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-25719

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many lawful evictions there were of private tenants in each year since 2000, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-25720

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the number of unlawful evictions of private tenants.

Question reference: S2W-25721

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of unlawful eviction were (a) referred to the procurator fiscal and (b) prosecuted and how many people were convicted of offences in this respect in each year since 2000, broken down by local authority area.

The Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service’s Case Management Database recordsdetails of the charges against each accused in terms of the specific common lawor statutory offence that is alleged to have been committed.

The following table shows the totalnumber of charges for contraventions of the Rent Act 1984, Section 22(1) which relatesto a landlord who deprives a resident of occupation. The information in the tableis based on the financial year when charges were reported to individualprocurators fiscal, and some charges are still the subject of on-going court proceedings.

Information is available only inrespect of Procurator Fiscal Areas and not by local authority areas.

	PF area	FY 2002-03	FY 2003-04	FY 2004-05	FY 2005-06
Reported	Aberdeen	1	0	1	0
	Airdrie	0	3	0	0
	Alloa	0	0	1	1
	Arbroath	2	0	0	1
	Ayr	1	3	0	0
	Banff	2	0	0	0
	Dumbarton	1	2	0	0
	Dumfries	0	0	0	1
	Dundee	0	5	0	1
	Dunoon	0	0	0	1
	Duns	0	0	0	1
	Edinburgh	2	3	3	4
	Falkirk	0	0	0	1
	Forfar	0	0	0	1
	Glasgow	1	4	4	3
	Haddington	1	0	0	0
	Hamilton	0	0	3	2
	Inverness	0	0	0	3
	Kilmarnock	0	0	0	1
	Kirkcaldy	0	0	1	0
	Kirkcudbright	0	0	1	0
	Oban	1	0	0	0
	Peebles	0	1	1	0
	Perth	1	0	0	0
	Selkirk	0	0	0	1
	Stornoway	0	0	0	1
	Stranraer	0	0	0	1
Prosecuted	Alloa	0	0	1	0
	Arbroath	1	0	0	0
	Dumfries	0	0	0	1
	Dundee	0	2	0	1
	Edinburgh	0	1	2	1
	Glasgow	1	3	3	3
	Hamilton	0	0	1	1
	Inverness	0	0	0	1
	Kirkcudbright	0	0	1	0
	Peebles	0	0	1	0
Convicted	Edinburgh	0	1	0	0
Convicted	Glasgow	0	0	1	0

Notes:

1. The information in this table has beenextracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s (COPFS) Case ManagementDatabase. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processingof reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies.

2. COPFS completedan upgrade of its electronic case management system in April 2002, and only caserecords created after that date contain complete data which is capable of electronicanalysis.

3. The databaseis charge-based, so the figures quoted relate to the number of charges rather thanthe number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to suchcharges. If a ProcuratorFiscal amends any charge submitted by a reporting agency, the database will recorddetails only of the amended charge.

Question reference: S2W-25722

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households applied as homeless following the loss of private rented accommodation in each year since 2000, broken down by local authority area.

The number of homeless applicationsas a result of loss of private sector rented accommodation are shown below for 2002-03to 2004-05. Data prior to 2002 do not identify private rented tenancies separately.

Homeless Applications Due toLoss of Private Sector Tenancy by Local Authority: 2002-03 to 2004-05

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Scotland	3,344	3,866	4,457
Aberdeen City	136	161	127
Aberdeenshire	79	97	115
Angus	182	198	208
Argyll and Bute	59	103	128
Clackmannanshire	60	65	111
Dumfries and Galloway	158	172	145
Dundee City	82	100	169
East Ayrshire	63	73	102
East Dunbartonshire	22	53	49
East Lothian	41	44	40
East Renfrewshire	42	30	49
Edinburgh, City of	312	248	275
Eilean Siar	12	19	26
Falkirk	57	70	130
Fife	360	363	361
Glasgow City	375	481	422
Highland	189	316	342
Inverclyde	43	38	63
Midlothian	23	44	45
Moray	48	66	154
North Ayrshire	112	114	112
North Lanarkshire	131	157	251
Orkney	23	20	27
Perth and Kinross	136	137	188
Renfrewshire	69	99	115
Scottish Borders, The	71	121	103
Shetland	13	15	12
South Ayrshire	90	92	109
South Lanarkshire	145	174	183
Stirling	41	21	62
West Dunbartonshire	44	44	54
West Lothian	126	131	180

Source: ScottishExecutive Development Department Analytical Services Division (Housing Statistics).

