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-38447

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are required or recommended to keep a permanent written minute of (a) board, (b) committee and (c) sub-committee meetings containing details of (i) attendees, (ii) duration and (iii) matters discussed

Schedule 7 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 sets out the provisions relating to meetings and proceedings of local authorities. Under the provisions of this Schedule, local authorities are required, for example, to record the names of members present at a meeting of a council and also to draw up minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of a council. Section 50C of the Act further states that minutes of meetings shall be open to public inspection for a period of six years from the date of the meeting.

Question reference: S3W-38317

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were claiming unemployment-related benefits in Dundee at the latest date for which information is available, broken down by 2003 Census Area Statistics ward

The claimant count is a measure of those claiming unemployment related benefits in Scotland. Table 1 gives the claimant count for Dundee City, broken down by 2003 Census Area Statistics ward.

Table 1: Claimant Count in Each Dundee City Council Ward, November 2010

Area	Total Claimants
Dundee City Council	4,858
Ardler	147
Balgay	110
Balgillo	81
Balgowan	198
Barnhill	59
Baxter Park	169
Bowbridge	207
Brackens	163
Broughty Ferry	61
Camperdown	232
Claverhouse	137
Craigiebank	101
Douglas	264
East Port	243
Fairmuir	165
Hilltown	240
Law	225
Lochee East	168
Lochee West	222
Logie	153
Longhaugh	310
Ninewells	168
Pitkerro	298
Riverside	50
Stobswell	262
Strathmartine	112
Tay Bridges	163
West Ferry	30
Whitfield	160

Source: Office for National Statistics.

Note: 2003 CAS Wards.

Question reference: S3W-38171

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 20 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Affordable Housing Investment Programme has allocated in the Dundee City Council area in each year since 2006-07, also expressed in real terms.

Most of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) is used to provide grants to registered social landlords (RSLs) to build new homes for rent and low-cost home ownership, but also includes grants and assistance to councils, individuals and private companies.

Dundee City Local Authority Area, AHIP Spend

Year	Actual Spend (£m)	Actual Spend Expressed in Real Terms (£m)
2006-07	12.975	13.951
2007-08	17.606	18.381
2008-09	8.467	8.585
2009-10	12.337	12.337
2010-11	6.128*	6.128*

Note: *Estimate.

All figures based on official published statistics.

Gross domestic product deflators have been used to express the actual spend in real terms from data provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Question reference: S3W-38172

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 reported to the procurator fiscal in (a) Dundee and (b) Tayside in each year since 2008-09 have resulted in (a) court proceedings and (b) a successful prosecution, also broken down by section of the Act.

The number of charges reported to the procurator fiscal in 2009-10 is provided in the answer to question S3W-38173 on 16 December 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The available information on court proceedings and convictions is given in the following table.

Persons proceeded against and convicted in Scottish Courts under the Emergency Workers (Scotland)Act 2005¹ in Dundee City and Tayside² , 2008-09³

Local Authority	Proceeded Against	Convicted
Dundee City
Section 1(1)	3	3
Section 2(1)	1	1
Section 5(1)	2	2
Total Dundee City	6	6
Tayside
Section 1(1)	5	5
Section 2(1)	2	2
Section 5(1)	9	9
Total Tayside	16	16

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Service.

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Based on an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area.

3. The reference year is the date that the person''s case was disposed of.

Data extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) database and the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database are not entirely consistent. The COPFS data are charge-based, while the Scottish Government data are persons-based, and while the COPFS data are based on the date that the case was reported to COPFS, the reference year in the Scottish Government data is the date that the person''s case was disposed of. In addition, the COPFS data count charges reported to procurator fiscal offices in Dundee and Tayside, while the Scottish Government data use an approximation of persons proceeded against in courts within Dundee and Tayside local authorities.

Information for 2009-10 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2009-10 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 25 January 2011.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming.

Question reference: S3W-38094

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37579 by John Swinney on 25 November 2010, how many women are employed by each local authority, expressed as (a) full-time equivalents and (b) a percentage of full-time equivalents.

Question reference: S3W-38175

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many anti-obesity drugs were prescribed in NHS Tayside in (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10, and what the annual cost was.

The following table shows the number of items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors and the gross ingredient cost for drugs indicated in the treatment of obesity in NHS Tayside for the financial years ended 31 March 2009 and 2010. The data exclude the direct supply of medicines to patients from hospitals and hospital-based clinics.

