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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 359 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-29428

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to create additional junior posts for physiotherapists in the NHS.

Decisions about the numbers andskill mix of staff are for NHS boards to make, according to the healthcare needsof their populations. Over the last 10 years, the numbers of physiotherapists workingin NHS Scotland has increased by almost 38%.

The Scottish Executive has supportedNHS boards in developing an appropriate and flexible skill mix, creating more opportunitiesfor junior staff by providing funding for Allied Health Professional Consultant and specialist practitionerposts, funding for Continuous Professional Development and funding for successionplanning through the provision of an AHP Leadership programme.

Question reference: S2W-29118

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) mean and (b) median waiting times for appointments with a chiropodist have been in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Information onchiropody/podiatry waiting times is not routinely collected nationally.

Aone-off census of allied health professional (AHP) services was carried out on 14 September 2005 to help ascertain the magnitude, variety anddiversity of AHPs’ caseloads. A broad range of information, including information onwaiting times, was gathered, and the reportWaiting for AHP Services - A Review Of The Numbers Waiting And PossibleWaiting Times For An Appointment With An AHP was published on 6 July 2006. Thisis available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/collect2.jsp?pContentID=3896&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.

The report provides summarydata concerning waiting times and numbers of patients waiting for appointmentson a particular day. The data suggests that 94% of patients could expect afirst appointment within 18 weeks and 75% of patients could expect a firstappointment in less than 10 weeks if they are to attend a clinic, six weeks ifthey are to be seen at home and two weeks if they are to be seen while an in-patient.

Question reference: S2W-29262

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many female remand prisoners have been sent from Aberdeen to Cornton Vale Prison in each of the last 24 months and, of these, how many were returned to Aberdeen for trial.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The number of prisoners transferredfrom Aberdeen to Cornton Vale Prison in each of the last 24 monthsis as follows:

Month	2004	2005	2006
January	0	7	0
February	0	6	0
March	0	3	0
April	0	3	0
May	0	4	0
June	0	2	0
July	0	7	0
August	0	4	0
September	0	15	0
October	0	0	0
November	2	0	0
December	9	0	0

The information requested onthe number of prisoners transferred to Aberdeen for trial is not available.

Question reference: S2W-29216

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes have been demolished in each local authority area in each year since 1999, also showing year-on-year percentage changes.

The following table shows thenumber of dwellings that have been demolished between 1999 and 2005.

Dwellings Demolished byLocal Authority Area: 1999 and 2005

Local Authority Area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	5,552	5,911	6,105	5,204	4,205	4,890	4,323
% change from previous year		6%	3%	-15%	-19%	16%	-12%
Aberdeen City	-	-	-	-	17	-	-
Aberdeenshire	8	20	7	21	15	19	27
Angus	20	46	96	56	53	8	114
Argyll and Bute	15	12	17	10	40	54	155
Clackmannanshire	15	6	2	-	-	-	30
Dumfries and Galloway	15	2	1	3	13	6	9
Dundee City	493	634	474	544	277	1,001	432
East Ayrshire	49	62	84	168	373	169	408
East Dunbartonshire	6	79	77	-	5	6	11
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	2	3	-
East Renfrewshire	16	3	115	2	4	5	79
City of Edinburgh	555	281	369	339	180	316	119
Eilean Siar	49	24	24	14	11	43	25
Falkirk	-	1	-	-	-	-	80
Fife	309	17	18	154	53	118	7
City of Glasgow	2,496	2,882	2,947	2,206	1,406	1,774	2,011
Highland	1	8	9	11	17	1	8
Inverclyde	235	126	22	157	52	10	-
Midlothian	1	-	1	-	1	-	-
Moray	-	-	-	-	-	8	-
North Ayrshire	2	57	-	50	14	156	2
North Lanarkshire	215	76	529	117	152	36	21
Orkney	2	10	1	3	4	7	3
Perth and Kinross	4	7	13	11	6	7	-
Renfrewshire	158	157	193	229	802	554	162
Scottish Borders	44	33	8	8	-	1	1
Shetland	-	1	1	10	4	-	2
South Ayrshire	-	-	-	-	-	-	4
South Lanarkshire	41	90	45	214	88	160	415
Stirling	-	23	179	22	28	154	8
West Dunbartonshire	775	1,042	792	675	528	265	182
West Lothian	28	212	81	180	60	-	8

Source: Stock4 returns by local authorities to the Scottish Executive Development DepartmentAnalytical Services Division (Housing Statistics).

Note: 1. Nilis denoted by -.