Question reference: S2W-25713

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is monitoring satisfaction levels amongst individuals who have received grants under the central heating programme.

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

Eaga Partnership, whichadministers the central heating programme on behalf of the Scottish Executive,provides information on customer satisfaction levels. Monthly contractcompliance meetings are held between Eaga and Communities Scotland to considervarious key performance indicators, including customer satisfaction. Eaga haveindicated that in 2005-06 customer satisfaction rates were recorded at 96%.

Question reference: S2W-25723

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review its policy with regard to illegal evictions to ensure that unlawful practice is stopped.

The Rent (Scotland)Act 1984 makes it a criminal offence to evict a tenant without due process oflaw. Where allegations of such an offence are substantiated followinginvestigation, the police will submit a report to the Procurator Fiscal forconsideration of whether or not to raise criminal proceedings. We have no plansto alter these arrangements.

The requirement in Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 for private landlords to register allows alocal authority to act against a landlord who is using unacceptable letting practices.Evidence of illegal eviction or harassment would be material which could leadthe local authority to decide that a landlord’s registration should be refusedor removed, leading to the potential for criminal and civil penalties shouldthe landlord continue to let.

Officials are in discussionwith representatives of Shelter, ACPOS and COSLA on how police powers and thenew local authority powers can be used most effectively to address illegaleviction.

Question reference: S2W-25660

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information is available in respect of the number of car journeys made on the (a) A9 between Perth and Stirling and (b) A90 between Perth and Dundee in each of the last five years.

Information on traffic flowson Scottish trunk roads is collected in terms of Annual Average Daily Flows fordifferent classes of vehicle.

Traffic data extracted from the Scottish Roads Traffic Database (SRTDb) for the A9 between Perth and Stirling and theA90 between Perth and Dundee from the automatic traffic counter sites at A9 Blackfordand A90 Longforgan shows the following traffic flows:

A9Blackford

Year	Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF) All Vehicles	AADF Cars Only
2001	18,480	15,089
2002	*N/A	*N/A
2003	25,596	19,547
2004	24,592	19,671
2005	25,742	20,729

Note: *Data not available becauseof equipment failure.

A90 Longforgan

Year	Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF) All Vehicles	AADF Cars Only
2001	31,584	24,293
2002	32,262	24,936
2003	32,828	26,352
2004	32,476	27,049
2005	34,808	28,596

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Question reference: S2W-25662

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people travelled by bus on the Perth to Edinburgh route in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-25664

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information is available in respect of the number of car journeys made on the (a) A85 between Perth and Crieff/Comrie and (b) A823 between Crieff and Greenloaning in each of the last five years.

Information on traffic flowson Scottish trunk roads is collected in terms of Annual Average Daily Flows fordifferent classes of vehicle.

Trafficdata extracted from the Scottish Roads Traffic Database (SRTDb) for the A85 betweenPerth and Crieff from the automatic traffic counter site at A85 Gilmerton showsthe following traffic flows:

Year	Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF) All Vehicles	AADF Cars Only
2001	4,054	3,436
2002	4,005	3,367
2003	4,286	3,646
2004	4,375	4,027
2005	4,346	4,009

TheA823 is not a trunk road and is the responsibility of the local roads authority,Perth and Kinross Council.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for trunk roads, and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Question reference: S2W-25663

Asked by: Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people travelled by bus on the Crieff to Stirling route in each of the last five years .