Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-02104

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has to review all existing communications interception warrants authorised by Scottish ministers in the last 12 months.

When authorising the interceptionof communications, Scottish ministers must first satisfy themselves that interceptionis both necessary and proportionate for the prevention or detection of serious crime.

I have no plans to review allinterception warrants signed in the last 12 months.

Independent statutory oversightof the powers and duties conferred on the Scottish ministers by the sections of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which govern the authorisation ofinterception of communications is provided by the Interception of CommunicationsCommissioner, currently Sir Paul Kennedy.

The commissioner’s latest annualreport, for 2005-06, was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 19 February 2007 (documentnumber SE/2007/17).

Question reference: S3W-02601

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering allowing local authorities to designate socially-rented houses in the public sector as key workers’ houses.

The ScottishGovernment is committed to improving housing supply and helping to meet housingneed regardless of occupation. We have no plans to allow local authorities todesignate particular properties in their areas for rent solely to those inparticular occupations. However, under existing legislation local authoritiesand Registered Social Landlords already have discretion to reflect employmentstatus in their allocation policies if desired.

Question reference: S3W-02300

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered police informants were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of criminal offences during the times they were informants in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-02301

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to police informants in respect of information involving political parties each year since 1997, broken down by constabulary.

Question reference: S3W-02298

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much in total has been paid to police informants in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-02299

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to police informants in each year since 2000, broken down by police force.

Question reference: S3W-02302

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions have resulted from information passed to police forces by paid informants, expressed as a percentage of the total number of convictions in each year since 1997.

Question reference: S3W-02010

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school classes had 25 or more pupils in each of the last four years, broken down by local authority area.

The number ofprimary school classes with 25 or more pupils is shown in the following table.Information for secondary schools is not collected.

Local Authority	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	282	257	258	229
Aberdeenshire	359	370	340	322
Angus	199	197	200	189
Argyll and Bute	102	98	86	75
Clackmannanshire	111	99	89	88
Dumfries and Galloway	216	207	180	161
Dundee City	252	254	251	259
East Ayrshire	218	202	198	194
East Dunbartonshire	232	226	207	198
East Lothian	188	192	168	151
East Renfrewshire	240	231	223	210
Edinburgh, City of	571	573	582	561
Eilean Siar	7	5	5	4
Falkirk	312	299	286	258
Fife	562	571	539	550
Glasgow City	797	777	755	792
Highland	263	239	252	249
Inverclyde	122	133	136	123
Midlothian	129	132	126	119
Moray	153	148	149	124
North Ayrshire	275	279	256	245
North Lanarkshire	574	578	549	531
Orkney Islands	18	15	14	14
Perth and Kinross	203	191	194	183
Renfrewshire	346	327	320	303
Scottish Borders	138	139	125	131
Shetland Islands	9	4	5	4
South Ayrshire	201	194	181	177
South Lanarkshire	535	574	548	536
Stirling	140	139	146	136
West Dunbartonshire	164	158	143	124
West Lothian	329	346	340	344

Total Number of Classes

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	559	547	535	520
Aberdeenshire	900	885	872	870
Angus	385	378	374	370
Argyll and Bute	348	348	349	331
Clackmannanshire	164	160	162	161
Dumfries and Galloway	515	507	506	491
Dundee City	417	399	390	383
East Ayrshire	405	402	389	385
East Dunbartonshire	385	373	363	356
East Lothian	328	309	312	319
East Renfrewshire	320	332	329	325
Edinburgh City	1,092	1,051	1,034	1,018
Eilean Siar	155	155	156	141
Falkirk	470	463	470	459
Fife	1,208	1,172	1,169	1,136
Glasgow City	1,738	1,691	1,651	1,582
Highland	858	840	839	834
Inverclyde	283	264	259	252
Midlothian	287	279	279	275
Moray	341	320	312	309
North Ayrshire	461	447	439	429
North Lanarkshire	1,162	1,157	1,161	1,145
Orkney Islands	87	90	90	89
Perth and Kinross	453	458	455	448
Renfrewshire	562	552	551	549
Scottish Borders	396	385	383	380
Shetland Islands	117	120	113	116
South Ayrshire	355	350	343	337
South Lanarkshire	1,105	1,039	1,026	1,000
Stirling	298	294	292	293
West Dunbartonshire	320	309	306	297
West Lothian	603	591	591	591

Question reference: S3W-02034

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all overseas engagements carried out by ministers in each year since 2002 and the costs of each visit.

Question reference: S3W-02002

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to students in part-time education at further education colleges in each year since 1999.

Various different types of funding are available to students in part-time education studying at advanced and non-advanced level at further education colleges. Where available the amounts of funding are given as follows (Table 1). Figures are rounded.

Table 1: Funding for Loans, Disabled Students Allowance (DSA), Fee Waiver and Childcare (£000s)

Session	Advanced level - Loans	Advanced level - DSA	Advanced level - Fee Waiver	Non-advanced level - Fee Waiver	Non-advanced level - Childcare	Total funding (advanced and non-advanced)
2000-01	69				494	563
2001-02	90	24	816	7,443	731	9,104
2002-03	92	82	860	7,922	958	9,914
2003-04	90	150	1,069	8,162	971	10,441
2004-05	107	139	978	8,275	967	10,466
2005-06	100	172	1,034	10,546	1,061	12,913

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland and Scottish Funding Council.

Information on the amount of student support allocated through Bursary funding and Hardship funding specifically for part-time students is not held centrally.

A number of part-time students at further education colleges who are not eligible for other types of support qualify for funding through the Individual Learning Account Scotland scheme (ILA Scotland), which has been in operation since end 2004. The amount of ILA Scotland funding allocated is given as follows (Table 2).

Table 2: Funding from ILA Scotland (£000s)

Year	Funding Allocated
2005-06	1, 484
2006-07	2,164

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.