Question reference: S2W-29197

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to provide local authorities with funding from the Strategic Waste Fund to allow them to introduce kerbside recycling schemes for small businesses in areas where domestic kerbside recycling is already taking place.

No. Under the “polluter pays”principle, businesses must meet the costs of disposing of their own waste. However,we would encourage local authorities to explore the viability of integrating thecollection of recyclate from households and businesses whilst ensuring they recoverthe costs of collecting and disposing of the commercial waste.

The Scottish Waste AwarenessGroup has produced a directory of the recycling facilities available to businesses.This directory can be found at www.wasteawarebusiness.com.The Waste and Resources Action Programme has run some trials on the collection ofrecyclate from SMEs, to ensure that good practice can be shared.

We also support bodies such asEnvirowise and Business Environment Partnership which provide advice to businesson how to minimise their waste.

Question reference: S2W-29206

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural home ownership grants have been awarded in each relevant local authority area in each year since 1999, also showing year-on-year percentage changes.

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

The number of rural home ownershipgrants that have been awarded in each relevant local authority area since 1999,showing year-on-year percentage changes, is shown in the following table:

Number of Rural Home OwnershipGrant Awards by Relevant Local Authority Area (1999-2000 – 2005-06)

Local Authority	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Aberdeenshire	1	0	0	1	1	1	1
Argyll and Bute	4	4	8	1	10	9	6
Highland	16	22	15	27	36	42	32
Moray	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	14	17	25	26	28	38	36
Perth and Kinross	1	2	1	3	1	18	1
Shetland Islands	6	2	5	3	1	4	4
The Scottish Borders	4	2	1	2	3	5	5
Western Isles	3	2	0	1	3	2	2
Total	50	51	55	64	83	119	87
Percentage changes	n/a	2%	8%	16%	30%	43%	-27%

Question reference: S2W-29211

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many council houses have been constructed in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority and showing year-on-year percentage changes.

Thefollowing table shows the number of new build completions by local authorities from1999 to 2003.

New Build Completionsby Local Authorities: 1999 to 2003

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Scotland	81	95	72	51	53
Aberdeen City	-	-	18	27	53
Aberdeenshire	46	-	-	-	-
Angus	-	-	-	-	-
Argyll and Bute	-	-	-	-	-
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	-	-
Dundee City	-	-	-	-	-
East Ayrshire	-	-	-	-	-
East Dunbartonshire	-	-	-	-	-
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	-
East Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	-	-	-	-	-
Eilean Siar	-	-	-	-	-
Falkirk	-	-	-	-	-
Fife	1	2	-	-	-
Glasgow City	5	89	-	18	-
Highland	12	-	-	1	-
Inverclyde	-	-	-	-	-
Midlothian	17	4	24	-	-
Moray	-	-	-	-	-
North Ayrshire	-	-	-	5	-
North Lanarkshire	-	-	30	-	-
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-
Perth and Kinross	-	-	-	-	-
Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	-
Scottish Borders, The	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	-	-	-	-	-
South Lanarkshire	-	-	-	-	-
Stirling	-	-	-	-	-
West Dunbartonshire	-	-	-	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	-	-

Source: Newbuild returns by local authorities to the Scottish Executive Development DepartmentAnalytical Services Division (Housing Statistics).

Notes:

1. There havebeen no completions of new local authority dwellings since 2003. However, Shetlandreport that six local authority dwellings were started in 2005.

2. The numbers of completions by local authoritiesis too small for the percentage change from year to year to be meaningful.

3. The followingsymbols are used – nil.

Question reference: S2W-29214

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average compulsory purchase order payment has been in each local authority area in each year since 1999, also showing year-on-year percentage changes.

Question reference: S2W-29196

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities have established projects to allow small businesses to recycle through kerbside collections.

Question reference: S2W-29207

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural home ownership grant applications have been submitted in each relevant local authority area since 1999, also showing year-on-year percentage changes.

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

Information is available fromfinancial year 2002-03 onwards. The number of applications for rural home ownershipgrant submitted in each relevant local authority area in financial years 2002-03,2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, showing year-on-year percentage changes, is shownin the following table:

Number of Rural Home OwnershipGrant Applications Received by Relevant Local Authority Area (2002-03 to 2005-06)

Local Authority	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Aberdeenshire	1	2	2	2
Argyll and Bute	1	12	10	6
Highland	32	39	45	34
North Ayrshire	1	1	1	0
Orkney Islands	26	29	39	39
Perth and Kinross	8	1	25	1
Shetland Islands	3	4	4	6
The Scottish Borders	2	3	6	7
Western Isles	3	5	3	4
Total	77	96	135	99
Percentage changes	n/a	24.7%	40.6%	-26.7%