- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the number of (i) bank account arrestments and (ii) wage arrestments in each of the past three years.
Answer
The table below sets out the information which is recorded on the number of arrestments which were executed in Scotland in each of the past three years.
| | Earnings Arrestments Executed | Non-Earnings Arrestments Executed | Other Arrestments |
1997 | 88,152 | 89,641 | 4,917 |
1998 | 74,200 | 96,707 | 4,584 |
1999 | 73,464 | 98,613 | 4,612 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of financial assistance for new businesses starting up by it and its agencies for each of the past two years and the current year, broken down by local enterprise company area.
Answer
The Scottish Executive provides direct financial assistance to businesses under its SMART scheme and through Regional Selective Assistance (RSA). A total of £1.1 million was awarded in grants under SMART in the financial year 1998-99, £1.6 million in 1999-2000 and £0.3 million in the period 1 April 2000 to 31 May 2000. These grants were made, in the main, to new start up and very early stage businesses.A further £1 million was provided to new businesses under the Scottish Executive's SPUR Programme in 1998-99, £1.5 million in 1999-2000 and £0.2 million in the first two months of the current financial year.
Financial assistance under the RSA scheme is available to both new start and established businesses. Data on assistance offered under RSA, however, is not collated on the basis of the date of formation of the companies applying for grant.
Financial assistance for new start up businesses from local enterprise companies and their agents is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise and I have asked the chairmen of both organisations to reply to the member. A copy of the reply will be placed in SPICe.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what has been the number of redundancies in the forestry and related industries since May 1999.
Answer
The information requested on redundancies in the forestry and related industries is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimates are of forestry related exports from Scotland in each of the past three years.
Answer
The latest available data on forestry exports from Scotland are provided in the tables below:
| Exports to the rest of the UK£ million | Exports to the rest of the world£ million |
Forestry Harvesting | 1996 | 75.5 | 14.2 |
| | 1995 | 52.8 | 7.7 |
| | 1994 | 27.2 | 2.3 |
Source: Scottish Input-Output Tables and Multipliers 1996, 1995, 1994; Table 3.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what process will be used in preparing its response to the UK Raptor Working Party report; what timetable is envisaged; which organisations will be consulted, and whether it will make available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre all the submissions it receives on the matter.
Answer
I have asked Scottish Natural Heritage to provide formal advice to me on the recommendations in the UK Raptor Working Group report by spring 2001 and suggested they consult widely with interested organisations. The Scottish Executive will give careful consideration to the SNH response, and any other relevant material, before responding to the report.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of spending on assistance for individual learning accounts by it and its agencies for each of the past two years and the current year, broken down by local enterprise company area.
Answer
All expenditure on Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) has been directed through the Enterprise Network.
During 1999-2000 the Enterprise Network spent £1.2 million on developing the ILA model and determining operational requirements, as well as piloting the design. This also included an allocation of £0.4 million to Scottish Enterprise Grampian for its pilot, of which £0.3 million was for the payment of incentives to ILA holders.
Some further learning account projects were also run by a number of LECs, including Fife, during 1999-2000 using European Objective 4 funding together with their own discretionary funds. Information on the costs to individual LECs is not available.
Whilst a number of spending commitments have been made in the current year, actual expenditure to date by the Enterprise Network as a whole, including the LECs, has been £30,000.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many bank accounts arrested last year recovered sums greater than #63 and how many were of a value that exceeded the value of the debt being recovered.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an estimate, by local authority area, of the shortage of high support and medium support housing units required to meet the needs of people with severe learning difficulties; what is the actual and projected spend on such units by local authority for the current year and each of the next two years, and whether it has a different policy for supporting those who are coming out of residential care into the community and those who are coming from a family care environment as to their eligibility for such units.
Answer
Information on the shortage of high support and medium support housing units by local authority area to meet the needs of people with severe learning disabilities is not held or collected centrally.
Levels of actual and estimated spend on such units owned by local authorities are a matter for local authorities themselves to determine in the light of local estimates of need.
It is also for local authorities to determine how such units are allocated.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will outline the process which will be used in preparing its response to the Hawk and Owl Trust Report; what timetable is envisaged; which organisations will be consulted, and whether it will make available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre all the submissions it receives on the matter.
Answer
The Scottish Executive will not be making a formal response to the report A Study into the Raptor Predation of Domestic Pigeons, which was completed under contract to DETR to inform the work of the UK Raptor Working Group.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated value is of the outstanding repair and maintenance requirements of secondary schools in Hamilton North and Bellshill.
Answer
The overall management of their school building stock is a matter for individual education authorities. Detailed information of the kind requested is not held centrally.
