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: S2W-30049

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 29 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-24528 by Hugh Henry on 11 April 2006, how many individuals were unable to access residential drug rehabilitation places in each year since 2001-02 due to insufficient numbers of beds.

Question reference: S2W-30148

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the population have been in receipt of income support in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.

The following table shows thepercentage of population aged 16 to 59 claiming Income Support by Scottishlocal authority.

Percentage of the PopulationAged 16 to 59 Claiming Income Support, 1999-2006

Local Authority	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	5.6	5.9	6.1	6.4	6.4	6.3	5.9	5.8
Aberdeenshire	3.3	3.5	3.6	3.7	3.6	3.4	3.3	3.2
Angus	4.9	5.2	5.4	5.5	5.6	5.5	5.2	5.1
Argyll and Bute	5.5	5.5	5.6	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.2	5.0
Clackmannanshire	8.2	8.4	8.8	8.6	8.7	8.3	8.0	8.1
Dumfries and Galloway	5.5	5.6	5.8	5.9	5.9	5.8	5.7	5.7
Dundee City	10.1	10.2	10.4	10.6	10.5	10.5	10.0	9.7
East Ayrshire	8.4	8.6	8.8	8.8	8.7	8.8	8.5	8.4
East Dunbartonshire	3.7	3.8	4.0	4.0	3.9	3.8	3.7	3.6
East Lothian	5.9	5.8	5.7	5.8	5.6	5.3	5.1	5.1
East Renfrewshire	4.1	4.2	4.2	4.3	4.3	4.1	3.9	3.8
Edinburgh, City of	6.7	6.7	6.7	6.6	6.5	6.2	6.0	5.9
Eilean Siar	5.0	5.1	5.0	5.1	5.1	5.0	4.7	4.5
Falkirk	6.8	7.1	7.0	7.0	6.9	6.6	6.4	6.2
Fife	6.4	6.4	6.5	6.5	6.6	6.4	6.2	6.2
Glasgow City	16.2	16.5	16.4	16.2	15.5	14.8	14.1	13.7
Highland	5.6	5.8	5.8	6.0	5.9	5.8	5.5	5.5
Inverclyde	11.5	11.6	11.7	11.9	11.5	10.9	10.5	10.3
Midlothian	6.4	6.3	6.4	6.4	6.2	6.1	5.8	5.5
Moray	4.5	4.7	4.8	4.7	4.5	4.3	4.2	4.1
North Ayrshire	9.4	9.6	9.8	10.0	9.7	9.5	8.9	8.8
North Lanarkshire	9.5	9.7	9.9	9.9	9.8	9.3	9.0	8.7
Orkney Islands	3.2	3.2	3.4	3.5	3.5	3.3	3.2	3.2
Perth and Kinross	4.6	4.7	4.9	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.4
Renfrewshire	8.4	8.6	9.0	8.9	8.9	8.4	8.0	7.9
Scottish Borders	4.3	4.5	4.7	4.9	4.8	4.5	4.4	4.4
Shetland Islands	3.3	3.5	3.3	3.4	3.4	3.4	3.4	3.4
South Ayrshire	6.7	6.8	6.9	7.1	7.1	6.9	6.9	6.6
South Lanarkshire	7.9	8.0	8.2	8.2	8.1	7.8	7.3	7.1
Stirling	5.8	5.7	5.7	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.2	5.2
West Dunbartonshire	10.9	11.1	11.2	11.4	11.4	10.8	10.5	10.3
West Lothian	6.9	6.9	6.9	7.0	7.0	6.7	6.5	6.4
Scotland	7.8	8.0	8.1	8.1	8.0	7.7	7.4	7.2

Source: Benefit claimants fromDWP Information Directorate: Work and PensionsLongitudinal Study. Populations from GRO(S) mid year population estimates.

Note: August snapshot for allyears except May 2006.

Question reference: S2W-29155

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much direct funding through business grants or other financial assistance was given to businesses in Scotland under (a) R&D Plus, (b) Research and Development Assistance, (c) Regional Selective Assistance, (d) SMART awards, (e) SPUR support and (f) venture capital investment, broken down by (i) year since 1996 and (ii) local authority area.

The information that my departmentholds is set out in the following tables.

