- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2833 by Mr Jim Wallace on 6 October 2003, whether any of the 57 projects in 2002-03 did not begin; how many of the 7,159 jobs are still in situ, and whether any of the #205.2 million investment was withdrawn.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
When the figures for plannedinward investment projects are released it is made clear that they are basedupon information available at the time the inward investment decision is madeand that some projects may not proceed while others may be reduced in scale asa result of the economic environment. Equally, however, some projects may leadto more investment and more jobs than originally anticipated.
A detailed analysis carriedout covering the period 1991 until 1999 showed that around 73% of all announcedinvestment came to fruition.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2833 by Mr Jim Wallace on 6 October 2003, whether any of the 91 projects in 1999-2002 did not begin; how many of the 19,334 jobs are still in situ, and whether any of the #650.1 million investment was withdrawn.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-4499 on 10 December 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its latest estimate is of the cost of the Holyrood Inquiry led by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie.
Answer
The Scottish Executive expectsLord Fraser to contain expenditure on the investigation into the costs of theHolyrood building project within the agreed budget of £1.2 million.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to announce the outcome of the review of the area tourist board network.
Answer
The ministerial group on tourismhas been taking an in-depth look at the current state of Scottish tourism includingthe overall public expenditure on tourism and related services. The area touristboard review is being considered in the context of these wider issues. I, andmy ministerial colleagues, are taking the time to get the right supportstructure, so we can achieve our long-term vision for Scottish tourism. It is hopedthat an announcement on the outcomes will be made in the near future.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated expenditure required to achieve its performance targets for reducing class si'es is, in each of the next three years, and how much of this expenditure has been allocated, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) primary and secondary education target.
Answer
Funding of £29 million and £49million for 2004-05 and 2005-06 respectively was included in the draft ScottishBudget published on 16 September 2003 for additional teachers and the Spark project.Funding for future years will be agreed in the forthcoming spending review. Existingfunding has yet to be allocated to local authorities, since employment costswill not arise until new teachers have been trained and are fully qualified.Even once allocations are agreed with local authorities, a precise splitbetween primary and secondary costs may not be possible, since one of the aimsof the overall partnership commitment on teacher numbers is to break downbarriers between primary and secondary teaching.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3412 by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2003, when, and by whom, the fingerprint experts in the Glasgow fingerprint bureau have been subject to external annual competency testing and what the criterion is for such testing.
Answer
The fingerprint experts inthe Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) Glasgow Bureau have been subject toannual external competency testing since 2001. It is mandatory for all fingerprintexperts in the SFS Glasgow bureau to undertake the competency testing annually.
The tests are conducted by collaborativetesting service, a USA-based forensic testing service.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish GDP would currently be had it increased at the same rate as the UK average since 1997.
Answer
Based on the latest data available from the Office for National Statistics for the value of ScottishGross Value Added (GVA), if Scottish growth had matched the UK average(excluding extra-regio) between 1997 and 2001, the estimated level of ScottishGVA in 2001 would have been £73.4 billion.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3412 by Cathy Jamieson on 12 November 2003, when the Glasgow fingerprint bureau was certified as competent to the ISO 9001: 2000 standard.
Answer
The Scottish FingerprintService Glasgow Bureau was certified to ISO9000 in December 2000. The ISOstandard was upgraded to ISO9001:2000 in 2002 and the Glasgow Bureau wasaccredited to ISO9001:2000 in December 2002.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the additional value, compared with the actual value, of Scottish GDP would be had its GDP grown at the same rate as the UK average since 1999.
Answer
Based on the latest data available from the Office for National Statistics for the value of Scottish grossvalue added (GVA), if Scottish growth had matched the UK average(excluding extra-regio) between 1999 and 2001, the level of GVA in 2001 wouldhave been £1.5 billion higher than the actual estimate of £69.2 billion.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on increasing the income threshold at which students repay their graduate endowment/student loan.
Answer
The partnership agreementcontains a commitment to support a higher threshold for the repayment ofstudent loans across the UK. There is no income threshold for paying the graduateendowment although graduates can meet their liability by adding the amount totheir student loan account.
