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-08496

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many orange disability badges are currently held by individuals resident within Scotland broken down by local authority.

The details, from the information we have available at 31 March 2000, is as follows:-

Local Authority	Number of Orange Badges on issue to individuals
Aberdeen City Council	6,792
Aberdeenshire Council	7,269
Angus Council	3,761
Argyll & Bute Council	2,494
Clackmannanshire Council	2,291
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	464
Dumfries & Galloway Council	6,161
Dundee City Council	5,794
East Ayrshire Council	1,587
East Dunbartonshire Council	3,266
East Lothian Council	2,989
East Renfrewshire Council	3,129
City of Edinburgh Council	11,987
Falkirk Council	5,644
Fife Council	9,874
Glasgow City Council	23,152
Highland Council	6,419
Inverclyde Council	3,683
Midlothian Council	2,770
Moray Council	2,587
North Ayrshire Council	7,171
North Lanarkshire Council	14,356
Orkney Islands Council	659
Perth & Kinross Council	4,353
Renfrewshire Council	6,449
Scottish Borders Council	3,576
Shetland Islands Council	483
South Ayrshire Council	5,128
South Lanarkshire Council	11,308
Stirling Council	3,031
West Dunbartonshire Council	3,427
West Lothian Council	5,526
TOTAL	177,580

Question reference: S1W-08765

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost per month is of maintaining the estate of the former HM Prison, Penninghame.

Question reference: S1W-07305

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to protect (a) the environment and (b) non-GM crops from cross-pollination of GM contaminated oil seed rape.

The Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environment have assessed the crop as posing very low risks to the environment and, on that basis, are satisfied that this does not pose a safety threat. On the basis of the information currently available, our understanding is that the GM element of the contaminated crop has extremely low male fertility and its ability to cross-pollinate with other plants is therefore negligible.

Question reference: S1W-08497

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7805 by Ross Finnie on 23 June 2000, how many farm businesses received payments under both the Common Agricultural Policy Market Support arrangements and the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance together totalling (a) #0 to #12,500; (b) #12,501 to #25,000; (c) #25,001 to #50,000; (d) #50,001 to #75,000; (e) #75,001 to #100,000; (f) #100,001 to #150,000; (g) #150,001 to #200,000; (h) #200,001 to #250,000 and (i) over #250,000, in scheme year 1999.

The number of farm businesses which received payments, for scheme year 1999, under both the Common Agricultural Policy Support arrangements and the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance together as a total was as follows:

(a) £0 to £12,500 11,492

(b) £12,501 to £25,000 3,747

(d) £50,001 to £75,000 1,327

(e) £75,001 to £100,000 486

(f) £100,001 to £150,000 314

(g) £150,001 to £200,000 76

(h) £200,001 to £250,000 30

(i) over £250,000 23

Question reference: S1W-08495

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) applications were granted and (b) what was the value of assistance given to each local authority in each year since the RSA was introduced.

The number and value of RSA offers accepted for each local authority, since 1 April 1996, is given in the table below. Detailed information on grants in the form requested is not readily available prior to local government reorganisation and could not be provided except at disproportionate cost.

	Number of RSA offers accepted
Local Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Angus	*	4	8	*
Argyll & Bute	0	0	*	0
Clackmannanshire	0	*	*	4
Dumfries & Galloway	3	3	3	*
Dundee City	4	3	5	8
East Ayrshire	11	14	17	15
East Dunbartonshire	3	4	3	7
East Renfrewshire	*	*	*	3
Falkirk	4	3	4	10
Fife	25	22	28	28
Glasgow City	34	32	35	48
Highland	*	*	0	0
Inverclyde	6	4	3	5
Moray	0	0	0	*
North Ayrshire	11	15	13	11
North Lanarkshire	27	32	29	36
Renfrewshire	13	14	10	14
South Ayrshire	7	9	5	5
South Lanarkshire	25	39	25	21
West Dunbartonshire	4	8	3	10
West Lothian	26	21	20	23
Western Isles	0	*	0	0

* Information has been suppressed to protect company confidentiality.

	Value of RSA offers accepted
Local Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Angus	*	0.4	1.0	*
Argyll & Bute	0.0	0.0	*	0.0
Clackmannanshire	0.0	*	*	0.2
Dumfries & Galloway	0.2	0.4	1.0	*
Dundee City	0.4	0.1	1.2	3.0
East Ayrshire	3.9	2.7	1.0	2.3
East Dunbartonshire	1.1	1.1	0.2	12.3
East Renfrewshire	*	*	*	0.8
Falkirk	0.7	0.4	0.2	2.1
Fife	9.1	49.1	15.6	11.9
Glasgow City	6.8	7.9	11.5	22.0
Highland	*	*	0.0	0.0
Inverclyde	0.5	6.5	0.7	6.1
Moray	0.0	0.0	0.0	*
North Ayrshire	18.4	2.6	7.6	8.1
North Lanarkshire	69.9	13.0	8.0	6.1
Renfrewshire	11.0	5.1	0.9	4.5
South Ayrshire	2.1	3.1	1.4	0.2
South Lanarkshire	11.4	41.3	9.6	10.8
West Dunbartonshire	2.0	1.3	0.2	3.2
West Lothian	10.1	33.3	12.4	45.5
Western Isles	0.0	*	0.0	0.0

* Information has been suppressed to protect company confidentiality.

Question reference: S1W-07308

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 17 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what government funding Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary has received this year and in each of the previous five years.

Direct funding of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary by the Scottish Executive in the current financial year and by The Scottish Office in the previous five years is shown in the table below. Forces also meet a proportion of their costs from local authority funding.

