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-17266

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 24 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what costs it incurred in respect of legal representation at the fatal accident inquiry into the death of James Barclay in HM Prison Kilmarnock in January 2002.

Question reference: S2W-17336

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 24 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16219 by Cathy Jamieson on 5 May 2005, if data on mandatory drug test refusals was not collected prior to 2003-04, why it was available in annex 15 to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons follow up inspection report of HM Prison Kilmarnock in March 2002.

Question reference: S2W-17360

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 23 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-7034 by Allan Wilson on 9 June 2005, whether it will provide a breakdown of the status of the 35,000 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment by (a) local enterprise company area and (b) local authority area.

Further to the answer to question S2O-7034 on 9 June 2005 Table 1 gives the number of 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment by economic status for each Local Enterprise Company area. Table 2 gives the number of 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment by economic status for each local authority area.

The Labour Force Survey figures shown in Tables 1 and 2 are above the Office for National Statistics reliability thresholds. ONS calculate reliability thresholds based on sample sizes in each local authority area. In general the smaller local authority areas had larger enhancements in the boosted LFS. This means that estimates of Not In Education, Employment or Training (NEET) cannot be produced for some of the larger local authority areas such as Edinburghand Fife, but reliable estimates for smaller local authority areas such as Angusand Argyll and Bute can be produced.

Table 1 Number of 16 to 19-Year-Olds Not in Education, Employment or Training by Economic Status for Each Local Enterprise Company Area, 2003

	Inactive	Unemployed	Total
Scotland	13,000	2,2000	35,000
Argyll and Islands Enterprise	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire	**	**	3,000
Scottish Enterprise Fife	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley	**	**	1,000
Scottish Enterprise Glasgow	**	**	6,000
Scottish Enterprise Grampian	**	**	**
Inverness and Nairn Enterprise	**	**	**
Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise	**	**	**
Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise	**	**	**
Western Isles Enterprise	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire	**	**	7,000
Lochaber Enterprise	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian	**	**	5,000
Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise	**	**	1,000
Orkney Enterprise	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire	**	**	**
Ross and Cromarty Enterprise	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Borders	**	**	**
Scottish Enterprise Tayside	**	**	**
Shetland Enterprise	**	**	**

Notes:

1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

2. The total may not equal the sum of the individualcomponents due to rounding.

** Estimate is belowreliability threshold as defined by the Office for National Statistics

Table 2 Number of 16 to19-Year-Olds Not in Education, Employment or Training by Economic Status for EachLocal Authority Area, 2003

	Inactive	Unemployed	Total
Scotland	13,000	22,000	35,000
Aberdeen City	**	**	**
Aberdeenshire	**	**	**
Angus	**	**	1,000
Argyll and Bute	**	**	1,000
Scottish Borders, The	**	**	1,000
Clackmannanshire	**	**	**
West Dunbartonshire	**	**	1,000
Dumfries and Galloway	**	**	**
Dundee City	**	**	**
East Ayrshire	**	**	1,000
East Dunbartonshire	**	**	1,000
East Lothian	**	**	**
East Renfrewshire	**	**	1,000
Edinburgh, City of	**	**	**
Falkirk	**	**	**
Fife	**	**	**
Glasgow City	**	**	6,000
Highland	**	**	**
Inverclyde	**	**	1,000
Midlothian	**	**	1,000
Moray	**	**	**
North Ayrshire	1,000	1,000	1,000
North Lanarkshire	**	**	4,000
Orkney Islands	**	**	**
Perth and Kinross	**	**	**
Renfrewshire	**	**	**
Shetland Islands	**	**	**
South Ayrshire	1,000	1,000	1,000
South Lanarkshire	**	**	**
Stirling	**	**	1,000
West Lothian	**	**	**
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	**	**	**

Notes:

1. Estimates are rounded to thenearest thousand.

2. The total may not equal the sumof the individual components due to rounding.

** Estimateis below reliability threshold as defined by the Office for National Statistics.

Question reference: S2W-17263

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-33583 and S2W-7812 by Mr Jim Wallace and Cathy Jamieson on 10 February 2003 and 19 May 2004, what the total delegated budget for each prison and young offenders institution has been in (a) 2003-04 and (b) 2004-05 to date and what the expenditure outturn has been in each case.

Question reference: S2W-17264

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15432 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 April 2005, whether it will designate the operators of future privately managed prisons as public authorities under section 5 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:I refer the member to the answergiven by Margaret Curran, Minister for Parliament to S2W-15778 on 13 May 2005. All answersto written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

The Minister for Parliament willwrite to the member as soon as a conclusion has been reached.

Question reference: S2W-17210

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15444 by Mr Tom McCabe on 13 April 2005, whether it will bring forward a statutory instrument to transfer any of the appointments for which it is responsible, but which fall outwith the remit of the Scottish Commissioner for Public Appointments, to within the remit of the Commissioner and, if so, what appointments will be transferred and within what timescale.

Question reference: S2W-17267

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16642 by Cathy Jamieson on 31 May 2005, which part of Schedule D of the contract with Premier Prison Services provides details that indicate whether it gave prior written approval of the training given by instructors to new employees shown in the BBC documentary on HM Prison Kilmarnock and, if no part of Schedule D provides such details, whether it is satisfied with the answer to question S2W-16642.

Question reference: S2W-17265

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15432 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 April 2005, whether the new prison at Low Moss will be provided and managed by the private sector under contract to the Scottish Prison Service.

Question reference: S2W-17268

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the actual relative cost savings per prisoner have been for privately operated prisons in comparison with publicly operated prisons in Scotland for each of the last five years and how these figures are calculated.

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

The information is not available. At the time that the contract was agreed for HM Prison Kilmarnock, the cost per prisoner place was estimated to be about half that of the public sector comparator. A detailed analysis of relative costs in public and private sector provision is set out in the report from Price Waterhouse Coopers, commissioned by SPS at the time of the Estates Review, and was summarised in the Scottish Executives consultation on the future of the Scottish Prison Estate. Those documents are published and are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, (Bib. numbers 20290, 20291, 20292 and 22959).

Question reference: S2W-17048

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15431 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 April 2005, whether it will provide the (a) date, (b) cost and (c) specific reason for each visit made by the Minister for Justice to HM Prison Kilmarnock in the last six years.