- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the creation of a south of Scotland region eligible for Objective 1, statistical effect or transitional funding was discussed by the Deputy First Minister and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy at their recent meeting.
Answer
In order for the south of Scotland region to be eligible for the Commission’s proposed Convergence funding, it would need to be reclassified as a NUTS II region. The issue of reclassification was raised by the Executive with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of National Statistics, but it was made clear that reviews of NUTS boundaries were the overall responsibility of Eurostat. The latter has stated that it will not authorise any changes to existing NUTS boundaries until the beginning of 2008 – after the conclusion of the current Structural Funds negotiations. At present, under the Commission’s proposals, the south of Scotland would be eligible for Competitiveness Objective funding.
The contribution that Structural Funds have made to Scotland in the past, including the south of Scotland, was discussed with Commissioner Hubner at the recent meeting. However, in light of the Executive’s earlier inquiries, the issue of the south of Scotland’s eligibility for Objective 1 status was not raised.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-15791 and S2W-16581 by Cathy Jamieson on 10 and 31 May 2005, whether it will instigate a review or audit of figures produced by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in light of any discrepancy in the figures produced by the Inspectorate and directly by Grampian Police on numbers of racist incidents in 2003-04 and 2004.
Answer
We have investigated the figures, which were provided to SPICe and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary by Grampian Police. Grampian police have acknowledged that the data they provided to HM Inspectorate for 2003-04 was inaccurate - the correct number of racist incidents reported for that year was in fact 305. The figure of 472 held by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre relates to incidents reported in 2004-05.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 10 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the letter of 16 May 2005 to me from the Minister for Communities which states inter alia "You queried the applicability of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to children in Dungavel. The Act does not apply to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre as immigration is the responsibility of the Home Office", whether Chapter 3 of the Act and, in particular, Section 52, relating to children requiring compulsory measures of supervision and referrals under the Act to the Principal Reporter to the Children's Panel, do not apply to those children and, if so, when this interpretation was adopted.
Answer
In his letter of 16 May the Minister for Communities said that the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 did not apply to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre as immigration is the responsibility of the Home Office. The terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 do apply to the children of asylum seekers in Scotland, wherever they are located, except where disapplied by UK legislation.
The Minister for Communities wrote to you again on the 6 June to clarify his original letter.
The welfare of persons detained in Dungavel is a matter for the Home Office, and it is for them to respond to questions about the operation of the Immigration Removal Centre.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16363 by Mr Andy Kerr on 18 May 2005, what the Operational Research Consultancy (ORCON) standards have been for the Scottish Ambulance Service in each year since 2002, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Between August 2002 and April2004, the ORCON standards were phased out across mainland Scotland as the Scottish Ambulance Service adopted the priority-based dispatch system, which categorisescalls based on the risk to the patient. The targets which are used to measure theambulance service’s performance under the new system are based partly (in relationto response times to non-life threatening calls) on the population density of eachNHS board area. These were set out in the reply to the answer to question S2W-16363.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament'swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/wa.search.ORCON standards are now usedonly to measure performance of the ambulance service in the areas of NHS WesternIsles, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the Deputy First Minister's recent discussions with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, it supports a European Union budget that maintains regional funding for the south of Scotland.
Answer
To the extent that an increasedUnited Kingdom contribution to the Commission budget could result ina reduction in the Scottish Assigned Budget, the Scottish Executive supports a budgetdiscipline approach to the negotiations on the future of EU budget post-2006. TheUK Treasury has estimated that the Commission’s proposed budget of 1.24% of EU GNIwould cost the United Kingdom around Euro 25 billion between 2007 and 2013.
Notwithstanding the outcome of the negotiations on the EU budget, however, the Scottish Executive is committedto a continuing regional development policy in Scotland, including the South ofScotland.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 1 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11751 by Rhona Brankin on 9 November 2004, how many cases of assault have been reported to the Care Commission and how many complaints the commission has received since April 2004, broken down by Care Commission region.
Answer
In respect of assaults, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11751 on 9 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.The total number of complaints in the period April 2004 to March 2005, by Care Commission regional office, was as follows:
| Care Commission Region | April 2004 to March 2005 |
| Central West | 429 |
| Central East | 297 |
| North | 158 |
| South West | 294 |
| South East | 260 |
| Total | 1,438 |
Further information on complaints can be obtained from the Care Commission.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 31 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1579 by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005, how the figure of 125 recorded incidents of racism in 2003-04 was calculated when figures produced by Grampian Police for 2004, and available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, show that there were 472 recorded incidents of racism.
Answer
The figure of 125 racist incidents in Grampian in 2003-04 was provided to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary by Grampian Police. The Scottish Executive is not responsible for information provided to Parliament’s Reference Centre by third parties.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 26 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how reports of snagging issues in Holyrood are logged and prioritised.
Answer
Snagging items were initially identified by the Design Team for Trade Contractors to remedy. Since Parliament staff moved into the building, any emergent defects are logged with the Facilities Management (FM) Help Desk, categorised by FM and the Holyrood Project Team and instructed appropriately for action.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 26 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consider appointing a specialist team or official to manage and resolve outstanding snagging issues around Holyrood.
Answer
It is the responsibility of the appointed Design Team and Construction Managers to manage and resolve outstanding snagging issues. In view of the good progress being made, it is not envisaged that any separate additional appointments will be necessary.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 May 2005
To ask the Presiding Officer whether additional security personnel will be required to ensure that there is sufficient cover available to enable staff to take lunch between 12.00 noon and 2.00 pm each day.
Answer
In order to ensure that a safe and secure environment is always maintained throughout the Parliament, it is not possible to allow all staff access to a lunch break between 12 noon and 2.00pm each day. It is particularly difficult on business days when more posts have to be covered and when business continues beyond 12 noon which means many more staff must have their break scheduled into a shorter period. In order to accommodate all staff, lunch breaks start at 11.30am with the final breaks at 1.30pm so that all have access to the restaurant which serves lunch until 2.30pm.
The staff who are scheduled for a one hour lunch break from 11.30am are normally those employed on shift work contracts and they receive a further one hour break before the end of their 10 hour working day. Between eight and 12 staff are scheduled for lunch at 11.30am each day and since breaks are organised on a rota basis the same staff are not affected every day. If all security personnel were to have lunch between 12 noon and 2.00pm then additional staff would be needed but they would be surplus to requirements outwith that two hour period.
