The Scottish Parliament

Question reference: S2W-04365

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 15 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available any recommendations it or individual ministers have made to Her Majesty The Queen in respect of the honours system.

Question reference: S2W-12732

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 15 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of Scotland's GDP it is targeting for research and development (R&D) spend by 2010, as defined in the Lisbon Agreement.

The Lisbon Agreement set a target for 3% of GDP to be spent on R&D across all EU member States by 2010, with two thirds of this financed by business. The Executive does not have a specific 2010 target for R&D expenditure relative to GDP, but recognises the importance of R&D in both stimulating innovation and as an important source of economic growth. As such the Executive has identified R&D as a key priority in its Framework for Economic Development in Scotland. The Executive is committed to increasing business expenditure on R&D relative to GDP in Scotland in order to close the gap with the OECD average, as set out in Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2005-2008.

Question reference: S2W-12859

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 15 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children enrolled in primary 1 in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-12733

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 15 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that the financial incentives available for attracting internationally-mobile research and development (R&D) projects to Scotland are competitive enough compared with those on offer from similar parts of the European Union.

The Smart, Successful Scotland Strategy confirms our focus on targeting inward investment of a high value nature, including research and development (R&D) projects. Figures collected by Ernst & Young suggest that Scotland is succeeding in attracting more such projects than the UK and European averages. In 2003, more than 10% of the inward investment projects they recorded for Scotland had an R&D focus, against an average rate of just over 6% of projects both at UK and Europe-wide levels.

The Scottish Executive and its agencies have developed a pipeline of public sector support mechanisms to assist all stages of the development process from idea generation to full-scale production. This includes a company support programme for which Scottish Enterprise has gained approval from the EU known as R&D Plus which is intended to encourage innovative research and technological development with global commercial potential in order to stimulate growth, strengthen competitiveness and sustainability in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-12480

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 9 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people who migrated from each local authority area to the rest of the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years were (a) in employment, (b) unemployed and (c) economically inactive at the time of migration.

This information, provided in the following table, is only available for the year preceding the last Census, in 2001.

Number of Persons Living in Rest of UK (Outwith Scotland) who Lived in Scotland One Year Before the 2001 Census, Breakdown by Local Authority of Previous Residence and Employment Status

	Working	Unemployed	No Recorded Economic Activity	Total
Aberdeen City	1,721	137	823	2,681
Aberdeenshire	940	98	866	1,904
Angus	538	47	333	918
Argyll and Bute	689	81	659	1,429
Clackmannanshire	128	19	118	265
Dumfries and Galloway	881	104	759	1,744
Dundee City	790	77	475	1,342
East Ayrshire	429	38	305	772
East Dunbartonshire	443	27	277	747
East Lothian	316	21	291	628
East Renfrewshire	391	34	259	684
Edinburgh, City of	5,362	537	2,507	8,406
Eilean Siar	114	10	106	230
Falkirk	395	38	232	665
Fife	1,800	169	1,300	3,269
Glasgow City	3,181	315	1,803	5,299
Highland	994	118	813	1,925
Inverclyde	208	30	165	403
Midlothian	291	31	244	566
Moray	1,078	74	768	1,920
North Ayrshire	474	47	336	857
North Lanarkshire	808	70	593	1,471
Orkney Islands	83	12	92	187
Perth and Kinross	903	61	641	1,605
Renfrewshire	682	50	344	1,076
Scottish Borders	685	85	567	1,337
Shetland Islands	188	14	127	329
South Ayrshire	532	60	399	991
South Lanarkshire	950	86	639	1,675
Stirling	615	51	338	1,004
West Dunbartonshire	279	29	177	485
West Lothian	490	63	399	952
Total	27,378	2,633	17,755	47,766

Question reference: S2W-12479

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 9 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have migrated from each local authority area to the rest of the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) reason for migration, (b) age, (c) gender and (d) region of the United Kingdom to which they migrated.

This information, provided inthe following table, is only available for the year preceding the last Census, in2001. The Census does not ask about the reason for migration.

