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-31137

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the National Licensing Forum last met and what issues were discussed.

The National Licensing Forumlast met on 18 April 2006. It discussed a number of issues relating to the Licensing(Scotland) Act 2005 including overprovision and the capacity of licensed premisesand training. The Forum also agreed its next phase of work as drafting guidancefor Licensing Boards. This task has now been completed

I shall shortly be consideringthe future role of the forum as we move closer towards full implementation of thenew Licensing legislation.

Question reference: S2W-30699

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish any responses it has received from each local authority following its Grant Aided Expenditure announcement.

The substantive response to the2007‑08 provisional local government finance settlement announcement on 13 December 2006 wasgiven in a letter from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities President, CouncillorPat Watters, on behalf of local authorities. A copy of the letter was included inthe information pack circulated to all MSPs immediately following the statement.

No further substantive responseshave been received from individual local authorities on the settlement announcement.

Question reference: S2W-30692

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 23 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have contracted MRSA during treatment at Aberdeen hospitals in each year since 2004, broken down by hospital.

Health Protection Scotland publishedthe latest figures on MRSA bacteraemia (blood infection) rates on 16 January 2007. A copyof this report is available from: http://www.documents.hps.scot.nhs.uk/hai/sshaip/publications/mrsa-quarterly-reports/jan-2003-to-sept-2006.pdf.

The numbers of reported MRSAbacteraemias for NHS Grampian since 2004 are laid out in the following table. Hospitalspecific information is not held centrally.

MRSA bacteraemia rates have remainedstable in Scotland as a whole and in Grampian since national mandatory reportingbegan in 2003.

	MRSA Bacteraemia
2004	61
2005	64
2006 (to September)	65

As part of our drive to improvesurveillance, compulsory reporting of all Staphylococcus aureus infection in additionto MRSA was introduced in July 2006. This has increased detection rates and willenable more effective targeting of measures to reduce these infections.

Wide-ranging measures to addresshealthcare associated infection (HAI), set in place by the HAI Task Force, includea media campaign to raise awareness amongst NHS staff, patients, visitors and thepublic of the benefits of improved hand hygiene to public health. Local health boardco-ordinators are being appointed to help implement and monitor compliance. Additionaltraining courses for NHS staff, and robust monitoring of the standards of cleaningin Scotland’s hospitals are also part of the task force’s deliveryplan.

Question reference: S2W-30696

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it still intends to reopen the Waverley railway line and, if so, when construction tendering will commence and what the maximum cost will be.

Question reference: S2W-30697

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the results of its preliminary examination of the case for a new Forth crossing and who is contracted by either it or Transport Scotland to undertake the examination.

Jacobs, supported by Faber Maunsellhave been commissioned to undertake the Forth Replacement Crossing Study as a fast-trackedelement of the Strategic Transport Projects Review. The reports will be publishedon the Transport Scotland website followingcompletion of the internal reviews routinely and necessarily undertaken upon receiptof such reports.

Transport Scotland hasoperational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Question reference: S2W-30695

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 12 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to consult on road pricing schemes.

Question reference: S2O-11436

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review its procedures in respect of the procurement of public contracts.

Question reference: S2W-29236

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 16 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will commission urgently a grade-separated junction at Laurencekirk and what the reasons are for it having rejected proposals for this over the last four to five years.

Question reference: S2W-29030

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information each police force has on how many car drivers were found to be without (a) insurance, (b) a valid MOT certificate or (c) road tax in each year since 1999, and what action it has taken to address such offences.

The following tables show therelevant offences as recorded by the police:

Insurance Offences by Year andPolice Force Area

Year	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	North-ern	Strath-clyde	Tay-side	All scotland
1999-2000	1,123	716	1,578	2,534	3,821	905	12,032	1,819	24,528
2000-01	1,116	776	2,343	2,347	3,831	1,076	11,497	1,598	24,584
2001-02	1,732	768	2,295	2,847	4,235	1,166	12,607	2,715	28,365
2002-03	1,823	956	2,491	3,048	4,525	1,212	13,460	2,997	30,512
2003-04	1,403	795	2,532	2,597	4,843	1,247	13,461	3,436	30,314
2004-05	1,162	856	2,260	2,125	3,980	1,047	11,165	2,607	25,202
2005-06	1,238	924	1,880	2,226	4,177	987	1,1221	2,487	25,140

Using Motor Vehicle Without TestCertificate: Offences by Year and Police Force Area

Year	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	North-ern	Strath-clyde	Tay-side	All Scotland
1999-2000	667	480	746	1,020	2,079	445	6,827	981	13,245
2000-01	659	404	1,335	1,018	2,948	509	6,461	848	13,182
2001-02	1,122	373	1,168	1,275	2,196	547	7,006	1,346	15,033
2002-03	997	475	1,017	1,298	2,049	601	6,966	1,528	14,931
2003-04	825	372	892	1,066	1,993	576	6,613	1,745	14,082
2004-05	570	359	577	737	1,355	452	4,543	1,075	9,668
2005-06	510	342	381	651	1,288	443	4,442	950	9,007

Vehicle Excise Licence Offencesby Year and Police Force Area

Year	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	North-ern	Strath-clyde	Tay-side	All Scotland
1999-2000	1,070	522	2,106	2,008	2,883	1,058	9,494	1,549	20,690
2000-01	1,330	788	2,530	1,761	3,998	837	11,056	1,612	23,912
2001-02	1,576	531	1,775	1,964	5,885	837	10,782	1,544	24,894
2002-03	1,538	271	2,300	1,811	6,864	787	11,728	2,015	27,314
2003-04	1,323	665	2,455	1,591	8,602	470	10,755	2,088	27,949
2004-05	774	424	1,705	1,226	6,164	824	6,274	1,026	18,417
2005-06	803	284	1,143	1,168	6,637	339	6,799	1,253	18,426

Road traffic legislation is reservedto the UK Parliament, and enforcement is a matter for individual police forces.We continue to work with the UK Government to support its work on improving compliancein these areas.

Question reference: S2W-29246

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether extra funding will be made available to local authorities in the north east to cover any additional costs that may be incurred through clearing roads in the event of bad weather this winter.

There are no plans to provideadditional funding to local authorities in north-east Scotland forwinter road maintenance as the Executive already supports local authorities’ netrevenue expenditure on road maintenance and winter maintenance through the corelocal government finance settlement. This is agreed through the joint Scottish Executive/COSLADistribution Committee of the Working Party on Local Government Finance. All localauthorities receive their needs-based share of the road maintenance and winter maintenanceGrant Aided Expenditure (GAE) allocations and it is up to each local authority todecide how best to allocate these resources based on their local needs and priorities.

The roads maintenance GAE forScotland as a whole amounts to £195.3 million in the current financial year. Similarlythe winter maintenance GAE is £64.9 million this year.