following table.

Year	Prison Population	Year	Prison Population
1960	2,821	1984	4,753
1961	2,997	1985	5,273
1962	3,238	1986	5,587
1963	3,504	1987	5,446
1964	3,250	1988	5,229
1965	3,381	1989	4,986
1966	3,858	1990	4,724
1967	4,238	1991	4,839
1968	4,541	1992	5,257
1969	4,834	1993	5,637
1970	5,003	1994	5,585
1971	5,338	1995	5,626
1972	5,220	1996-97	5,993
1973	4,810	1997-98	6,059
1974	4,689	1998-99	6,029
1975	4,951	1999-2000	5,975
1976	4,884	2000-01	5,883
1977	4,871	2001-02	6,186
1978	5,062	2002-03	6,475
1979	4,585	2003-04	6,621
1980	4,860	2004-05	6,779
1981	4,518	2005-06	6,857
1982	4,891	2006-07	7,183
1983	5,052

Question reference: S3W-06408

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what gross domestic product was in (a) 1975, (b) 1985, (c) 1995 and (d) 2005 and what comparative information it has for each other country listed in figure B2 of The Government Economic Strategy.

Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) data for Scotland and the UK,are presented in table 1. GDP data for the other countries listed in figure B2of the Government Economic Strategy (GES) are shown in table 2.

Table 1: GDP²for Scotland and UK,£, Millions, Current Prices

	1975	1985	1995	2005
Scotland	n/a	£25,223 million¹	£55,498 million	£86,324 million
UK	£99,266 million	£320,463 million	£640,416 million	£1086,859 million

Source ONS

Notes: 1. Datafor Scotland in 1985 is Total GDP at Factor cost (£million,current prices), ONS; Rest of the data is total GVA at current basic prices (£million), ONS.

2. GVA is equalto GDP at basic prices.

Table 2: GDP for SelectedCountries, US $, Constant Prices, Constant PPPs, OECD Base Year, Millions

Country	1975	1985	1995	2005
Ireland	$30,847 million	$43,714 million	$69,000 million	$141,251 million
Iceland	$3,585 million	$5,447 million	$6,452 million	$10,079 million
Norway	$71,399 million	$104,969 million	$137,160 million	$183,292 million
Finland	$71,100 million	$94,335 million	$107,007 million	$153,110 million
Denmark	$84,705 million	$110,996 million	$133,654 million	$164,472 million

Source: OECD.

Question reference: S3W-06438

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in (a) Central Scotland parliamentary region, (b) each parliamentary constituency in Central Scotland parliamentary region, (c) Lanarkshire NHS board area and (d) Forth Valley NHS board area will benefit from the proposal to scrap prescription charges, as outlined in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007.

This information isnot held centrally.

The Scottish Governmentis committed to abolishing prescription charges for all in Scotland within the lifetime of this Parliament, and we are currentlyexamining in detail how best to deliver that commitment. Our proposals will benefitthe 50% of the population of Scotland who currently pay for their prescriptions,two thirds of whom are estimated to have a chronic condition.

We will make an announcementto Parliament in due course.

Question reference: S3W-06440

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 28 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many families will benefit from the proposed increase in nursery provision in (a) Central Scotland parliamentary region, (b) each parliamentary constituency in Central Scotland parliamentary region, (c) North Lanarkshire local authority area, (d) South Lanarkshire local authority area and (e) Falkirk local authority area, as outlined in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007.

All eligiblechildren will be entitled to 570 hours of pre-school education from
August 2010. The numbers of children attending pre-school education as ofJanuary 2007 in the areas specified are provided as follows. Information is notheld on the number of families with children in pre-school education.The figures usedare the number of three, four and five-year-old children in pre-schooleducation at January 2007 and are taken from the Pre-school and ChildcareStatistics 2007. See: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/26094517/0.

Number of Children Attending Pre-School Education

Scottish Parliamentary Constituency:
Coatbridge and Chryston	1,490
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	1,400
East Kilbride	1,660
Falkirk East	1,350
Falkirk West	1,570
Airdrie and Shotts	1,560
Hamilton North and Bellshill	1,390
Hamilton South	1,300
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	1,520
Motherwell and Wishaw	1,260
Central Scotland Parliamentary Region	14,510
Local Authority:
Falkirk	2,920
North Lanarkshire	6,620
South Lanarkshire	5,820

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