Number of Persons Living in Restof UK (outwith Scotland) who Lived in Scotland One Year Before the 2001Census, Breakdown by Local Authority of Previous Residence and Age Group

	0-15	16-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65 & over	Total
Aberdeen City	286	862	977	296	156	65	39	2,681
Aberdeenshire	402	456	377	283	199	112	75	1,904
Angus	166	257	249	121	46	35	44	918
Argyll and Bute	313	282	297	244	112	86	95	1,429
Clackmannanshire	58	77	66	35	12	12	5	265
Dumfries and Galloway	303	485	367	223	148	92	126	1,744
Dundee City	168	532	397	127	52	26	40	1,342
East Ayrshire	126	232	222	81	57	29	25	772
East Dunbartonshire	104	256	189	87	64	15	32	747
East Lothian	118	204	145	79	44	19	19	628
East Renfrewshire	115	229	182	75	41	18	24	684
Edinburgh, City of	832	3,145	2,974	814	295	160	186	8,406
Eilean Siar	42	48	50	45	26	10	9	230
Falkirk	101	207	178	95	40	17	27	665
Fife	558	1,101	815	416	188	88	103	3,269
Glasgow City	658	1,532	1,956	608	231	129	185	5,299
Highland	335	452	463	255	175	130	115	1,925
Inverclyde	69	113	102	61	25	19	14	403
Midlothian	120	133	185	53	35	14	26	566
Moray	473	398	553	318	96	48	34	1,920
North Ayrshire	140	276	195	93	66	45	42	857
North Lanarkshire	313	379	406	193	90	51	39	1,471
Orkney Islands	20	43	32	30	24	16	22	187
Perth and Kinross	274	440	372	241	118	78	82	1,605
Renfrewshire	141	338	300	130	85	32	50	1,076
Scottish Borders	252	334	293	173	124	74	87	1,337
Shetland Islands	73	61	89	52	30	14	10	329
South Ayrshire	162	267	262	141	72	31	56	991
South Lanarkshire	299	446	426	270	98	62	74	1,675
Stirling	118	374	254	124	74	39	21	1,004
West Dunbartonshire	74	134	124	66	42	16	29	485
West Lothian	198	197	244	156	82	36	39	952
Total	7,411	14,290	13,741	5,985	2,947	1,618	1,774	47,766

Number of Persons Living in Restof UK (outwith Scotland) who Lived in Scotland One Year Before the 2001Census, Breakdown by Local Authority of Previous Residence and Gender

	Male	Female	Total
Aberdeen City	1,384	1,297	2,681
Aberdeenshire	968	936	1,904
Angus	510	408	918
Argyll and Bute	712	717	1,429
Clackmannanshire	140	125	265
Dumfries and Galloway	919	825	1,744
Dundee City	697	645	1,342
East Ayrshire	380	392	772
East Dunbartonshire	384	363	747
East Lothian	311	317	628
East Renfrewshire	346	338	684
Edinburgh, City of	4,270	4,136	8,406
Eilean Siar	135	95	230
Falkirk	359	306	665
Fife	1,700	1,569	3,269
Glasgow City	2,554	2,745	5,299
Highland	1,016	909	1,925
Inverclyde	205	198	403
Midlothian	314	252	566
Moray	1,094	826	1,920
North Ayrshire	436	421	857
North Lanarkshire	805	666	1,471
Orkney Islands	101	86	187
Perth and Kinross	844	761	1,605
Renfrewshire	571	505	1,076
Scottish Borders	659	678	1,337
Shetland Islands	173	156	329
South Ayrshire	504	487	991
South Lanarkshire	861	814	1,675
Stirling	505	499	1,004
West Dunbartonshire	240	245	485
West Lothian	477	475	952
Total	24,574	23,192	47,766

Number of Persons Living inRest of UK (Outwith Scotland) who Lived in Scotland One Year Before the 2001Census, Breakdown by Local Authority of Previous Residence and Region ofResidence at Census Time (Part 1)

	North East	North West	Yorkshire & the Humber	East Midlands	West Midlands	East
Aberdeen City	181	322	230	141	103	245
Aberdeenshire	180	258	220	132	104	192
Angus	60	96	85	60	38	73
Argyll and Bute	98	224	118	81	67	147
Clackmannanshire	17	31	42	21	17	12
Dumfries and Galloway	173	520	164	133	101	100
Dundee City	123	141	163	87	92	105
East Ayrshire	47	81	70	55	63	72
East Dunbartonshire	41	97	63	31	45	90
East Lothian	100	69	64	30	42	75
East Renfrewshire	22	84	54	34	45	69
Edinburgh, City of	581	753	709	307	349	559
Eilean Siar	17	43	15	13	10	20
Falkirk	61	95	77	45	28	78
Fife	202	464	367	225	230	305
Glasgow City	336	643	435	320	333	427
Highland	119	352	229	141	94	191
Inverclyde	33	65	36	23	17	29
Midlothian	68	81	75	24	29	22
Moray	74	125	119	218	241	428
North Ayrshire	53	128	79	50	74	67
North Lanarkshire	101	217	161	130	71	103
Orkney Islands	12	18	33	14	8	20
Perth and Kinross	126	204	159	74	114	184
Renfrewshire	53	155	66	56	51	113
Scottish Borders	382	153	135	83	46	119
Shetland Islands	32	27	22	46	13	12
South Ayrshire	53	138	95	42	59	94
South Lanarkshire	119	255	185	99	153	163
Stirling	77	121	97	95	73	60
West Dunbartonshire	26	90	31	36	26	50
West Lothian	63	118	84	133	88	64
Total	3,630	6,168	4,482	2,979	2,824	4,288

