- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, what plans it has to introduce a convention to prevent Special Branch carrying out covert surveillance operations against MSPs and to extend their protection and freedom in a similar way to that provided to MPs by the Wilson Doctrine.
Answer
There are no plans to introducea convention of this sort.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive , further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, how many people who were placed under covert surveillance involving interception of communications following authority from Scottish Ministers, but were not subsequently prosecuted, have made a complaint under Section 65 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Answer
This is a matter for the InvestigatoryPowers Tribunal. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, when Scottish Ministers last discussed the Wilson Doctrine with the Prime Minister.
Answer
I have nothing to add to my answerto question S2W-25267. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at
www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, how many covert surveillance operations involving the interception of MSPs' communications it has authorised since 1999 and, of these, what percentage resulted in any formal, non-covert action by police.
Answer
Details of the number of interceptionwarrants issued by the Scottish ministers are contained in the annual reports of the Interception ofCommunications Commissioner. The most recentreport – Bib. number 37809, document number SE/2005/203 – was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 3 November 2005.
It is not in the public interestto give details relating to interception warrants beyond the figures reported bythe commissioner. To do so could potentially damage the effectiveness of what is an important part of our ability to tackle seriousand organised crime.
The use of Interception as aninvestigative technique is governed by strict safeguards within the Regulation ofInvestigatory Powers Act 2000. The commissioner has stated in successive annualreports Scottish ministers take considerable care to satisfy themselves that warrantsare necessary and proportionate for the authorised purposes – preventing and detectingserious crime.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recent announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry of funding for the rural post office network to 2008, whether the Executive anticipates that it will have any powers to fund Scottish post offices after 2008.
Answer
The Executive already hassome, limited, powers to support individual post office businesses. Anamendment to the Scotland Act makes an exception to the reserved status ofpostal services for “financial assistance for the provision of services (otherthan postal services and services relating to money or postal orders) to beprovided from public post offices.” Communities Scotland has used thisprovision to enhance Government assistance to post offices through a £2 millioncapital grants scheme and recently-announced business improvement trainingopportunities for post offices in deprived areas. Any extension of thesepowers, through primary legislation or an order under the Scotland Act, wouldrequire the approval of both the Scottish and the UK Parliament.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources it has put in place to support allied health professionals to provide adequate levels of service to children with autistic spectrum disorder, in light of the significant increase in their number.
Answer
The Scottish Executive EducationDepartment provided funding of £3 million per year for the last two years to NHSboards to meet their obligations under the Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Act 2004. These resources are being used in a variety of ways, includingthe recruitment of speech and language therapists and other professionals to workwith autistic children in schools.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were waiting for a first appointment at a sleep centre in each year since 1999, broken down by sleep centre.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities recorded an improvement of more than 15% in only two of the 77 statutory performance indicators in each year since 2001.
Answer
Statutory PerformanceIndicators (SPI) information is a matter for Audit Scotland. Theinformation requested is not held centrally. Information on SPIs can be foundon the Audit Scotland website at
www.audit-scotland.gov.uk.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its advertising budget was, and how many advertising campaigns it ran, in each year since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the questionS1W-26485, answered on 3 July 2002, providing information on advertising spend by the ScottishOffice-Scottish Executive Departments from 1991-92 to 2001-02.
For information on the Scottish Executive’s advertising spend for 2002-03 please see answer to questionS2W-2481. For information on advertising spend for 2003-04 please see the answer to question S2W-15204.
Advertising spend for 2004-2005is published on the Scottish Executive Marketing Unit website. Please see attachedlink
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/media/17963/adspend05.Scottish Executive advertisingspend for 2005-2006 is detailed in the following table. Please note these figuresare un-reconciled. Definitive figures will be published in July 06:
| Campaign | Total |
| Alcohol | £664,223.89 |
| ASB | £251,372.67 |
| Career Opps in NHS Scotland | £976,107.92 |
| Childrens Hearings | £99,643.02 |
| Domestic Abuse | £295,950.03 |
| Drug Misuse | £967,016.93 |
| Environment | £368,951.96 |
| Fire Domestic | £287,463.05 |
| Flu | £365,333.28 |
| Healthy Living | £743,600.76 |
| Mental Health | £117,683.10 |
| Organ Donation | £190,570.49 |
| Race | £611,471.60 |
| Road Safety | £605,732.53 |
| Smoking | £1,056,867.36 |
| Teacher Recruitment | £618,668.61 |
| Violence Against PS Workers | £163,263.66 |
| Volunteering | £164,003.13 |
| Miscellaneous | £791,458.64 |
| Total | £9,339,382.63 |
The miscellaneous figure is advertisingexpenditure out with specific campaigns. Thisincludes the central purchase of a block of outdoor advertising which is used throughoutthe year by the campaigns listed.
All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is in place to support pupils with autistic spectrum disorder once they leave the educational system.
Answer
The Education (AdditionalSupport for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places new duties on educationauthorities and appropriate agencies, including Careers Scotland, furthereducation colleges and higher education institutions, to ensure early planning,preparation and the effective exchange of information to support children andyoung people with additional support needs to make a smooth and successfultransition to post-school life – whether that is to education, training orwork.
As autonomous bodies, Scotland’scolleges and universities are responsible for ensuring their provision isaccessible and inclusive to students with disabilities and other additionalsupport needs. Both sectors have been successful in achieving this, asevidenced by the year on year increase in participation by students withdisabilities.
Colleges and universitiescan draw on various support to help them improve their provision. Guidance toPE Colleges on the subject was published in January 2005 when PartnershipMatter’s set out the roles and responsibilities of the various bodies involvedin providing support to students, and other tools from the Scottish Further andHigher Education Funding Council.
