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-05338

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 29 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates it has made of the effect on local authority expenditure levels of (a) the 5% contribution towards housing benefit which local authorities are required to make, (b) the administrative costs associated with processing their housing benefit responsibilities and (c) the projected cost of any penalties imposed by the Department of Social Security; whether it will provide a breakdown by each local authority of what these costs were in the current financial year and its estimate for 2000-01, and whether these costs are taken into account when determining the local government finance settlement.

The support to be paid to Scottish councils in 2000-01 for the element of Housing Benefit not met directly by the Department of Social Security and the support to cover the costs of administration of the benefit is set out in the table below.

Housing Benefit is a reserved matter and the Scottish Executive does not hold the additional information requested. There is no provision within the local government finance settlement to reimburse local authorities for any housing benefit payments made by councils outwith the terms of DSS legislation.

	5.5% Housing Benefit Residual Subsidy	Housing Benefit Administration Subsidy: (Rent rebates & allowances)
	£M	£M
Aberdeen City	1.745	0.521
Aberdeenshire	1.184	0.334
Angus	1.043	0.300
Argyll & Bute	0.867	0.242
Clackmannanshire	0.579	0.162
Dumfries & Galloway	1.509	0.427
Dundee City	2.750	0.830
East Ayrshire	1.584	0.422
East Dunbartonshire	0.597	0.115
East Lothian	0.866	0.260
East Renfrewshire	0.509	0.118
City f Edinburgh	4.913	1.557
Eilean Siar	0.277	0.053
Falkirk	1.672	0.452
Fife	3.997	1.022
Glasgow City	13.353	3.865
Highland	1.924	0.568
Inverclyde	1.287	0.358
Midlothian	0.782	0.224
Moray	0.688	0.197
North Ayrshire	1.719	0.460
North Lanarkshire	4.357	1.105
Orkney	0.136	0.038
Perth & Kinross	1.109	0.318
Renfrewshire	2.384	0.662
Scottish Borders	1.026	0.308
Shetland	0.120	0.032
South Ayrshire	1.174	0.316
South Lanarkshire	3.364	0.902
Stirling	0.739	0.196
West Dunbartonshire	1.481	0.426
West Lothian	1.694	0.498

Scotland	61.428	17.289

Question reference: S1W-04371

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what disciplinary action it has taken or plans to take in respect of the publication of false information by the Scottish Tourist Board on 30 November 1999 about a survey undertaken by the Forum for Private Business.

Question reference: S1W-04191

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many employees benefited from training and development through projects undertaken by Scottish Enterprise and Highland and Islands Enterprise in each of the last three years.

The number of employees benefiting from training and development through projects undertaken by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise in the last 3 financial years are as follows:

Scottish Enterprise

	Skillseekers Number with employed status	Training for Work Number with employed status
1996-97	22,215	3,324
1997-98	23,098	3,256
1998-99	24,500	2,718

Note: Scottish Enterprise do not collate network figures for discretionary training provided by local enterprise companies.

In addition, 93,969 employees benefited from training and development as a result of their companies having Investors in People accreditation in 1998-99.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise

	Skillseekers Number with employed status	Training for Work Number with employed status	Discretionary Training Number of employees
1996-97	1,221	22	2,314
1997-98	2,051	25	2,382
1998-99	2,247	13	2,314

In addition, 26,700 employees benefited from training and development as a result of businesses committing to the Investors in People programme in the period 1996-99.

Question reference: S1W-04213

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much net additional money activities undertaken by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have added to Scotland's output in each of the last three years.

Scottish Enterprise estimate the direct net additional Gross Domestic Product associated with their activities to be in excess of £600 million in each of 1997-98 and 1998-99.

These estimates are calculated using evaluation evidence. They represent expectation of output on the third year after expenditure is incurred and are not cumulative.No comparable figures are available for the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Network.

Question reference: S1W-04214

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money was generated through additional sales resulting from projects undertaken by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise in each of the last three years and what percentage of these additional sales were exports.

The projected increase in sales resulting from projects undertaken by Scottish Enterprise in each of the last three financial years was as follows:

	Sales £m	% export sales
1998-99	1452	30
1997-98	1188	26
1996-97	1550	11

Notes:

1. These figures represent the projected increased sales expected to be generated in the third year following Scottish Enterprise assistance.

2. The effects of property and skills related interventions are excluded.

No comparable figures are available for the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Network.

Question reference: S1W-04425

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 27 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the funding provided by it and its executive agencies into researching the causes of, and a cure for, multiple sclerosis.

The Scottish Executive has received no research proposals of a sufficiently high standard on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) recently and therefore does not directly fund research into this neurological disease at present. However, we would be pleased to receive research applications on MS.We are aware of 13 research projects on MS which are currently taking place in the UK, one of which is taking place in Scotland. The results of the projects undertaken throughout the UK will inform the future direction of research and treatment of this disease.Details of these are available from the National Research Register (NRR), a copy of which is in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S1W-05260

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Donald Dewar on 24 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each of its executive agencies has spent on (a) internally sourced and (b) externally sourced public and press relations services since 1 July 1999.

Question reference: S1W-05238

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the highest number is of prisoners categorised as Category A prior to their transfer to Bowhouse Prison, Kilmarnock who have been detained there at any one time and how many such prisoners are currently detained.

Question reference: S1W-05125

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4591 by Mr Jim Wallace on 6 March 2000, what the highest number of prisoners detained in each prison other than HMP Kilmarnock has been to date; what the total number of prisoners in each prison was on 24 February 2000, and what percentage of total capacity these figures represent in each case.

The numbers requested are in the table below.

Scottish Prison Establishments (excluding Kilmarnock):

Establishments	Max. Population covering 1 April 1996 to 2 March 2000	Max. Population as a percentage of capacity at 25 February 2000	Total Population as at 24 February 2000	Population as at 24 February 2000 as a percentage of capacity at 25 February
Aberdeen	230	141%	148	91%
Barlinnie	1,340	142%	943	100%
Castle Huntly	142	95%	136	91%
Cornton Vale	225	104%	205	94%
Dumfries	164	109%	102	68%
Dungavel	145	107%	87	64%
Edinburgh	792	133%	697	117%
Friarton	90	100%	57	63%
Glenochil Prison	471	95%	465	94%
Glenochil YOI	179	103%	104	60%
Greenock	313	130%	146	61%
Inverness	166	154%	128	119%
Longriggend	214	122%	146	83%
Low Moss	432	109%	285	72%
Noranside	140	104%	113	84%
Penninghame	97	102%	11	12%
Perth	523	120%	449	103%
Peterhead	300	102%	292	99%
Peterhead Unit	10	100%	0	0%
Polmont	511	121%	448	106%
Shotts	472	102%	453	98%
Shotts NIC	55	102%	54	100%
Shotts Unit	10	83%	10	83%
Zeist	2	33%	2	33%
Total			5,481	92%

Question reference: S1W-04648

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding adverse consequences for rural communities in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands, of any increase in excise duty or VAT on fuel in the budget in March 2000.