Number of Persons Living inRest of UK (Outwith Scotland) who Lived in Scotland One Year Before the 2001Census, Breakdown by Local Authority of Previous Residence and Region ofResidence at Census Time (Part 2)

	London	South East	South West	Northern Ireland	Wales	Total
Aberdeen City	647	460	215	80	57	2,681
Aberdeenshire	156	375	171	42	74	1,904
Angus	122	123	202	36	23	918
Argyll and Bute	87	252	275	28	52	1,429
Clackmannanshire	30	53	22	9	11	265
Dumfries and Galloway	136	196	138	48	35	1,744
Dundee City	216	164	97	126	28	1,342
East Ayrshire	141	104	56	35	48	772
East Dunbartonshire	153	153	52	11	11	747
East Lothian	59	81	61	11	36	628
East Renfrewshire	158	154	47	8	9	684
Edinburgh, City of	2,239	1,182	534	1,054	139	8,406
Eilean Siar	31	29	38	4	10	230
Falkirk	61	115	36	48	21	665
Fife	363	579	329	104	101	3,269
Glasgow City	1,274	764	359	276	132	5,299
Highland	160	304	184	52	99	1,925
Inverclyde	61	67	33	21	18	403
Midlothian	59	81	42	60	25	566
Moray	80	273	224	70	68	1,920
North Ayrshire	97	145	95	36	33	857
North Lanarkshire	162	267	112	83	64	1,471
Orkney Islands	11	14	21	9	27	187
Perth and Kinross	172	305	156	41	70	1,605
Renfrewshire	201	193	75	94	19	1,076
Scottish Borders	83	147	122	13	54	1,337
Shetland Islands	16	73	57	17	14	329
South Ayrshire	104	158	148	50	50	991
South Lanarkshire	184	294	126	58	39	1,675
Stirling	140	183	74	63	21	1,004
West Dunbartonshire	44	77	55	34	16	485
West Lothian	82	160	72	51	37	952
Total	7,529	7,525	4,228	2,672	1,441	47,766

Question reference: S2W-12472

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many people received incapacity benefit in each of the last five years as (a) claimants or (b) beneficiaries, broken down by (i) age, (ii) gender and (iii) local authority area, and how these figures compare with the United Kingdom as a whole.

The Scottish Executive does not hold all of the information requested, as benefits are a reserved matter. The Department for Work and Pensions have general responsibility for information on benefits and have provided the requested figures for local authorities, Scotland and GB (Department for Work and Pensions provide GB not UK figures).

The information requested runs to many pages of print and has therefore been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Title Incapacity Benefit claimants/beneficiaries by age, gender and Local Authority in Scotland May 2000 - May 2004, Bib. number 34576).

The Scottish Executive publishes information for Scotland and local authorities on recipients of social security benefits and tax credits twice a year. The latest publication is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/btcsfeb04.pdf.

Question reference: S2W-12477

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) international labour organisation unemployment rate and (b) inactivity rate due to sickness or disability is, broken down by (i) age and (ii) gender and what equivalent information it has for (1) the United Kingdom and (2) each EU member state.

The international labour organisation (ILO) unemployment levels and rates for Scotland and the UK are reported in Tables 1 and 2.

Economic inactivity due to sickness or disability is available for Scotland only; levels and rates are reported in Tables 3 and 4.

The ILO unemployment rates by gender for the EU member states are reported in Table 5.

Table 1: Unemployment¹ Levels and Rates by Gender, Scotland and UK, 2003

Gender	Scotland	UK
Level	Rate	Level	Rate
Male	92,000	6.9	856,000	5.4
Female	53,000	4.5	588,000	4.4
All	145,000	5.8	1,444,000	4.9

Source: Annual Local Area Labour Force Survey, 2003-04.

Note: 1. Levels and rates are for those aged 16 and over.

