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: S2W-17075

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 15 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money was spent (a) in total and (b) by each local authority on roads maintenance in each of the last five years.

The following tables give expenditure on roads maintenance in total and by local authority in each of the last five years. The first table shows the revenue expenditure and the second shows the capital expenditure. Following the Spending Review in 2004, an additional £60 million is being provided in each of 2006‑07 and 2007‑08 for additional maintenance on local roads. Compared to the allowance made against this heading in 2004-05, this represents an increase of over 23%.

Gross Expenditure on Roads Maintenance Scotland and Local Authorities 1999-2000 to 2003-04

	Revenue
	1999-2000 (£000)	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)
Aberdeen City	7,220	6,657	6,952	9,030	10,733
Aberdeenshire	18,008	19,397	16,510	19,391	23,396
Angus	4,859	6,027	4,703	7,567	5,355
Argyll and Bute	8,901	9,121	8,873	11,456	11,522
Clackmannanshire	1,000	1,010	1,010	1,342	1,749
Dumfries and Galloway	6,592	6,468	10,006	12,546	11,821
Dundee City	3,249	3,725	3,674	4,126	4,887
East Ayrshire	5,296	5,664	4,927	6,209	7,371
East Dunbartonshire	3,387	3,924	4,246	5,166	4,089
East Lothian	6,419	3,836	8,198	5,215	5,043
East Renfrewshire	2,733	2,346	2,746	5,258	4,983
Edinburgh City	11,874	12,062	11,304	16,134	11,382
Eilean Siar	4,720	5,175	4,463	5,591	5,544
Falkirk	3,226	3,440	3,716	3,678	5,118
Fife	8,431	10,490	11,733	15,214	16,756
Glasgow City	18,748	20,771	21,548	29,782	26,572
Highland	20,206	18,441	14,241	21,116	17,543
Inverclyde	2,079	2,420	2,014	2,485	2,482
Midlothian	4,042	3,943	3,259	3,373	3,320
Moray	4,446	6,002	5,356	6,803	7,653
North Ayrshire	2,934	3,098	4,389	5,456	5,802
North Lanarkshire	6,412	6,945	9,641	14,074	11,597
Orkney	5,129	4,335	3,127	3,691	3,918
Perth and Kinross	9,002	9,499	8,282	9,460	9,960
Renfrewshire	6,217	7,175	7,203	7,527	7,855
Scottish Borders	7,147	8,666	7,043	8,521	9,647
Shetland	6,984	8,766	5,405	5,591	5,769
South Ayrshire	4,796	4,993	4,974	5,794	4,539
South Lanarkshire	14,839	15,476	15,240	17,410	18,420
Stirling	5,106	5,891	4,303	5,760	5,393
West Dunbartonshire	3,543	3,663	3,315	3,577	3,414
West Lothian	5,473	5,759	6,212	7,532	8,232
Scotland	223,019	235,186	228,613	285,875	281,865

Note: Source – returns submitted by local authorities.

Structural Maintenance of Roads: Gross Payments not funded from Revenue Scotland and Local Authority 1999-2000 to 2003-04

	Capital
	1999-2000 (£000)	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)
Aberdeen City	1,373	1,757	1,073	261	1,311
Aberdeenshire	-	-	1,518	2,223	2,716
Angus	-	-	369	228	1,977
Argyll and Bute	1,141	1,491	1,494	1,028	1,351
Clackmannanshire	-	-	290	270	348
Dumfries and Galloway	-	146	-	-	939
Dundee City	-	-	-	-	-
East Ayrshire	368	558	1,475	1,339	1,356
East Dunbartonshire	-	-	-	-	-
East Lothian	-	380	1,622	1,241	1,508
East Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	-
Edinburgh City	3,286	4,634	4,994	8,455	13,772
Eilean Siar	1,338	1,595	1,563	1,776	2,195
Falkirk	1,347	1,298	1,673	900	1,997
Fife	6,255	5,599	5,411	4,147	2,519
Glasgow City	-	-	-	-	-
Highland	-	480	1,376	2,884	2,003
Inverclyde	-	-	-	-	-
Midlothian	773	242	-	-	349
Moray	1,341	1,452	1,573	861	761
North Ayrshire	308	1,029	638	737	459
North Lanarkshire	6	1,402	2,596	1,411	1,400
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-
Perth and Kinross	630	862	2,245	2,135	1,995
Renfrewshire	1,019	295	229	205	31
Scottish Borders	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	208	348	-	-	1
South Lanarkshire	249	1,077	67	-	-
Stirling	1,481	1,075	699	2	-
West Dunbartonshire	95	155	476	707	940
West Lothian	-	-	-		-
Scotland	21,218	25,875	31,381	30,810	39,928

