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-16654

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the grievance procedures that operate in the health centre at HM Prison Kilmarnock.

Question reference: S1W-16572

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent staff (a) it and (b) each of the public bodies for which it is responsible employs in media and public relations functions.

The Media and Communications professional staff in the Scottish Executive are as follows:

Campaign and Publications Press Office

1 x Senior Civil Service Grade (5) 1 x Senior Civil Service Grade

1 x Media and Communications Manager 2 x Depute Head of News

2 x Senior Communications Officers 5 x Chief Press Officers

11 x Senior Information Officers

9 x Information Officers 10 x Assistant Information Officers

News Website Crown Office

1 x News Website Editor 2 x Senior Information Officers

1 x Deputy News Website Editor 1 x Assistant Information Officer

The figures for the public bodies funded by the Scottish Executive are not held centrally.

Question reference: S1W-16649

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 31 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask the Chief Inspector of Prisons to investigate the management and practices of the health centre at HM Prison Kilmarnock.

Question reference: S1W-16647

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 31 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints of staff bullying have been lodged against the management of the health centre at HM Prison Kilmarnock since it opened.

Question reference: S1W-16748

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 July 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 30 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the recent budget statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government, whether it will give a breakdown of any changes in the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning budget.

The Finance Minister's announcement on 27 June stated that the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department will receive an additional £14 million, £4 million and £3 million over 2001-04 to fund foot-and-mouth disease recovery, cultural industries and assistance for child care for further and higher education students. However, provision for student loans will be reduced as a result of accounting changes and Regional Selective Assistance provision will be reduced to meet forecast demand. These realignments will produce £10 million, £17 million, and £20 million, giving a net change of £4 million, -£13 million and -£17 million over the same period. The new Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) plans will be £2,051.8 million, £2,088.1 million and £2,155.1 million over the three years from 2001-02.

The revised budget for the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department will be contained within the Executive's draft budget which will be published in September 2001.

Question reference: S1W-16719

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 26 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers or rights of consultation it has in relation to takeovers or mergers of companies within Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-16639

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 25 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the performance of Quality Meat Scotland.

I have seen Quality Meat Scotland's forward plans and am impressed with the approach set out. Quality Meat Scotland is owned jointly by the Meat and Livestock Commission and the two bodies representative of levy payers, NFU Scotland and the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers. Any review is therefore a matter for the industry as I have no direct responsibility for Quality Meat Scotland itself.

Question reference: S1W-16570

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 24 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current status is of local economic forums in the Highlands and Islands area.

Question reference: S1W-16569

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 24 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Local Economic Forums have now been formed; how many times each has met; how many consultancy contracts have been let or are in the process of being tendered in relation to their work, and what the value is of each such contract.

Forums in the Scottish Enterprise area	Formed	Meetings to date
Ayrshire	√	3
Borders	√	1
Dumfries & Galloway	√	3
Dunbartonshire	√	3
Edinburgh & Lothians	√	3
Fife	√	1
Forth Valley	√	3
Glasgow	√	3
Grampian	√	2
Lanarkshire	√	2
Renfrewshire	√	4
Tayside	√	3

Forums in the Highlands and Islands area	Formed	Meetings to date
Argyll & the Islands	√	3
Caithness & Sutherland	*	*
Inverness & Nairn	√	4
Lochaber	√	3
Moray Badenoch & Strathspey	√	2
Orkney	√	2
Ross & Cromarty	√	3
Shetland	√	1
Skye & Lochalsh	√	1
Western Isles	√	1

* Scheduled for 30 July 2001.

The use of consultants is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the forum partners. The Executive does not hold this information centrally.

Question reference: S1W-16571

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 23 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much (a) it and (b) each of the public bodies for which it is responsible have spent on media relations consultants in each of the last two financial years and in the current financial year to date.

Information about public relations and marketing companies that are employed by Scottish public bodies for which the Scottish Executive has direct responsibility is kept under review following the undertaking given by the then First Minister in his reply to question S1W-3223. Relevant figures for the period 1 July to 10 October 1999 are given in Appendix 6 of the Report on the use of public relations organisations by Scottish Public Bodies since 1 July 1999, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 7215).

A similar exercise covering the period from 11 October 1999 to 31 March 2001 is still in progress. When it is completed I will write to Mr Neil and place the report in the Parliament's Reference Centre.