Table 2: Unemployment¹ Levels and Rates by Age, Scotland and UK, 2003

Gender	Scotland	UK
Level	Rate	Level	Rate
16 to 19	30,000	17.9	300,000	16.6
20 to 24	28,000	11.4	257,000	9.4
25 to 34	31,000	5.9	303,000	4.7
35 to 49	36,000	3.7	362,000	3.3
50 and over	20,000	3.3	222,000	3.0
All	145,000	5.8	1,444,000	4.9

Source: Annual Local Area Labour Force Survey, 2003-04 .

Note: 1. Levels and rates are for those aged 16 and over.

Table 3: Economic Inactivity² Due to Sickness Levels and Rates by Gender, Scotland, 2003

Gender	Scotland
Level	Rate³
Male	141,000	8.9
Female	125,000	8.2
All	266,000	8.5

Source: Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey, 2003-04.

Notes:

2. Levels and rates are for those of working age (16 to 59/64).

3. Rate is calculated by dividing the number of working age people that are inactive due to sickness by the total working age population.

Table 4: Economic Inactivity² Due to Sickness Levels and Rates by Age, Scotland, 2003

Gender	Scotland
Level	Rate³
16 to 19	4,000	1.6
20 to 24	10,000	3.1
25 to 34	28,000	4.5
35 to 49	85,000	7.4
50 to retirement	139,000	17.9
All	266,000	8.5

Source: Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey, 2003-04.

2 Levels and rates are for those of working age (16-59/64).

3 Rate is calculated by dividing the number of working age people that are inactive due to sickness by the total working age population.

Table 5: Unemployment⁴ Rates by Gender, EU 25, 2003

Country	Male	Female	All
EU 25	8.3	10.0	9.1
Belgium	7.6	8.4	8.0
Czech Republic	6.1	9.8	7.8
Denmark	5.3	5.9	5.6
Germany	10.0	9.2	9.6
Estonia	10.5	9.9	10.2
Greece	5.9	14.2	9.3
Spain	8.2	15.9	11.3
France	8.5	10.5	9.4
Ireland	4.9	4.2	4.6
Italy	6.7	11.6	8.6
Cyprus	3.9	5.2	4.5
Latvia	10.1	10.6	10.4
Lithuania	12.3	13.1	12.7
Luxembourg	3.0	4.6	3.7
Hungary	6.0	5.5	5.8
Malta	6.8	10.7	8.0
Netherlands	3.6	4.0	3.8
Austria	3.9	4.7	4.3
Poland	18.6	20.0	19.2
Portugal	5.4	7.2	6.3
Slovenia	6.0	7.0	6.5
Slovakia	17.2	17.8	17.5
Finland	9.2	8.9	9.0
Sweden	6.0	5.2	5.6
United Kingdom	5.5	4.3	4.9

Source: Eurostat.

Note: 4. Rates are for those aged 15 to 74.

Question reference: S2W-12473

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of job vacancies has been in (a) each local authority area and (b) total in each of the last five years.

The Jobcentre vacancy series has been suspended by the Office for National Statistics and the Department for Work and Pensions since May 2001. However, the number of notified vacancies for each month has been available since late 2002. Notified vacancies are not collected by local authority area. However, Table 1 shows the average number of notified vacancies in 2003 by Jobcentre Plus District.

Table 2 shows the average number of unfilled and notified vacancies for Scotland in 1999 and 2000 as well as the average notified vacancies for 2003.

Table 1 Average Notified Vacancies by Jobcentre Plus District, 2003

Jobcentre Plus District	Average Monthly Notified Vacancies
Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway	2,646
Edinburgh	3,412
Fife	1,858
Forth Valley and Dumbarton	2,191
Glasgow	5,263
Grampian, Moray, Orkney and Shetland	3,479
Highlands and Western Isles	1,594
Lanarkshire	3,310
Lothian and Borders	2,305
Renfrew and Inverclyde, Argyle and Bute	1,919
Tayside	2,033

Source: NOMIS, Department for Work and Pensions

Table 2 Average Unfilled and Notified Vacancies in Scotland, 1999, 2000 and 2003

	Average Monthly Notified Vacancies	Average Monthly Unfilled Vacancies
1999	25,850	32,925
2000	25,117	39,925
2001	*	*
2002	*	*
2003	30,013	*

Source: NOMIS, Department for Work and Pensions.

Note: *Not available as series was suspended.

Question reference: S2W-12471

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the First Minister’s statement to the Parliament on 7 September 2004 that “full employment is finally within our grasp” (Official Report, col 9879), what its definition is of full employment

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