Notes:

(i) Source – returns submitted by local authorities.

(ii) Revenue contributions to capital are not included - they are accounted for in the revenue table above.

Question reference: S2W-16831

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to allow public landowners, such as NHS boards and local authorities, to enter into land leasing agreements to provide affordable, sustainable housing.

Our housing policy statement Homes for Scotland’s People, published in March 2005, outlines the steps we are taking to make better use of public sector land for affordable housing. These steps include further work with UK government departments and other public bodies, including the NHS and local authorities, to secure transfers of public sector sites for affordable housing in areas where particular need has been identified. We have no plans to enter into land leasing agreements.

Question reference: S2W-17063

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the report of the review of the Advocacy Safeguards Agency will be published and where it will be made available.

A joint independent evaluation of the Advocacy Safeguards Agency and the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance was carried out in 2004 and a report was passed to the Health Department. The purpose of the evaluation was to inform discussions between the department and the organisations about the best way forward in meeting the commitment to ensure that advocacy is available to those that need it.

The evaluation report is available at www.advocacysafeguards.org and in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 36727).

Question reference: S2W-16828

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out any research into the Scandinavian model of co-housing.

Question reference: S2W-16829

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has provided any incentives to registered social landlords to explore and develop co-housing.

Question reference: S2W-16876

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16620 by Johann Lamont on 24 May 2005, whether the Scottish Building Standards Agency is considering any further applications to be scheme providers and whether there are any barriers to the recognition of alternative scheme providers by the Scottish Building Standards Agency.

I have asked Dr PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

The SBSA ispresently considering several applications from organisations wishing to becomescheme providers under the new system of certification.

There are no barriers to therecognition of alternative scheme providers. Such applicants are assisted bythe existence of an approved scheme framework within which they may developproposals for providing that same scheme. The procedures for approval ofschemes and providers are described in the Certification Handbook which isavailable on the SBSA website at www.sbsa.gov.uk.

Question reference: S2W-16871

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place a duty on registered social landlords to provide smoke detectors for deaf and hard of hearing people.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows.

The Performance Standards for Social Landlords and Homelessness functions, developed and published jointly by Communities Scotland, COSLA and Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, require that landlords are responsive to the particular needs of applicants and the changing needs of existing tenants and that properties are adapted efficiently to meet these needs. Compliance with these standards is monitored through Communities Scotland’s regulatory framework and inspection programme

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard, introduced in February 2004, and relevant to the housing stock as a whole, requires that a smoke detector is present in every home. Allied to this, the design guide Housing for varying Needs advises that occupants with impaired hearing will require safety devices such as smoke detectors to have a flashing light signal in addition to an audible alarm.

Question reference: S2W-16830

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 3 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out any research into community land trusts and, if so, what the findings of the research were.

The concept of a crofting community land trust was first explored by the then Scottish Office in 1996 in connection with proposals for community ownership of croft land owned by the Secretary of State For Scotland.

Parliamentary consideration of options for the creation of community bodies and crofting community bodies under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 was informed by the community land trust concept. The company model provided under the act was favoured by Scottish ministers because of the low set up costs and robustness, openness and transparency which are features of companies limited by guarantee, registered under the Companies Act, with documentation being publicly accessible at Companies House.

Question reference: S2W-16872

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide grants for smoke detectors for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Question reference: S2W-16870

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is in respect of the provision of smoke detectors for deaf and hard of hearing people.