- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers the role of park-and-ride facilities to be.
Answer
The role of park-and-ride facilities is to permit people to complete part of a journeyby public transport. They encourage modal shift away from car usage, thus reducingemissions from transport, and congestion on urban road networks.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many railway stations are designated as park-and-ride sites and where these stations are located.
Answer
Two hundred andtwenty Scottish stations have parking facilities which allow passengers topark-and-ride. The car parks are managed, maintained and operated by various partiesincluding First ScotRail, Network Rail, local authorities, Regional Transport Partnershipsand commercial car park operators. One hundred and fifty-three are under the directcontrol of the franchisee, First ScotRail.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of whether agencies operating park-and-ride sites actively monitor how heavily these sites are used.
Answer
First ScotRail, aspart of its franchise obligations, has to carry out annual car park counts, includingblue badge holder usage of railway car parks. These surveys are reported to TransportScotland.
Bus park-and-rideprojects typically have been delivered through local authorities, who thereforeare responsible for any monitoring arrangements.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure is estimated to be on the (a) Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine, (b) Waverley and (c) Airdrie to Bathgate rail lines.
Answer
(a) Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine
The cost for the constructionof the project is currently estimated to be up to £85 million.
(b) Waverley
Transport Scotland is continuing a due-diligence review of the Borders railwayas it prepares to take on the role of Authorised Undertaker for the railway, a rolethat it is assuming at the behest of the previous Administration. This exercise,amongst other things, shall assess what the total expenditure is estimated to be.Therefore, until this exercise is complete, it is not prudent to speculate whatthe final outturn cost of the project is likely to be.
(c) Airdrie to Bathgate Rail Lines
The total expenditureon Airdrie to Bathgate is estimated at £299.7 million in Q1 2006 prices.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what its block grant has been in each year since devolution and what proportion of total known public expenditure in Scotland this represents.
Answer
HM Treasurypublish an annual statistics publication called Public Expenditure StatisticalAnalyses (PESA) which sets out a range of statistical information, includingthe total identifiable public expenditure for each region/country within the United Kingdom (table 9.3). The latest version of this document waspublished in April 2007 and provides data up to and including 2006-07
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/E/B/pesa07_complete.pdf.The following tableshows the total identifiable expenditure in Scotland (taken from PESA 2007), the total Scottish block and the percentage of the total that the Scottish Block represents, for each year between 1999-2000and 2005-06.
| £ Million | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| Total Scottish Identifiable Public Expenditure | 27,274 | 28,777 | 31,770 | 33,500 | 36,817 | 38,486 | 41,761 | 44,050 |
| Total Scottish Budget | 17,433 | 18,554 | 19,893 | 21,479 | 23,644 | 25,520 | 27,390 | 29,748 |
| Total Scottish Budget as % of Total Identifiable Expenditure | 63.9% | 64.5% | 62.6% | 64.1% | 64.2% | 66.3% | 65.6% | 67.5% |
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 21 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has invested in affordable housing in each year since 1999.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
The information requestedis given in the following table in respect of the housing investment programme managedby Communities Scotland and its predecessor.
| Year | Affordable Housing Investment Programme (£ Million) |
| 1999-2000 | 209.522 |
| 2000-01 | 215.824 |
| 2001-02 | 225.481 |
| 2002-03 | 219.616 |
| 2003-04 | 257.001 |
| 2004-05 | 295.638 |
| 2005-06 | 438.637 |
| 2006-07 | 544.006 |
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints regarding water quality have been received in each year since 1990, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Executivedoes not have a record of the number of complaints regarding water quality thatit (or its predecessor) has received in each year since 1990. However, the DrinkingWater Quality Regulator for Scotland recently reported that Scottish Water reporteda total of 25,299 complaints during 2006.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 18 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish Water’s net debt has been in each year since its creation.
Answer
Figures for ScottishWater’s net debt for each year may be found in its Annual Accounts. These are availablein the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under the following reference numbers:
| Year | Bib. number |
| 2002-03 | 28754 |
| 2003-04 | 33541 |
| 2004-05 | 36848 |
| 2005-06 | 39906 |
| 2006-07 | 43566 |
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 18 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Scottish Water has paid in bonuses to its directors since its creation.
Answer
This information iscontained in Scottish Water’s Annual Accounts which are laid in Parliament everyyear and published. These are available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre under the following reference numbers:
| Year | Bib. number |
| 2002-03 | 28754 |
| 2003-04 | 33541 |
| 2004-05 | 36848 |
| 2005-06 | 39906 |
| 2006-07 | 43566 |
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many medical students have graduated from Scotland’s universities in each year since 1997.
Answer
The following tableshows how many students have graduated in clinical medicine from Scotland’s universities each year since 1997. The numbers includethose students undertaking first degrees and post graduate qualifications.
| Year | Number of Students |
| 1997-98 | 890 |
| 1998-99 | 945 |
| 1999-2000 | 910 |
| 2000-01 | 865 |
| 2001-02 | 995 |
| 2002-03 | 1,010 |
| 2003-04 | 1,005 |
| 2004-05 | 1,105 |
| 2005-06 | 960 |
Note: Students fromSt. Andrews University are not included as they typically complete their training at Manchester University. The figures include graduates who studiedclinical medicine in conjunction with other subjects.
