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-05951

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many special protection areas (SPAs), under Article 4 of the EU Birds Directive, have been declared in which golden eagles are named as a qualifying species; how many pairs are fully protected, by the inclusion of their home range within the site boundary, by those SPAs where golden eagles are named as a qualifying species; what percentage of the population of golden eagles in Scotland this represents, and what plans it has for further designations.

Eight special protection areas(SPAs) have been classified by the Scottish Executive for the protection ofgolden eagle in Scotland. These cover an area of almost 344,000 ha or 4.4% ofScotland’s land mass.

No figures are available onthe number of home ranges which are fully within the site network for this verywide-ranging species, although most recent data indicate that there are 79pairs which have at least part of their range within the eight classified sites.

Based on the numbers ofpairs which have at least part of their range within designated sites, anestimated 19% of the total Scottish population is protected by SPA for whichgolden eagles are named as a qualifying species. 58% of the overall populationhave at least part of their range within the wider network of Natura siteswhere habitats are protected. All golden eagles in Scotland arealso fully protected under the provisions of the Wildlife and Countryside Act1981.

A new national survey of golden eagle was undertaken in 2003and once the results are analysed and published (expected in 2005) the ScottishExecutive will seek advice from Scottish Natural Heritage on whether furthersites can be identified which should be considered for future classification.

Question reference: S2W-05950

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it proposes to take to address the reported decline in golden eagle numbers that has occurred between 1992 and 2003 south of the Great Glen and what factors have caused this decline.

Question reference: S2W-05643

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of total (a) energy production, (b) primary energy consumption and (c) final energy consumption in the (i) industrial, (ii) service, (iii) domestic and (iv) transport sector in each quarter of 2003.

Question reference: S2W-05623

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 3 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many private sector housing initiatives have been launched in each of the last 10 years and what local authority funds have been committed to private sector housing initiatives (a) in each of the last 10 years and (b) since April 2000.

The following four initiatives involving financial assistance tohouseholds in the private sector have been launched in the period since 1994:

the Empty Homes Initiative (launched in 1997 and since wound up);

the Warm Deal (launched in 1999, to replace the Home Energy EfficiencyScheme launched in 1990);

the Central Heating Programme (launched in 2001);

the Mortgage to Rent scheme (launched in 2003).

Local authority capital expenditure on private sector housing isdescribed as non-housing revenue account (HRA) housing expenditure. It was,until and including 2002-03, funded from borrowing, revenue, grants andreceipts in varying proportions according to each local authority’s financialarrangements. The total non-HRA housing expenditure over the last ten financialyears has been:

Year	Expenditure (£,000)
1993-94	118,645
1994-95	134,317
1995-96	122,331
1996-97	92,580
1997-98	62,996
1998-99	61,830
1999-2000	62,511
2000-01	61,088
2001-02	58,851
2002-03	51,504

Question reference: S2W-05625

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 3 February 2004

There are a number of departmentswithin the Executive whose work and/or funding contributes towards promotingand facilitating sport and physical activity in Scotland (health, education, transport,local authority finance and communities). However, it is not possible todisaggregate their total spend down to this level and therefore is not possibleto provide an accurate calculation of spend per head.

The only elements of Executive spending in this area that can be disaggregated are set out in the following table:

	1999-2000 (£m)	2000-01 (£m)	2001-02 (£m)	2002-03 (£m)	2003-04 (£m)
Grant-in-aid to sportscotland (including any additional end year funding)	10.109	10.309	12.859	14.679	14.702
Contribution to redevelopment of Hampden	2.750	-	-	-
Commonwealth Games (Scotland) Fund	-	-	-	2.500	-
Physical Activity Task Force budget	-	-	-	0.500	-
Working with Paths To Health; Scottish Out of School Network; Scottish Youth Dance; and SUSTRANS					0.437
Core Funding of Cycling Scotland	-	-	-	-	0.200
Cycling, Walking & Safer Streets allocation to local authorities	-	5.200	3	4.600	8
Contribution to funding of Bike Week	-	-	-	0.005	0.008

Question reference: S2W-05624

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure that its departments buy recycled paper.

Question reference: S2W-05533

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 28 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish a response to the Equal Opportunities Committee's (EOC) Inquiry into Gypsy Travellers and Public Sector Policies, published on 21 June 2001.

Question reference: S2W-04785

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social housing properties have been (a) vacant and (b) constructed in each of the last six years, broken down by local authority area.

Table 1 shows the number ofunits of public sector normal letting stock vacant as at 31 March of each year.Housing association voids figures are collected by Communities Scotland, butrelated previously to number of re-lets throughout the year and were thereforenot comparable to data collected by the Scottish Executive prior to 2003.Table 2 shows the number of vacant units for housing associations as at 31 March 2003.Table 3 shows the number of new build completions by financial year.

