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-21150

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what savings it estimates could be achieved through the adoption of an FTR StreetCar scheme, rather than a fixed line tram scheme, in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S2W-21147

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

Question reference: S2W-21148

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has contributed towards the Edinburgh tram lines schemes to date.

Question reference: S2W-20955

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial contribution it intends to make towards the Edinburgh tram lines One and Two.

Question reference: S2W-20957

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the total cost will be of the proposed Edinburgh tram lines One and Two.

Question reference: S2W-20956

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any financial contribution that it makes towards the Edinburgh tram lines One and Two will be linked to inflation.

Question reference: S2W-21048

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish any guidance for local authorities in respect of improving council tax collection rates.

Question reference: S2W-21049

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will explain its methodology for calculating efficiency savings in local government.

Question reference: S2W-21046

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by (a) local authority and (b) activity of the local government efficiency savings, totalling £325 million, identified by the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform.

The local government cash releasing efficiency savings comprise £8 million in police service, £25 million in the supporting people programme, £20 million from invest to save projects, £1.5 million in fire and rescue services and £168.3 million savings from other local government activity. Local authorities are expected to make the outstanding savings principally through procurement savings. It is not possible to break down the £168.3 million savings by activity since it is for local authorities to decide how best to make these savings.

The £168.3 million efficiency savings deducted at source were not allocated to individual local authorities. The following table gives an estimated efficiency savings figure for each local authority assuming that they would have received their proportionate share of the £168.3 million using their shares of total funding for 2007-08 as a comparator:

Share of £168.3 Million Efficiency Savings

	(£ Million)
Aberdeen City	5.883
Aberdeenshire	6.932
Angus	3.508
Argyll and Bute	3.539
Clackmannanshire	1.504
Dumfries and Galloway	5.053
Dundee City	5.106
East Ayrshire	3.902
East Dunbartonshire	3.075
East Lothian	2.749
East Renfrewshire	2.788
Edinburgh, City of	12.780
Eilean Siar	1.930
Falkirk	4.586
Fife	10.927
Glasgow City	22.861
Highland	7.884
Inverclyde	2.946
Midlothian	2.584
Moray	2.794
North Ayrshire	4.507
North Lanarkshire	10.396
Orkney	1.160
Perth and Kinross	4.187
Renfrewshire	5.526
Scottish Borders	3.690
Shetland	1.588
South Ayrshire	3.426
South Lanarkshire	9.439
Stirling	2.807
West Dunbartonshire	3.298
West Lothian	4.946
Scotland	168.300

The following table shows the difference in Supporting People allocations between 2003-04 and 2007-08 for each local authority arising from efficiency savings and a fairer distribution of resources across Scotland. The savings will be delivered through reviews of local services, leading to better targeted, more efficient services.

Council	£ Million
Aberdeen City	- 0.424
Aberdeenshire	0.332
Angus	0.284
Argyll and Bute	- 4.376
Clackmannanshire	0.758
Dumfries and Galloway	- 2.711
Dundee City	0.383
East Ayrshire	1.425
East Dunbartonshire	- 0.290
East Lothian	- 1.683
East Renfrewshire	- 1.124
Edinburgh, City of	- 8.034
Eilean Siar	0.236
Falkirk	0.834
Fife	- 3.771
Glasgow City	7.086
Highland	- 2.163
Inverclyde	- 0.438
Midlothian	- 1.090
Moray	- 1.244
North Ayrshire	- 2.639
North Lanarkshire	1.016
Orkney Islands	0.332
Perth and Kinross	0.860
Renfrewshire	- 3.298
Scottish Borders	- 0.205
Shetland Islands	0.138
South Ayrshire	- 0.197
South Lanarkshire	- 1.088
Stirling	0.849
West Dunbartonshire	- 5.042
West Lothian	0.110
Scotland	- 25.174

£4 million of the police savings have been assumed as part of the settlement for police services and is broken down as follows:

Force	2007-08 (£000)
Central	183
Dumfries and Galloway	111
Grampian	356
Fife	232
Lothian and Borders	713
Northern	201
Strathclyde	1,900
Tayside	304
Total	4,000

The other £4 million of savings has not been built in to their allocation and is for the police to re-invest into services.

The procurement savings, the fire and rescue service savings and the invest to save savings have not been built into allocations and are local government and the fire and rescue service to re-invest in services.

Question reference: S2W-21047

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which local government services it considers are overstaffed, broken down by local authority.