R&D PLUS*

Expenditure by Financial Year

Financial Year	Actual Amount Paid
2003-04	£2,299,842
2004-05	£2,602,963
2005-06	£3,865,570
Total	£8,768,375

Expenditure During Period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2006 BrokenDown by Local Enterprise Company Area

Local Enterprise Area	Actual Amount Paid
SEn Ayrshire	£485,870
SEn Dumfries and Galloway	£950,000
SEn Edinburgh and Lothian	£6,750,281
SEn Forth Valley	£325,008
SEn Lanarkshire	£10,091
SEn Renfrewshire	£186,250
SEn Tayside	£60,875
Total	£8,768,375

Note: *R&D Plus is administeredby Scottish Enterprise and was launched in 2003-04. The information is recordedby Local Enterprise Company (LEC) area. Expenditure figures for individuallocal authority areas are not maintained centrally.

Research and Development Assistance*

Expenditure by Financial Year

Financial Year	Actual Amount Paid
2003-04	£1,381,132
2004-05	£930,023
2005-06	£1,750,146
Total	£4,061,301

Expenditure During Period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2006 BrokenDown by Local Enterprise Company Area

Scottish Enterprise LEC Area	Actual Amount Paid
SEn Ayrshire	£152,894
SEn Borders	£337,497
SEn Dumfries and Galloway	£138,497
SEn Dunbartonshire	£95,632
SEn Edinburgh and Lothian	£268,595
SEn Fife	£251,581
SEn Forth Valley	£197,896
SEn Glasgow	£400,865
SEn Grampian	£231,240
SEn Lanarkshire	£372,177
SEn Renfrewshire	£312,883
SEn Tayside	£207,687
Highlands and Islands LEC Areas
Argyll and The Islands Enterprise	£151,185
Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise	£33,005
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	£425,718
Inverness and Nairn Enterprise	£176,328
Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise	£20,229
Orkney Enterprise	£5,174
Ross and Cromarty Enterprise	£71,545
Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise	£72,425
Shetland Enterprise	£80,435
Western Isles Enterprise	£57,813
Total	£4,061,301

Note: *The figures quoted arefor Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s R&D Scheme for SMEs and the R&D componentof Scottish Enterprise’s equivalent Small Company Innovation Support Scheme. Theinformation is recorded by local enterprise company area. Expenditure figures forindividual local authority areas are not maintained centrally.

Regional Selective Assistance,SMART, SPUR and SPUR^PLUS*

Actual Expenditure by FinancialYear

Financial Year	Regional Selective Assistance	SMART	SPUR	SPUR^PLUS
1996-97	£69,819,389	£1,236,901	£828,115	£32,002
1997-98	£74,262,000	£1,088,108	£1,405,225	£303,553
1998-99	£73,388,795	£1,105,874	£1,876,711	£630,503
1999-2000	£51,966,770	£1,595,409	£1,724,540	£1,246,901
2000-01	£70,054,355	£1,390,492	£582,599	£1,251,306
2001-02	£44,204,850	£1,771,989	£275,845	£2,134,638
2002-03	£36,381,856	£2,532,689	£308,111	£3,638,633
2003-04	£41,992,800	£2,293,843	£624,160	£3,165,202
2004-05	£45,482,300	£2,105,530	£1,312,949	£3,933,627
2005-06	£35,995,000	£2,126,104	£2,587,653	£2,455,196
Total	£543,548,115	£17,246,939	£11,525,908	£18,791,561

Actual Expenditure During Period1 April 1996 to 31 March 2006 Broken Down by Local Authority Area