Table 1

Public Sector Normal LettingStock Vacant as at 31 March: 1998 to 2003

Local Authority Area	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
SCOTLAND	6,128	9,163	10,370	9,716	8,175	8,127
Local authority	5,680	8,522	9,853	9,199	8,094	8,090
Aberdeen City	580	707	690	1,081	902	922
Aberdeenshire	52	..	77	133	153	201
Angus	37	43	34	64	85	68
Argyll and Bute	70	50	102	102	47	61
Clackmannanshire	67	68	77	48	132	119
Dumfries and Galloway	83	114	79	65	110	91
Dundee City	489	373	464	427	315	316
East Ayrshire	178	258	306	258	102	154
East Dunbartonshire	..	56	20	34	23	39
East Lothian	77	123	49	68	75	75
East Renfrewshire	..	..	55	105	89	75
Edinburgh, City of	490	301	780	429	552	552
Falkirk	46	53	50	27	18	38
Fife	155	129	180	259	266	266
Glasgow City	..	701	602	786	583	583
Highland	1,152	2,840	3,219	1,822	1,488	1,488
Inverclyde	106	136	210	216	273	220
Midlothian	..	346	329	215	258	51
Moray	58	42	37	48	32	51
North Ayrshire	..	20	20	31	42	28
North Lanarkshire	288	288	226	352	133	107
Orkney	315	316	266	216	280	323
Perth and Kinross	13	15	8	4	3	12
Renfrewshire	72	89	77	87	115	87
Scottish Borders, The	258	359	239	463	258	349
Shetland	..	70	282	358	353	353
South Ayrshire	102	..	119	144	102	122
South Lanarkshire	137	148	190	239	293	243
Stirling	369	448	542	572	433	469
West Dunbartonshire	50	115	90	93	45	7
West Lothian	398	273	418	436	506	545
Western Isles	38	41	16	17	28	82
Scottish Homes	448	641	517	517	81	37

Source: returnsby local authorities to Scottish Executive Development Department AnalyticalServices Division (Housing Statistics).

Notes: excludesdwellings used as temporary accommodation for the homeless, dwellings awaitingdemolition, dwellings which are part of a modernisation scheme and dwellingsidentified as being in a low demand area.

Table 2

Housing AssociationVoids as at 31 March 2003

Local Authority Area	Total Units
Scotland	9,468
Aberdeen City	57
Aberdeenshire	75
Angus	78
Argyll and Bute	29
Clackmannanshire	28
Dumfries and Galloway	28
Dundee City	991
East Ayrshire	98
East Dunbartonshire	11
East Lothian	30
East Renfrewshire	6
City of Edinburgh	336
Eilean Siar	4
Falkirk	54
Fife	144
City of Glasgow	5,998
Highland	87
Inverclyde	133
Midlothian	22
Moray	29
North Ayrshire	33
North Lanarkshire	91
Orkney Islands	1
Perth and Kinross	26
Renfrewshire	217
Scottish Borders	401
Shetland Islands	2
South Ayrshire	13
South Lanarkshire	67
Stirling	4
West Dunbartonshire	318
West Lothian	57

Source:Annual Performance and Statistical returns by registered social landlords toCommunities Scotland.

Table 3

House Building Completions by Housing Associations and Local Authorities:1997-98 to 2002-03

Local Authority Area	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Scotland	4,622	1,777	5,261	5,408	5,522	2,844
Aberdeen City	309	21	134	158	192	173
Aberdeenshire	280	32	236	105	265	133
Angus	136	69	131	131	70	24
Argyll and Bute	282	68	46	147	77	6
Clackmannanshire	12	29	51	24	44	0
Dumfries and Galloway	83	133	76	73	214	58
Dundee City	172	136	154	231	317	92
East Ayrshire	58	30	52	87	60	98
East Dunbartonshire	0	22	15	40	49	4
East Lothian	27	0	94	46	27	0
East Renfrewshire	17	0	134	76	41	30
Edinburgh, City of	423	60	613	577	459	105
Eilean Siar	12	0	3	21	22	12
Falkirk	90	0	73	15	97	34
Fife	379	55	448	196	257	145
Glasgow City	820	287	1,133	1,431	1,616	1,200
Highland	183	56	116	212	138	64
Inverclyde	67	114	68	259	113	0
Midlothian	62	24	52	48	6	19
Moray	101	17	32	29	25	0
North Ayrshire	51	91	189	98	25	12
North Lanarkshire	271	30	362	252	225	165
Orkney	12	0	17	27	56	21
Perth and Kinross	178	85	157	202	180	83
Renfrewshire	10	36	86	181	138	80
Scottish Borders, The	20	123	126	96	76	2
Shetland	0	0	57	13	22	1
South Ayrshire	43	30	68	61	64	32
South Lanarkshire	230	0	105	230	236	114
Stirling	56	20	95	87	44	56
West Dunbartonshire	0	187	57	190	219	26
West Lothian	238	22	281	65	148	55

Source: returns by local authorities to Scottish Executive Development Department Analytical Services Division (Housing Statistics).

Question reference: S2W-04788

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) complaints, (b) court actions and (c) fines there have been against industrial companies for problems related to (i) odours, (ii) water pollution, (iii) air pollution and (iv) human health impact in each year since 1999.

The information requested isnot held centrally. Complaints and enforcement action against companies whichhave caused air pollution or pollution of the water environment are matters forthe Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Local authorities have a duty underthe Environmental Protection Act 1990 to deal with any statutory nuisance intheir areas, including offensive odour. Breaches of health and safety legislationare matters for the Health and Safety Executive.

Question reference: S2W-04786

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the role of affordable housing in maintaining the viability of rural communities.

Communities Scotland andits predecessor agency Scottish Homes have funded a number of local housingmarket studies of parts of rural Scotland. Scottish Homes and Highlands and Islands Enterprisejointly commissioned a study of housing and economic development in remoterural areas of Highlands and Islands and Communities Scotland current housing investmentis informed by local housing system analysis. These studies consistentlyhighlight the important role of affordable housing in providing opportunitiesfor households and new households in rural areas to remain in their local areawhen they choose to do so. By remaining, such households contribute to thesocial and economic life of communities.

The Housing (Scotland)Act 2001 places a duty on local authorities to produce local housing strategieswhich set out how they will co-ordinate the provision of housing and housingrelated services to meet assessed demand.