Year	2000-01 (estimate)	1999-2000	1998-99	1997-98	1996-97	1995-96
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Police Grant	10,231	10,206	9,515	8,109	7,574	7,963
Capital from Current Revenue	125	125	122	75	75	107
Loan Charges	449	448	447	343	445	412
Ports Unit	1,640	1,496	1,496	1,496	353	569
Lockerbie Trial	14,808	14,288
Automatic Number Plate Recognition	33		750
Special Grants		41	249	64	179	83
Civil Defence Grant	55	55	55	55	54	52
Millennium Funding		293
Additional 100% Funding	233
SDEA Funding	60
Total	27,634	26,952	12,634	10,142	8,680	9,186

Police grant was cash limited from 1996-97 onwards. The drop in the level of funding for police grant shown for 1996-97 is due to the recovery of an overpayment from the previous year. Loan charges depend on the capital projects within the force area at a given time. Dumfries & Galloway received £310k for policing the Millennium but actual spend was £293k. The difference will be recovered.

Question reference: S1W-08450

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 14 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what EU funds have been spent on transport improvements in each year since 1997 broken down by project.

Of the seven Scottish Structural Funds Programmes which ended on 31 March 1999 only the Highlands and Islands Objective 1 and Dumfries and Galloway Objective 5b had Priorities and Measures dedicated to transport improvements. Details of spend by year for projects in each area is not readily available. I will write separately on this placing a copy of my reply in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S1W-08451

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had or plans to have with Her Majesty's Government on the effects of discharges from Sellafield on the Scottish environment following the vote taken at the OSPAR convention on 29 June 2000 in favour of stopping nuclear reprocessing.

Question reference: S1W-07302

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 12 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the volume is of (a) freight and (b) passenger traffic which has passed through the ports of (i) Stranraer and (ii) Cairnryan in each of the last ten years.

he following information was obtained from surveys commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Passenger numbers are not available for the years prior to 1990.

	Freight traffic thousand tonnes		Passengers Thousands
	Stranraer	Cairnryan	Stranraer	Cairnryan
1988	1,653	1,171	n.a.	n.a.
1989	1,775	1,233	n.a.	n.a.
1990	1,737	1,114	1,155	454
1991	1,751	949	1,271	407
1992	1,591	1,073	1,511	424
1993	1,717	1,234	1,692	572
1994	1,813	1,233	1,675	593
1995	1,868	1,991	1,791	551
1996	1,646	2,025	1,704	501
1997	1,794	2,227	1,909	751
1998	1,780	2,504	1,803	769

n.a. - not available

It is intended to publish such figures in future editions of "Scottish Transport Statistics", copies of which will be available in the Parliament's Information Centre (Bib number 1771).

Question reference: S1W-08285

Asked by: Alasdair Morgan, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 11 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many health visitors are currently employed in Scotland and (b) how many of these are currently absent from work (i) through stress-related illnesses and (ii) for other reasons, broken down by NHS Trust

There are currently 1,698 health visiting staff employed in the NHS in Scotland. The breakdown by Trust is shown below.

Information regarding numbers currently absent from work is not held centrally. A working group has been set up to establish a Minimum Dataset for Occupational Health and Safety in the NHS and this will report to the Scottish Partnership Forum in August. The datasets will require employers to collect a certain standard of data which will be common to all NHS organisations. One of the specified datasets will be absence from work due to occupationally acquired illness, which will include stress-related illness.

Health Visitors employed in the NHS in Scotland by provider	Number			WTE
Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent: at 30 September 1999 p	Total	Grades G & above	Below Grade G	Total	Grades G & above	Below Grade G
Scotland	1,698	1,498	200	1,464.4	1,310.6	153.9
Ayrshire & Arran Primary Care NHS Trust	108	100	8	95.2	90.1	5.1
Borders Primary Care NHS Trust	23	22	1	20.1	19.5	0.6
Argyll & Clyde Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	1	-	1	0.5	-	0.5
Lomond & Argyll Primary Care NHS Trust	33	30	3	27.8	25.7	2.1
Renfrewshire & Inverclyde Primary Care NHS Trust	94	79	15	79.2	68.2	10.9
Fife Primary Care NHS Trust	130	124	6	109.7	104.7	4.9
Greater Glasgow Health Board Headquarters	3	3	-	2.0	2.0	-
Yorkhill NHS Trust	8	8	-	7.1	7.1	-
Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust	301	245	56	268.4	220.4	48.0
Highland Primary Care NHS Trust	58	57	1	49.0	48.0	1.0
Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	1	1	-	1.0	1.0	-
Lanarkshire Primary Care NHS Trust	200	174	26	173.8	154.7	19.1
Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust	7	7	-	5.2	5.2	-
Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust	198	153	45	165.2	128.9	36.3
Orkney Health Board	5	5	-	5.0	5.0	-
Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust	202	194	8	168.0	163.4	4.6
West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust	38	38	-	33.3	33.3	-
Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust	2	2	-	2.0	2.0	-
Tayside Primary Care NHS Trust	135	125	10	121.3	113.8	7.5
Forth Valley Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	2	-	2	1.9	-	1.9
Forth Valley Primary Care NHS Trust	93	81	12	80.2	72.2	8.0
Western Isles Health Board	15	15	-	14.8	14.8	-
Dumfries & Galloway Primary Care NHS Trust	36	30	6	28.7	25.5	3.3
Shetland Health Board	5	5	-	5.0	5.0	-

p provisional

1 Includes health visiting teaching staff, and staff working in the field without a HV qualification. The category 'Grades G & above' gives a broad indication of those staff with a HV qualification.

Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll ISD Scotland.