Council Area	Regional Selective Assistance	SMART	SPUR	SPUR^PLUS
Aberdeen City	0	£2,463,363	£1,242,091	£716,051
Aberdeenshire	0	£264,983	£172,599	0
Angus	£3,805,000	£316,135	£226,739	0
Argyll and Bute	£114,000	£121,834	0	0
Borders	£2,402,200	£253,615	0	0
Clackmannanshire	£3,189,600	£75,000	0	£437,079
Dumfries and Galloway	£4,764,000	£45,000	£33,682	0
Dundee City	£12,656,889	£441,481	£434,604	£2,777,117
East Ayrshire	£11,679,200	£91,667	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	£11,328,000	£161,486	£11,061	0
East Lothian	0	£151,964	£262,755	£221,980
East Renfrewshire	£2,210,000	0	0	£317,602
City of Edinburgh	£3,155,000	£3,384,622	£2,171,607	£4,484,429
Falkirk	£4,783,100	£399,756	£373,210	0
Fife	£67,970,100	£918,489	£484,836	£425,000
Glasgow City	£67,423,803	£2,777,711	£2,152,216	£1,982,586
Highland	£1,100,000	£323,994	£101,992	0
Inverclyde	£16,369,000	£45,000	0	0
Midlothian	0	£1,161,145	£623,186	£2,244,845
North Ayrshire	£41,240,750	£79,171	£54,805	0
North Lanarkshire	£60,953,093	£533,180	£511,635	£1,658,873
Orkney Islands	0	£45,000	0	0
Perth and Kinross	£275,000	£256,821	£219,958	£393,164
Renfrewshire	£45,571,000	£185,779	£274,061	£555,820
South Ayrshire	£9,091,000	£284,290	£196,002	£338,300
South Lanarkshire	£66,617,724	£377,960	£144,060	£567,947
Stirling	£1,912,000	£485,514	£420,409	0
West Dunbartonshire	£8,380,000	£548,684	0	0
Western Isles	0	£61,626	0	0
West Lothian	£96,557,656	£991,668	£1,414,400	£1,670,770
Total	£543,548,115	£17,246,938	£11,525,908	£18,791,563

Note: *The above figures areactuals. The Scottish Executive moved to accruals accounting in 2000-01. Therefore,the figures above may differ from other published figures. Accruals figures forindividual Council Areas are not held.

Venture Capital Investment*

Expenditure by Financial Year

Financial Year	Actual Amount Invested
1996-97	£5,486,000
1997-98	£5,799,000
1998-99	£6,559,000
1999-2000	£8,983,000
2000-01	£18,533,000
2001-02	£10,906,000
2002-03	£4,410,000
2003-04	£10,322,000
2004-05	£12,325,000
2005-06	£23,105,000
Total	£106,428,000

Note: *The above figures aretaken from the Scottish Enterprise published accounts for the years in questionand relate to investments undertaken on commercial terms. Information on expenditurewithin individual local authority or local enterprise company areas is notmaintained centrally.

Question reference: S2W-29784

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many eligible applicants it estimates will have to wait until after the winter for (a) the provision of free central heating and insulation under its central heating programme and (b) grants to have their homes insulated under the Warm Deal scheme, broken down by local authority area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Information is not kept in theform requested covering local authority area but by main postcode area.

The central heating and WarmDeal Programmes are demand-led. The number of people waiting and the length of timeeach individual has to wait are dependent on the number of eligible applicants andthe target number of installations in any one year. The average waiting time iscurrently around six months. Where householders require gas connections, electricalupgrades, building warrants etc it may, in some circumstances, take longer for themto receive the measures.

The target number of centralheating and warm deal installations in 2006-07 is 12,000 and 12,800 respectively.However, to address the continuing high demandwe are allocating an additional £5 million, between now and the end of this financialyear, to help up to 5,000 more householders benefit from these successfulprogrammes.

Question reference: S2W-29841

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the number of children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in the last six months on offence grounds has increased compared with the corresponding six months of 2005.

Question reference: S2W-29840

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what requests it has received from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for additional funding to support front-line services between February and November 2006.

Question reference: S2W-29851

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional financial resources it plans to allocate to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in each of the next three years to address the rising number of referrals on both offence and non-offence grounds.

The SCRA’s overall annual grant-in-aid has increased by over£10 million since 2001 to over £24 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08. It is not possibleto provide details of grant-in-aid funding beyond 2007-08 until the outcomes of the next Spending Review are known.

Consideration is currently beinggiven to three proposals for additional funding and the SCRA will be informed of the outcome in due course. We monitor resourcing requirements, in close liaisonwith the SCRA management, in order to optimise the administration’s effectiveness.

Question reference: S2W-29785

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times have been for the (i) assessment of eligible applications and (ii) awarding of grants under the Warm Deal scheme in each year since its introduction, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-29845

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in respect of a request from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for £20 million of additional funding to support front-line services.

Question reference: S2W-29847

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when it estimates that the number of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on non-offence grounds will peak.