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: S1W-20113

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 3 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people who left the care system went into (a) full-time employment, (b) further education, (c) higher education and (d) government training schemes, in each of the past five years.

Information is not held centrally about outcomes for care leavers, but one of our social justice milestones is to halve the proportion of 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, training and employment. There are several initiatives under way to address this, often aimed specifically at young people from disadvantaged groups. These include widening access to further and higher education, New Deal 18-24 and New Future Fund projects.

Question reference: S1W-19607

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to encourage the appointment of dedicated home safety officers in each local authority area.

Question reference: S1W-19865

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 26 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money it will make available to local authorities in Level Playing Field Support for Public/Private Partnership projects in (i) the current financial year and (ii) 2002-03.

Question reference: S1W-19055

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-13521 by Susan Deacon on 12 March 2001, when it will publish the results of the review of progress towards the elimination of mixed sex hospital wards.

Question reference: S1W-19489

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any special consideration will be given to licensed premises in respect of qualification for the small business rates relief scheme.

Question reference: S1W-19488

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, businesses will benefit from a reduction in their business rates following the implementation of the small business rates relief scheme, broken down by local authority area.

Based on the proposals put forward in May in the Scottish Executive Consultation Paper Rate Relief for Small Businesses, businesses occupying a property with a rateable value of £10,000 or less, subject to certain criteria, would benefit from a general rate relief scheme. The table shows the number of all non-domestic properties above and below the £10,000 rateable value threshold by local authority area. This provides an indication of the numbers and percentage of businesses likely to benefit from the scheme. Rateable Value of Business Properties by Local Authority Area.

	Number of business properties	Number of businesses by rateable value (RV)
Local authority area	All RV's	< £10,000	% of total for area	> £10,000	% of total for area
Aberdeen	8,318	4,379	53%	3,939	47%
Aberdeenshire	8,742	7,042	81%	1,700	19%
Angus	4,438	3,490	79%	948	21%
Argyll & Bute	6,666	5,659	85%	1,007	15%
Clackmannan	1,363	984	72%	379	28%
Dumfries & Galloway	7,965	6,692	84%	1,273	16%
Dundee	5,356	3,431	64%	1,925	36%
East Ayrshire	3,814	2,770	73%	1,044	27%
East Dunbartonshire	2,168	1,339	62%	829	38%
East Lothian	2,912	2,308	79%	604	21%
East Renfrew	1,616	1,004	62%	612	38%
Edinburgh	17,807	10,855	61%	6,952	39%
Falkirk	4,483	2,991	67%	1,492	33%
Fife	11,553	7,986	69%	3,567	31%
Glasgow	25,435	15,685	62%	9,750	38%
Highland	14,394	11,861	82%	2,533	18%
Inverclyde	2,290	1,497	65%	793	35%
Midlothian	2,312	1,647	71%	665	29%
Moray	4,046	3,313	82%	733	18%
North Ayrshire	4,701	3,442	73%	1,259	27%
North Lanarkshire	8,566	5,305	62%	3,261	38%
Orkney	1,699	1,496	88%	203	12%
Perth	6,554	4,866	74%	1,688	26%
Renfrewshire	5,331	3,256	61%	2,075	39%
Scottish Borders	6,109	5,065	83%	1,044	17%
Shetland	1,751	1,451	83%	300	17%
South Ayrshire	4,340	2,988	69%	1,352	31%
South Lanarkshire	8,853	5,521	62%	3,332	38%
Stirling	4,189	2,967	71%	1,222	29%
West Dunbartonshire	2,607	1,628	62%	979	38%
West Lothian	4,584	2,926	64%	1,658	36%
Western Isles	2,014	1,791	89%	223	11%
Scotland Total	196,976	137,635	70%	59,341	30%

Question reference: S1W-19487

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, businesses will pay a business rates surcharge in order to fund the small business rates relief scheme, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S1W-19490

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria it will use to determine who will benefit from the small business rates relief scheme and what the reasons were for the adoption of these criteria.

The Executive has published for consultation a scheme based on rateable values because this is transparent and easy to understand. The rateable value threshold of £10,000 has been an accepted measure of small businesses for some time and is the threshold criterion for the current 2p reduction in poundage. An estimated 70% of businesses occupy properties with a rateable value of £10,000 or less and would therefore benefit from such a scheme.

Question reference: S1W-19053

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding it plans to provide to local authorities in 2002-03 to deal with any additional costs incurred by them as a result of the introduction of the Aggregates Tax.

Question reference: S1W-19054

Asked by: Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #680 million announced by the Minister for Transport and Planning on 27 March 2001 for road improvements over the next three years will be used to pay the Aggregates Tax.