Financial Year	Number of Dispensed Items	Gross Ingredient Cost (£)
2008-09	5,659	197,942
2009-10	6,902	232,987

Notes:

The data are based on British National Formulary section 4.5.

Gross ingredient cost is the cost of an item before any discounts are applied. It excludes adjustments and broken bulk fees.

The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland. Further information on prescribing can be found at www.isdscotland.org/prescribing.

Question reference: S3W-38174

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 16 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many biomedical bursaries of £2,000 have been awarded to students to encourage them to work in the NHS after graduation, in each year since 2007-08, also broken down by institution.

The following table shows the number of students awarded the Biomedical Science Bursary to date, broken down by Institution and session. The bursary is payable to students on a placement year. Student numbers in this table have been rounded up or down to the nearest five (e.g. one, two round to zero; three, four round to five) to avoid identifying individual students. Totals may not equal the sum of their constituent parts due to rounding.

	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Robert Gordon University	25	50	50	40
Glasgow Caledonian University	25	60	75	35
University of Abertay	10	20	20	10
University of the West of Scotland	5	10	10	5
Total	60	135	150	90

Question reference: S3W-38173

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 16 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 have been reported to the procurator fiscal in (a) Dundee and (b) Tayside in 2009-10.

Question reference: S3W-38176

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 16 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many construction sector workers in (a) Dundee and (b) Angus are registered as looking for work as (i) bricklayers, (ii) masons, (iii) roofers, roof tilers and slaters, (iv) plumbers, (v) heating engineers, (vi) joiners, (vii) plasterers, (viii) floorers, (ix) wall tilers, (x) painters and decorators, (xi) glaziers and (xii) steel erectors.

The claimant count is a measure of those claiming unemployment related benefits in Scotland. The information requested is set out in the following table.

Table 1. Number of people on the Claimant Count by Sought Occupation, November 2010.

Occupation	Angus	Dundee City
5311: Steel erectors	0	0
5312: Bricklayers, masons	15	35
5313: Roofers, roof tilers and slaters	10	10
5314: Plumbers, heating and ventilating engineers	10	50
5315: Carpenters and joiners	45	100
5316: Glaziers, window fabricators and fitters	0	5
5321: Plasterers	0	5
5322: Floorers and wall tilers	10	20
5323: Painters and decorators	25	60
Total	120	285

Source. Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Question reference: S3W-37984

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37579 by John Swinney on 17 November 2010 and with regard to full-time equivalents, (a) how many women are employed by each local authority and (b) what that figure is expressed as a percentage of all employees.

The information requested is set out in the following table. With regards to full-time equivalents, part (a) shows what percentage of each local authority''s total number of full-time equivalents are women, and part (b) shows the level of full time equivalent women employees within the local authority.

Table 1: Full-time Equivalent Proportions and Levels of Women Employees by Local Authority, Q2 2010

Local Authority	(a) Full-Time Equivalent of Women Employees as Proportion of Total Local Authority Employees: Q2 2010	(b) Full-Time Equivalent of Women Employees: Q2 2010
Aberdeen	64.6%	4,800
Aberdeenshire	69.9%	7,000
Angus	70.4%	3,300
Argyll and Bute	67.2%	2,800
Clackmannanshire	67.5%	1,500
Dumfries and Galloway	66.7%	4,100
Dundee City	61.7%	4,200
East Ayrshire	66.4%	3,600
East Dunbartonshire	68.4%	2,900
East Lothian	66.3%	2,500
East Renfrewshire	69.8%	2,700
Edinburgh City of	62.8%	10,100
Eilean Siar	68.6%	1,300
Falkirk	67.3%	4,400
Fife	65.3%	11,400
Glasgow City	64.3%	13,800
Highland	67.4%	6,700
Inverclyde	69.6%	2,700
Midlothian	66.4%	2,500
Moray	65.9%	2,500
North Ayrshire	68.6%	4,100
North Lanarkshire	70.4%	10,200
Orkney Islands	65.0%	1,100
Perth and Kinross	67.9%	3,500
Renfrewshire	67.9%	4,900
Scottish Borders	65.9%	3,000
Shetland Islands	65.1%	1,700
South Ayrshire	66.7%	2,800
South Lanarkshire	64.6%	8,600
Stirling	66.9%	2,400
West Dunbartonshire	66.7%	3,600
West Lothian	65.0%	4,600

Source: Joint Staffing Watch Survey (Q2 2010), not seasonally adjusted.

The corresponding figures for the percentage of women employed by each local authority as a percentage of all employees in terms of head count, were supplied in the answer to question S3W-37579.