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-02535

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1578 by Ms Margaret Curran on 18 August 2003, whether discussions between it, the two local authorities, Communities Scotland and the enterprise network have now been completed.

Question reference: S2W-02528

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1922 by Peter Peacock on 5 September 2003, what provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 are disapplied by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Question reference: S2W-02529

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1922 by Peter Peacock on 5 September 2003, under what circumstances provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 are disapplied.

Question reference: S2W-02265

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any autonomous liberalisation measures to facilitate Her Majesty's Government negotiations on further liberalisation under the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

The regulation of internationaltrade is a reserved matter. However, the Scottish Executive continues to be in regular contactwith the Department of Trade and Industry and other government departments on tradeissues, including the General Agreement on Trade in Services negotiations, to ensurethat Scottish interests are fully taken account of.

The Scottish Executive has not undertaken any autonomous liberalisation measures to facilitateHer Majesty’s Government negotiations on further liberalisation under the GeneralAgreement on Trade in Services.

Question reference: S2W-02267

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the current round of negotiations on environmental services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services will have on public services if the United States of America's proposal to liberalise sewage, refuse, sanitation and similar services and, in particular, the proposed extension of environmental services in that proposal to include construction, engineering, consulting, advertising, and business and professional services as environmental services, is accepted.

The regulation of internationaltrade is a reserved matter. However, the Scottish Executive continues to be in regular contactwith the Department of Trade and Industry and other government departments on tradeissues, including the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations,to ensure that Scottish interests are fully taken account of.

The purpose of the GATS negotiationsis to obtain further binding non-discriminatory market access for service suppliersin those sectors and to such extent that governments see benefit from internationalcompetition. Nothing in the GATS can force a country to privatise. World TradeOrganization members choose in which sectors and to what extent they want to makecommitments. Public services are in any event excluded from the scope of GATS.

Question reference: S2W-01966

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many respite care places are available for adults with learning difficulties in each local authority area.

The following table shows thenumber of registered residential care respite places in residential care homes foradults with learning disabilities; in the local authority, private andvoluntary sectors. (The figures do not include places within the new SupportingPeople arrangements. Nor is there information available on the number of placeswithin private nursing homes). Homes which do not register respite places may stillaccept short-stay or respite residents.

Number of Residential Care HomeRespite Places, by Local Authority Area, 2002

Local Authority Area	Residential Home Respite Places
Aberdeen City	16
Aberdeenshire	20
Angus	4
Argyll and Bute	5
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries and Galloway	8
Dundee City	5
East Ayrshire	15
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian	0
East Renfrewshire	1
Edinburgh, City of	36
Eileanan Siar	3
Falkirk	3
Fife	12
Glasgow, City of	52
Highland	11
Inverclyde	13
Midlothian	0
Moray	5
North Ayrshire	9
North Lanarkshire	33
Orkney Islands	3
Perthshire and Kinross	4
Renfrewshire	11
Scottish Borders	5
Shetland Islands	5
South Ayrshire	7
South Lanarkshire	3
Stirling	5
West Dunbartonshire	3
West Lothian	3
Scotland	302

Source: Scottish Executive R1 Return.

Question reference: S2W-01963

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 25 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what respite care is available for adults with learning difficulties.

Question reference: S2W-02259

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what effect the Sorbonne Agreement of 25 May 1998 has had on tertiary education and the international mobility of Scottish students.

The Sorbonne Agreement, andits successor the Bologna Declaration, aim to strengthen collaboration betweenhigher education institutions across Europe and to enhance levels of mobility for staff andstudents by 2010. It is an inter-governmental process, dependent on theco-operation of institutions and other stakeholders in taking forward thenecessary detail behind the principles of the Declaration. The processrecognises the need for diversity and flexibility, and the autonomy ofindividual higher education institutions. A summary of progress madeby the Scottish higher education sector towards implementing the Bologna Declarationcan be found in the UK National Report at http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/en/national_reports/index.htmThis report has been produced for a ministerial conference taking place inBerlin on the Bologna process, which the Deputy Minister for Enterprise andLifelong Learning, Lewis Macdonald, will attend to represent Scottish interests.

Question reference: S2W-02260

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken towards harmonisation to create a European area of education, as outlined in the Sorbonne Agreement of 25 May 1998.

Question reference: S2W-02261

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how the autonomy of universities will be protected in any movement towards harmonisation, as outlined in the Sorbonne Agreement of 25 May 1998.