- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 13 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether responsibility for the funding of the A8000 upgrade will remain with the Forth Estuary Transport Authority or whether such responsibility will transfer to the Executive, in light of the Minister for Transport and Telecommunication’s statement that “Before any toll increase is introduced on the Forth bridge, travellers need to see the completion of visible improvements” (Official Report c. 23596).
Answer
Primary responsibility for fundingthis project remains a matter for the Forth Estua
ry Transport Authority (FETA).The Executive has agreed tounderwrite FETA’s costs in upgrading the route, up to a maximum £24 million. Aspart of this, we are committedto providing grant of £5.605 million in thecurrent year.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 13 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it created the Forth Estuary Transport Authority with the intention of implementing a road user charging scheme on the Forth Road Bridge under the terms of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-23756 on 13 March2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the rates of fire service recruiting were in each of the last five years in each fire board area.
Answer
This is a matter for Fire andRescue Authorities and Joint Fire and Rescue Boards rather than the Scottish Executive.However, information on recruitment can be found in Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectorof Fire Services Annual Reports which are available on the Inspectorate’s websiteat:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Fire/15130/1028
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by George Lyon on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish details of the representations it has made in the last two years to Her Majesty’s Government with regard to council tax benefits.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is inregular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, includingcouncil tax benefit.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many retained firefighters there have been in each of the last five years in each fire board area.
Answer
The numbers of retained firefightersin each of the last five years by fire and rescue authority area are shown in thefollowing table.
Retained Fire Fighters byFire Authority Area
| | Scotland | Central | Dumfries and Galloway | Fife | Grampian | Highlands and Islands | Lothian and Borders | Strathclyde | Tayside |
| 2001 | 2,555 | 144 | 197 | 100 | 413 | 506 | 310 | 639 | 246 |
| 2002 | 2,620 | 150 | 193 | 112 | 396 | 597 | 317 | 615 | 240 |
| 2003 | 2,507 | 158 | 201 | 106 | 391 | 498 | 308 | 596 | 249 |
| 2004 | 2,522 | 162 | 196 | 107 | 389 | 492 | 302 | 610 | 264 |
| 2005 | 3,034 | 160 | 206 | 104 | 391 | 1059 | 286 | 592 | 236 |
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to fund police authorities and fire and rescue service boards directly.
Answer
We have no current plans to fundfire and rescue boards directly or to change the way that we fund the police service.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the rates of resignations and retirements from the fire service were in each of the last five years in each fire board area.
Answer
This is a matter for Fire andRescue Authorities and Joint Fire and Rescue Boards rather than the Scottish Executive.However, information on resignation and retirements can be found in Her Majesty’sChief Inspector of Fire Services Annual Reports which are available on the Inspectorate’swebsite at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Fire/15130/1028.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of juvenile vandalism there have been in each of the last five years in each police authority area by children aged (a) under five, (b) six to eight, (c) eight to 10, (d) 11 to 13 and (e) 14 to 16.
Answer
This is a matter for policeforces. The information is not collated centrally.
However data does existwhere a young person has been referred by the police to the Children’sReporter. The following table has been produced by the Scottish Children’sReporter Administration (SCRA) from its Referrals Administration Database(RAD). It shows the numbers of children aged eight to 10 years, 11 to 13 yearsand 14 to 16 years who were referred to the Children’s Reporter in 2003-04 and2004-05 on offence grounds where the offence category was vandalism/ maliciousmischief in each police force area.
Eight years is the age ofcriminal responsibility in Scotland and children below this age cannot be charged withoffences. Information is provided for 2003-04 and
2004-05. Prior to 2003 andthe roll-out of RAD, SCRA did not record centrally offence categories:
| 2003-04 | Children 8-10 | Grounds 8-10 | Children 11-13 | Grounds 11-13 | Children 14-16 | Grounds 14-16 |
| Central | 41 | 55 | 206 | 340 | 290 | 644 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 16 | 34 | 102 | 158 | 140 | 319 |
| Fife | 51 | 63 | 169 | 281 | 235 | 414 |
| Grampian | 30 | 39 | 104 | 182 | 154 | 245 |
| Lothian and Borders | 45 | 108 | 184 | 384 | 296 | 629 |
| Northern | 31 | 94 | 136 | 527 | 182 | 424 |
| Strathclyde | 159 | 262 | 708 | 1,086 | 1,279 | 2,172 |
| Tayside | 44 | 74 | 187 | 342 | 290 | 489 |
| Total | 417 | 729 | 1,796 | 3,300 | 2,866 | 5,336 |
| 2004-05 | Children 8-10 | Grounds 8-10 | Children 11-13 | Grounds 11-13 | Children 14-16 | Grounds 14-16 |
| Central | 55 | 69 | 217 | 686 | 330 | 951 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 28 | 34 | 79 | 151 | 149 | 286 |
| Fife | 56 | 85 | 215 | 362 | 295 | 652 |
| Grampian | 20 | 27 | 115 | 240 | 181 | 374 |
| Lothian and Borders | 42 | 56 | 223 | 501 | 360 | 734 |
| Northern | 29 | 43 | 137 | 329 | 225 | 558 |
| Strathclyde | 211 | 306 | 804 | 1249 | 1323 | 2221 |
| Tayside | 43 | 76 | 158 | 285 | 304 | 627 |
| Total | 484 | 696 | 1,948 | 3,803 | 3,167 | 6,403 |
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when a Bill for the establishment of a rail link to Edinburgh Airport will be introduced to the Parliament.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-23471 on 6 March 2006.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.
- Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive when it envisages that work on the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link will be completed.
Answer
The Edinburgh Airport Rail Linkis planned to be operational in 2011.
Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.
